I am pleased to announce that Alameda County has put together a joint CCISDA/Computer Associates agreement.

At the fall 2003 CCISDA conference, Alameda County led a workgroup session to discuss the possibility of creating a CCISDA agreement with Computer Associates (CA).  As a result of the work session, a smaller working group of counties was formed to negotiate and craft an agreement on CCISDA's behalf. This group was composed of representatives from City and County of San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County, and Alameda County.  The group has met several times and has been working with Paul James of Computer Associates to work out the terms and conditions of the agreement. The negotiation is completed and the initial terms of the agreement are ready to be announced to CCISDA.

The agreement was crafted in two phases. The first phase provides participating counties with a quick savings on their existing CA contracts. Any CCISDA County that participates in phase one will be given a 15% discount on their current CA run rates.  All other specific terms and conditions that each county has negotiated will remain in place.  To take advantage of this discount, participating counties will have to extend their existing agreements to co-terminate on March 2007.  Having all county agreements terminate on the same date positions the group for phase two.

Phase two of the agreement involves working with CA to develop new pricing metrics. The counties that participate in phase one will have the opportunity to have CA view their individual software portfolios as part of the larger conglomeration of CCISDA software portfolios. This allows us to leverage our combined buying power in hopes of developing a better pricing metric that more appropriately reflects the way that we use the CA products in our environments. 

Alameda County would like to announce the progress of these negotiations to the CCISDA counties.  It is important to note that all counties that wish to participate will have to sign an agreement with CA by the end of March 2004. CA would like to immediately start contacting CCISDA counties to extend this offer.  Alameda County is moving forward with an addendum to our existing agreement now. They will be adding language to their existing agreement that will allow other CCISDA counties to take advantage of the phase one discount.

If you have any questions you please contact Tim Dupuis [tim.dupuis@acgov.org] . 

Thanks  

Ben Wilson, President
CCISDA