Fiscal Note
The proposed potential contract for annual subscriptions for all of the City’s Adobe product licensing is expected to not exceed $40,000. This subscription licensing is included in the City’s 2020 Adopted Operating Budget. No additional City appropriation is required.
Title
A Resolution authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to sign a competitively-selected Large Government Agency Agreement with CDW, LLC and/or Adobe, Inc. for annual subscriptions for all of the City’s Adobe product licensing.
Body
WHEREAS, many City employees across all departments must use paid Adobe software products, such as Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro and specialty products like Creative Cloud, Photoshop, Audition, Dreamweaver, Captivate, Illustrator and InDesign as part of their daily work; and
WHEREAS these paid products are needed in addition to the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader; and
WHEREAS, these product are necessary for work functions such as creating and editing PDF documents, redacting public records requests, creating forms, working with scanned documents, optimizing large maps, compressing documents for email purposes; and
WHEREAS, the City’s licenses for these products were obtained over time and many are currently not supported or will no longer be supported because Adobe is converting to a subscription-based license model. In order to obtain necessary support and continue the use of these products the City must participate in an Adobe subscription program; and
WHEREAS, the benefits of the subscription model are (1) all updates, technical support and maintenance are included in the annual subscription, (2) staff will have the most current version of the Adobe products, (3) security risks of outdated products will be reduced, and (4) administration of the licenses and renewals will be centralized with the IT department; and
WHEREAS, while the City could continue to purchase Adobe subscriptions individually, IT staff have learned of a volume program that will save annual costs. The most cost-effective model is to subscribe through the State of Wisconsin’s participation in Adobe’s “Large Government Agency” (LGA) program, with payments made through our reseller, CDW, LLC. The City will benefit from volume pricing through the state’s contract as well as by participating in a consortium of other government users; and
WHEREAS, under MGO 4.26 a contract is considered competitively-selected when the City makes a purchase using pricing obtained by the State of Wisconsin or a purchasing consortium and this purchase is both; and
WHEREAS, the City’s annual cost for Acrobat Standard and Pro licenses will be approximately $25,000 and the annual cost for the specialty licenses is expected not to exceed $40,000 and this pricing is approximately half of what the City would pay if we do not participate in the LGA; and
WHEREAS, MGO 4.26(3)(e) requires service contracts of more than 5 years to be authorized by the Common Council and executed by the Mayor and City Clerk and the LGA agreement and related Adobe membership has an open-ended term; and
WHEREAS, due to the way that Adobe delivers its upgrades, individual employees may be required to click to install downloads, updates or upgrades on their workstations for both the paid products as well as free Acrobat Reader which is not part of the LGA;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Mayor and City Clerk are authorized to execute a Large Government Agreement for the Adobe subscriptions described above and at the price described above, with CDW, LLC as reseller or directly with Adobe, Inc., and are further authorized to execute any other documents necessary to enroll as a member in Adobe’s LGA subscription program, for the lifetime of the City’s use of the paid Adobe products, subject to availability in the applicable budget; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED if amendments are needed to the LGA or related documents the Finance Director or designee is authorized to sign such amendments if approved by the City Attorney; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT designated IT staff are authorized to order additional subscriptions as needed and execute renewals annually, which is typically done by accepting a quote from CDW and issuing a PO, for the lifetime of the City’s use of these products, subject to availability in the applicable budget; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT, if needed, individual City employees are authorized to click to install or download updates from Adobe for (a) the paid products obtained through the LGA and (b) free Acrobat Reader which is not covered by the LGA.