Software Purchasing

• Consistency of file formats provides for optimal file sharing capabilities between individuals, departments, and groups across campus.
• Identical resources on each desktop (private offices and public labs) provide ease of transferability and a consistent tool-set for all users. From any room, office or public lab, needed resources will be available.
• Sharing of data between applications (word processors, spreadsheets, and databases) is seamless.

• Software standards would permit centralized budgeting and purchasing. This would relieve an individual or department from the time consuming tasks of choosing a product, tracking down the best pricing and product availability, and generating the proper paperwork to place an order for the product.
• Significant savings can be achieved through site licenses or quantity discounts.

• OTS support personnel can focus on depth of application knowledge rather than breadth of numerous applications.
• Product expertise means questions can be answered more quickly and efficiently.
• Support efforts can be focused on proactively supporting the end-user and documenting known problems.
• Support could come from any member of the Lone Star College-North Harris community, since most will be using the same application.
• Support subscriptions to Knowledge Data Bases provided by third party vendors could be made available online to all users via the campus network.
• Support licenses from the vendor could be made available to users.

• Training teams can focus on developing curricula for levels of user proficiency (introductory, intermediate, and advanceded
• Training specialists from outside campus can be used more effectively and economically.

• Software installations for new machines could become invisible to the end-users by making it part of the hardware installation.
• Installations can become routine, rather than a specialized process for each individual, resulting in time savings.
• Installations and upgrades could be made available to all users via the campus network, and automated for consistency.
• Upgrades can be tested and documented prior to campus-wide deployment to reduce potential incompatibles and problems.