70 -- Notice of Intent for Microsoft Agency Standards

In June 1996 the Social Security Administration (SSA) competitively awarded a contract to Unisys Corporation for the hardware and software required to support SSA's new intelligent workstation and LAN environment. Through the Unisys contract SSA acquired 108,922 licenses for Microsoft Windows Operating System software and 102,354 licenses for Microsoft's Office Professional suite of desktop software as well as the associated Server software and Client Access Licenses. As a result of this competitive procurement, Microsoft Windows Operating System, Microsoft Office Professional Suite products and Microsoft server software became the Agency's - de facto standard. This notice is to advise industry of SSA's intent to now officially declare that Microsoft's Windows Desktop Operating System, Office Professional Suite, companion server software products (i.e., Exchange Server, System Management Server, Windows Server, SQL Server and Host Integration Server), Project and Visio will be established as SSA desktop and LAN software standards. The establishment of the aforesaid software products as agency standards is justified on both a business and technical basis. The business case is predicated on the fact that SSA intends to protect its $127 million financial investment in these Microsoft products that have been competitively acquired. SSA's investment is a result of it's acquisition costs (i.e., software license and support costs total $76.4 million), employee training (i.e., general training costs to provide all employees with a basic knowledge of Word, Excel and Outlook are estimated to be $33.6 million and specialized training costs to approximately 1,200 Site LAN Coordinators are estimated to be $4.4 million) and software deployment costs (i.e., SSA has spent approximately $12.6 million over the 7-year contract life to have new releases, revisions and fixes downloaded to servers supporting the workstation and LAN environment). It should be noted that the aforesaid business case does not include the costs associated with SSA's application software dependence on the Microsoft operating software and office suite programs. SSA has written custom application systems that invoke and interoperate with MS Office suite software and many more that will only run on Microsoft operating systems. These two categories of applications would have to be re-developed and in some cases re-designed and re-developed at costs that would likely equal or exceed SSA's investment in training.The technical case is predicated upon the need for SSA to optimize the administration and efficiency of its intelligent workstation and LAN environment. The ability of SSA to continue to economically deploy, maintain and provide user support for the Microsoft products is predicated on using a standard configuration wherever possible. This standard configuration is Microsoft's Windows technology, for the operating system, and Office Professional Suite at a common release level. This permits the mass distribution of a desktop software image with minimal manpower for individual customization. Similarly, it expedites system recovery and software troubleshooting. Microsoft's Office Professional Suite is comprised of the following major components: Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Outlook. There is a significant sharing of technology and features among these products and the Windows operating system that makes it desirable to use these products in conjunction with each other. SSA has considerable experience with Microsoft's Office Professional Suite, having 102,354 copies deployed for over five years. The training and hands-on experience over the past five years, the document compatibility needed by current users, and documents created over the past five years make the continued use of Microsoft's Office Suite the most efficient and effective technical solution. Although certain other products claim to be compatible, each have significant deficiencies (e.g., lack of an integrated Web browser, e-mail client, and group scheduling or serious compatibility problems with Microsoft Office products). Using any other product eliminates or greatly restricts access to all of the existing Microsoft Office legacy files. Certain companion Microsoft products maintain similar benefits from their interoperability and compatibility with the operating system and Office Professional Suite. Currently, Microsoft's server based products (i.e., Exchange, System Management, Windows, SQL and Host Integration) are considered necessary companion products to the desktop suite and share this interoperability, as do the desktop and server versions of Project and Visio software. All of these Microsoft products enjoy this advantage and have met all known SSA requirements for planning and technical drawings. The use of the Microsoft Project and Visio products, wherever feasible, permits interaction with the Office Professional Suite and the sharing of information among SSA users. This document does not constitute a solicitation for offers. Requests for copies of a solicitation will not be honored or acknowledged. Pricing data is not requested or required. No contract award will be made on the basis of responses received; however, this information will be assessed before a final determination is made. Respondents will not be notified of the results of any Government evaluation of submitted information. Any responses to this notice should be submitted electronically within 10 calendar days to contact@example.gov and refer to SSA Microsoft Software Standard.