FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:     Bill O’Kelly, Information Technology Group
                    (941) 335-2900
                   

COUNTY TO SAVE $680,000 IN SOFTWARE COSTS THROUGH JOINT EFFORT

FORT MYERS, Fla. (November 29, 2000) – For the first time ever, Lee County has joined forces with other local government agencies to purchase software licenses together – a move that could save as much as $680,000 over the next five years.

The Board of Lee County Commissioners unanimously approved the action at its meeting Tuesday (Nov. 28). The purchase is for a master license for the Oracle database software. Oracle is the county’s computer database system as well as the system used by several other agencies.

Currently, the Clerk of Courts, Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) and county ITG (Information Technology Group) purchase their Oracle licenses independently on an annual basis, which is the most expensive method. The proposed Master License will provide existing licenses and maintenance costs saving at least $112,033 over the five-year period. Given the plans to grow the use of the Oracle product for various systems, including Internet access to county information by citizens, the savings could exceed $681,682 over the new license term.

Initial participants in the license will be the Clerk of Courts, Public Defender, State Attorney’s Office, Administrative Office of the Court, the Board of Lee County Commissioners and Lee County Tolls Division. The agreement also covers all other county agencies at no additional cost over the next five years, should others elect to use the Oracle product. The cost of the five-year license is $479,632.

The agreement is the result of four months of research by Systems and Computer Technology Corp. (SCT), the county’s contract provider of information technology services, into current and planned application development requirements countywide for the Oracle product, as well as negotiations with Oracle Corporation.