HBA-TYH, DMD H.B. 1895 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1895 By: Maxey State Affairs 7/22/1999 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Between 1994 and 1997, Texas state government agencies and universities spent $346 million on software and software maintenance. During this period, the average annual cost of software licenses grew 13 percent and the average cost of maintenance increased by 19 percent. H.B. 1895 requires the Department of Information Resources (department), General Services Commission (commission), state auditor, and comptroller to create an interagency panel (panel) to develop and establish a training program to assist state agencies in performing software audits, managing software, and purchasing software and software licenses. This bill requires each state agency to cooperate with the panel. It requires the panel to initially concentrate on the software purchasing and management needs of the 20 state agencies with the largest amounts budgeted for software expenditures. H.B. 1895 requires each state agency to perform an audit of software licenses biennially. This bill requires the department to negotiate with qualified information systems vendors to attempt to obtain a favorable price for all of state government on licenses for commodity software items. The department is also required to compile and maintain a list of commodity software items available through the department with lower prices than otherwise available. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Department of Information Resources, in SECTION 2 ( Section 2157.068, Government Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter F, Chapter 2054, Government Code, by adding Sections 2054.121 and 2054.122, as follows: Sec. 2054.121. STATE AGENCY SOFTWARE PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT TRAINING. (a) Requires the Department of Information Resources (department), General Services Commission (commission), state auditor, and comptroller to create an interagency panel of representatives appointed by those agencies and officers (panel) to develop and establish a training program to assist state agencies in performing software audits, managing software, and purchasing software and software licenses. Requires each state agency to cooperate with the panel in the evaluation of the agency's needs for software management and to donate agency resources to the evaluation of the agency as the panel requires. (b) Requires the panel to concentrate initially on the software purchasing and management needs of the 20 state agencies that have the largest amounts budgeted for expenditures related to software. (c) Requires the panel to begin to conduct training programs in software management for employees and officers of state agencies, as soon as practicable. Authorizes the panel to schedule a training program for an agency after consulting with the governing body of the agency. Requires each state agency to cooperate with the panel in the training program and to provide agency resources for the training program as the panel requires at no cost to the panel. Sec. 2054.122. STATE AGENCY SOFTWARE LICENSE AUDIT. (a) Requires each state agency to perform a biennial audit of software licenses for software installed in the agency's desktop and portable computers. (b) Requires the audit to report whether the agency is paying for a license for software that is not being used by the agency or that the agency does not need. Requires the agency to report the results of the audit to the department in a form and including information prescribed by rules of the department. Provides that the report must be included in the agency's operating plan submitted under Section 2054.100(a) (Biennial Operating Plan of State Agency). (c) Requires an agency that determines it is paying for a license for software the agency is not using or does not need to take necessary actions to eliminate the unnecessary license expense. (d) Requires the department to compile the results of the audit reports it receives under this section into a report. Provides that the report must summarize the savings realized by the software audits under this chapter (Information Resources). Requires the department to submit the report together with the department's legislative appropriations request. SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter B, Chapter 2157, Government Code, by adding Section 2157.068, as follows: Sec. 2157.068. PURCHASE OF COMMODITY SOFTWARE ITEMS. (a) Defines "commodity software items" and "department." (b) Requires the department to negotiate with qualified information systems vendors to attempt to obtain a favorable price for all of state government on licenses for commodity software items, based on the aggregate volume of purchases expected to be made by the state. Prohibits the terms and conditions of a license agreement between a vendor and the department under this section from being less favorable to the state than the terms of similar license agreements between the vendor and retail distributors. (c) Authorizes the department to charge a reasonable administrative fee to a state agency or political subdivision that purchases commodity software items through the department that is sufficient to recover costs associated with the administration of this section. (d) Requires the department to compile and maintain a list of commodity software items available for purchase through the department that have a lower price than the prices for commodity software items otherwise available to state agencies under this chapter (Purchasing: Purchase of Automated Information Systems). Requires the department to make the list available on the world wide web or on a suitable successor to the world wide web if the technological developments involving the Internet make it advisable to do so. (e) Authorizes the department to adopt rules regulating a purchase by a state agency of a commodity software item under this section, including a requirement that, notwithstanding other provisions of this chapter, the agency must make the purchase in accordance with a contract developed by the department unless the agency obtains a waiver from the department. SECTION 3.Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4.Emergency clause.