HBA-DMD H.B. 1895 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1895 By: Maxey State Affairs 3/24/1999 Introduced 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 commission to negotiate with software vendors for a statewide or agency-wide software enterprise license. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. 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. Requires the department to submit the report together with the department's legislative appropriations request. SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 2157, Government Code, by adding Section 2157.006, as follows: Sec. 2157.006. SOFTWARE ENTERPRISE OR SITE LICENSES. (a) Requires the commission to negotiate with software vendors for a statewide or agency-wide software enterprise license or site license for software commonly used by state agencies or for software for which one or more state agencies incur unnecessary expenses for licenses related to single computers. (b) Requires a state agency that seeks to purchase a software license, notwithstanding Subchapters B (Catalogue Purchase Method) and C (Requests for Proposals Purchase Method), to inquire of the commission whether an enterprise license or site license negotiated by the commission may reduce the agency's license expenses. Authorizes the agency to purchase a software license by another method only if the commission determines that the commission cannot negotiate a license agreement that would reduce software license expenses for the agency. SECTION 3.Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4.Emergency clause.