DESKTOP SOFTWARE BUSINESS CASE
ADOBE ENTERPRISE LICENSE AGREEMENT
(Initial Draft: October 15th, 2012)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
After document is completed, go to References > Update Table > Update page numbers only.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................. 2
1.
Problem Definition ......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.
Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft) ................................................. 3
3.
Organizational Impact .................................................................................................................................... 3
4.
Technology Migration .................................................................................................................................... 4
5.
Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
6.
Strategic Alignment ........................................................................................................................................ 4
7.
Cost ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
8.
Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning .............................................................................. 5
9.
Alternatives.................................................................................................................................................... 6
10.
Recommendation ....................................................................................................................................... 6
11.
Timing / Schedule ....................................................................................................................................... 7
12.
Approvals ................................................................................................................................................... 7
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Adobe Software is utilized throughout the business and educational world. Two of the major Adobe
products used are Adobe Acrobat and a suite of tools within Adobe Creative Suite (ACS). Students
are coming to Central Washington University from High Schools and Community Colleges where
they utilize the most current versions of these products (i.e. Adobe Create Suite VI). Unfortunately,
at CWU, these students do not have access to the latest versions. Of nearly 700 computers in
CWU’s Classrooms/Open Labs, less than 300 are equipped with Adobe Creative Suite … and instead
of Version VI, these classrooms are equipped with older versions (III, IV and V). Several huge issues
are apparent:
1. CWU students are not using the most current versions of this important software
2. Since less than ½ of the Classrooms/Labs have the software, student are often unable to
access a classroom/lab with Adobe Creative Suite loaded.
3. Scheduling of classrooms by the Registrar’s Office often results in classes requiring ACS
being scheduled in rooms where the software is not available.
4. Since ACS is used by more and more departments for their instruction, individual
departments do not feel that they should pay for expensive software that supports
programs across the University.
5. Deployment of individual licensing is costly to the departments, and is the most inefficient
model for ITS deployment of the software.
Adobe has recently developed a software licensing model called the Adobe Enterprise
License Agreement (ELA) that provides huge benefit to CWU. It provides for Adobe Acrobat
Professional on every computer on campus, and ACS on a portion of the computers
determined by the University. CWU would benefit from ACS on approximately 800 to 1,000
computers. This proposal is to provide funding and support to transition CWU’s licensing
for Adobe Acrobat and ACS from individual licensing, to a centrally funded ELA.
Sponsoring Department(s): Every department on campus will benefit from this ELA, as
Adobe Acrobat Professional will be loaded on every computer as part of the standard software
image provided by ITS. Currently, the major users of ACS include many departments in the College
of Arts & Humanities (CAH), Information Technology and Administrative Management (ITAM), and
many others including Public Relations & Marketing, Enrollment Management, Student Success, etc.
Date of Business Case Preparation: October 12, 2012
Contact Person Name/Phone: Since this is a campus-wide benefit, and the proposal is to
centrally manage Adobe Acrobat and ACS within the ITS Department, the primary contacts:
Mr. Carmen A. Rahm (AVP-IT), Phone: 509-962-1547, Marji Morgan (Dean of College of Arts
and Humanities), Phone: 509-963-1851, Gregg Schlanger (Chair of Art Department), Phone:
509-963-2665.
XX New Product/Service
If there is a draft or sample contract, please provide a copy. (This is actually simply a change in
how we purchase and distribute a major desktop software package that is used across the
University).
Renewal of Existing Product/Service – if checked, include background information.
2
If there is a site license agreement, existing contract or new contract draft, please provide a
copy.
1. Problem Definition
The University is currently not equipping its computers with Adobe Software that has now
become as critically important to academic and non-academic units on campus as Microsoft
products. Furthermore, the minimal Adobe software that does exist on campus (in select
classrooms, labs and offices) is mostly 3 to 4 years out of date, compromising the ability of
faculty to prepare students in fields such as Visual Arts, ITAM, Communications and several
others. The current model:
 Does not provide universal access to all who require the software
 Is Purchase Order intensive
 Does not provide automatic version upgrades, resulting in old version in classrooms
 Is inefficient for ITS to deploy and maintain.
2. Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft)
There is no acceptable alternative to using the critical Adobe Products that are needed at
CWU. The only options to consider are how to fund the licenses. Historically, individual
academic departments and offices have funded individual purchases, and this is very
expensive. ITS has investigated several other options for licensing Adobe software
including:
1. Site Licensing: (initial estimates were approximately $500K/year for CWU).
2. Concurrent Licensing: (initial estimate is around $250K/year and Adobe only
authorizes concurrent licensing models for classrooms/labs, not for office
computers).
3. Individual Licensing: This is the current model that has been used. It is the most
expensive/license model, and has resulted in insufficient numbers of licenses for
classrooms/labs and office at CWU, and has resulted in licenses being several
versions old because of inability to fund replacement by individual users and
departments.
3. Organizational Impact
While there are some departments at CWU that will benefit more than others, the entire
University (Academic and Administrative) will benefit because once the ELA is implemented,
no departments/users will be required to individually fund Adobe Acrobat Professional or
Adobe Creative Suite. Key stakeholders met with Provost Levine on 10/11/12 to discuss
this initiative, and it has also been discussed with Vice-President Clark. The plan (if
approved by the ET) is to present this ELA proposal to various groups on campus including
ADCO, Faculty Senate, Provost Council, Business Affairs Council and others.
While there are numerous beneficiaries, the major beneficiary is the Academic Programs
and CWU … ultimately our students who will exposed to the most current version of Adobe
products in their education.
In a recent US News and World Report article titled “Five Skills Everyone Needs on a
Resume”, Adobe Creative Suite was #3, directly behind Microsoft Excel and Web
Development.
3

Potential Partners /Primary Users The entire campus will benefit, and the entire
campus should be considered potential partners.

RFP Requirements Contributors (add lines as necessary) – NO RFP REQUIRED!!
Department
Name
N/A
4. Technology Migration
This is a technology win for everyone. Instead of ACS being loaded on individual
lab/classroom computers where it is licensed (by the Academic Department), the ELA will
allow ITS to include ACS in the baseline image for all classrooms and labs, and to include
Adobe Acrobat Professional on the baseline image for all computers on campus. With a
nearly 30% reduction in staff in Computer Support Service (CSS) that loads and manages
desktop software, finding ways to be more efficient with software licensing and distribution
is critical. In short, Adobe Acrobat and ACS will be deployed across campus nearly as
efficiently as Microsoft products, and will always be able to deploy the latest versions.
5. Benefits
Many of the benefits have been described previously, but are summarized here:




GREATER ACCESS TO AAP: The entire campus community (Academic and
Administrative) will have access to Adobe Acrobat Professional, making form
automation and many other features possible, which are not possible when Adobe
Acrobat Professional is distributed only to those that purchase it.
GREATER ACCESS TO ACS: Each classroom/lab (and all Academic Offices that require
it) will have ACS loaded, and ACS will always be at the latest version.
LOWER COST: The cost to provide these advantages is less than what CWU
currently pays less licenses, outdated versions, and an inefficient support and
distribution model. Current licensing costs not using the ELA are:
o Adobe Acrobat:
Individual License ($64), Concurrent ($112)
o Creative Suite:
Individual License ($330), Concurrent ($742)
o Master Collection: Individual License ($550), Concurrent ($1,237)
COST CREDIT: If CWU acts quickly, all money paid for Adobe products for the past
75 days can be credited to the first years ELA cost.
6. Strategic Alignment
This request support/aligns with many of the current Strategic Objectives and Outcomes in
the CWU Strategic Plan. Several include:
 Objective 1.1: Enhance student success by continually improving the curricular, cocurricular, and extracurricular programs.
 Objective 5.4: Provide the facility and technology infrastructure and services
appropriate to meet the university objectives, while maximizing sustainability and
stewardship.
 Objective 5.4.1: Enhance financial accountability and sustainability practices for
construction, maintenance and operations of CWU facility and technology.
4
7. Cost

Source of Funding (Project ID) or Description of the Source of Funding. The
specific source of funding has not been identified, and will be sought once the ET
has approved the initiative. Based on discussions with Provost Levine and CFO
Clark, several of the funding options include:
o FY14 BASE: Initially fund in FY13 with current CWU savings (Carry-Forward)
and fund in FY14 via additional funding to the ITS Department Base Budget,
as was done around 2000 when the Microsoft Campus Agreement was
implemented centrally.
o DEPARTMENT CONTRIBUTION: Fund the full cost (annual) by reducing the
current Base Budget for each department on campus that will benefit from
this ELA (which is about every department). This will result in an average
base budget reduction of approximately $1,000/department based on initial
discussion.
o STUDENT TECHNOLOGY FEE: The current agreement with the Student
Technology Committee (for the Microsoft Campus Agreement) is that the
Technology Fee will pay 20% of the cost of the license annually. A similar
agreement with the Student Technology Fee will be implemented for the
Adobe ELA. For the model we are proposing, the Student Technology
Committee would likely pay approximately $15,000/year.

Cost Breakdown The Adobe ELA is a based on total FTE (Full-Time Employee) at
CWU for Adobe Acrobat, and a percentage of the FTE for Adobe Creative Suite. The
estimate is based on 1,400 FTE; 5,000 computers on campus; 1,000 ACS licenses
needed. The cost breakdown is:
o
o
o
1,400 x ($19.53/FTE for AAP):
1,400 x 20% x ($162.01 for ACS):
TOTAL ANNUAL ELA COST:
$27,342
$45,363 (See note 2)
$72,705
IMPORTANT NOTE: This estimate could be adjusted up or down depending on the final
number of ACS licenses that CWU determines it needs, and what level of ACS (ACS
Premium or ACS Master Collection) is selected. The estimate above is considered to be
the most accurate and likely number of licenses and ACS level that will be deployed.
CWU has the ability to add additional ACS license to our ELA at any time.
NOTE 2: 1,000 ACS licenses is based on 20% of 5,000 computers on campus. The ELA
states that we pay for a percentage (that we determine) of the FTE count, and then we
are able to deploy ACS on that same percentage of all the computers on campus (which
is significantly higher than FTE). In this case, CWU is estimating paying for 20% of the
FTE count (1,400 x 0.20 x $162.01), but we are then abler to deploy the ACS on 20% of
our full 5,000 computers (thus we can deploy on the 1,000 computers we have
determined should have the software).
8. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning
This ELA is an annual expense that should be reviewed approximately every 3 to 5 years to
determine if it remains the best licensing model for CWU and Adobe Products.
5
9. Alternatives
Alternative
Reasons For Not Selecting Alternative
Status Quo (Individual departments and
individuals purchase licenses)
Most expensive model/license, insufficient
licenses being purchased, licenses not be
kept at current version, most inefficient
model for ITS to deploy the software, etc.
Costs for individual licenses are provided in
Section 5.
Site License
This was reviewed in the past and was
estimated
to
be
approximately
$500,000/year for CWU. This model was
totally unacceptable for CWU, and we
believe is a major reason that Adobe
developed the ELA licensing model. This
model is approximately 8x more expensive
than the proposed ELA.
Concurrent License
This model was estimated at around
$250,000 when first investigated (based on
the number of concurrent licenses that
CWU was estimated to need), and Adobe
only allows the concurrent model to be
used for labs/classrooms … so office
licenses would still have to be purchased
and deployed separately. It also requires
added hardware and software to manage
the concurrent licensing.
The cost for
concurrent licensing is provided in Section
5.
Enterprise License Agreement (ELA)
This solution (the requested solution) has
just been developed by Adobe to address
the issues with the other models.
It
provides
sufficient
licensing,
easy
deployment, version updates, etc. at the
most economical price available.
10. Recommendation
The solution proposed has been what ITS and CWU has wanted for many years; however it
was not available from Adobe as their licensing models were antiquated and inefficient.
Adobe has just released this model and it is ideal for CWU. It controls cost, provides license
in all areas needed, provide Adobe Acrobat for all computers on campus opening up many
opportunities for automated forms, provides version upgrade guarantees, reduces the
complexity for tracking licenses and distribution by ITS, and will eliminate dozens or even
hundreds of Purchase Orders/year … replacing them with a single Purchase Order. More
importantly, it provides our students the modern software and access to that software that
is needed.
6
11. Timing / Schedule
Task
Target Date
Secure Funding
ET Approval
Sign ELA
Add Adobe Acrobat Professional to CSS Standard Image
Add Adobe Creative Suite to Classroom/Lab Image by CSS
Deploy software across campus
See note
NOTE: Deployment will be gradual, over several months, once the ELA is funded and licensed.
12. Approvals
The following actions have been taken by the University Enterprise Team:
Date
Action Taken by Enterprise Team
Upon approval by the University Enterprise Team (ET), CWU procurement policies and
procedures should be used to initiate a purchase. Please contact the Purchasing office at
x1001 with any questions regarding the procurement process.
7