Procurement Information of Online Information Services
	Obvia Procurement Information Services

Procurement Information of Online Information Services

Online information services represent a rapidly growing segment of library budgets. Library consortia are increasingly aware of the potential savings that aggregate contracts for online services can realize. However, the success of future consortial contract negotiations with on-line information services vendors is dependent upon the availability of comprehensive expenditure data. Experience with large consortial and state level contract negotiations to date points out the severe handicap that libraries unarmed with comprehensive usage and expenditure data have when sitting down to contract negotiations with the vendor community. Unfortunately, most library consortia do not have critical usage and expenditure data available to them to leverage their bargaining position. Any successful the data collection effort to obtain this data must be:

Comprehensive
All library types must be represented. Procurements made by all qualified procurement organizations must be reflected at the contract level. This includes consortial purchases, purchases by public library systems on behalf of their member systems, etc.

Current
The on-line information systems market place is very dynamic. Dated information has no value.

Confidential
Library must be given assurances that information provided will be held in confidence and not used for commercial purposes, shared with the vendor community or otherwise misused.

Convenient
The information must be convenient to maintain and convenient to access.

Credible
Quality control and access control procedures must be established to insure that only properly authorized information is reported in the system.

Obvia Procurement Information Services for Library Consortia

To meet these requirements Obvia Corp. establishes an online Web based procurement information management system for library consortia with these key attributes:

• Using browser interfaces, all information will be maintained online in a relational database format. This will permit easy and timely maintenance and access to the information
• Identification of the necessary data elements that must be collected
• Standard quality control edits will be built into the online data collection forms to ensure the completeness and logical integrity of the data
• The system will be designed to be administered by the consortium who will identify and authorize all legitimate procurement authorities.. These authorities will be given password-controlled access to their sections of the data for maintenance and review purposes
• A comprehensive agreed upon set of online queries and report formats will be custom developed to assist negotiating teams in pulling together the necessary vendor expenditure data

Project Deliverables

Obvia will implement and operate a web-based procurement information system that meets the general requirement stated above. Specifically Obvia will provide the following deliverables:

Project Management
Obvia and the consortium will each assign a designated project manager to the project. Obvia will provide regular project status reports to the consortium and will meet regularly with the consortium designee to identify and deal with specific policy and management issues that arise during the course of the project.
Obvia will provide overall project management for coordination and implementation of all deliverables. This includes development of an overall project implementation plan and time line, installation and testing of required systems components, and management of the Web-site.

Contract Data Base
Contract information will be collected online from authorized remote users via a browser interface. The data will be stored and maintained in a relational database. To insure the accuracy and integrity of the collected data, and to make the input process as easy and non-repetitive as possible, care will be taken to efficiently define and structure the logical elements of the relational database. Master components will be created for each of the following entities:

Using Library-A master entity record for each individual using library would be created. This would be used to store basic identifying information such as location, library type, key contact information, and population served. A unique code would be assigned to each library participating in the system. An agreed upon rollout plan will determine when and how all libraries could be added in a series of managed steps.

Vendor-A master entity record would be created for each vendor selected by the consortium project manager for inclusion within the scope of the project. The system permits addition of vendors one at a time on a step-by-step basis to ensure manageability and provide for system adjustments based on actual field experience.

Vendor Product-A master entity record will be created for each vendor product selected by the consortium project manager for inclusion within the scope of the project. This record will be used to store product descriptive information and overall information on the contractual terms under which the product is offered to library by the vendor. Each vendor product record would be lined to an associated vendor record.

Contract Holder-A master entity record would be created for each organizational entity that holds contracts for vendor products with vendors. Since such contract holders are often distinct from the library using the products for which they contract (e.g. public library systems, consortia, etc.) the system will take this into account to insure accurate and unambiguous reporting. The contract holder is linked in the database to the vendor product records for which contracts were held and to the library records that the contract holder represented.

Contract-A database record would be created for each instance of a contract being held with a vendor for a vendor product with a contract holder. This record is the heart of the procurement information system and would contain pertinent information on the term of the contract, the cost of the contract, and parameters defining the nature of the contract, e.g., use basis (unlimited use vs. simultaneous use), cost basis (FTE vs. Books Budget, vs. simultaneous users, etc).

User Input Web-pages

Original data input will be minimized by a screen design that will permit users to select from pre-entered standard data by clicking on list boxes or pop-up menus. For example, vendor descriptive data need only be entered once at the system level and then any library wishing to record a contract with that vendor can do so by selecting the vendor’s name from a list box. This will ensure correctness in spelling and simplify update of vendor data through a single entry at the system level.
Wherever possible, the user will be asked to complete entries by choosing from a list of pre-selected alternatives defined by the system administrator.
When original data entry is required care will be taken to validate entered data for completeness (e.g. every contract must have a termination date) and accuracy (e.g. start date less than stop date, etc).

Business Rules/Systems Administration
Obvia will work with the consortium project manager to define the business rules and system administrative guidelines under which the system will operate. This includes policy decisions on assignment and delegation of responsibility and authority for entering and updating each segment of the database as well as governance over the system level parameters and data elements that define the operations of the system. The underlying concept for these decisions is to permit maximum delegation of responsibility for entry and maintenance of data consistent with the overall uniformity and comparability of the data when aggregated statewide.

Output Queries/Reports
Obvia will work with the consortium project coordinator to develop a basic set of online queries and report formats that will provide summary and detail level contract information from the database. An agreed upon set of specific queries and reports will be developed to meet two needs; first to assist in the orderly management of the system and data collection process (e.g. reports on library reporting/not reporting) and second to generate useful management information to assist in the assessment of usage of various vendor products and contracts statewide or at other useful levels of aggregation, e.g. by library type). The consortium will have to work with Obvia to determine priorities for report customization as it can be anticipated that once this database is available that new information requests will arise.

System Implementation and Testing
Obvia will work with the consortium project manager to define a beta test project using actual end user data and personnel. For manageability at the beta test level, the beta test will be limited as mutually agreeable.

Roll Out Plan/Pilot Project (Contract)
After successful beta testing and sign-off by the consortium project manager, Obvia will work with the consortium project manager to define an appropriate pilot project and rollout plan for full production use of the system.

Hardware and Software Platform
Obvia will install and support a Web platform configuration of hardware and software necessary to effectively operate the Procurement Information system.

Web Site Hosting/Management
During the term of the agreement Obvia will service and maintain the web server in a suitable secure and environmentally correct location. Database back-ups will be taken on a regular basis to insure protection of this valuable asset. Arrangements can be made with consortium to ship back-up copies of the application data base to a site of the consortium’s choosing on a periodic basis. An Internet connection of sufficient bandwidth to insure adequate operation of the Procurement Information System will be provided.