[PLUG] Microsoft Wins New Orleans contract w/out bid

[Tyler F. Creelan]

Might be interesting to consultants who do state or city work.

......
City may get free Microsoft makeover

 N.O. would be used as a model

08/16/02

By Tara Young
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune

In a move that the city's chief technology officer said will make New
Orleans a "city of the future," Mayor Ray Nagin has entered a preliminary
agreement with Microsoft to update computer systems for City Hall and the
Police Department free of charge.

The only requirement the computer giant has made of the city is that New
Orleans let Microsoft use it as a model for marketing the system to other
governmental bodies once it is up and running, said Greg Meffert, the
city's technology officer. Eventually, he added, the city will have to
purchase software from the company, but he said it would be a "minuscule"
expense.

Microsoft officials could not be reached late Thursday, but Meffert said
work on the system will begin within two weeks. Meffert estimated the city
will save $100 million by accepting "the gift" of Microsoft's help and
software. Because these services are considered a gift, the city won't
have to publicly bid the project, he said.

The news comes one week after the administration canceled a $1.5 million
contract awarded last year to modernize the Police Department's
record-keeping. Meffert, who has been working for weeks on the Microsoft
deal, recommended the contract cancellation after saying the job could be
done for less than $100,000.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates and his entourage began to take New
Orleans seriously after an impromptu meeting held at a Xavier University
ceremony in mid-July, said Patrick Evans, Nagin's spokesman.

Meffert met again several days later with Microsoft executives at the
company's sales and marketing conference in New Orleans to discuss the
prospect of jointly developing and marketing software for other cities and
municipalities.

"The carrot for them is that they can work with an actual city to develop
this system," Meffert said. "They were extremely excited."

New Orleans police will be using a system Microsoft developed for the
state of Oklahoma. Dubbed the Offender Data Information System, the system
can link dozens of law enforcement agencies, jails and court systems. A
virtual crime-fighting tool, the system also provides officers with online
mug shots of suspects, warrants and other data. In Oklahoma, the system is
expected to expand into accident reporting, video arraignment and
automated pawn-shop-ticket tracking.

"It gives them a lot more weapons in fighting crime," Meffert said.

The New Orleans Police Department uses a system that holds 1 million
records and is in imminent danger of meltdown, city officials said. Backup
copies of most records exist on paper, but a crash could erase key data.

Few details were available Thursday concerning the system being developed
for City Hall records, but Meffert said it will be more efficient than the
current system.

"The systems that we are using right now . . . Elvis was still alive and
singing when they were made," he said.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/newsstory/o_microsoft16.html