The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spent US$4.1 million more
than necessary during the last five years to acquire and maintain
desktop software, according to a report by Gregory Friedman, the
department's inspector general (IG).
The DOE and its facility contractors operate more than 110,000
desktop computers at various locations, running commercial
off-the-shelf software that includes office automation, records
management, document imaging and antivirus products, the IG said in
the report.
"Although the department had established several enterprise
software agreements, we found that it had not adequately managed
the acquisition and maintenance of desktop software computer
licenses," Friedman said.
In particular, he said that seven of 16 organizations in the
department bought software through locally established agreements
or contracts that were as much as 300 percent higher than those
available through department-level agreements. Despite the
potential for savings, enterprise agreements for common products
such as security and antivirus software were not established.
Friedman also said that various agencies bought encryption software
licenses, paid annual maintenance fees but never used them.
"Despite pressure from the Office of Management and Budget and
known best practices of other organizations, the [Energy]
Department had not developed complex-wide standards for desktop
software, implemented a common method for acquiring such software
and did not require organizations to actively manage their
inventory of existing licenses," the IG said.
As an example, Friedman said Brookhaven National Laboratory paid
between $248 and $573 per license for two separate versions of the
same office automation product -- even though it was available
through a department-level agreement for $176 per license. And
Sandia National Laboratories paid $292 for a particular version of
a popular imaging package, even though it could have been purchased
through the department's agreement for only $90.
In addition, Friedman said that most agencies did not
effectively track their software licenses and related use.
Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory acknowledged that they
could have saved at least $800,000 by more effectively managing
software acquisition and maintenance.
In another example, the inspector general said that
approximately 38,000 encryption software licenses were bought for
use at five DOE offices. But more than a third of them, or 14,000,
weren't used. But over a five-year period, some of the agencies
paid maintenance fees totalling more than $625,000 on the unused
licenses, he said.
The inspector general also found that DOE agencies negotiated 11
separate purchase deals for the department's most commonly used
encryption software at prices ranging from $70 to $208 per license.
But the vendor for the product said the department could have saved
$630,000 a year in maintenance costs alone if it had simply
negotiated a department-level enterprise agreement.
"Such an agreement could also likely match or exceed the lowest
price observed, potentially saving $138 per license," Friedman said
in the report. "When applied to the existing universe of desktops
in use across the department, such savings could be
significant."
Friedman recommended that the DOE develop and implement a formal
policy for ensuring that all software purchases are coordinated
between headquarters and its various agencies and labs; implement
agency-wide desktop software standards and consistent processes for
acquiring such software; and ensure that labs and agencies design
and implement asset management systems to track software license
inventories and the use of existing licenses.
Officials at the DOE could not be reached for comment. But in a
written response that was included in Friedman's report, Adrian
Gardner, the DOE's deputy CIO, said his office concurred with the
IG's findings and recommendations and indicated that steps have
already been taken to address the problems -- including efforts to
renegotiate and consolidate software license agreements for a
common office automation suite.
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