Software licensing costs

Thank you for your request for Information made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Your request will now be dealt with and a response will be sent within 20 working days.

______________________________________________________________________
'Do it online' with our growing range of online services - http://www.bristol.gov.uk/services

Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect

View webcasts of Council meetings at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/webcast

Dear Mr Woods,
Thank you for your request for information enclosed below. Unfortunately we believe that your current request is very difficult to fulfill with a material level of accuracy for the following reasons:

Our cost coding structure does not include a level that identifies "software licences" specifically. There is a detail code (CP) that denotes software costs but this will include things other than licences e.g. outright purchase.

The detail on the CP codes are to the creditor to whom the invoice is paid. For instance, this will not necessarily be Microsoft if we have bought through a 3rd party. In addition PCs/Laptops etc will be purchased on the hardware code but may actually include the Windows Licence as part of purchase cost.

The only way to answer this question accurately would be to go through each CP code in each section's budget for each year and access the underlying document (invoice) to see if it contained Microsoft licence costs (assuming the invoice spells this out). It is estimated that this would take far longer than the 18 hour appropriate limit. As a result the City Council are not obliged to respond to your current request.

If however you are able to refine or alter your request, so that it can be responded to within the apropriate limit, we will of course be happy to assist. For instance, we could confirm the figures attributable to the CP code for each year requested if this is of help to you, but as stated above, this would not just include software licence costs.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are not satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, The Council House, College Green, Bristol, or [Bristol City Council request email]. Details of the complaints procedure can be found at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/complaints.

If, after you have exhausted the council's complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right to complain can be found at http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

Copyright notice
The provision of information by Bristol City Council under this scheme does not imply a right to reproduce or commercially exploit such information without the Council's express prior written permission.
Reproduction or commercial exploitation of materials supplied under this scheme without the express permission of Bristol City Council may be an infringement of copyright.
The Council is unable to grant permission to reproduce or re-use any material accessed through this scheme that is the property of third parties. Permission to reproduce or re-use such material must be obtained from the copyright holders.

Yours sincerely
A Marshal

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

How much has Bristol City Council paid for software licences in the
each of the last 5 years?

Of these totals, what proportion is accounted for by Microsoft?

Yours faithfully,

Steve Woods

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/about...

Is [Bristol City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Bristol City Council? If so please contact us using
this form: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact
-------------------------------------------------------------------

______________________________________________________________________
'Do it online' with our growing range of online services - http://www.bristol.gov.uk/services

Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect

View webcasts of Council meetings at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/webcast

Dear Mr Woods,
Thank you for your further request.

The Council's financial systems record the following expenditure under
code CP (computer software) for the years requested:

Year Amount
03/04 £800,260
04/05 £1,706,962
05/06 £1,980,336
06/07 £2,551,567
07/08 £3,008,945

Please note that these figures cannot be taken as an accurate
representation of the overall spend on software, as the
accounting/coding system is not designed for this purpose. Many factors
may distort the totals shown above, including software included in ICT
packages and hence not coded under the CP code, and inclusion of both
external purchases costs and internal recharges for the same software.

Establishing an accurate figure for software spend as you originally
requested would take far longer than the 18 hour appropriate time limit
for the council's response to this type of request.

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are
not satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any
exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the
Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, The
Council House, College Green, Bristol, or [Bristol City Council request email] . Details
of the complaints procedure can be found at
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/complaints .

If, after you have exhausted the councils complaints procedure, you are
still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the
right to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right
to complain can be found at http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

Copyright notice
The provision of information by Bristol City Council under this scheme
does not imply a right to reproduce or commercially exploit such
information without the Council's express prior written permission.
Reproduction or commercial exploitation of materials supplied under
this scheme without the express permission of Bristol City Council may
be an infringement of copyright.
The Council is unable to grant permission to reproduce or re-use any
material accessed through this scheme that is the property of third
parties. Permission to reproduce or re-use such material must be
obtained from the copyright holders.

Yours sincerely
A Marshal

show quoted sections

2008 11:26 >>>
Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for your response, in the light of which I am now
revising/clarifying my request as follows:

According to the Council's CP code system, how much has Bristol
City Council paid for software in the each of the last 5 years?

Yours sincerely,

Steve Woods

show quoted sections