Approve the Lawson Services Agreement for Software Maintenance Migration to Lawson System Foundation 9.0 (Information and Technology Division)

On May 27, 2007, the School Board authorized negotiation with Lawson Software for services to migrate from Lawson version 8.0.3 to version 9.0. The attached documents address providing the services to assist with scheduled software maintenance for Lawson System Foundation (LSF) 9.0. This maintenance is necessary because customer support for the current District 8.0.3 version of the environment ends July 31, 2008. The environment is the foundation for all Lawson applications, and without customer support there is no assistance for software problems that potentially could prevent Lawson applications from working. The advantage of only applying software maintenance to the environment, rather than to both the environment and applications, is that it moves the District to Lawson’s current version with no changes to the Lawson applications. This means no change to what the users see or do within Lawson. Other advantages are that it limits the expense this fiscal year to only what is absolutely necessary, it minimizes the impact on the District staff, and since it only impacts the Lawson environment and not the applications, project risk is minimized. This strategy targets completion of the migration by March 3, 2008. The Information Services (IS) Technical Support staff will complete the installation of LSF 9.0 by mid October 2007, followed by the IS Applications Programming staff updating and testing the applications and interfaces before winter break. The Business and HR Division functional users will conduct tests to confirm data integrity and data accuracy in January and February as the final check prior to the cut over on March 3, 2008. The intent of this staged process is to ensure that each stage is satisfactorily completed prior to involving the next set of staff for their part. This will make more effective use of everyone’s time. Since support for the District’s 8.0.3 version of Lawson applications does not end until May 31, 2009, there is no overwhelming requirement or drive to perform maintenance on the applications this fiscal year. The attached Lawson Services Order Form was reviewed by the School Board Attorney.

This recommendation meets Division Key Objective Areas of Data Accuracy and Financial Performance in support of the District Plan of Work and is also in-line with OPPAGA Best Business Financial Practices.

Lawson service agreement fees are based upon time and materials. Total projected services fees for this agreement are $533,510. The estimated travel and per diem cost is $106,702. Together the total estimated expense and budget for this agreement is $640,212 from project 5002 in FY08.

The District Project Leader in conjunction with a Lawson Software Project Leader will supervise and manage the project. As part of that process, they will provide reports through the Division Chiefs to the Superintendent's cabinet as well as provide feedback through regular status meetings. Success is measured by the team's ability to complete each milestone within the date parameters set by the negotiated contract under a phased timeline.