October 31, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Microsoft’s Community Affairs Department has given the Oregon Symphony a second donation of operational software, which brings to $150,000 the value of Microsoft donations to the Symphony since January 2001. The two software gifts were received from Marcy Larsen and Microsoft’s PacWest District Community Affairs office, which has been helping the Symphony with the Software Donation Program by providing technical consulting, training and other technical resources.
The software donations allow the Symphony to realize considerable savings in software purchases over a four-year period and will thus be able to offset a significant portion of its operating costs, said Director of Information Systems Jim Bachleda. “In today’s struggling economy, resource acquisition is more challenging than ever,” said Bachleda. “Providing reliable, productive resources is an essential component for implementing the Symphony’s organizational goals.”
With the exception of industry-specific applications like the
donor relations database, orchestra management and ticketing
systems, the Symphony’s entire productivity software,
operating systems, and network infrastructure comes from these
donations. This most recent gift keeps current software up-to-date
and also provides for additional components that will help improve
services to Symphony customers.
With the first donation, the Symphony’s Information Technology
Department was able to move forward with standardization and
network integration goals provided in its 2000 Strategic Technology
Plan. In 2001 the IT Department created an integrated network
infrastructure with the donated software. Resources including
user accounts, printing, messaging, firewall protection, Web
services and the desktops all work together to create a seamless
network, with centralized user administration.
This latest donation will allow the IT Department to maintain standardization for the desktops and insure compatibility, which helps provide better levels of customer service to staff. Along with effective strategic planning, there has also been a significant improvement in total cost of ownership (post acquisition and deployment) as a result of these deployments. Server uptime has been excellent, compatibility has improved, and the number of over-all support calls has decreased.
These contributions have helped create the most standardized and integrated network environments in the Symphony’s history, despite budgetary restrictions. The latest donation keeps the Symphony moving forward, and provides the tools needed to meet future technological challenges and better serve Symphony customers.
The specific software donation package includes Windows XP Professional, Office XP Professional (includes MS Word, Excel, Outlook, Access and Powerpoint), and additional licenses for Microsoft Visio, Publisher, FrontPage and Project. The donation also supports the IT infrastructure by providing core services for servers, firewall protection, messaging and Web as well as additional eBusiness and database applications. In addition, the package includes application development, a platform that provides tools to support the Symphony’s development needs.
The PacWest Community Affairs group will offer support with all aspects of this donation package, especially the Microsoft TechNet technical library and MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network).
