Schedule C Office of Technology Assessment General and Administration Financial Plan Allocation, 1985 Base I. Adjustments to Base A. Mandatory Changes 1. Merit increases at 3.52% and related benefits 2. Related benefits associated with meritt increases 3. 1% increase in benefits associated with B. Price Level Changes 1. Travel - Airline fare increases of 4.5% 2. Rent rate increases 3. Printing and reproduction increase of 6% inflation 4. Rental of copying equipment increase of 4.5% inflation 5. Rental of ADP equipment increase C. Program Increases 1. Staff level increases 2. Other program increases a. ADP purchases and software b. Increased travel c. Replacement equipment d. Supplies and materials e. Consultant compensation f. Contracts, panelists, and miscellaneous ADP EQUIPMENT COSTS Mr. FAZIO. I now have some questions about the buildup in word processors and personal computers. You now have 220 of these and, I gather you are planning to acquire more. Give us a feel for the capital costs of the equipment acquired since this build-up began, and also some feel for where you are going with this. Mr. GIBBONS. I would like to supply the full answer for the record. I would say, we have reached the point where the number of word processors and desk top computers in OTA is going to be a constant. There will be some upgrading, but we have finished a cycle taking us two, three years, to get to the position and evaluate it as we go, where every person who can effectively use such a thing will have one at his or her disposal. We have found, in many instances, although it does vary, there has been an enormous change in productivity, quality, as well as the quantity. Mr. FAZIO. I hope you can describe some of that in detail for us in your answer for the record. [The questions and responses follow:] QUESTIONS FOR RECORD Question. What are the capital costs of OTA's computer equipment purchased to date? Response. OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT ADP PURCHASED AND LEASED EQUIPMENT FOR FISCAL YEARS OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT ADP PURCHASED AND LEASED EQUIPMENT FOR FISCAL YEARS Leased purchase cost 46,688 61,223 Miscellaneous freight, software, installation charges, and adapt ers... 97,229 1984 subtotals.. 390,993 5 NBI integrated work stations 4. (8,396) 88,220 NBI PC's memory upgrade... 4,066 1 Conversion of 1 leased NBI system 64 and purchase of 1 new NBI system 64. 2 Purchased 16 NBI 2000's not previously leased and 18 NBI 2000's previously leased. 31 NBI 3000 stand alone word processors traded in for 20 NBI 2000 PC work stations. * Includes 1 work station rented for 6 months trial; 4 others to be leased for 2-3 months based on favorable results of trial. Question. What are the capital costs of OTA's computer equipment purchased to date? What are OTA's capital costs per employee? How does this compare to the private sector? Response. Initially, OTA acquired NBI equipment because of its excellent word processing capabilities and the ability to share large memory and databases. When the IBM PC's were introduced, its broader analytical capabilities were needed and word processing and software capabilities have consistently been improved. We are currently evaluating the feasibility of phasing over to predominantly IBM systems in the future, as networking and improved word processing software become available. Including all capital costs since 1982 to the present, OTA has spent $528,000 1 for 77 NBI workstations for an average of $6,850 1 per workstation. OTA has spent $418,300 for 137 IBM workstations for an average of $3,100 per workstation (if the miscellaneous category is allocated entirely to the IBM workstations then the average rises to $3770 per workstation). The combined average cost per workstation is $4,876. As OTA is close to one workstation per professional employee and our “employee" base changes as projects start and finish, the cost per employee is slightly less than the cost per workstation. Although OTA has spent approximately $3100 per IBM workstation over the past three years, prices have been dropping and OTA's current costs per basic IBM workstation are lower. A configuration consisting of 640K RAM, two disk drives, monochrome display, and an expansion card containing a parallel port, serial port, and clock calendar currently costs approximately $2,182 or a savings of 17% when compared to a cost of approximately $2,553 if we bought from IBM National Accounts Division and Office Technology Plus (whose prices represent the type of discount a large corporation would negotiate). We do not pay for installation of IBM-PC's and are "self-insuring" on maintenance. Rather than pay a commercial price for maintenance of approximately $450.00/year/machine, we have spent less than $50.00/machine. Note that both of these maintenance figures do not include printers. Other cost per station figures in government range from $4,800 (IBM PC's) for the Budget Office in New York to $13,600 (IBM XT's and Display Writers) in the Executive Office of the President. Private industry costs for strictly IBM-PC's probably range from approximately those shown from IBM-NAD and OTP for large corporations to 10-30% higher for smaller firms who cannot negotiate large quantity dis counts. A recent survey of various office automation products comparing "typical" entry level system costs showed the IBM-PC family as being the least expensive particularly when compared to recommended systems which range from $2,945 for the IBM-PC up to $9,500. 1 Although OTA currently has 60 owned NBI's, 77 was used as a base. Seventeen older machines were recently exchanged for credit on newer machines. If you calculate the cost per current workstation using 60 as a base, it would be $8,800 per NBI and $5,300 per all OTA workstations. |