By Yvonne Tevis. To slow the spread of COVID-19, UC staff are working from home and classes are going online. Demand for remote work tools has skyrocketed. “I should have bought stock in Zoom” is a common refrain.
Fortunately, the current UC systemwide Zoom agreement established in 2016 is helping UC meet demand. Under the terms of the agreement, when seven or more campuses buy a site license, the price drops. As part of COVID-19 response efforts, IT Procurement Associate Director Thomas Trappler sent out a note to remind the UC location CIOs, and 11 locations moved quickly to take advantage of the deal.
A site license provides a participating UC location with an unlimited number of Zoom Pro accounts for all faculty, staff, and students – meaning everyone who needs one can get one – and all for a fixed flat rate, which is calculated by number of knowledge workers rather than total employees. By moving to a site license, UC locations with broad need for Zoom Pro can save 17% or more over UC’s named user pricing.
Trappler said, “It’s been great how quickly the UC locations moved to work together to get these essential tools into the hands of faculty, staff, and students, and to save the university money at the same time.”
UC’s security, privacy, and accessibility needs continue to be met (the same as before) because the site licenses are included under the systemwide agreement, which includes UC’s Appendix-Data Security, Appendix-Business Associate, and Terms and Conditions of Purchase.
In addition, the systemwide agreement continues to provide a 50% discount off Zoom’s standard education price for add-on products (eg., Large Meeting, Webinar, Zoom Rooms) for any UC location that wishes to purchase them as well.
Trappler has worked diligently over the past two weeks to get Zoom price quotes and associated implementation support to UC locations quickly. “As a result of the increased demand, they’re completely overwhelmed at Zoom,” he said. “Even so, they’ve come through to meet UC’s needs during a very challenging time.”
Trappler is pleased that the good relationship with Zoom and the systemwide agreement are able to support one part of the university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic – the sudden demand for remote meetings.
The featured graphic is from the Zoom website.
Yvonne Tevis is chief of staff, Information Technology Services, UC Office of the President.