Executive Summary Document in OpenOffice format

10/12/2008

Doddridge County Board of Education

103 Sistersville Pike

West Union, WV 26456

Distinguished Members of the Board,

While researching the
cost-effectiveness of different software packages for the students,
faculty, and administration of Doddridge County Schools, I have
become aware of office productivity software with the potential to
save the Board of Education a minimum of $12,000.00, while providing
every computer in the schools software that is comparable to, if not
better than, Microsoft Office 2007. Sun Microsystems OpenOffice
suite consists of six productivity packages which include:

• Base, a database management
  package, for creating queries and reports, and for tracking and
  managing information. Base is very similar in function and
  operating procedure to Microsoft Access.

  
  

• Calc, a spreadsheet package used
  for performing calculations, analyzing information, and managing
  lists. Calc is very similar in function and operating procedure to
  Microsoft Excel.

  
  

• Impress, a presentation software
  package for slide shows, meetings, and creating Web pages. Impress
  is very similar in function and operation to Microsoft PowerPoint.

  
  

• Writer, a word processing package
  used to create and edit text and graphics in letters, reports,
  documents and Web pages. Writer is virtually identical to Microsoft
  Word, in function and operation.

  
  

• Draw, a package used to create and
  edit drawings, flowcharts and logos. This is unlike any of the
  basic four packages included in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite.

  
  

• Math, a package that allows the
  creation and editing of scientific formulas and equations. This,
  too, is unlike anything in the basic Microsoft Office 2007 suite.

  
  

There is virtually no difference
between the four basic packages in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite
(Access, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), and the Base, Calc, Impress,
and Writer packages in the Sun Microsystems OpenOffice Suite.
Documents created in the Microsoft Office 2007 packages are
accessible to the OpenOffice packages, and documents created by the
OpenOffice package can be saved to formats that are accessible to
Microsoft Office 2007 packages.

From an economic standpoint, OpenOffice
has the great advantage over Microsoft Office 2007 in that OpenOffice
is available as a free download. This not only represents a
$12,000.00 to $58,000.00 advantage to the Doddridge
County Board of Education, but a considerable savings to parents of
students, who can now access professional quality office productivity
software for their homes which will be compatible to, and hopefully
the same as, the software used in their children's schools.
Virtually any student with access to the Internet will be able to
obtain, for free, the same software that is available at his or her
school.

I have enclosed a spreadsheet showing
the cost of three different licensing options for academic use of
Microsoft Office 2007, and a presentation with some examples of
documents created with OpenOffice packages. The presentation is
accessible with Microsoft PowerPoint, and the spreadsheet is
accessible with Microsoft Excel. I appreciate your time in reviewing
this information. If you have any questions, please feel free to
contact me any time.

Sincerely,

Doris Wiseman