[OPLINLIST] E-Rate and Technology Planning

Thu Oct 22 08:21:37 EDT 2009

The USAC School and Libraries News Brief from October 16 focused on
Technology Plans.  Remember, if you are applying for Basic Telephone
Services you do not have to have a Technology Plan.  However, the State
Library highly encourages all public libraries to have an E-Rate
certified Tech Plan on file.  And you should have a written draft of
that Tech Plan prior to filing your Form 470.

If you have any questions as to whether you have a certified Tech Plan
on file and/or its dates of coverage, please do not hesitate to contact
Missy Lodge, mlodge at sloma.state.oh.us or Julia Ward,
jward at sloma.state.oh.us 

Information on writing a Tech Plan can be found on WebJunction at:
http://oh.webjunction.org/oherate/-/resources/bparticles 

The following is from the USAC School and Libraries News Brief:

APPLICATION PROCESS: Technology Planning 

The first document prepared by recipients of service under the E-rate
program should be the technology plan. A technology plan is a written
document that describes the technologies and associated resources, both
existing and planned, that will assist a school to provide educational
services or a library to provide library services.

Technology plans are required for all discounted services other than
basic telephone service
<http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/basic-telephone-service.aspx?W
T.mc_id=sl-newsbrief-20091016> . For example, if you are requesting
discounts on a PBX or a T-1 or DSL line - or if you are applying for any
services in the Internet Access, Internal Connections, or Basic
Maintenance of Internal Connections categories of service - you have
more than basic telephone service and you will need a technology plan.

Here are the basic requirements of a technology plan:

*	It must be created (written) before the Form 470 is filed. 
*	It must cover all 12 months of the funding year for which you
are applying. 
*	It must contain all five required elements (see below). 
*	It must be approved by a USAC-certified Technology Plan Approver
(TPA) before the Form 486 is filed or services start, whichever is
earlier. 
*	In general, it cannot cover more than three years. 

Let's look at each of these requirements in turn.

The technology plan must be created before the Form 470 is filed.

Your technology plan must form the basis for the products and services
you are seeking on your Form 470 and the products and services you
subsequently order on your Form 471. The products and services you
request on your Form 470 must therefore be consistent with your
technology plan. Your technology plan should be specific enough to allow
you to achieve your goals and strategies for providing educational or
library services, but flexible enough that you can consider different
available technologies to attain those goals.

Note that the technology plan written before the Form 470 filing is not
necessarily the final version of your technology plan, nor the version
that will eventually be approved by your TPA. It should, however, be far
enough along in its development that it can reasonably support your
requests for discounted products and/or services. In addition, we
recommend that you document the date that you created your technology
plan since this information may be requested during review of your Form
486. The creation date is defined as the date your technology plan first
contained the five required elements in sufficient detail to support the
products or services requested on your Form 470.

The technology plan must cover all 12 months of the funding year.

Services beyond basic telephone service that are received during the
funding year must be covered by the technology plan. In most cases,
services are received during the entire funding year, so the technology
plan must cover the entire funding year.

If your current technology plan expires before the end of the funding
year for which you are applying, you must write a new technology plan
that covers the remainder of the funding year. As above, that new
technology plan must be written before the Form 470 is filed and
approved before the Form 486 is filed so that your services for the
entire year are covered by approved technology plans.

The technology plan must contain the five required elements.

Those elements are:

*	goals and strategies for using telecommunications and
information technology; 
*	a professional development strategy; 
*	an assessment of telecommunications services, hardware,
software, and other services needed; 
*	budget resources; and 
*	an ongoing evaluation process. 

Your technology plan should address each of these elements at a level of
detail appropriate to the size of your entity. For example, the
technology plan for a one-room rural library with dial-up Internet
access would be much shorter and simpler than the technology plan for a
large urban library with 20 branches and high-speed Internet access in
all of the branches.

The technology plan must be approved by a USAC-certified Technology Plan
Approver (TPA).

USAC certifies certain entities to approve technology plans. In general,
state departments of education and state libraries can approve plans. 

The technology plan should not cover more than three years.

New technologies and services develop and change rapidly. Funding can be
reduced or increased. Staff changes can lead to modifications of
organizational goals. For these and other reasons, technology plans can
become out-of-date in a relatively short period of time. Consequently,
with two exceptions, your technology plan should not cover more than
three years.

For more information on all aspects of technology planning, you can
refer to the USAC website:
http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step02/?WT.mc_id=sl-newsbrief-20091016

Missy Lodge

Head, Library Programs and Development

614.644.6914

800.686.1532 (Ohio only)

614.466.3584 (fax)

http://library.ohio.gov

The State Library of Ohio provides services and resources to assist
state government and libraries in providing the best service to all.

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