General Technology and Software Purchase Requests

Effective Date: June 1, 2016 / Updated Jan 1, 2021

Contact: Chris Nelson , Technology Purchasing and Logistics Coordinator

Purpose

The General Technology and Software Purchase Request policy provides for a central and consistent purchasing of technology devices and software. This allows the University to take advantage of existing partnerships to reduce costs and ensure that the devices and solutions we employ for University purposes are widely manageable by our support teams.

Applicability/Scope

Generally speaking, technology items require the approval of the Technology Purchasing and Logistics Coordinator prior to being purchased using University funds. This process applies to technology items that are not desktop or laptop computers (and related workstation peripherals), as those devices are managed under the Computer Refresh Program.

Exclusions to this are audiovisual items such as digital displays, conference/meeting room equipment, or specialty audiovisual equipment such as broadcast and recording equipment, photography equipment, and the like. Items of this nature should be submitted to the Instructional Technology team at ITS@uiwtx.edu for review and handling.

Printers are also excluded from the scope of this policy. The University operates a centrally managed printer program, which provides for common area printers in lieu of separate units in various offices. All printers are maintained and operated through this arrangement. As a result, IT does not support the acquisition and maintenance of individual desktop printers and the associated supplies such as toner.

Processes

General Technology Procurement Process

The provisioning of technology devices as managed under the Computer Refresh Program is limited to computing workstations, to include a single computer per individual and the associated workstation bundle. Additional non computer-specific tools need to be sourced using the requesting department’s budget. To ensure a more direct and sensible encumbrance of funding, purchase requisitions for the additional equipment should be entered into Banner by the requesting department.

The process for procuring devices outside of the scope of the computing workstation bundles should flow as follows:

The requesting department contacts the Technology Purchasing and Logistics Coordinator to obtain a quote for the required equipment. The current contact for this is Chris Nelson, (210) 829-3844 or crnelso2@uiwtx.edu.
Upon receipt of the requested quote, the department’s administrative staff will enter a purchase requisition into Banner for a purchase order to be created for the item(s).
After the purchase requisition passes through the appropriate approvals in Banner and a PO is created, the departmental administrator will email the PO back to the Technology Purchasing staff member.
The Technology Purchasing staff member will finalize the order with the vendor, manage the physical receipt of the equipment, and hand the item(s) off to the department once received.
Purchases of general technology utilizing dissertation or grant funding follow the same process outlined above.

For examples on common items that are included in this process, see the following table.

Devices Listed by Funding Source
IT-Funded and Managed	Department Funded
Desktop and Laptop Computers	Device Cases, Sleeves, Carrying Bags
Docking Stations	iPads, Tablets, or e-Readers
Primary Computer Monitor (single per workstation)	Secondary Computer Monitor
Keyboards and Mice	Webcams
	Flash Drives or External Hard Drives
	Scanners
	Headphones or Headsets
	Computer Speakers
	Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
	and other similar devices…

Software Procurement Process

Information Technology

General Technology and Software Purchase Requests

Purpose

Applicability/Scope

Processes