Computing Equipment Purchasing and Support Policy

Managing the college's investments in computing hardware and software requires an extensive support infrastructure maintained by a staff with expertise in the computing and networking environment in place in Cornell Hall and MU. Given the need to use the college’s resources most efficiently, it is important that computing equipment purchased be compatible with current hardware and software, and that it be purchased from vendors with whom Technology Services (TS) has a positive working relationship.

Through the university’s Desktop Enhancement program, the college’s computer purchases include four-year warranties, and the college’s computing budget absorbs additional costs of ownership, including technical staff time for setup and ongoing support of the equipment.

The following policy concerns the purchase and support of computing equipment at the Trulaske College of Business. Computing equipment includes desktop computers, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDA’s), wireless network cards, monitors, flat panel displays and printers, as well as the underlying networking infrastructure.

Accordingly, the college has instituted the following policy:

1. Resources permitting, the Trulaske College of Business will provide one networked, college-owned computer to every faculty and staff member, and every college Ph.D. student housed in Cornell Hall, as well as a monitor or flat panel display. (Flat panel displays larger than the norm may incur additional cost to the individual or unit.)
2. When faculty or staff purchase a second computer (in addition to the college-supplied computer) using professional development or unit funds, a one-time $100 support charge will be assessed.
3. All computing equipment to be purchased with any college funds shall be selected with advice and approval from TS to ensure that the desired equipment is compatible with currently owned hardware and software, and that it can be efficiently and effectively supported by TS.
4. All computer purchases must be of the Windows platform. All users currently running non-Windows computers as their primary office PC may continue to do so, with the understanding that TS will provide only limited support.
5. Computers, monitors and flat panel displays for Ph.D. students housed in Cornell Hall are acquired from Division of IT (DoIT) as new machines are installed in campus labs on a 3-year cycle.
6. TS shall be responsible for ordering, installing, configuring, testing and supporting computing equipment owned by the college.
7. In general, support provided by TS includes:
   1. Finding the best price of computing equipment, ordering, including in the database inventory, storing of software licenses
   2. Hardware installation, configuration, testing and problem resolution
   3. Software installation, configuration, updating and troubleshooting, including: the latest Microsoft Windows operating system, Microsoft Office Suite, Norton Anti-Virus, WordPerfect*, Adobe Acrobat*, SAS*, SPSS*, and other software*
   4. Seamless access to the wired and wireless network
   5. File storage on the college file server
   6. Access to the college database server
   7. Nightly backup of all file and database server data, with two previous versions of modified files stored for a period of 90 days

*As requested. Licenses purchased by individual or unit.

Approved by the college's Executive Committee on 5/12/04; revision approved 6/17/04