General Software Information, Policies and Guidelines
Oakland University licenses software in some areas for specific use by university employees. Employees are encouraged to review all UTS IT policies and guidelines. All software licenses are procured using standard university procurement and purchasing policies.
Please note that in general, software support and administration are the responsibilities of the area purchasing the software. University Technology Services only administers and supports software that is planned for university-wide use.
The following policies are related to software and are available at the Oakland University Administrative Policies and Procedures site.
If a hosted or application service provider solution is needed, the department should review policies and guidelines: Outsourcing, Hosted Solutions, and Application Service Providers.
Where do I start?
Software license agreements and purchases are initiated by submitting the Software and Hosted Solution Checklist form. The submission of the form initiates the Software Procurement Process. If the software is intended for academic or research purposes, the purchasing department is encouraged to complete and submit a Purchase Requisition to the Purchasing Department at the same time the Software and Hosted Solution Checklist is submitted. Please note that software procurement and use must be compliant with Policy #870 Software Regulations, so a good place to start is with the reading of that policy. Before purchasing software, the unit should have a plan for software administration and support. Please note that UTS seeks to follow industry best practices described as IT Asset Management best practices.
Software is purchased using university Purchase Requisition or SOP processes. Purchase Orders (from Purchase Requisitions) and SOPs contain university terms and conditions. Software purchases on P-Cards are an exception that requires additional UTS review, in some cases involving Legal Affairs and Risk Management offices because P-Card purchases do not contain university terms and conditions. Software is not a reimbursable expense for the same reason.
Who is Involved in my Software Procurement Process and License Acquisition?
We recommend that departments considering technology purchases should involve UTS as soon as possible in their project. Departmental budget managers should be involved early in the process. Depending on the type of software license involved, Purchasing, Risk Management and Legal Affairs may also be involved in your licensing process. In particular, note that standard purchasing approval limits apply to the purchase of any software solution.
In particular, UTS must be involved under these conditions:
- The software will be used to process, store or transmit data classified as Confidential in Policy #860 Information Security
; or
- Data integration is expected with systems that process, store or transmit data classified as Operation Critical in Policy #860 Information Security
; or
- Login integration with the university's identity management login structure is expected;or
- Software is to be installed on a server managed by University Technology Services; or
- Software has specific or unusual network, storage or security requirements; or
- Software is intended to be widely accessed over the University network.
If the above conditions do not apply, then note:
- Individual purchases under $100 from the Apple iTunes store using a University account approved by Purchasing do not require submission of this form nor the triggering of this procurement process.
- Academically oriented free software, freeware, shareware, open source software and any other academic software licensed personally to faculty members in their own name and not on behalf of the university may be licensed directly by the faculty member and do not need to go through this process.
Software licenses, End User License Agreements and contracts should be read carefully by the units purchasing and managing the implementation of the software license. In particular, licenses that state "For Personal Use Only" are not appropriate for use in University operations. Another phrase that may need additional review is "Do Not Distribute." Please note that it is the responsibility of those installing and using the software to abide by software license agreements. If you have questions about the language in a software license, End User License Agreement or technology-related contract, please contact University Technology Services.
If
- Software is purchased on Purchase Requisition or a Small Order Purchase, and
- The vendor accepts Oakland University terms and conditions as presented on the Purchase Order or SOP, and
- No technical issues are identified by University Technology Services
then your software purchase will be completed with no additional review or negotiation. If the vendor will not accept OU Purchase Orders or SOPs, or the vendor will not accept university terms and conditions, additional review and negotiation will be required.
Funding Models
Generally, software is purchased using departmental, grant, or academic unit (College or School) funds. Using departmental, grant, or unit funds provides the greatest decision flexibility. In some cases, software is purchased through divisional or campus funds. The decision to use divisional or campus funds requires careful analysis and study to fully analyze the benefits of divisional or campus funds. Such analysis includes:
- Potential cost savings.
- Support of university strategic goals.
- Ability to collectively decide as a group on a software direction.
- Potential scope and penetration of software utilization.
- Full project costs.
- Data confidentiality.
One common request is to change from single purchases of departmentally funded desktop software to a centrally funded software solution. Changing from desktop software to a shared software solution often means licensing changes from a single desktop software license to a server-based license using metrics such as concurrent user, processor count, or campus headcounts. The license model change has project costs that must be analyzed in addition to software costs.
In order to analyze and evaluate the appropriate funding model for potential divisional or campus software purchase, a Funding Study will be completed. Contact UTS to request UTS participation in completing a Funding Study. The Funding Study will analyze all project costs, with a five year projection. Also, potential funding models will be developed and reviewed. In general, in order to support a divisional or campus software purchase instead of individual desktop licenses, costs savings must be demonstrated, for example:
(number of individual licenses * cost per license) > (concurrent license costs + server costs + storage costs + backup costs + hardware refresh costs + server & software administration costs)
A completed Funding Study will be reviewed with the relevant advisory groups following the UTS Governance process.
Campus Agreements
Some software is licensed through site license agreements, bulk purchases or broad implementation of open source software. We categorize these software licenses as campus agreements. This software is provided for supported use at no cost to the department or individual. Some of these software licenses are installed on university-owned desktops, laptops or mobile devices. Some of the software licenses are web-accessible. Software included in this category is listed below. Current information, releases and availability are provided by contacting the Helpdesk (helpdesk@oakland.edu).
- Windows Operating System - Windows 7 Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate
- 32 bit for clients who need to use Microsoft Access reporting with Ellucian Banner
- 64 bit for all other clients
NOTE: ELIS offers overviews, training materials and support for teaching and learning systems and software. For more information, look at their website: Overview of Teaching Tools
Statistics
Several options are in use for statistical analysis on campus including free options that are widely available. Some statistical use is tied to survey tools; please review Survey Tools below. Options for your consideration (click on the title for more information):
- Minitab: Statistical and project management software.
- PSPP: A free alternative to SPSS software, used for statistical computing.
- R Project: Free software environment for statistical
computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety
of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.
- SAS: Business analytics software.
- JMP: JMP Statistical Discovery and Data Visualization Software (from SAS).
- SPSS: SPSS Release 11.5 is available at the Helpdesk for no cost. There are significantly more recent versions available for purchase from the vendor. Please review the licensing FAQs carefully. Please order through the Purchasing approved reseller here. Note: Academic licenses allow for personal teaching purposes only, on a single machine only, not for use on shared workstations, such as labs. If purchasing SPSS for any shared workstations or labs, for administrative purposes, for commercially supported research purposes, or for any other purpose, please contact the Purchasing Department.
- SYSTAT: Software for statistical computing and graphics. A free version is available for student downloads limited to academic use.
Special notice on SAS and JMP:
Oakland University has two campus-wide site licenses to support research efforts: SAS (Academic Version 9.3) and the latest version of JMP Statistical Discovery and Data Visualization Software (from SAS).These research software tools are available to all Oakland University students and faculty.
This development occurred due to cooperative efforts among the School of Business Administration, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Computer Sciences, and the School of Nursing to bring to students and faculty (across campus) these software packages on Windows or Mac at no cost to them.
Departments that choose to utilize these campus licenses have two license compliance checks: The vendor’s requirements, and Oakland University’s Internal Audit Requirements. Departments are accountable to both and records will need to be maintained and provided upon request if audited. Currently, these
reports can be generated by SBA.
These are term licenses that expire annually. A renewal request to obtain the current valid license key is required each year. The license request process is documented on SBA’s link for Faculty and Student Resources at http://www.oakland.edu/sbaresources.
Survey Tools
Several software tools may be used to execute surveys. Information about popular solutions is here.
Apple
An Oakland University employee purchasing an iPad with university funds should create the iPad iTunes account using a university shared departmental NetID account. Apps cannot be purchased on a university p-card.
Apps are not a reimbursable expense.
There are 4 levels of purchase for an iPad or iPhone:
- The device: The business purpose must be documented with the purchasing process. The purchase of the device with university funds is subject to university policies:
- The optional 3G/4G service, if purchased with university funds, is subject to university Policy #206 Cellular Phones. Generally this is not an approved service.
- The iTunes Master Agreement, with Purchasing as the Program Manager for iTunes App purchases. The Program Facilitator will purchase Apps.
- The licenses for the individual Apps, free or purchased, which must comply with:
UTS and Purchasing maintain a master agreement for Apple iTunes purchases. UTS can purchase Apps for your department under the App Store Volume Purchase Program Agreement, or a department making a large number of purchases may be set up as a Program Facilitator to make purchases. We encourage partnering to make purchases with the highest discount.
Apps are purchased by voucher obtained through UTS or from authorized departments. Please note that Apple agreements require that the owner of devices and installer of Apps agree to sync no more copies than the number of voucher codes purchased; you cannot make a single purchase and sync to multiple devices unless authorized by the license. Pricing generally reflects an educational discount and no sales tax will be charged. Contact helpdesk@oakland.edu if you wish to purchase individual Apps for your university-owned device.
Click here for additional Apple Purchase Process Details
Other useful information: FAQs
Apple Apps Development
UTS has enrolled Oakland as a member in three Apple iPhone Developer Programs:
- Standard Program,
- Enterprise Program, and
- University Program.
Membership in the developer programs provides the opportunity to write iOS Apps which run on the iPhone, iPod touch,
and iPad. These Apps can be distributed via the App Store provided that they are
released under Oakland's name and ownership.
Please review the
Mobile Applications, Services and Developmentinformation if you are considering developing an app.
Software Development
UTS does limited software development, generally to integrate data between two software solutions or to provide consumer interfaces such as mobile apps or portal portlets. If a department seeks to develop software, a review meeting with UTS is recommended to consider server resources, scalability, and ongoing sustainability. Please contact Theresa Rowe rowe@oakland.edu to discuss your needs.
Individual Software
Faculty and staff may need to acquire software for individual, research or department use. Software purchased with university funds for this purpose must follow standard university procurement and purchasing policy, and be purchased using local funding sources. Software is not a reimbursable expense.