University Technology Services

Dodge Hall
118 Library Drive
Rochester, MI 48309-4401
(location map)
uts@oakland.edu

Campus Software

Campus Software, Software As a Service Providers, Hosted Solutions, Web Sites, Apps, Tools, and Services


General Software Information, Policies and Guidelines

We often hear "This is my department's budget; I want to purchase whatever I need."  We agree!  This process is not about monitoring your budget.  There is no intent to stop you from purchasing what you need.  We want to be your partner and assistant in making the best technology purchase.  Sometimes we find individuals unfamiliar with campus software and technology solutions try to buy a license for something we already license for the university. Other times there is confusion about what kind of license, such as academic or administrative, to purchase.  Solutions that present web pages, web-based solutions, or web site materials must meet another set of requirements.  Occasionally we identity several people all wanting to purchase the same license, and with that awareness, we are able to negotiate a volume discount.  Sometimes we are aware of vendor issues discussed in the IT community and we can share warnings or concerns.  We want to be involved partners in your software and technology procurement process.

Oakland University licenses software in some areas for specific use by university employees. Employees are encouraged to review all UTS IT policies and guidelines. 

Please note that in general, software support, and administration for departmental software and technology are the responsibilities of the area purchasing the software. University Technology Services only administers and supports software that is planned for university-wide use.

All software licenses, apps, web site solutions and similar technology are procured using standard university procurement and purchasing policies.  The purchase of a solution generally starts with a Request for Proposal with all requirements documented into the proposal.  Small purchases (within guidelines set by Purchasing) can start with the Software form.  When RFP (or RFI) is skipped, then work must be done to assemble all the documentation that would have been obtained through the bid process.

The software purchase review form is here: 
https://forms.oakland.edu/#S     Software and Hosted Solution Purchasing Checklist.

The following policies are related to software and are available at the Oakland University Administrative Policies and Procedures site.

The following information is intended to provide University employees with information and tools to properly assess, mitigate, and manage risk related to software solutions, outsourcing, hosted solutions, software as a service, and application service providers (ASP), commonly knows as "web sites". To begin a project, please review this Checklist.

A vendor security review must be completed as part of this process; vendors must complete the Information Technology Compliance and Security Statement providing a documented response must be provided. If University data are involved, language that protects the security and privacy of data is required in agreements and contracts; General Data Protection Regulation provisions may be involved. 

Note that sending University data off-site requires compliance with the Information Security Advisory Group policy #860 Information Security following the procedures for Secure File Transmission and Encryption.

All software must meet the university standards for Web and IT Accessibility Guidelines and Procedures.

Custom web site development requires an ongoing commitment of resources.  Individuals or departments considering custom web development should review university policies and guidelines posted here as Web Development Guidelines.  

For personal educator purchases, we recommend the Apple Higher Educations store, JourneyEd for Educators, or other similar options.  

Where do I start?

Please review the Procurement Policy carefully; depending on the anticipated cost, the first step may be to contact the Purchasing Department and UTS for development of a Request for Proposal (RFP).  Purchasing and University Technology Services are ready to assist with a formal bid process and development of technical requirements.  Send a request for RFP to uts@oakland.edu, and we will record the ticket with Purchasing so we can partner on procurement.

We encourage a department to engage in thoughtful process review and improvement before seeking the purchase of a software solution.

If a bid process is not required and you know the software to purchase, or if you have identified a software solution through a bid process, you may proceed with a purchase process.  Software license agreement reviews 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 that can create a contracting issue for the university.  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.  Data Stewards, defined in university policy #860 Information Security, may be involved.  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. 

 

If purchasing software from a company outside the United States, please note that funding for software must include foreign software royalties if the purchase is for term licenses with annual renewals.  Generally, a payment for use of a software product or database results in the payment of rent for lease of the product or database, or what is described as royalty for the use of the intellectual property.  When the property is used in the United States, the source of income is considered to the the U.S. source income subject to 30% withholding and reporting on Form 1042-S unless an exception applies.  The possible exceptions are:
  • The terms of the software agreement are essentially a sale of all substantial rights to use the product (such as purchased boxed software under a shrink wrap license).
  • The location of the server providing the software service is outside of the U.S., in which case the source of income may be foreign.
The  process for handling the purchase of foreign-sourced software is described here.

 

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 following the guidelines in Policy #870 Software Regulations. 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.
The University Senate - Academic Computing Committee has provided criteria for use in evaluating campus academic software purchases:
  • Count of faculty using or intending to use the license.
  • Count of students using or intending to use the license.
  • Academic revenue generated through software use (i.e., number of students registered in classes).
  • Consideration for research or teaching impact.
  • Cost savings through campus agreement, bulk purchases, or other collective arrangements.
  • Infrastructure and related costs required to support the software installation (over the cost of the software license).

One common request is to change from single purchases of departmentally funded software to a centrally funded software solution. Changing from individual 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 head-counts. The license model change has project costs that must be analyzed in addition to software costs.  The initial funding must be provided by the local unit, with a permanent JV.  Also, there needs to be a university value, such as described in the Common Good Resources Philosophy.


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)

In summary, to change from a local funding model to a centralized funding model, a request for review may be submitted to University Technology Services with the fund number and amount of the original funding commitment from the department or unit. UTS will complete a Funding Study that will be reviewed with the relevant advisory groups following the UTS Governance process; the process will either support or deny approval.

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).

Please review Storage and Computing options and information posted here:  www.oakland.edu/uts/storage

  • Windows Operating System - Windows 10 Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate  Upgrades only.  New computers and tablets must be purchased with an OEM license.
    • 32 bit for clients who need to use Microsoft Access reporting with Ellucian Banner
    • 64 bit for all other clients
    • Includes Internet Explorer
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.  Departments are required to fund the purchase of statistical software other than SPSS, if a purchase is involved. Some statistical use is tied to survey tools; please review Survey Tools below. Options for your consideration (click on the title for more information):
  • SPSS: The latest SPSS network distribution software is available for no cost. Information for SPSS installation.
  • 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.
  • SYSTAT: Software for statistical computing and graphics. A free version is available for student downloads limited to academic use.

Survey Tools

Several software tools may be used to execute surveys. More information about popular survey solutions.

Advising Software Solutions

Several software solutions are available to advisers.
  • Degree Works:  This program is integrated with Banner and is the preferred primary academic records analysis and progress to degree solution.
  • Curriculum, Advising, and Program Planning CAPP:  This is a Banner module.  Access is through Banner and requests for authorized access are submitted through the standard Banner process in https://forms.oakland.edu.
  • AdvisorTrac:  Departments wishing to use AdvisorTrac will submit the Software & Hosted Solution Purchasing Checklist found at https://forms.oakland.edu, including a fund number to support the purchase.  UTS will create a purchase order to complete the software license addendum to add the department profile and JV the provided fund to cover the cost.  Each year the associated maintenance fees will be covered by JV.  Product information is at: https://www.go-redrock.com/products/advisortrac/
  • Education Advisory Board - Student Success Campus.  Contact an academic adviser for additional information.

Apple Apps Store

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 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

Adobe License Information

Adobe has moved to a cloud licensing model. The licenses are purchased annually on a subscription basis. Departments are responsible for the purchase and management of these term subscription licenses.  All VIP accounts will be moving a single VIP Admin console. More information is available about Adobe licensing.
       

Apps, Apple, Google, and Mobile Software Apps Development

UTS has enrolled Oakland as a member in three Apple iPhone Developer Programs:

  • Standard Program
  • Enterprise Program
  • 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.  UTS has similar relationships for apps developed for Android and Google Play.

Please review the Mobile Applications, Services and Development information if you are considering developing an app or hiring a firm to develop an app with Oakland University funds.

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 MySAIL portal development. If a department seeks to develop software, a review meeting with UTS is recommended to consider server resources, scalability, and ongoing sustainability. Please contact Lori Tirpak tirpak@oakland.edu to discuss your needs.

Administrative Data Store for Argos Reporting

UTS has a service available that stores data needed for reporting for administrative departments. This is ideal for processes that do not exist in Banner or other third-party solutions. UTS suggests this solution over Microsoft Access and other localized development for improved data security, sharing, sustainability, and supportability. The Administrative Data Store is centrally backed-up and is covered by the university disaster recovery plans.

The Administrative Data Store uses PostgreSQL database technology. It has the capability of accepting and loading automating data feeds from external systems such as Banner and other third-party applications with the assistance from GoAnywhere. The Administrative Data Store then can be set-up and used in Argos reporting.

Argos can update, insert and delete data into the Administrative Datastore in more complicated scenarios that require data-mart solutions. This is not a platform for building large legacy systems that require transactional processing.

Please create a request by filling out the Argos Datastore Request form.

Campus Instant Messaging

Oakland University provides secure instant messaging services for faculty and staff.  You will need to have the head of the department sign the service level agreement (SLA) in order to have a group created.  Directions for configuring Oakland University Instant Messaging (OUIM) clients are below.

OUIM
Definition of Instant Messaging
HTML
Instructions for OUIM ClientsHTML
Frequently Asked Questions for OUIM ClientsHTML
Service Level Agreement for OUIM CustomersPDF

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.

Electronic Signature Stamps - COVID-19

To eliminate the cumbersome process of printing, signing, scanning and re-uploading documents that require a signature, to instead allow university personnel with signature authority established to utilize a signature stamp that will reproduce a signature electronically.

An electronic signature created through any method is to be used as a replacement for a “handwritten depiction” and in no way expands signing authorizations or authority under Administrative Policies 200 and 410.

UTS reminds campus that Microsoft Word has the capability to create an electronic signature stamp at no cost.  Microsoft Word also has the capability to save Word Documents as PDF format to protect the signature stamp.

For more information click here for more information about signature stamps.

January 2021

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