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University Technology Services
Dodge Hall
118 Library Drive
Rochester,
MI
48309-4401
(location map)
uts@oakland.edu
Campus Software
Campus Software, As a Service Providers, Hosted Solutions, Web Sites, Apps, Tools, and Services
- General Software Information, Policies and Guidelines
- Where do I start?
- Who is Involved?
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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 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. All software licenses, apps, web site solutions and similar technology 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 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.
- Procurement Policy
#1000 Procurement Policy - Software
#870 Software Regulations - UTS Policies and Guidelines
If a hosted or application service provider solution is needed, the department should review policies and guidelines:
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.
Please review the Procurement Policy carefully; depending on the anticipated cost, the first step may be to contact the Purchasing Department. Purchasing and University Technology Services are ready to assist with a formal bid process and development of technical requirements.
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. 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.
- 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.
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
- 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.
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.
- 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.
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 7 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
- Microsoft Office - New installs and upgrades
- Access
- Excel
- Expression Studio Web Pro
- Infopath
- Link (client only)
- Office for Mac
- OneNote
- PowerPoint
- Outlook
- Publisher
- Visio Pro
- Word
- G Suite
- Gmail
- Calendar
- Docs
- Apple Mountain Lion
- Apporto Installation information found here
- Advising Software Solutions
- Bradford Campus Manager
- Ellucian Banner (All modules)
- Ellucian Automic
- Events
- Footprints
- GitLab
- Google Groups
- Moodle
- Panopto Lecture Capture
- Qualtrics Features available can be reviewed here.
- Scantron / ParScore
- SPSS
- Storage - General Storage Environments
- Percussion Content Management
- PerfectForms
- Symantec Endpoint Protection
- TrueCrypt
- Visix Digital Signage
- WebEx
- Xythos (OakShare)
- SPSS: The latest SPSS network distribution software is available for no cost. Information for installation can be found here.
- 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).
- 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/business/resources.
Several software tools may be used to execute surveys. Information about popular solutions is here.
Several software solutions are available to advisers.- 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: http://www.advisortrac.net/subpage.php?go=advisor
- Education Advisory Board - Student Success Collaborative. Contact an academic adviser for additional information.
- Banner Student Retention Performance. Contact an academic adviser for additional information.
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:
- Policy #207 Business Expenditure Policies, which states that university funds are prudently used to advance the mission of the university.
- Policy #206 Cellular Phones, if the 3G/4G service is purchased. Otherwise the purchase is handled like a laptop or netbook.
- 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:
- Policy #207 Business Expenditure Policies
- Software #870 Software Regulations
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
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, 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. 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.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.
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 Clients | HTML | ||
Frequently Asked Questions for OUIM Clients | HTML | ||
Service Level Agreement for OUIM Customers |
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.
October 2017