UMD ITSS Computer Labs Quick Help: Software Purchase Assistance Request

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ITSS Computer Labs Quick Help

Software Purchase Assistance Request

Requests for Adding Software to the ITSS Computer Labs

The Student Computing Team will consider cooperating in the purchase of lab software based on cost/benefit analysis, overall potential use, number of students using the software, and suitability of implementation in our lab environment given licensing and technical constraints.

Software purchased for the ITSS computer labs comes from several funding sources. The ITSS Student Technology budget funds some of the software in the labs, usually general purpose applications such as productivity software, web development tools, accessibility software, utilities, and some desktop publishing and graphics applications.

Software for specific disciplines and departments is generally funded from college and departmental tech fee budgets. Depending on budget availability, ITSS may be able to help departments fund a part of some software purchases.

The factors affecting ITSS funding of departmental software include:

Cost per license, or total cost of a site license, and the number of students using the software and total number of hours that the software will be used during a semester.

Licensing restrictions. For practical purposes, lab software needs to be site licensed or concurrently licensed (allowing an application to be installed on all computers, but limited to the total number of copies that can run at one time).

Network and server compatibility, including factors such as the disk space required and any network or bandwidth issues. The software must also be compatible with lab operating systems.

Adding new applications to the labs can be a complicated process and require a fair amount of lead time:

Licenses must be purchased and media obtained, then the applications need to be tested for functionality and compatibility with lab configurations.

Rolling out new software to the individual lab computers can take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to complete and, for practical purposes, may only be possible a few times per semester.

Departments are encouraged to purchase software (or make any software requests) a number of months before they will need to use the applications - preferably in the earlier part of the preceding semester.

Please supply as much of the following information as possible. The information you supply as well as the current availability of funds will help us to determine if we can purchase the requested software and/or make the requested software available in the labs. Software must be for use by UMD students and able to be served from the Novell Server, the Mac server, or from Bulldog.

Name: Department:

Phone: Faculty Staff Student

Email Adress (e.g. rbrill@d.umn.edu):

1. What is the name of the software package and software developer or distributor?

Please list the version you need:

2. On which platform(s) does the software run? Mac, Windows, Unix?

If it runs on multiple platforms, which do you prefer? Mac, Windows, Unix?

3. What is the approximate cost per copy or for a site license, including manuals, and yearly renewal fees (if renewal is required)?

4. Would additional hardware be required on our lab machines in order to run the software?

I Don't Know No Yes - Explain:

5. Please explain the importance of this particular software to the course.

How widely is this software used at other educational institutions or in business and industry?

6. Is there software currently available in the labs or on bulldog which could also meet the need?

No Yes - If so, what are your reasons for choosing the requested package?

7. ITSS staff and consultants might have very limited ability to provide consulting support for the software. Would you or someone in your department be able to provide your students with support? No Yes

8. Please supply the following information for each class that would be using the software throughout the academic year. It is assumed that each of the listed courses will require the Full Lab Access fee.

Course 1 Offered: Fall Spring Pre Summer Summer
students would use the software hours per week, for weeks during each semester.
Comments:

Course 2 Offered: Fall Spring Pre Summer Summer
students would use the software hours per week, for weeks during each semester.
Comments:

Course 3 Offered: Fall Spring Pre Summer Summer
students would use the software hours per week, for weeks during each semester.
Comments:

We will probably have other questions about compatibility and licensing which must be determined before we can make a final decision about whether we can purchase the software. In most cases we can obtain this information from the vendor if you do not already know the answers.