Software Procurement

The Technology Department is responsible for deploying and maintaining all software installed on district computers. The district has a large computer network with a significant amount of software. Getting all of this software working correctly is not trivial. Every software product has different requirements, and many times these requirements conflict with another software product. Every new piece of software added to this mix increases the difficulty of maintaining the other sofware. So, if new software is to be sucessfully installed and supported on the network, a number of steps must be followed:

  1. All requests for software must come through the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, or Curriculum Department. Requests for software should use this form.
  2. When the Technology Department gets a request, it will first determine if the request is valid. It will then determine how long it will take to setup a test environment for the software, along with how much that will cost. If there is a cost involved, the Technology Department will determine if that cost can be paid from the Technology Department budget. This information will then be given to the requestor, who will then need to produce a cost center to cover the costs of the test environment if there is any.
  3. The Technology Department will then setup a test environment and make it available to whomever needs it to determine whether or not the software and its configuration will meet their needs.
  4. When the test environment is deemed to be acceptable by all parties, the Technology Department will then determine both the total cost related to the acquisition and maintenance of the software and the estimated time it would take to deploy the software and give that to the requestor.
  5. The requestor is then responsible for giving the Technology Department a cost center to use in the purchasing of all needed components related to the software. Once that is furnished the Technology Department will start the process of acquiring and deploying the software.