Technology Purchasing Guide

Summary

Technology purchasing is managed through the Service Desk to acquire hardware, software, and online subscriptions. This includes:

Items a school or department can acquire without TIS involvement/approval.
Items which require TIS approval to ensure it is compatible with the SKSD technical environment, and doesn’t pose a threat to our people, infrastructure, or data.
Items that must be acquired by TIS due to contractual agreements, special technical requirements, contracts, or other requirements.

Access to technology purchasing items is restricted to Individuals that facilitate purchases, usually an Office Manager, Administrative Secretary, or someone assigned a ProCard in a school or department. If you need access to technology purchasing request it through Technology Purchase Resource Access Request.

How to Access Technology Purchasing Items

Open the Service Desk and sign in.
Select Access Additional Services
Select the Technology Purchasing menu item on the left
Note: This is only an option to those granted access (see above Summary section)
Select items on the right side of the screen. They are divided into 3 basic types:
- Items schools and departments can acquire without the involvement of Technology and Information Services. These items have a green border around the image. TIS automatically approves of these items. The details of the item will indicate how to acquire the item. These will be highlighted in green.
- Items that Technology and Information Services must facilitate the acquisition. These items have a red border around the image. These are items that may have special technical requirements, contractual agreements, complexity/security considerations or other technical integrations. The details of the item will indicate how to acquire the item and will be highlighted in yellow.
- Items that must be reviewed by Technology and Information Services to determine method of acquisition (New Item). These are items not listed in the catalog. As TIS reviews items they will be added to the catalog for future acquisitions.
If more information is needed about an item, select the name of the item and an informational box will provide more details.
- The Item Detail window provides more details and information about the product, purpose, limitations, requirements, and purchasing details.
Select the item for purchase and submit the requested information.

Request an item not found in the catalog

Upon completion of the search, if the appropriate item is not located.
Select New Item.
Enter the Item Name, a web link for suggested purchase, and Description of Item.
Select the most appropriate Type of item.
If Subscription is selected, tick Is this a renewal? as appropriate.

Software Purchase

All software staff wish to use in the district must be evaluated before acquiring and using the software. To comply with FERPA & COPPA law, many resources will require a data privacy agreement (DPA) before being accessed by students or entering student data into the resource.

Note: The evaluation team will require and pursue a signed data privacy agreement (DPA) with the vendor for ANY software that:
- Offers individual student login (including Google sign-in) even if the resource can be used without signing in.
- Needs access to student data. This applies to many browser extensions and Google Suite add-ons as well as requests for data loads. Examples: Grammarly or Naviance.

Definition of Software: A digital tool installed, accessed, or acquired for use by district staff or students. Software includes, but is not limited to, computer software, online platforms, subscriptions, trials, freeware, web extensions, plugins, mobile applications, Chromebook applications, drivers, installable fonts and more.

Review the Authorized Software list to check if the software has been evaluated previously.
- If the software has not been evaluated, continue to step 2.
- If the software has been evaluated and authorized for use, skip to step 4.
Consider the following:
- Is there a software already authorized for use in the district that meets this need?
- Is a Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) required?
Fill out a Software Authorization Request. Software evaluations may take up to 30 days to complete. Complex software may take longer.
- Note: The Software Authorization Request initiates the TIS evaluation from a technical perspective. This does not authorize a purchase. You may still require approval from Curricular, Fiscal, or Business Operations (school or department) to finalize the acquisition—please consult your administrator for guidance on purchasing.
If the Software has been authorized for use in the district, please follow district guidelines to acquire software.

Additional Help

If you've completed the above steps and still need assistance, please let us know by submitting a ticket.