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Proposal Guidelines

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This section is intended to assist in writing a proposal to purchase administrative software. Proposals for software must be presented to the Administrative Systems Coordinating Committee (ASCC) in writing and address the following questions. IT is available to help answer these questions.

Jun 6, 2014
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  1. Business Justification

    1. What are the business needs for the software?

      • Provide a description of the business problem that this software will solve.
      • Provide a description of the software including its functions and features.
      • Provide a statement as to who would be using the software.
    2. What are the business benefits of this software?
      • What are the service benefits to the customer?
      • What are the benefits to the department(s) (Staffing, efficiencies, etc.)?
      • Estimate the amounts of any savings or revenue.
      • Can the software be used across the university?
    3. What are the alternatives to purchasing this software?
      • Are there other vendors? Have they been evaluated?
      • Can an in-house solution be developed by IT?
      • Are there business process or “manual” alternatives?
  2. Software Selection and evaluation
    1. What vendors have offerings that fit our needs?
      • Use internet searches.
      • Contact other schools.
      • Attend conferences.
      • IT uses research companies like Gartner and InfoTech. We can assist by contacting their consultants.
    2. Which is the best vendor?
      • What criteria led you to select this particular vendor?
      • Which vendor's software best fits our business processes and needs? Why?
      • What are the vendors' bona fides (longevity, staffing, customer base, financial stability, etc.)?
    3. What is the total cost of the software (Total Cost of Ownership)?
      • What are the licensing fees, including database systems and/or other supporting software needs?
      • What are the vendor implementation costs?
      • What are the training costs?
      • What are the consulting costs?
      • What are the hardware costs (or costs for hosting the software)?
      • What are the ongoing maintenance costs?
      • What additional staffing needs are there, if any?
      • Will any costs be accrued by other departments?
      • Is there a ROI (Return on Investment) period where the software will pay for itself? If so, what is that time frame?
      • Who will pay for the software and ongoing costs? 
    4. What is the impact on IT infrastructure?
      • What hardware is required?
      • What network connectivity is required?
      • What security issues exist (is there confidential information involved)?
      • Will this require client software be installed on PCs?
    5. What integration is needed with current systems?
      • Will data from PeopleSoft be needed to populate a database?
      • Will data from this software need to be available to (interface with) PeopleSoft or other applications? For instance, revenue posted to the Financial System?
      • Will access via the portal (eCampus) be needed? This might include a link to or “pass-through” authentication to the software from eCampus.
      • Will data need to be converted from an existing system?
  3. Contract Negotiation and approval
    The university General Council and Risk Manager must be involved in the negotiation and approval of all software contracts.
  1. Proposals must first be approved at the Assistant or Associate VP level.
  2. Proposals must go to the IT Director. IT will assist in answering the above questions. Note: it is critical that IT be given no less than three months notice to schedule resources to assist with these projects.
  3. Proposals must go to the Budgeting Office for financial evaluation.
  4. Proposals must go to the Administrative Systems Coordinating Committee (ASCC) with financial and technical assessments by the Budgeting Office and IT.  Student related proposals must be reviewed by the Student Information Technology (SIT) team. They will make recommendations to ASCC.
  5. Contracts must be approved per guidelines by General Council and the Risk Manager.
  6. ASCC makes a recommendation to the President's staff.
  7. ASCC will prioritize the implementation (assuming IT is involved) with other IT work.
  8. IT will work with the requestor to develop a time line and resources for the project.