Software Support Services

Software Acquisition

Software licenses for the general business of the Mona Campus – management and administration, teaching, learning - must be purchased through MITS and the deployment be managed by MITS. Software for projects and research, and for one-off department requirements may be acquired and managed by the respective Departments.

Software used generally by the campus, software for administration and management of the Campus’ business affairs, software integrated into the teaching curriculum will be funded centrally through MITS.

Criteria for Selecting Software for Central Funding:

• There is widespread demand for the software for administration or teaching or research
• It is integral to the Departments’ teaching programme
• It is, for the Campus, a strategic tool
• It is being examined by the Campus for its worth as a strategic tool

The following must apply:

• Adequate support is available or can be arranged
• MITS is able to provide or arrange courses as appropriate; documentation is available

MITS will also fund:

It is recognised that academic departments will have software needs which fall outside the criteria for central funding. Depending on ability, MITS will reserve a specific sum of money to assist this requirement of the faculties, to be called upon by each faculty in its own discretion and with the approval of the Dean or faculty committee having this responsibility assignment. The actual purchase will be managed by MITS.

Management and Administration

For the software receiving central (MITS) funding, users need only buy the media and documentation if extra copies are required. (List is available from MITS and on the MITS website).
Note that software, whether centrally funded or not, is not available to everyone with a wish to have it. A needs basis must be established (see below for guidelines).
Licenses:
MITS determines whether to purchase full site license or volume license. This decision is largely cost driven. We weigh the cost of the site license against the volume license. It is therefore important that the departments respond to our request for their need in terms of number of licenses. To determine the number of licenses required, it is the lesser of:
a) number of users of the software
b) number of machines on which it will be installed
For instance should there be the cases where 100 students are taking a course for which the software is a requirement but the lab to be used has only 40 PCs, then the number of licenses required is 40.