The IT Purchase Request form that all faculty and staff must submit before making a technology-related purchase was updated Thursday (Sept. 11) to automate approval of certain low-risk purchases by collecting better information.
This change will speed up the fulfilment of customer requests for routine purchases that don’t require additional reviews.
Requests submitted before Sept. 4 will follow the old workflow until they are resolved; however, bookmarks to the old form won’t work.
The new form also now requires vendor affirmation that mobile apps and web-based software meet federal accessibility requirements. This affirmation is called a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), and requests that don’t include the attachment cannot be submitted. All web-based content that students, employees or the public are required to access to use WVU services must be compliant with University, state and federal guidelines.
Check the vendor’s website to find a VPAT, or contact the sales or accessibility support team for assistance. If a VPAT is available online, download the web content into a PDF and attach that to your request. Some vendors may also refer to this as an Accessibility Compliance Report (ACR).
Please note a VPAT is not required for desktop software, meaning a program that an individual employee runs on their computer for their own work-related use.
The time required to complete an IT Purchase review varies significantly and depends on the details of the request, the time it takes for vendors to respond to ITS and Procurement inquiries, the volume of requests for the units reviewing, resource constraints and other factors.
Requests will require additional reviews in a variety of circumstances, including:
If the purchase exceeds $5,000. Procurement Contracting and Payment Services will contact you to advise if additional forms or a legal review is required.
If the purchase requires new budget allocations.
If integrations are requested with existing WVU systems and services — ITS and the Chief Information Officer will assess these case by case.
If the product will collect or store Sensitive Data.
If consultants will gain access to University data.
If the request would create new support expectations for ITS.
IT approval is not required for purchases from the Dell contract on Mountaineer Marketplace that are identified as WVU Recommended, or to purchase software available through the Software Licensing Information Center.
Please direct any questions to ITSHelp@mail.wvu.edu.