Spotlighting Recent Successes: Purchasing Software
Software is necessary to be able to do our jobs, but purchasing software and software licenses on behalf of Iowa State University or for Iowa State University-owned technology has become increasingly tricky!
The software you are looking to purchase often needs:
- Data
- Which needs to be checked by an IT professional to ensure compliance with the Iowa State University Data Classification Standards and Guidance Policy.
- Approval of terms and conditions - Terms of Service, End User License Agreements, etc.
- Which need to be checked by someone who is familiar with these legally binding documents to ensure that Iowa State University can agree to the terms outlined. Sometimes, these terms, conditions, and agreements include things that you and Iowa State University do not want to agree to and things that we cannot agree to.
Both Procurement Services and ITS want you to be successful in navigating all of this, so we have worked together to create a better process for Iowa State Employees, particularly those with P-Cards, to:
- Verify that Iowa State University doesn’t already have a site license or contract in place before making a purchase.
- Please email itslicense@iastate.edu to ensure that we don't already have an existing license or a contract in place that you can take advantage of.
- Assure that IT Approval is received before any new software is purchased.
- Before purchasing any new software, a Request for Software Review must be completed, and the approval from IT must be provided as documentation for the purchase.
What do I need to do before purchasing software?
A step-by-step walkthrough of the process by answering yes/no questions is available on the How Do I Buy … Software & Software Licenses webpage!
As you answer the yes/no questions, additional instruction on how to proceed through each step will be provided.