Prior to purchase a needs assessment is performed within the department to determine the base line requirements for the system. Because of the diversity of the University academic and administrative environment and the availability of a technology support staff to support a large number of configurations, systems are built up from standard models to meet the needs of the campus technology user. In general this assessment is performed within the department making the acquisition.
Power users tend to be more active in the assessment phase than the general campus technology users.
IT staff are available to provide support in doing a needs assessment at the request of the department. Assessment Review IT offers a centralized requisition process to assist departments in the preparation of equipment orders. During this process, IT takes the time to review the configurations to insure that they meet the needs of the campus technology user and the equipment is compatible with the university technology infrastructure. Requisitions are produced and returned to the department head. The department head has final approval over the process and if they concur, will forward all the paperwork to the university's purchasing office for acquisition.