Computer Inventory: Planning Guidelines for Departments

The inventory spreadsheet shared with you in OneDrive is our inventory of the workstations for your department.  Please review the spreadsheet for accuracy and make any changes as needed.  The spreadsheet is also used to determine which computers will be ordered.  Please mark the changes in red so I can carry the changes over to our inventory database. 

Please note for this year: All 2020 and older laptops will begin to be pulled due to them no longer being supported, and all 2020 and older iPads will be pulled due to the fact that Apple no longer supports these iPads.

Due to this, please try to gather these laptops and iPads before Summer Rollout begins. They can be turned in at any point before Summer Rollout.

We have distributed the centrally funded workstations into a four-year rotation. All department-funded computers were set to a 4-year replacement in 2016, and we continued to be on a 4-year replacement cycle. Feel free to change replacement years for department purchases to even out your costs from year to year, but with a maximum age of 6 years old. Central computers cannot be moved between years, we are currently trying to redistribute the replacements over 4 years due to the inequity in computers ordered in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. If you would like to move a central replacement up to the current year, please contact Zachary Gloshen. 

The spreadsheet shows which computers will be replaced in which year and the cost (if any) to your department.  The spreadsheet uses the following values for the replacement fiscal year:

The spreadsheet also contains a column for the funding source for the workstation.  The following values can appear for this column:

The Dept funding category will have identifiers after the word "DEPT -"; this is only an inventory practice to identify certain devices.

Please verify the following information for our records:

1. Are all computers in your area included on the list?  If not, please add them to the spreadsheet.

2. Is the name, room, and classification for each person correct?

3. Is the GB/SHB/MNT/MAN number correct for each computer in your area? The machine ID will look like “GBxxxxxx” where “xxxxxx” is a six-digit or seven-digit number or the branch campuses will have "MNTxxxxxxx/MANxxxxxxx/SHBxxxxxxx". This number should be on a large label with large black letters attached to the front of the workstation. Please do not use the monitor number which starts with an M.

4. Is the D# correct for each docking station in your area?

5. There should be a 1 in the column of the desired replacement.  If you want to switch from a desktop to a laptop or vice versa, simply delete the 1 in the desktop column and put a 1 in the laptop column.  The price should update automatically.   

    

This year, we will be going with Dell and Apple computer hardware. 

Although we try to accommodate requests for computers at any time during the year, this is the best opportunity to make changes.  We get discounted prices for doing bulk orders with Dell and Apple, and we want to try to maximize that discount. 

iPads are included in the inventory for your information only.  We do not get a bulk discount, so they can be replaced at any time of the year.  The iPads are all paid for by the department, and there is no replacement cycle planned. iPads that are 2020 and older cannot be managed so they will be pulled this year.  All computer purchases, including tablets, must go through GBIT.  All devices not ordered through IT will need to be returned to wherever it was purchased from.

We strongly encourage the switch to a laptop instead of having a desktop and a laptop assigned to one employee. We also encourage a single computer being assigned to each user, 2nd computers have a Full Subscription on them.

After we get computer ordering numbers back from every department, we request quotes from Dell and Apple to get the final prices.  As soon as our order is finalized, I will update the pricing on each department's inventory spreadsheet and start the chargeback process. 

Computer model specs can be found here.  

We are only offering one Dell laptop model. The screen has a higher resolution than those of laptops in the past. The new laptop does not have a touch-screen.  If you’re interested in a touch-screen laptop or tablet, or a more portable device, please contact Zachary Gloshen.  We do not get volume discounts for the tablets, so we can order them at any time. 

The laptops do not come with a docking station. A docking station allows for any peripherals (such as a monitor, printer, external keyboard, external mouse, and network connection) to be plugged into it.  The docking station is then connected into the side of the laptop. With the docking station in place, when the laptop is disconnected, no cables need to be unplugged except the one cable connecting the laptop and the dock. If you have a new Dell monitor, this can substitute a docking station, as it has all the features of a dock now. We will be moving to the monitor setups instead of actual docking stations for the future. If you have any questions, please contact Zachary Gloshen.

We will not have enough recycled PCs to replace all recycled PCs, so some may stay in place for an additional year.  If they are GB2171### or newer, you should not expect them to be replaced this year.  Since we are running low on recycled PCs, we will be checking each one to verify it is being used during the year before replacing it.  If we are seeing 20 or fewer logins for an entire year, we will likely remove the computer.

If you have any special workstation needs, please identify this in the Notes column of the spreadsheet, or talk to me. 

As you make changes, the spreadsheet will recalculate the replacement costs for your area.  Each department will need to open the spreadsheet in OneDrive, review it, and make the necessary changes.  Please email me when you have finalized your spreadsheet in OneDrive. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us! 

Thanks,

Zachary Gloshen