Software Purchases

It is our policy that IT software and equipment purchases route through LS IT. But there are good reasons that are in your self interest, as well!

• We often have contracts or other arrangements in place to receive volume discounts for software. These things happen at a lot of different levels (UCOP, UC Davis, Divisional, etc.) so there is no single consolidated listing, so submitting through us is the best way to ensure that you get any volume discounts.
• Many software manufacturers offer educational discounts. In many cases, you have to go through special academic vendors to receive those discounts. Again, we have a lot of experience with this.
• When we purchase software, we archive installation media and licensing details. If your hard disk fails, are you going to have that information handy when you want to reinstall? If you want to upgrade later, are you going to have the needed information? By routing software purchases through us, you insure against losing the media and license information.
• By tracking what software our faculty use, we're able to negotiate new discounts on popular packages. We aren't able to track purchases that don't go through us. In many cases, volume discounts start at very small volumes—even 3-5 copies—so allowing us to aggregate purchases is a great way to save money.
• We often have lower-cost and/or better performing alternatives. We see a lot of software, and we receive a lot of feedback on that software from our customers, so we may be able to provide you with recommendations or advice.
• It's likely that LS IT will be asked to support this software going forward. As noted above, we have a lot of experience with various software packages and operating systems, so we may be able to alert you to known incompatibilities, security issues, and problems that our other customers have experienced.