General process for procurement
1. Start a request
The purchase process can be started by sending a ticket to Request Hardware, emailing civrt@uwaterloo.ca, or speaking with Etta in E2-2341.
2. Determine specs and budget (ETA for IT to respond is within 1 business day)
Specs and budget should depend on what the PC or laptop will be used for. Specs higher depend on the software that needs to be used and that will dictate the cost needed.
3. Vendor and quotes (ETA for IT to respond is within 2 business days, unless it is a CFI quote)
Once specs are agreed upon, the process to look at vendors and quotes begins. CEE policy is to try and get the best price per spec possible. This means that the agreed upon specs may change or the budget might become higher to secure the better specs' deal. However, CEE will still consult with the WO# owner before making any purchases.
For CFI WO#
Please note that CFI has much stricter requirements and require in-kind contributions from the vendor to count. This means that many vendors who do not provide in-kind contributions cannot be used limiting the overall options.
Processing time
The time needed to quote also depends on how many official quotes are needed. You can view the purchasing requirements here: Making a purchase | Procurement & Contract Services | University of Waterloo
4. Approval for purchase (ETA dependent on the approving person)
Once the quote comes in, IT will need explicit written approval to proceed with the purchase. At this point, we will also ask you for a WO#.
5. WatProcure and approval chain (ETA dependent on the approving person(s))
The University uses WatProcure for purchasing. Once IT has the approval, the necessary information will be entered into WatProcure for purchase. At this time, the WO# owner will get a nofitificaion for financial approval.
For CFI WO#
Please note that CFI WO# need to go through extra approvals from the Office of Research. This can lead to delays due to rejected quotes.
6. Purchase is made, waiting for delivery (ETA 5 days to deliver)
If the purchase is successfully approved, then the purchase request will have been sent to the vendor. In our experience, vendors are fairly good at giving us ETAs and have generally been able to ship us the item in 5 business days. Below is the further breakdown of ETA based on what is ordered:
| Item | ETA |
|---|---|
| In-stock item | Within 5 business days |
| Small items from Amazon | Within 3 business days |
| Back ordered | Vendors will either give an ETA on when it will be available again or give us the option to switch the order. If that happens, IT will consult you relaying the decision. |
| No longer available | |
| Custom orders | Custom orders take the longest amount of time and do not have accurate ETAs. |
7. IT Setup and software install (ETA 7 business days)
Once IT recieves the device, we will update and install software for the machine. This process can be sped up if a full list of needed software is provided beforehand.
| Default installed software |
|---|
| MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) |
| MS Teams |
| OneDrive |
| Cisco AnyConnect VPN |
| 7-Zip |
| Qualys |
| Sentinel One Agent |
| Google Chrome |
| Adobe Reader (for faculty only) |
| Foxit PDF Reader (for graduate students only) |