MIT: Guide to Purchasing Computer Equipment

Guide to Purchasing Computer Equipment at MIT

February 2004

Introduction

If You Are Unsure of What to Buy

Get to the GovConnection Catalog

Find What You Want

Create the Order in GovConnection

Complete the Order in SAPweb

Track Your Order

Get Help

G/L Accounts, Material Groups, Policies and Procedures

MIT Receiving Rooms and Ship-To Addresses

Introduction

Computer purchasing at MIT may seem like a daunting task. This guide is intended to help you through the process. Here you will find information on:

Where to get help on what to purchase
Placing orders
Policies related to Institute purchases

MIT has selected GovConnection as an ECAT partner to MIT for purchases of computer hardware, software, and accessories. GovConnection offers an extensive list of products, including many of MIT's recommended products. Their entire catalog includes over 100,000 items at special pricing that has been negotiated for MIT.

GovConnection maintains an electronic catalog for departmental purchasers that channels orders through MIT's SAP system for authorization and purchase order generation. Personal purchasers are also eligible to place orders at the same pricing, by using a credit card.

Ordering from GovConnection is a three-step process:

Find what you want in the catalog.
Add items to your Shopping Cart.
For Institute purchases, send the order to SAP, through SAPweb, for approval.
For personal purchases, provide personal credit-card and shipping information.

All of the above can be done from your desktop computer.

If You Are Unsure of What to Buy

Your starting point should be the list of MIT's recommended and supported hardware and software. On the Web, start at the Supported Products page.

For further help with your buying decision, the MIT Computer Connection maintains a showroom of MIT's recommended products, with knowledgeable consultants on hand to answer your questions.

MIT Computer Connection (MCC)
Building N42, 211 Massachusetts Avenue
Web: http://web.mit.edu/mcc/www
Phone: (617) 253-7686
E-mail: mcc@mit.edu
Monday: Noon -- 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday -- Friday: 10:00 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m.

Get to the GovConnection Catalog

Before you can access the GovConnection catalog you need the following:

MIT Web certificates on the computer from which you will be ordering (for details, see Certificates at MIT).
Connection to MITnet, either directly on campus, through Tether dialup, or through an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
For Institute purchases, create requisition authorization and an SAP profile are required.

Multiple users of one system: See Sharing a Computer -- Netscape User Profiles.

To connect to GovConnection:

Go to web.mit.edu/ecat/govconnection and click on the GovConnection catalog for departmental purchases link.

Find What You Want in the Catalog

Finding Products: Each page in GovConnection's catalog has a search text box on the left hand side of the page. For best results select "Advanced Search". This will allow you to search on any of the following criteria: Catalog Item Number, Manufacturer Name, Product Name, or Manufacturer Part Number. Enter the search text appropriate for the criterion you have selected.

Advanced search also includes a Feature Search tool which allows you to search product categories for items that include specific features.

Software Academic Pricing: When searching for software, look for the word "academic" or "acad" as part of the company or product name; if listed as such, follow that link to select the product with discounted, academic pricing.

Create the Order in GovConnection

Select items: When you find the product you wish to order, click on the Add to Cart button. This will place your product in your shopping cart. Pushing this button will not show you the contents of your shopping cart.

The Shopping Cart: Your shopping cart is accessible from any page on the GovConnection catalog. To view the contents of your cart, click the view/checkout button in the top left hand corner of any page. From this page you can return to the catalog to add more items by pressing the "continue shopping" button, or you can complete the order.

Changing the Shopping Cart:

On this page you can:

Change the quantity ordered for an item
Remove an item by changing the quantity to zero
Select a shipping method

After making any of these changes, click on "Recalculate" at the bottom of the form. Click "Continue Checkout" to proceed.

Warning: You can make changes to your order only on the Shopping Cart page, not in SAPweb. Make sure the items you select and their quantities are what you intend to order.

Enter Ship to Information: In this section you will be required to enter your ship to information. Some fields, like the name are already filled in. Enter your building and room number, change the street address to the correct address for your building, and type in your telephone number and email address.

Submit the Order: A copy of your order is listed at the bottom of the page. Check that the items and quantities are correct and your preferred shipping method is listed. If everything is correct, click "Continue to Checkout". If you need to make changes, click "Continue Shopping" at the bottom of the page.

At this point you will see a final copy of your order including your shipping information. If the order is correct and complete select " Submit to ECAT".

You will be transferred from GovConnection's catalog to MIT's SAPweb.

Complete the Order in SAPweb

You should know have an SAPweb Requisition form in which most of the information is already filled in from the Shopping Cart, including products, prices, and shipping information.

You must complete the following fields on the SAPweb form:

Cost Object number
G/L Account number
Material Group number
Account distribution, if applicable

For details on the information to provide, see G/L Accounts, Material Groups, Policies and Procedures.

Note: At this stage you cannot delete items from the order, change quantities, or shipping information.

After completing the account information for all items, click Send Requisition to SAP. You will receive an SAP Requisition number and the requisition will be forwarded for approval. After approval, the purchase order is created automatically and GovConnection is notified, electronically, to fulfill the order. You will receive notification of the PO in your SAP workflow inbox.

Track Your Order

To track your order, click on the "Order Tracking" link at the bottom of any page, or click "Your Home Page", located in the upper left hand corner of any page, and click "Current Order Tracking" on the Account Info tab.
On the following page, you will be given the option of tracking your order by phone or by finding your order in the list of MIT departmental orders placed within the last 180 days. There are multiple ways of sorting this list: By Order Date, PO Number, Order #, Status, or Order Total.
Once you have selected an order, a summary of that order will appear, along with a status indicator letting you know whether an order is being processed by Gov Connection or if it has already shipped. If the order has shipped, click on the "Shipped" link to obtain a carrier tracking number. Clicking on the carrier tracking number will redirect you to the carrier's tracking website, where you'll be able to monitor the progress of your shipment.

Get Help

When ordering through GovConnection/SAPweb, you are calling upon computing and administrative resources supported by different organizations inside and outside of MIT. Refer to the following table for where to go for help.

Help Needed	Where to Go
Pre-sales consulting; questions about MIT recommended products; Gov Connection catalog access and use.	MIT Computer Connection (MCC) Building N42, 211 Massachusetts Ave. 3-7686, mcc@mit.edu Monday: noon - 4:30 p.m. Tuesday - Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
MIT-related questions about order status, returns, or other issues.	GovConnection mitsupport@govconnection.com
Hardware installation, maintenance, and repair.	PC Service Student Center, W20-021 3-0815, hardserv@mit.edu Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Questions about using hardware, software, networking, etc.	Computing Help Desk Macintosh: 3-1101 -- mac-help@mit.edu Windows: 3-1102 -- pc-help@mit.edu UNIX/VMS: 3-1103 -- unix-vms-help@mit.edu
Questions about MIT's business applications, including SAPweb, purchasing, etc.	Business Liaison Team 2-1177, business-help@mit.edu

G/L Accounts, Material Groups, Policies and Procedures

The following table summarizes the names and numbers for G/L Accounts (old MIT object codes) and Material Groups.

Item	G/L Acct #	G/L Acct Name	Material Grp #	Material Grp Name
Software	421925	Software	2090	Software Shrinkwrap
Equipment <$500	421900	EDP Expense	1000	Computer Equipment
Equipment $500-$2999	421827	Equipment Minor	1000	Computer Equipment
Equipment >$3000	421818	Equipment -- No Overhead	1000	Computer Equipment
Non-Equipment <$500	420226 (recommended)	Materials and Services	1360	Computer Supplies

For more information on purchasing policies, or on classifications of purchases, see the following:

MIT Procurement Department
Purchasing Guidelines
MIT Property Office
Capitalization Policy
Coding of Equipment Purchases

MIT Receiving Rooms and Ship-To Addresses

Building Number

Ship-To Address

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

11
12
13
14
17
18
20
24
26

31
33
34
35
36
37
38
39

41
42
44
45
50
57

Building 3 Receiving

60 Vassar St.

16
48
54
56
66
68

E15
E17
E18
E19
E23
E25

E40
E51
E52
E53

Building E19 Receiving

400 Main St.

Last modified: March 3, 2002