PPD Laptop Purchasing Policy

The purchase of personal laptop computers for PPD staff is now funded by one central budget, rather than via the Group operating budgets. This is all managed by PPD computing group and to be as efficient as possible we intend to do one purchase exercise per financial year for the bulk replacement of old laptops. In January each year we will collect bids for replacements in this financial year (before 31st March) and at the same time collect bids for replacements during the next year to aid financial planning.

The policy on PPD laptop purchasing is as follows:

1. The PPD laptop budget covers the cost of new and replacement laptops for PPD staff members who require a personal laptop for work away from their RAL office. This money is not currently aimed at the purchase of (smart)phones or other devices running "phone" operating systems (e.g. Android or iOS).
2. Arrangements for the purchase of laptops for people with joint appointments or for students, consultants, retirees, visitors, general experiment, group or lab-based systems etc., all have to be dealt with on a case by case basis, via group leaders, division heads, PPD Director etc. This central budget is in general not aimed at funding such uses.
3. The current STFC policy is that laptops should only be replaced every 4 to 5 years. Wherever possible and cost effective we will purchase new laptops with warranty cover for 5 years. We will only fund a replacement of a specific device once the warranty has either expired or is close to expiry or where the warranty cover is for a shorter time than 5 years and it is not cost effective to fix a hardware problem. If an individual needs an upgrade or change of device from one type to another for valid work-related reasons before the due replacement date of his/her current device it may be necessary to achieve this by re-assigning an existing device to/from someone else. This means that new or replacement systems will not always be a brand new device.
4. For each annual purchasing exercise we will define a list of supported configurations, including both Windows laptops and MacBooks, heavy and lightweight configurations etc. We will include a standard set of software/ applications, e.g. Microsoft Office. Details are available here.
5. The systems and their operation must meet all the requirements of STFC and PPD security, data protection and system management policies/procedures. This includes, for example, the requirement for full disk encrytion, the need for Windows laptops to be members of the PPD Windows Domain, the requirement for keeping all systems fully patched and up to date, etc.
6. Individuals can chose whether or not they wish to have a laptop in addition to their desktop office PC or as a replacement for that PC. To meet the requirements of Display Screen Equipment SHE policy, a laptop used as the main office computer systems must be used with a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse. PPD Computing Group will fund the costs of this additional equipment if the laptop is also their main desktop system.
7. The PPD laptop funds will also need to meet any additional costs of maintenance and repair outside of the cover of any warranty, e.g. replacement of batteries or repairs after the warranty has expired. Please inform the PPD IT Helpdesk when you experience hardware failures or problems.
8. PPD Computing Group will perform the initial operating system and standard software applications installation and configuration. Ongoing support and operations will continue to be the same as support for laptops in the past, e.g. no central backups of the laptop disks will be made, solution to software configuration problems may need to be solved via re-installation, etc.
9. All requests for new laptops or replacements must be approved by the person's group leader, who thereby confirms the valid work-related requirement for the use of a laptop computer by that individual.
10. Any requests for non-standard configurations must be negotiated in the first instance with Computing Group. If this requires additional costs, then the funding for this may have to be from other sources.

-- ChrisBrew - 2014-01-24