When I return to work, it may be to a shitstorm

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Amblyopic

Dig it.

So the hardware is the staff's personal property or you provide guidance to the departments on what they should buy, then they use their funding to buy what they want?

We don't actually work on 'personal' systems, which is where things become somewhat complicated. We had far too many issues, in the past, in which clients would try to get free service, for their home computers, by bringing them into the office. The equipment must have been purchased with university funds. We identify such equipment either by an asset tag, that we apply when the product is originally received, or the client must show us the original purchase order, at which time we will generally apply an asset tag to it (if supported equipment).

Occasionally faculty will obtain equipment through a specific research grant, or similar external funding, which is a bit of a grey area. We err on the side of the client, in such cases.

The funding for purchase doesn't come through my department. It's provided by the individual faculties and departments. With that funding they can purchase whatever they want, as it's beyond our control, but that doesn't mean we have to service whatever they buy. It would be a logistical impossibility for us to know everything about everything. We provide a recommended equipment list, and will provide individual guidance to clients when customization is required.

Our support policy is "soft on software, hard on hardware" for this reason.