Guidance Document: VPCIO Equipment Management Lifecycle and Disposition Procedure

Category: Information Technology

Responsible Office: Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Responsible Executive: J. Brice Bible

Date Established: May 2, 2019

Date Updated: May 10, 2022

This guidance document formalizes the VPCIO Equipment Management Lifecycle and Disposition procedure.

This guidance document formalizes the VPCIO Equipment Management Lifecycle and Disposition procedures. The lifecycle and disposition procedures ensure that equipment is accounted for and tracked while in the VPCIO area’s possession.

In accordance with New York State, once state entity equipment is entered into an inventory tracking system, the equipment cannot be deleted from the system. Rather, the equipment’s status is updated throughout its lifecycle in the inventory tracking system. As such, the system must have a status option covering every possible scenario of what might happen to equipment. The following operational statuses are available in the inventory tracking system: installed, provisioned, in storage, defective/returned, scrapped/surplus, missing, or transfer.

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1. Order equipment following the university-defined purchase order process.
2. When equipment is received, verify that the packing slip, order, and material are acceptable and move to next step. Or, when equipment is received, determine that the packing slip, order, and material are not acceptable. Contact UB CIO-AO office to resolve.
3. If the equipment has a value greater than $5,000, complete the New Asset Form (NAF) and submit to the department of Asset Management within 30 days of receipt of the asset. More information is available here: Asset Management Guidelines at UB.
4. Determine that equipment is required to be entered into the tracking system and move to the next step. Or, determine that equipment does not need to be entered into the tracking system. If equipment does not need to be entered into the tracking system, deploy equipment until the end of its useful life and then follow the VPCIO Equipment Inventory Disposition procedure (see below).
5. Enter equipment into appropriate tracking system. Deploy equipment and update the system with equipment’s location. Relocation of a Capital Asset (equipment with a value greater than $5,000) requires submission of the Inventory Data Change Form to the department of Asset Management immediately. Complete and submit the form the same day the asset with relocated.
6. Track equipment consumption versus inventory. If there is a discrepancy between consumption and inventory, investigate root cause of discrepancy.
7. VPCIO units need to verify Capital Inventory Assets biannually. The expectation is to physically go to the identified location and verify the asset is physically at the documented location. More information is available here: Annual Inventory Review. The review process will be the responsibility of the Inventory Coordinators for each VPCIO unit.
8. Use equipment until the end of its useful life, then follow the VPCIO Equipment Inventory Disposition procedure (see below).

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1. Update the inventory tracking system by logging the equipment as scrapped.
2. Identify the equipment delivered to the designated scrap location.
   1. If the equipment is not a capital asset, then complete all applicable fields in the Disposal of Equipment Form. The form is available online and at scrap locations.  Department signatures for this process are not necessary. Attach the form to the equipment.
   2. If the equipment is a capital asset, the disposition form is drawn up separately by the Inventory Coordinator and requires the applicable department director’s signature prior to form submission to the Asset Management/Financial Management department.
3. Inventory Coordinator verifies the quantity on the Disposal of Equipment Form matches the physical count of the equipment.
   1. Any discrepancy between the physical count of the equipment and the Disposal of Equipment Form’s equipment count must be investigated by the Inventory Coordinator and the employee who submitted the form.
4. Hold scrap in secure area until it is picked up.
5. Upon disposal of the inventory, the Disposal of Equipment Form is retained by the respective Inventory Coordinator for a period of one year in order to satisfy internal record keeping procedures.

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State entity equipment that is unaccounted for poses a financial and operational risk to the University. To mitigate this risk, the VPCIO area formalizes a standard process to account for equipment throughout its life cycle, including the disposition of equipment once it is scrapped.

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The VPCIO Equipment Lifecycle and Disposition procedures apply to the following equipment:

The VPCIO area reviews and updates applicable items annually, or as needed.

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Installed: Equipment in production, online, providing service, or can be monitored (via spectrum, etc.).

Provisioned: Equipment in the process of being configured and prepped; will be placed in production very soon.

In Storage: Equipment is awaiting deployment, or has been retired to storage.

Defective/Returned: Equipment failed in the field and is in the RMA process (when applicable).

Scrapped/Surplus: Equipment has been processed out of VPCIO inventory.

Missing: Equipment is missing.

Transfer: Equipment has reached the end of use for VPCIO, but may be of value to another state entity.

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VPCIO employees

• Follow the procedure as indicated.

Inventory Coordinator

• Retain Disposal of Equipment form for one year after equipment disposal.

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Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer
517 Capen Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: 716-645-7979
Email: vpcio@buffalo.edu
Website: http://www.buffalo.edu/ubit.html

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University Documents
UBIT Inventory Management Process-Unit Details (Internal CIO-AO document)

Forms
Disposal of Equipment Form

Inventory Data Change Form

Related Links
Asset Management

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