IT Asset Maintenance and Disposal Policy
Maintenance
The IT Help Desk will act as the central point of contact for maintenance calls to all suppliers.
Suppliers will be required to acknowledge receipt of service calls with both the IT Help Desk and the originating user. Suppliers must notify the IT Help Desk when a service request has been completed.
Designated suppliers will respond to warranty claims within the times specified in the current PC RFT document that forms part of the supply contract.
Supplier Confidentiality and privacy
Confidentiality and privacy by the supplier will be maintained according to the requirements of the PC RFT and the Master Supply Agreement. The Master Supply Agreement states:
- D. PUBLIC STATEMENTS AND CONFIDENTIALITY
- D.1 Public statements: A party may not make any public statement about this Master Agreement, any Supply Contract or any other arrangements or potential arrangements between the parties unless it has first obtained written consent from the other party.
- D.2 Confidentiality: Each party ('Recipient') must:
- a) subject to clause D.4, keep confidential all information of the other party ('Discloser') of which it becomes aware under or in relation to this Master Agreement;
- b) treat that information with at least the same degree of care as it treats its own confidential information; and
- c) comply with any reasonable directions of the Discloser in respect of that information, including any specific requests made by the Discloser as to whether the Recipient may use and/or disclose that information.
- D.3 Scope: Clause D.2 applies to information of a Discloser that the Recipient is aware or ought reasonably to have been aware is regarded by the Discloser as confidential.
- D.4 Legal obligations: Clause D.2 does not apply to the extent that:
- (a) a Recipient is required by law to disclose the Discloser's information;
- (b) the Discloser's information is public knowledge (and has not become public knowledge as a result of Recipient's breach of confidentiality); or
- (c) the Discloser's information was independently created by the Recipient (and the Recipient has evidence in writing that the information falls within this exception).
- D.5 Agreement: If requested by UniSA, the Supplier must execute a confidentiality agreement in a form reasonably required by UniSA to protect the confidentiality of UniSA's and the Supplier's confidential information.
Disposal
Information technology hardware acquired for University purposes is the
responsibility of the cost centre acquiring or assuming responsibility for it.
The responsible cost centre may dispose of any information technology hardware
that is no longer required provided that procedures as detailed in this document
have been followed. These procedures are designed to achieve maximum net return.
The cost centre may retain any benefits derived from the disposal.
Disposal of information technology hardware
The following procedures expand on those detailed in the Finance Unit Fixed
Asset Procedures which can be found at:
https://my.unisa.edu.au/extranet/fin/policies/fixedassets.pdf
Procedures for recycling working IT equipment and non-serviceable equipment can
be found on the Recycle IT Hardware web page:
https://www-p.unisa.edu.au/general/ists/Purchasing/Hardware/Disposal/recycle.asp
Cost centre managers are responsible for ensuring disposal processes are well documented and obtain the maximum net return for the University.
Acceptable methods for the disposal of IT equipment are as follows:
- Used as a trade-in against cost or negotiated discount rate of replacement or associated item. This option is only available for some manufacturers, e.g. SUN.
- Sold by auction or by a third party.
- Sold to a staff member or student of the University.
- Discarded per socially acceptable environmental guidelines.
With a private sale, whether to a staff member or student of the University or to some other person, a person independent of the transaction should be involved and should approve the sale in writing.
The value of popular desktop hardware may be gauged by perusing advertisements for second-hand computing equipment in the daily newspaper.
Alternatively, the following table provides general guidance.
| Reasonable current value | |
| Hardware one year old | 65% of purchase price |
| Hardware two years old | 45% of purchase price |
| Hardware three years old | 20% of purchase price |
| Hardware four years old | 5% of purchase price |
Where there is no apparent market for an item it may be junked.
Preparing hardware for disposal
All software and University data MUST be removed from an item of hardware prior to disposal. Failure to observe this may result in the cost centre manager being liable for any breaches of copyright or software licensing agreements.
Staff are cautioned that information "deleted" from a hard disk may be recovered by some software applications. If sensitive data exists on a disk, disks should be "ERASED" or "OVERWRITTEN" several times to ensure that data is destroyed.
If disposing of multifunction devices they should be checked for any internal disks. If there is an internal disk it should be removed or overwritten before disposal.
The cost centre manager is responsible for:
- advising the ISTS (Attention: Purchasing Officer) of the item disposed of,
- the removal and return of the ownership Blue Plate to the Purchasing Officer, ISTS,
- advising the Finance Unit Asset Clerk of the disposal if the original purchase price of the item was $10,000 or greater,
- ensuring that University and cost centre records of the item are deleted promptly after disposal,
- ensuring equipment is sanitised before disposal,
- entering into an agreement with the disposer by which disposer will return any equipment that is found not to have been sanitised upon receipt.
Secure destruction
Where it is not possible or practical to overwrite data on media due to:
- It being faulty
- The hardware required to write to the media is no longer available
...secure destruction of the media can be undertaken.
An external entity may be contracted to provide this service. You should ensure that any service that you contract for this purpose can provide secure transport and storage of the devices and certify that each article has been disposed of securely.