ICT asset management procedure

Audience

Department-wide

Purpose

This procedure outlines the responsibilities and process for the management of the Department of Education's (the department) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) assets.

Overview

The department manages ICT assets to support effective and efficient frontline and corporate services. ICT assets include ICT hardware, software, systems and services that may be managed at an enterprise or local level. ICT asset management includes identification, acquisition, utilisation, disposal, recording and writing-off the department's ICT assets. This procedure aligns with the requirements for ICT asset management as defined in the Financial and Performance Management Standard 2019 (Qld) (FPMS).

This procedure will assist ICT asset owners and other responsible officers to:

• identify and document ICT assets throughout the ICT asset lifecycle
• manage, maintain and renew ICT assets according to defined asset specifications and the expected life span of the asset
• manage risks throughout the asset lifecycle
• plan the advance replacement of ICT assets
• understand their responsibilities.

Responsibilities

Assistant Director-General Information and Technologies will, through the Information and Technologies Branch (ITB):

• manage the lifecycle of the department’s enterprise ICT assets, including core departmental hardware infrastructure assets, enterprise platforms and ITB managed ICT assets
• maintain a central ICT services and products register for ITB use across the department and reporting purposes
• provide technology product lifecycle information relevant to the management of enterprise ICT assets
• develop and maintain ICT asset related standards, procedures and other supporting documents
• provide advice and/or assistance to ICT asset owners within schools, regional and central offices on the management of the lifecycle stages for local ICT assets.

ICT asset owners in schools, regional and central offices

• engage IT Customer Manager (schools and regional offices) or ITB (central office) for advice and/or assistance in managing all stages of local ICT assets’ lifecycle
• develop local processes and guidelines via the consultative mechanism (DoE employees only), if applicable, to manage all stages of the local ICT assets’ lifecycle in compliance with related departmental standards, procedures and supporting documents
• budget and obtain funds for the ongoing costs of local ICT assets with support from Finance Procurement and Facilities (central office), or the Regional financial advisory services contact (DoE employees only) (schools and regional offices) as required
• conduct all ICT procurement (including software, software licences, maintenance agreements etc.) in accordance with the department’s Purchasing and procurement procedure and ICT purchasing requirements (DoE employees only)
• ensure local ICT assets are immediately registered and/or updated within the OneSchool’s Agresso asset register (DoE employees only) (schools) or SAP asset register (DoE employees only) (central and regional offices) when notified of any licence changes
• ensure software is registered and/or updated in the OneSchool’s Agresso asset register (schools) or the local software asset register (DoE employees only) (central and regional offices) when notified of any licence changes
• ensure software of any value is managed in accordance with the department’s Use of ICT systems procedure.

IT Customer Managers, ITB

• provide ICT related advice and/or assistance to ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices regarding the management of all stages of the local ICT assets’ lifecycle
• support ICT asset owners to develop school-based processes to operationalise asset management in accordance with ICT assets’ lifecycle in compliance with departmental standards, procedures and other supporting documents.

ICT Program or Project Managers

• follow the department’s ICT project management methodology (DoE employees only) that meets the implementation requirements for enterprise or local ICT assets
• develop and manage a suitable project plan in accordance with standards, procedures and supporting documents relating to the implementation of enterprise or local ICT assets
• develop and maintain ICT project risk registers, with corresponding risk mitigation plans
• monitor the quality and timeliness of implementation activities, and the performance of ICT project contractors
• work with ITB employees, IT Customer Managers and external providers to coordinate actions and achieve required outcomes
• ensure all ICT procurement (including software, software licences, maintenance agreements etc.) is in accordance with the department’s Purchasing and procurement procedure and ICT purchasing requirements (DoE employees only).

Assistant Director-General, Finance Procurement and Facilities will, through their division:

• provide support and advice to ICT asset owners within schools, regional and central offices on the financial implications of managing their local ICT assets.

Process

ICT assets are managed using a lifecycle approach across five stages: plan, purchase, implement, utilise and enhance or retire. Detailed guidance relating to compliance with the Queensland Government policies and standards across the asset lifecycle is available in the ICT asset management guideline (DoE employees only).

ICT asset management lifecycle

Stage 1: Plan

Planning for the management of ICT assets, including portable and attractive items ($500-$4,999) and capital assets (>$5,000) must align to either the Equipment management for schools procedure or the Equipment management for business units procedure. Planning for schools must be done as part of the School performance planning, monitoring, reviewing and reporting (DoE employees only).

The Information and Technologies Branch (ITB) will:

• manage compliance with the ICT asset management guideline (DoE employees only) and the Queensland Government’s ICT resources strategic planning policy (IS2)
• plan and maintain whole of department ICT funding requests
• develop and maintain support tools to be used during this planning stage (for example risk assessment tools and associated data, decision support tools to assist in the identification of short and long-term requirements and suitable solutions) and provide business case guidelines and templates in line with the Queensland Government’s Digital services standard.

Finance Procurement and Facilities will:

• provide input to the development of consistent methodology for ICT asset management, in accordance with departmental and Queensland Government’s approach to ICT asset management
• provide relevant financial advisory services to assist ICT asset owners to manage their local ICT assets.

ICT asset owners in the schools, regional and central offices must assess their ICT asset requirements. This includes:

• documenting equipment replacement plan activities in accordance with the department’s Equipment management for schools procedure or Equipment management for business units procedure throughout all planning activities
• when planning to make an ICT investment decision, consider the following:
  • communication and collaboration requirements in a digital future
  • location and local infrastructure capacity
  • regional diversity and remote schooling
  • size and scale of different divisions and schools
  • demographic and community expectations
  • safety and security requirements
  • individual schooling, student and employee requirements
  • budgetary considerations and investment sustainability.
• when selecting a solution, ICT asset owners must:
  • develop local ICT asset replacement/upgrade priorities, in consultation with their Regional financial advisory services contact (DoE employees only) (schools) or ITB and Finance Procurement and Facilities (central and regional offices) to align with the department’s ICT investment portfolio
  • determine and assess any requirements in the Non-departmental ICT service providers procedure
  • determine any requirements (DoE employees only) for ICT asset related projects that may be applicable, in consultation with an ICT Program or Project Manager.

ICT Program or Project Managers must:

• develop and maintain a project plan (DoE employees only), in accordance with standards, procedures and supporting documents relating to the implementation of the ICT assets
• identify ICT assets in scope to be provided, replaced, enhanced or retired
• identify and determine ongoing support requirements for the management, maintenance, and replacement of ICT assets.

If a new local ICT asset solution is determined to be suitable, the ICT asset owner must:

• consult with the Regional financial advisory services contact (DoE employees only) (schools) or ITB and Finance Procurement and Facilities (central and regional offices) to develop funding requests and/or business cases to seek funding where funding is not available for priority ICT investments
• assume ongoing financial responsibility for local ICT assets which are not funded through ITB
• support all employees involved in the selection, approval, purchasing and contract management processes as required.

If funding is not approved or available, ICT asset owners in schools, regional and central offices must reconsider the requirements identified, solution selection and prioritisation.

IT Customer Managers must:

• provide ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices with leadership, advice and/or assistance during the planning stage
• support customers to engage with the relevant teams to perform pre-requisite activities, testing and implementation of the chosen product.

Stage 2: Purchase

During this stage, purchasing activities commence in accordance with the department’s Purchasing and procurement procedure in order to acquire and implement the chosen ICT asset (including software). This includes development of a purchase requisition and the raising of a purchase order/s before progressing to the implementation stage.

To enable purchasing decisions ITB will:

• provide technology assistance, advisory services and access to information and decision support tools to assist ICT asset owners to simplify the procurement of ICT assets
• maintain the required contract and vendor management functions to support high quality external service delivery for central and regional offices.

ICT asset owners within schools, regional and central offices must:

• conduct all ICT procurement activities (including for software and software licences) in accordance with the department’s Purchasing and procurement procedure and ICT purchasing requirements (DoE employees only)
• define business requirements to ensure purchasing activities meet their needs
• where a supply arrangement does not exist, raise a Request for quotation following the Purchasing and procurement instructions (DoE employees only) before progressing to the implement stage.

IT Customer Managers must provide ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices leadership, advice and/or assistance in purchasing decisions.

ICT Program or Project Managers must:

• develop the required purchasing arrangements to support the ICT assets
• conduct all ICT procurement (including software, software licences, maintenance agreements etc.) in accordance with the department’s Purchasing and procurement procedure and ICT purchasing requirements (DoE employees only).

Stage 3: Implement

During the implement stage, local ICT asset owners need to consider a range of factors to ensure a smooth transition of the local ICT asset into a work environment, in order to achieve the intended benefits once purchasing requirements have been successfully completed.

To support implementation, ITB will:

• ensure all implementation activities comply with departmental project management processes (DoE employees only)
• oversee the implementation of ICT assets by third party suppliers
• ensure all enterprise ICT assets comply with ICT standards (DoE employees only).

ICT asset owners in schools, regional and central offices must:

• ensure new local ICT assets are registered and/or updated within the OneSchool’s Agresso asset register (DoE employees only) (schools) or the SAP asset register (DoE employees only) (regional and central offices) in accordance with the department’s Equipment management for schools procedure or the Equipment management for business units procedure and Assets web page (DoE employees only)
• ensure software is managed in accordance with the department’s Use of ICT systems procedure as well as the Non-departmental ICT service providers procedure to ensure any security or privacy risks are addressed
• register and/or update software in OneSchool’s Agresso asset register (schools) or the local software asset register (DoE employees only) held within an authorised recordkeeping system (regional and central offices)
• develop and implement a change management process with activities, such as training, process enhancement and stakeholder consultation
• work closely with the ICT Program or Project Manager, if required, to participate in the required project quality management activities prior to the commissioning of any new ICT assets, including testing
• update local business continuity plans (DoE employees only) to ensure continuity if required in the event of a business disruption
• develop or modify local guidelines and processes using a local consultative committee (DoE employees only) as and where applicable to accommodate new local ICT assets (including software).

If there are any superseded or expired ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.), proceed to the enhance or retire stage.

IT Customer Managers must provide ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices leadership advice and/or assistance. This support includes assisting in the development of processes or guidelines that are in line with the departmental standards, procedures and supporting documents.

ICT Program or Project Managers must:

• select an implementation model that suits local requirements for the ICT asset
• perform pre-requisite activities, testing and implementation of the chosen product, go-live, and change management activities
• transfer ownership of new ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.) to the new ICT asset owners, if ownership is not to be retained within ITB (including provision of maintenance requirements)
• dispose of previous ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.) within the scope of the project in accordance with the enhance or retire stage.

Stage 4: Utilise

During the utilise stage, ICT assets are managed and maintained for the duration of their useful life.

To assist in the ongoing management of ICT assets, ITB will:

• manage all incidents and problems for the department’s enterprise ICT assets and services
• meet the required departmental and Queensland Government reporting requirements for projects that meet certain criteria.

ICT asset owners in schools, regional and central offices must:

• manage and maintain locally implemented ICT assets
• ensure the lifecycle of local ICT assets is managed in accordance with manufacturer standards including any upgrades or conducting required levels of testing and validation of changes
• retain information about local ICT assets (such as warranty period or type of licence) and be able to obtain the details in a timely manner if required
• review the capacity of the ICT assets on a regular basis to ensure the operation aligns with operational requirements
• update the status of local ICT assets (including software licences) in the relevant register when notified of any changes (excluding bug fixes) in the stage of their lifecycle:
  • OneSchool’s Agresso asset register (DoE employees only) (schools)
  • SAP asset register (DoE employees only) (regional and central offices) for software and other ICT assets above the capitalisation threshold
  •             local software asset register (DoE employees only) (regional and central offices) for all other software.      
• manage the ongoing configuration of the ICT asset or seek support from Orange card holder (DoE employees only) (schools) or IT Service Centre (central and regional offices)
• manage ongoing software updates, licences, maintenance agreements etc. in accordance with the Use of ICT systems procedure
• ensure incidents or problems with enterprise or corporately purchased ICT assets or services are reported to the department’s IT Service Centre via Services Catalogue Online (SCO) (DoE employees only)
• ensure information within the ICT asset is managed in accordance with the Information security classification and handling guideline
• perform annual risk management activities including risk identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment for local ICT assets
• ensure local ICT assets are used in accordance with departmental standards, procedures such as the Use of mobile devices procedure and Use of ICT systems procedure.

IT Customer Managers must provide ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices leadership, advice and/or assistance.

ICT Program or Project Managers must:

• ensure change management aspects of the implementation of ICT assets are completed
• update, if required, the local training plan for the use of the new ICT assets
• validate and document the transfer of ownership of the new ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.) to the new ICT asset owners, if ownership is not to be retained within ITB (including providing maintenance requirements).

Stage 5: Enhance or retire

During the enhance or retire stage, ICT assets are enhanced or retired, written-off and replaced. Software upgrades and support are provided through a maintenance agreement or a subscription licence that needs to be reviewed and renewed yearly as part of the plan, purchase and implement stages of the lifecycle.

The enhancement of an existing ICT asset directly links into the purchase and implement stages of the lifecycle. An existing ICT asset may be enhanced as requirements and/or local capacity evolve over time. The enhancement process includes but is not limited to:

• obtaining additional capacity for the existing ICT asset
• delivering new functionality to the existing ICT asset
• integrating new services into the existing ICT asset
• upgrading software according to a maintenance agreement or subscription licence.

To assist in the enhance or retire phase, ITB will:

• triage requests for enhancement of existing ICT assets and assist ICT asset owners to define requirements and scope enhancement requests
• dispose of ITB managed ICT assets subject to retirement
• provide advice on the correct disposal of information within the ICT asset and the ICT asset itself in accordance with the Information classification and handling guideline.

ICT asset owners in the schools, regional and central offices must:

• request an assessment from the IT Customer Manager (schools) or ITB through the Services Catalogue Online (SCO) (DoE employees only) (regional or central office) if the ICT asset is being enhanced, for the following:
  • if the enhancement is for a local ICT asset, the ICT asset owner will schedule the change, test the enhancement/s, go-live, then proceed to the utilise stage
  • if the enhancement is for an enterprise ICT asset, ITB will schedule and manage the enhancement.
• ensure all hardware assets with a medium impact or higher are enhanced or retired before end-of-service-life
• ensure all software assets with a medium impact or higher are enhanced or retired before end of mainstream support by vendor. If vendor support is not possible, software assets must be maintained for no more than two major versions behind the latest release, or within three years of the general availability of a new release, whichever occurs sooner
• define the requirements, if the ICT asset (including software) is being enhanced
• identify and obtain funding to support enhancement project/s
• proceed to the purchase stage, if the ICT asset is being retired and a replacement is needed
• dispose of ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.) with due consideration to the asset type, the value and associated information classification. For example:
  • information should be disposed of in accordance with the information security classification and handling guideline and the Information asset and recordkeeping procedure
  • the department’s physical and software assets should be disposed of in accordance with the software licence management requirements of the Use of ICT systems procedure, the disposal requirements of the Equipment management for schools procedure or the Equipment management for business units procedure and the Disposing assets web page (DoE employees only).
• mitigate the risks associated with continued use of ICT assets (for example, telephony and collaboration systems) that have reached the end of their useful life.

IT Customer Managers must provide ICT asset owners in schools and regional offices leadership, advice and/or assistance.

During this stage, ICT Program or Project Managers must dispose of ICT assets (including software, software licences etc.) with due consideration to the asset type, value and associated information classification. For example:

• information should be disposed of in accordance with the information security classification and handling guideline and the Information asset and recordkeeping procedure
• the department’s physical and software assets should be disposed of in accordance with the software licence management requirements of the Use of ICT systems procedure, the disposal requirements of the Equipment management for schools procedure or the Equipment management for business units procedure and the Disposing assets web page (DoE employees only).

Definitions

Legislation

• Financial and Performance Management Standard 2019 (Qld)

Delegations/Authorisations

• Nil

Other resources

Department of Education

• Assets (DoE employees only)
• Business continuity management (DoE employees only)
• Enterprise portfolio and planning (DoE employees only)
• Enterprise risk management procedure
• ICT asset management guideline (DoE employees only)
• ICT purchases (DoE employees only)
• ICT standards (DoE employees only)
• Information security classification
• IT Customer Manager (DoE employees only)
• Purchasing and procurement procedure
• School Budget Solution advice and support (DoE employees only)
• School performance planning, monitoring, reviewing and reporting (DoE employees only)
• Services Catalogue Online (SCO) (DoE employees only)
• Use of ICT systems procedure
• Use of mobile devices procedure 

Queensland Government

• Digital services standard
• Hardware Currency Policy
• ICT resources strategic planning policy (IS2)
• Procurement and disposal of ICT products and services (IS13) policy
• Procurement and disposal of ICT products and services implementation guideline
• Software asset management guideline
• Software asset management policy
• Software Currency Policy

Superseded versions

Previous seven years shown. Minor version updates not included.

1.0 ICT asset management procedure