To more equitably distribute the costs of network switching equipment, a charge of $35 per connection will now be added to all work orders requesting the installation of new data network lines or the activation of data ports. This charge will be billed as an IDB from Systems & Network Management to the responsible department separately from charges for the work that Electronic Systems & Repair (ES&R) performs in connection with the order. In the future it is our hope to incorporate all charges into the billings from Facilities Management so that ordering departments will have a single billing for this kind of work.
Providing network service to a user's office or lab requires not only a data port on the wall and a line from that port back to the network equipment room (all of which is installed by Electronic Systems & Repair), but also requires that the line be plugged into a network switch located in an equipment room. These network switches typically have 22 ports available for users. Previously, as long as there were available ports in the equipment room, new connections were allowed to be plugged into the switch without charge. Once the ports were used up, departments or programs needing new network connections were faced with purchasing an entire new switch, even if they only needed a single connection.
This new procedure will pro-rate the cost of new switches over all of the resulting connections. System Network Management will use the funds accumulated from these per port charges to purchase new switches as they are required. Departments will thereby not be faced with the potential major cost of purchasing new switching equipment necessitated by their new connection request.
7 September 2005
