COE Faculty / Staff Computer Purchasing

New Computer Purchasing Procedure

The Engineering Computer Center (ECC) has created a new purchase agreement with SHI International Corporation (SHI) for Dell USA (Dell) standardized computer purchasing. To facilitate this, ECC has developed a new web form that allows any College of Engineering (COE) faculty or staff to place their order for these new models in four easy steps.

Please do not complete this form without speaking to your business manager. After speaking with your business manager, you may submit this form. COE and ECC are not paying for the machines ordered through this form. Payment for these machines will come from the accounts/budgets they have come from before this point.

  1. Users log into the computer ordering website with their Northeastern University (NU) credentials.
  2. Users select one of the three models most appropriate to their needs.
  3. Users indicate how many devices are needed.
  4. User submits the form with one click!

All of this can be done in less than three minutes, and the user requires no further action! Purchasers will receive an email confirmation from SHI that their quote is ready for processing, usually within 1 business day, and can simply wait for their order to be delivered.

If COE research faculty need to purchase a higher specification device (such as a server), ECC will work with Dell and SHI to meet those requirements on a case-by-case basis. In such circumstances, please email help@coe.northeastern.edu with your availability for a meeting to discuss requirements. Please be aware that orders of this nature will take significantly longer to complete. While COE will have educational discounting in most cases, pricing and availability of specific components are at the discretion of SHI.

Further Details

In early Fall 2022, NU, Dell, and SHI organized a new purchasing agreement for standardized computer purchases for all NU faculty and staff through the myMarketplace website. As part of that agreement, NU no longer has access to the Dell Premier Portal, wherein orders for customized builds could be generated. Due to the specific computer purchasing needs of the COE community, it was determined that relying entirely upon the new purchasing agreement would not be in COE’s best interests.

As of November 2022, on behalf of COE, ECC has negotiated a related agreement with Dell and SHI to provide standardized computers which are specific to the needs of COE staff, teaching faculty, and research faculty. These standards were based on the device specifications of purchases of the COE community from Spring 2019 through Summer 2022.

Dell and SHI have agreed to produce three specific models with fixed configurations at a significant educational discount:

  • Dell Latitude 5440 laptop, general specification suitable for most staff and teaching faculty
  • Dell Mobile Precision 3581 laptop, higher specification suitable for research faculty
  • Dell Precision 7865 desktop, higher specification suitable for research faculty

Based on ECC’s research and historical purchase data, COE expects to fulfill the majority of computer purchasing requirements through one of these three models. All models will include a pre-configured NU operating system setup which will grant administrative privileges to the first user logging into the device with their NU credentials, four years of ProSupport Plus warranty and accidental damage coverage, and in the event of hardware failure, be serviceable on campus as circumstances allow.

The back-end administrative process for these orders has also been streamlined and simplified for business managers and other parties responsible for purchasing. Individuals with purchasing authority for their units should contact ECC for training assistance with the new method, which can be completed in less than ten minutes.