Registration of Enterprise Systems | Policies

Purpose

Teachers College Information Technology (TCIT) maintains an inventory of systems used for official College administrative and academic purposes. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that all software, platforms, and infrastructure systems used by staff and faculty to conduct College business are registered in this inventory to ensure adherence to security, ownership, support, cost control, and accessibility standards.

Scope

This policy applies to all students, staff, faculty members, officers, employees, and affiliates of Teachers College, Columbia University, including extended learning sites, guests, tenants, visitors, contractors, consultants, vendors, individuals authorized by affiliated institutions and organizations, and all others granted use of and/or access to Teachers College, Columbia University technology resources and data.

Policy

Registration of Systems

The College’s registry of IT systems is called the TC Application Portfolio. The TC Application Portfolio is maintained by the TCIT Enterprise Applications group. Any locally or externally hosted application, software, platform, or infrastructure system that meets one or more of the following criteria must be registered in the TC Application Portfolio:

1. Processes, transmits and/or stores PHI or other sensitive data
2. Processes, transmits and/or stores College data
3. Is used by TC staff to conduct administrative or academic business for the College
4. Is physically located at Teachers College

The Application Portfolio list is available upon request to the Service Desk (servicedesk@tc.columbia.edu). 

To request to use a new application, system, or add-on to an existing system at TC, submit a Project Request to TCIT. This will kick off the System Assessment process.

System Assessment

Once a system is requested, it is added to the TC Application Portfolio and is officially registered. Before it can be implemented, TCIT works with the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Access and Services for Individuals with Disabilities (OASID) to perform an assessment to confirm the following:

1. The system is not redundant to another system already supported by the College.
2. The system meets the College’s standards for accessibility.
3. The system meets the College’s standards for the protection of data and application security.
4. The system’s technology stack is aligned with the College’s IT infrastructure and roadmap, and is considered to have long-term viability.
5. If implemented, an owning TC Department has been identified that will be responsible for managing any vendor relationship(s) and regularly reassessing and reconfirming the value of the system to TC business.
6. If implemented, the system will have a reliable support structure to address bugs, enhancement requests, end-user questions and training, operating system updates, and security patches.
7. The system’s implementation and maintenance costs are commensurate with the value expected from the system’s implementation at the College.

Any system currently in use at the College but not registered in the TC Application Portfolio is out of compliance with this policy and will not be supported by TCIT. If discovered, an emergency System Assessment will need to be performed to register the system, confirm its compliance with TC standards, and establish a proper support structure.

Responsible Office: Teachers College Information Technology 

Effective Date: October 1, 2020

Last Updated: July 13, 2020