Payment Options for Mobile Technology

[Business Affairs Office News]

Good afternoon.

Business Affairs recently proposed updates to UO Policy 06.00.11 Payment Options for Mobile Technology<https://policies.uoregon.edu/mobile-technology-payment-options>.  The updates (attached) were presented to the Policy Advisory Council at its June 6 meeting, and we anticipate full implementation by July 1, 2018.

As background, this Policy was originally written in 2010, when Blackberrys were the cutting-edge technology, iPhones were in their infancy, and the IRS hadn't updated its rules since the days of the Motorola Brick Phone.  We have been making procedural updates (announced via email and memo) since then, including the change in taxation rules in 2012 and periodic updates to the Payment Tier amounts.  The current proposed update primarily brings the formal Policy in line with current IRS regulations and UO practice.

The update does change, however, the way we calculate the Payment Tiers as presented in the Policy.  Originally, the Payment Tiers were based upon the type of mobile technology being utilized, ranging from a basic pay-as-you-go cellular phone (Tier 1) up to one of those newfangled-at-the-time smartphones (Tier 3).

We have now shifted to a model where the employee's level of UO-related usage determines the appropriate Payment Tier. Business Affairs and UO Network and Telecom Services price out a representative "Base Case" and the individual Payment Tiers are eligible for a percentage of that Base Case.

Calculation of the Base Case includes: Smartphone (cost amortized over two years), Unlimited Talk/Text, 2-3 GB of monthly data, Access Fees, Taxes

Payment Tier definitions:
Tier 1 - Low/Infrequent Use - Employee serves in on-call capacity on occasion
Tier 2 - Routine Use - Employee is expected to be available throughout the work day, either at a fixed workstation or remote locations.  Employee uses mobile technology for both voice and data (i.e., email) interactions
Tier 3 - High Use - Employee travels frequently or is otherwise away from a university workstation and utilizes mobile technology as a primary means of conducting university business

Based upon a recent survey of multiple providers and effective 7/1/2018:

Tier 1 = $21.50/month
Tier 2 = $43.00/month
Tier 3 = $77.40/month

Note that these dollar amounts are the maximum payment amount for each tier.  The authority of the dean, director, department and/or other unit head to approve allocation of Mobile Technology, and to what extent, is set in UO Policy IV.06.05 Access to Mobile Technology<https://policies.uoregon.edu/vol-4-finance-administration-infrastructure/ch-6-information-technology/mobile-technology-access>.

Please let me know of any questions.

Thanks
-Kelly


Kelly B. Wolf
Associate Vice President for Business Affairs and Controller
University of Oregon
Phone: (541) 346-3165
Fax: (541) 346-5820
kbwolf at uoregon.edu<mailto:kbwolf at uoregon.edu>



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