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Economics IT Support

Faculty Onboarding

Trinity Economics Computing Services team provides IT support as well as computing equipment and services for the Department of Economics. As part of the new faculty onboarding process, our team will reach out to you to go over a list of IT-related questions and determine your needs. New faculty may contact this team by emailing help@econ.duke.edu.

 

What Will You Need?
  • Desktop/Laptop
    • Duke supports the following operating systems: Windows Win 10, 11, Mac 12+, or Linux (for Linux OS, we deploy only RHEL and RHEL Clones). Duke has purchase agreements with Dell, Lenovo, and Apple.
  • Do you have any large or unusual computational needs (desktop, laptop, or access to our cluster)?
  • Can you verify your current projected start date?
  • Do you have unusual printing needs?
  • Are you bringing any hardware?
  • What software do you need?
    • Duke can provide the following software. (This is not a complete list.  Please check with us for any additional app requests)
      • ARC GIS (Windows)
      • Mathematica: 11 (Windows)
      • MATLAB: the latest release (Windows, Mac)
      • Windows 10, 11
      • PDF Creator
      • Reader DC (Windows, Mac)
      • SAS (Windows)
      • Current STATA/SE Release
      • X-Win32
    • Duke cannot provide free of charge for the following software but can let you know the cost for each product. You will need to purchase these with your research or startup funds.
      • Adobe Acrobat Pro
      • STATA/MP
Pricing & Options

We will start building quotes based on the aforementioned conversation about your needs. These will be unique pricing quotes from Duke vendors or pre-configured system deals with major vendors such as Dell, Lenovo, and Apple (through the Duke University Computer Purchasing Program). These builds are labeled grey, blue, and white in order of fundamental to advanced computational needs. Most of the department’s pre-configured orders fall in the “white” category.

  • Grey supports those who use e-mail, web applications, office programs, and enterprise applications such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and Business Warehouse. This group should represent about 60 percent of administrative users. (Available in Desktops only)
  • Blue supports those who run enterprise applications and Crystal Reports together. This group should represent about 30 percent of the population.
  • White supports those who do complex data collection and analysis, visualization, web-publishing, and systems administration work and includes significant customization options for buyers. This group represents the remaining 10 percent of users at Duke.

There are a few things to keep in mind with pre-configured systems.

PROS

  • The systems are configured with the best options at the best price Duke has worked out with the vendor.
  • Great warranty coverage
  • Quick delivery (1-2 weeks)

 

CONS

  • Limited choices
  • Storage configurations are limited to 256GB SSD or 500GB STATA, which for some users is small.
  • Any post-purchase alterations could void the warranty.

Warranty Coverage

Apple and PC (Damage and Theft) systems are covered by the Duke Trinity Technology Services (TTS) Warranty and Insurance Program(s).

Windows systems are covered by the four-year next-business-day coverage that comes standard with many of the Duke University Computer Purchasing Program systems.

Ordering

Once you have confirmed with us which system to order, We will place the order and have it charged to your startup/research account. A customized plan takes about 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Setup & Customization

  • The new system will be set up to include the latest OS, Microsoft Office, Symantec Endpoint Protection, Notepad++ (Windows only), and VLC, as well as a PDF reader, remote management support software, and an SSH/SFTP client.
  • If necessary, some laptops and most desktops are added to the Duke domain. To complete your configuration, you will need to use your Duke NetID to create a local account profile. Once you log into the system, we can start customizing. This may be done when the system is installed in your office.
    • If your machine is not added to the Duke domain, you will be provided with a standard permissions account for daily use. You will have access to a user admin account to be used when installing additional software or updates.
  • Workgroup printers will be installed on your machine, along with Duke’s ePrint software.
  • Wired access will be configured if needed. All laptops and wireless devices are required to use the “DukeBlue” Wi-Fi network.

In addition to providing you with custom software (LaTeX, Mathematica, MATLAB, Stata, etc.), we will help you with the following.

  • Profile: Log into the machine to create a local account profile.
  • Email: We will help you load your Duke email to your machine using the university’s recommended email client, Microsoft Outlook. You may access your email from a different device using Outlook Webmail and log in with your NetID and password. Outlook Webmail gives you full access to all Microsoft tools, including Excel, OneDrive cloud storage, PowerPoint, and Word.  Email forwarding is not recommended. Doing so may open up the potential to accidentally transfer sensitive material outside of protected Duke services.
  • Storage: In addition to the local storage on your machine, Duke offers cloud storage for backup and collaboration with others. These service agreements ensure data security and integrity.
Additional Steps

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