Changes to approval process for acquisition of cloud services

Good day all,

Following the issuance of last month’s issue #4 of McGill's cybersecurity newsletter and the corresponding publication on the IT Cloud webpage of an updated “How To” concerning the acquisition of cloud services, Procurement Services are pleased to announce the following process simplifications, effective immediately:

1. Cloud services will be removed from the prohibited transactions list of the Pcard Regulation. Consequently, the prior written approval of an exception to this rule by Procurement Services is no longer required / does not need to be uploaded as part of the reconciliation step in MOPS
2. Reimbursement requests for the acquisition of Cloud services with a personal credit card no longer require the written proof of a prior approval by Procurement Services.

The changes will be reflected in the updated versions of the Pcard Regulation and the Policy on the Reimbursement of Travel and Other Expenses during the week of February 7^th.

As a reminder, the improved ease that the above brings to the acquisition of cloud services does not influence the standards of due diligence imposed by the Cloud Directive. The aforementioned “How To” document on the IT Cloud Webpage is a great read to understand its scope of application and help you determine the complexity of the acquisition process you will have to follow.

François Pouliot
Directeur | Contract Compliance Officer
McGill University

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