Approved Software List

Managed by MSU IT, the Approved Software List allows university employees to purchase certain software products without the need for an IT Readiness form. Tier 1 and Tier 2 products can be purchased with your PCard, and only Tier 3 (or software above the PCard limit) requires the traditional method of requisition and the IT Readiness form. The ability to use the Approved Software List is based on user type, use case, and software version.

Prior to making a purchase directly from the supplier, you are encouraged to visit the MSU Tech Store to check availability. Matlab and NVivo are examples of Tier 1 software that can be purchased through the MSU Tech Store.

Approved Software List: Tier 1 software can be purchased, if it does not use, process, or store confidential information. Tier 2 software can be purchased if the user type and use case are met. Tier 3, an IT readiness form is required prior to purchase in all cases.

Tier 1 Software - Low Risk

Software that falls under Tier 1 in the Approved Software List and does not use, process, or store confidential information as defined by the MSU Institutional Data Policy, is allowable for purchase or download by any university user regardless of use case without an approved IT Readiness form.

PCards can be used when purchasing Tier 1 software that is below the cardholder’s single transaction purchase limit without further approval. The transaction eDoc is required to have the following note: “This software is on the Approved Software List version #.”

Tier 1 Approved List: Software
Adobe Desktop Products BIOVIA Materials Studio Grammarly Molecular Devices Parallels RISAFoundation Survey Monkey
Agilent Bloomberg Graphpad Mplus Prolific RISASection Synchro Studio
Air Table Calendly JetBrains PhpStorm MSC One Proofpoint Risa ADAPT-Felt Tableau
Aj Tek WSUS Automated Maintenance Canva JetBrains/Resharper MyEclipse PTC Mathcad SAP2000 TeamViewer
Altair Carousel by TightRope LabArchive NameCheap Qgenda Siemens NX UserLock
Ansys Academic Multiphysics Campus Solution ChatGPT Mager Scientific NI LabVIEW for Teaching/Research AVL Quickbooks Simplify3D Webflow
Ansys Academic Research COMSOL Mailchimp NI LabVIEW Student Install Option rev Simulia/Abaqus Wix
Ansys LTSC Constant Contact Mathematica Nuance RISA-2D Smartsheet Wrike
Articulate Dedoose MathType for Office Tools NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) RISA-3D SnapGene
Asana ESI PAM-COMPOSITES MATLAB Nvivo Risa ADAPT-Builder SolidWorks
Autodesk AutoCAD FileMaker MaxQDA Office Timeline Risa ADAPT-PT/RC Spamhaus
Azure Dev Tools for Teaching Geneious Microsoft Desktop Products OriginLab OriginPro RISAFloor Stat-DX
BackupAssist GoDaddy Minitab Overleaf RISAConnection Stata
Tier 1 Approved List: Service Providers
Blohm Creative Gravity Works Muthen & Muthen QSR International
Version 020525

Tier 2 Software - Medium Risk

Software that falls under Tier 2 in the Approved Software List is allowable for purchase or download, directly with PCard (up to the single transaction purchase limit) if the specific university use case is met (enterprise-wide).

The specific limitations of the Tier 2 software are outlined in the Approved Software List. PCards can be used when purchasing Tier 2 software that is below the cardholder’s single transaction purchase limit if the user type and use case are met. The transaction eDoc is required to have the following note: "This software is on the Approved Software List version #. User type and use case match Tier 2."

Sample software User type Use case
Software 1 Researcher of human studies Non-clinical research*

*Clinical research would be considered Tier 3 in this instance.

A Tier 2 software list will be provided at a later date.

Tier 3 Software - High Risk

All other software is considered to be Tier 3 software and requires the submission of an IT Readiness form via a purchase requisition, even if it is free software.