Service Levels for EBL Computer Support
Computers and electronic resources:
The faculty has approximately 400 computers and peripherals and a large range of electronic resources for the delivery of academic programs in the faculty building, and around 50 to 100 computers used at home bought out of APF's for work related purposes.
There is an increasing demand for IT support in the Faculty. This support includes things such as the setup and maintenance of our file servers, creation and maintenance of web pages, configuring computers for desktop use, day to day operations of the computer labs, day to day support for academic, general staff, postgraduate and under graduate students both internal and external, special projects and a large variety of miscellaneous tasks around the Faculty relating to computing and electronic resources.
Due to budget and time constraints we are in a situation whereby we need to evaluate the level of service that can be sustained with the limited resources available. Due to the increasing workload and expectations from the Faculty for computer/network and general equipment support we need some guidelines to enable EBL staff to better utilize the limited resources and time available.
It is difficult for the computer support staff to take leave as only one-person is left to do the job, sometimes both may be away leaving no support at all. Due to the rapid changes in Information Technology staff also need time to read, catch up and improve their knowledge of the computer systems and upcoming versions of hardware and software. Without regular staff development it is difficult to maintain the Faculty's systems and provide a suitable level of expertise.
Core time for computer support in the Faculty is 8:45am to 4:45pm weekdays, although support staff are mostly around from 8:00am until 5:00pm or later. There will be times however, when due to training, sickness, meetings or other reasons no support will be available. Consideration also needs to be given to free up time so that staff may work on other projects that require precedence over their normal daily duties.
Therefore the Faculty needs to have a set of guidelines in place in order to utilize the resources where they are most needed. The suggestions below will not cover all items that are required but it will provide some order to the tasks performed at the same time establishing a more realistic standard of service that should be expected.
Consideration was given to the idea of prioritizing service with regard to Academic staff, general staff, postgraduate's, visitors and under graduates. The problem with such a model is that priorities are not linked to the category of person but rather the circumstances surrounding a particular situation. For example a postgraduate with 2 days to go before submitting should be considered a higher priority than say a staff member who could not access e-mail. Therefore it would be best to leave the decisions on priority and judgment to the computer support staff with a right of appeal should anyone feel unjustly treated. All problems regarding unfair treatment should be dealt with by the Resource Manger in the first instance before being referred to the Dean.
The following outline the duties that are currently performed in the Computer support area:
- The primary focus of the computer support staff is to provide support for the efficient operation of the Faculty's computer network and interconnecting systems including the operation of the Faculty's file servers, network, network security, server security, user accounts and related matters.
- This is closely followed by support for academic and general staff to ensure continued workflow with minimum delays. The computer labs, maintenance, support, student accounts, installation of software as required and normal day-to-day operations.
- Another important aspect of the position is administration. This currently covers a broad range of activities from providing reports, committee representation (both within the Faculty and outside the Faculty), forums, liaison with other IT areas and ITS, and general day to day administrative tasks. It is important to note that administration is kept to a minimum but due to UNE's structure and Faculty requirements a considerable amount of time is unfortunately spent on essential administration.
- Maintaining backups of servers and user files stored on the servers, recover files as needed by academic and general staff.
- Virus scanning which involves routine virus scanning of servers and updating as required software on user computers.
- Web pages are becoming more important and the workload to create and maintain the Web pages is increasing all the time. It is expected to increase further with more online material being used to deliver academic services. There is also the potential of current projects and their funding ending with the expectation of the web related work to be picked up by the existing resources. This would not be sustainable with the current staffing levels.
- Provide instruction and advice as needed to allow staff to perform academic and administrative functions.
- Perform repairs and maintenance to equipment as required ensuring the efficient running of the faculties computer equipment.
- Provide support to students within the Faculty including postgraduate, under graduate, internal and external students.
- Staff development is particularly important in the computer support area. Staff need time to keep up to date with the systems and software currently used and the systems and software that is constantly being released and updated. While most of this is done in their own time, some form of time release from normal duties should be provided. Keeping up to date is considered a core function of most IT positions. It is common for the IT industry to provide a percentage salary equivalent for the express purpose of training IT staff to be kept up to date with relevant developments.
- Computer installations, installing new computers and software.
- Preparing promotional material for staff, overheads, brochures etc. This is due to the fact that the colour printer is situated in the computer support area. It is essential that it remain there, as it is extremely costly to run and maintain. There may be other ways of providing access to the printer without allowing general access.
- Special events/large projects such as the asset audit and Y2K issues are performed by the computer support staff. Even though Y2K will not be with us much longer, similar types of projects continue to find their way to the surface. These should be planned well in advance and extra staff employed to cover for the extra workload where appropriate.
- Maintenance of overhead projectors including replacing bulbs when requested. These are time consuming to maintain and they can be checked weekly or daily and still fail just before or during a lecture.
- Moving Video and Televisions into room required by staff for teaching purposes.
- Support of home based computers. These include computers bought on APF's and personal computers used at home for work purposes. There are concerns about the types of computers that staff use at home, some of these are quite old and some are not purchased through UNE and may not be up to standard. It is the experience of our IT staff that home computers tend to have a higher failure rate possibly due to use by non-UNE uses or the fact that they are not up to UNE standard and use lower quality components.
- Adhoc training of staff, either on a one to one basis or through maintaining and updating training CD's.
- Perform scanning for various staff.
- Moving equipment/furniture from time to time to set up rooms for special events.
- Lights, replacement of light globes in rooms.
- Emergency repairs on photocopiers, for example the removal of blocked paper.
- Servicing of printers.
For the purpose of prioritizing workflows this policy is divided into 3 categories
(a) essential
(b) non-urgent jobs that could wait or be outsourced or more resources made available
(c) jobs that should be removed from workloads and or outsourced.
(1) Essential support required in the faculty.
Essential Support should consist of but not be limited to the following duties outlined above
a. Network and interconnecting systems duties.
b. Academic and general staff support and computer lab maintenance.
c. Essential Administration.
f. Web page development and maintenance.
j. Staff development.
m. Special Projects as required.
(2) Non-urgent jobs that could wait or be outsourced or more resources made available.
d. Backup services.
e. Virus Scanning
Both services should be automated removing the need for staff to provide the service on a regular basis. Rather they would be responsible for ensuring the link between EBL and ITS is maintained.
g. Instruction and advice to users.
i. Student support.
It is recommended that consulting and instruction to users occur during specific hours. The suggestion is that computer support staff will be available during the hours of 10am to 3pm for consultation subject to staff availability. Urgent matters would of course be covered under b. Academic and General Staff support.
h. Repairs and maintenance to hardware.
The computer support staff should perform only minor and quickly resolved repairs. Major repairs should be performed by ESU or by the supplier given that many of our computers are now covered by warranty agreements as part of the leasing arrangements.
k. Computer installations.
These should not be seen as urgent and installations should be performed in a planned way with reasonable notice being given to the computer support staff.
n. Maintenance of Overhead projectors.
Computer support staff should provide extra bulbs to each machine. It should then be the responsibility of users to change the bulbs should they blow. Once a bulb does blow it is the responsibility of the users to notify the computer support staff who will then replace the bulb. Any projectors requiring major repairs will be outsourced to ITS.
p. Home-based computer support.
These computers should be given a lower priority than machines in the office environment. These machines will be repaired by computer support staff but only when time permits. If repairs are considered more urgent by the user than the priority given to them by the computer support staff then they can pay for ESU to perform the repairs.
(3) Jobs that should be removed from workloads and or outsourced
l. Preparation of promotional material.
Access to the colour printer will be given to school administrative staff. Computer support staff will monitor usage to ensure essential work only is being performed. Should costs escalate as a result, a user pays system may need to be considered.
o. Moving TV & Video equipment.
When booking a room staff should consider the teaching facilities available in the room. The alternative is for the staff member to move the equipment or for the Faculty to provide these facilities in each of its teaching spaces.
q. Adhoc Training.
This is not a function of the computer support staff. Other avenues for training exist, such as the use of CD's purchased by the Faculty or via various training courses held on a regular basis.
r. Scanning.
Recent purchases should now transfer this task to schools.
s. Moving equipment.
t. Light replacement.
Both of these tasks should not be performed due to OH&S reasons.
u. Emergency repairs other equipment.
This is not a task for the computer support staff and should be outsourced to the appropriate tradesperson.
v. Servicing Printers.
The service of all printers should be performed by ESU as they have the expertise, parts and appropriate tools.