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iCIT Service Guidlines for Desktop Support

The University has officially established standards for hardware, peripherals, and software. (See www.uww.edu/policy/itstandards.html for specifics.) The general guidelines for desktop support provided by the staff of Instructional Communication and Information Technology (iCIT) are directly based on such adopted standards. In addition, operational criteria have been developed to guide support staff to determine the order of priority when responding to service calls. Such service priority order is determined on the basis of impact level and/or state of emergency caused by the interruption of office or classroom/lab functions.

The definitions of various impact levels and the support service response to each impact level are outlined below to offer the user community a better understanding of what service can be expected from the iCIT support staff under a given circumstance.

DEFINITIONS OF IMPACT LEVELS:

Impact Level 1

• Multiple users are directly affected. (Servers, classrooms, and labs all fall into this category.)
• Loss of function has a serious and immediate negative impact on teaching or critical administrative activities. (Classroom presentation by faculty, or an administrative function that has a deadline falls into this category. Furthermore, no temporary and workable alternative is available to carry on the disrupted activity.)

Impact Level 2

• Limited (two or less) users are directly affected.
• A temporary and workable alternative is available to carry on the disrupted activity.
• The disruption of activity/function may have some operational impact, but it is not highly critical.

Impact Level 3

• New computer setup to replace an older but still operational machine.
• Setup of computers for new students in an office.
• It is a known fact that a system, or component, or software upgrade is required, but the computer is still functional.
• Setup of computer peripherals, which has no critical impact on the daily activities of users.

Responses to Impact Levels

Response to Impact Level 1

• Upon receipt of service call to Helpdesk, its staff will attempt to resolve the reported problem over the phone.
• If the problem is not resolved immediately by the Helpdesk, its staff will then immediately contact the Desktop Support Service staff via pager call. The assignee of this service call will respond within one hour or less depending on the degree of emergency. In case of a lab/classroom failure, the assignee will respond immediately.
• If the problem is not resolved by the assignee within four hours, the Helpdesk staff will escalate the call to the next level by alerting the Coordinator of Desktop Support Service to the situation and the possible need for assistance and/or consultation.

Response to Impact Level 2

• The first response by an assignee from the Desktop Support Service staff will occur within two working days after the initial service call to the Helpdesk, if the problem is not resolved over the phone immediately by the Helpdesk staff.
• The maximum time targeted for problem resolution is within 40 hours (or five work days) by the assignee after the initial service call to the Help Desk.
• If the problem is not resolved by the assignee within the allowed maximum time, the Help Desk staff will escalate the call to the next level by alerting the Coordinator of the Desktop Support Service to the situation and the possible need for assistance and/or consultation.

Response to Impact Level 3

• The first response by an assignee from the Desktop Support Service will occur within one week after the initial service call to the Helpdesk.
• There is no specific targeted maximum time for problem resolution or service request.
• An e-mail reminder will be sent to the assignee of the Desktop Support Staff and its Coordinator at the end of two weeks after the initial service call to the Help Desk, if the problem or service request has not yet been taken care of.
• If the problem or service request has not been addressed in four weeks after the initial service call to the Help Desk, this open ticket will be escalated to the attention of the Director of the Networking, Desktop Support, and Telecommunications Service for his/her action.

CHARGES FOR RESPONDING TO FOLLOWING SERVICES CALLS:

The staff of the Helpdesk and of the Desktop Support Service will try to provide the best possible support services to the university community on the basis of the established University Hardware and Software Standards and the Support for Desktop Operating Systems. With our limited staffing, user cooperation in conserving our personnel resources is critical to the ability of iCIT to deliver you the efficient and timely technical support that you have come to rely upon for performing your own job functions. To achieve this common understanding, it is just as important to delimit what iCIT will not routinely support as the definition of what will be supported. Below outlines the types of service calls that represent inappropriate use of the university technical support resources, and hence service charges will be levied on such users.

• Repeated service calls resulting from installation and/or de-installation of university supported software by unauthorized persons.
• Repeated service calls resulting from the installation of unsupported software by unauthorized person.
• Repeated service calls resulting from installation and/or de-installation of hardware components by unauthorized persons.
• Repeated service calls resulting from tampering with the iCIT standard desktop setup, configuration, fixes, etc., by unauthorized persons.

“Unauthorized personnel” is defined as individuals who do not have the specifically delegated responsibility for performing IT support by a division, or college, department, or administrative unit.

In response to service calls cited above, the assignee of the Desktop Support Service bill the caller at a rate of $45 per hour. (30 minutes or more will be rounded to a full hour.) These provisions will be strictly enforced.