IT Support Services Constituent Group

We are looking for a replacement to our homegrown Helpdesk software and would like to use it for project management also. Does anyone have a product to suggest?

Jenni

Jenni Piper

Associate Director of Technology Services

Eastern Mennonite University

Hello Everyone,

We have a committee at SUNY Cortland that is investigating various asset tracking management systems for the Information Resources organization, meaning, we would like this system to track more than just desktops.  Many of the groups within IR use a homegrown system, but our overall goal would be implement a system that could be utilized throughout the IR to track and manage campus technology assets.  We would like to know what other schools may be using and have posted the following questions on various lists (excuse the cross-postings). 

·         What do you currently use for an asset management tracking system

·         What does the system track (i.e. desktops, laptops, A/V components, routers,...

We are currently getting ready to renew our university virus protection agreement and after reviewing our numbers we began asking ourselves if the cost to provide virus protection to our students is worth the money we pay vs. telling the students that they would need to provide their own.  These days you would like to hope that no system would be running without some sort of protection thus students shouldn’t be waiting to get into a college to have virus protection on their computer.  I know this is just another way to pass the burden on to the student and we have always provided virus protection to ours in the past but given budget cuts these days this is just another area that we have to look at and wonder how many are actually using what we are providing to them.  The savings on this could certainly be used more efficiently for other resources to the students if we think that not enough are using the virus...

We're currently using an after hour (evenings, weekends and holidays) IT help desk for the campus and are struggling to provide a consistent experience for our users.  We'd like to know how other campuses provide 24 hour support, or if they only provide service during "regular business hours".  If you DO provide 24 hours support, are you using an external vendor for after-hours support OR do you use internal resources?

• If you're using a vendor that you are happy with: who are they & have you had a positive experience with them?
• If you're using a vendor: what procedures or processes do you have in place to ensure a consistent experience for your users?

What level of after-hour service are you (or the vendor) providing? (i.e. basic ticket entry, level 1 tech support, emergency escalations, etc.

...

Hi Folks….

We’re still working out way out of the proverbial computer support stone age, and one capability that we’d really like to explore is offering “Live Chat” to our customers…….primarily for “on campus” customers, but eventually extending that to “off campus” as well.  What we’re wondering is – How do *you* do this??  What technology or software do you use?  Is it “software”?  Or is it an “appliance”?  What technologies work?.....which ones should we avoid?

Thanks in advance,

Michael Schalip

Central New Mexico Community College

Dir, ITS/Customer Support Services

Walters State is currently looking at ways to manage our Apple OS computers in a Windows Active Directory based domain structure.  As part of this we are also looking into the imaging of these computers especially in a lab environment due to the introduction of 2 new labs.  We would appreciate hearing from those of you who are already doing either of these in your environments.  What products do you recommend or suggest avoiding, do you use OS X server as part of this environment etc.    Any assistance appreciated.

George Rollins

Walters State Community College

Morristown, TN