IT Support Services Constituent Group

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ACD systems?

April 29, 2013 | Melanie D. Willingham

I am looking for more effective ways of gathering and utilizing metrics for goal setting, process improvement, etc. at our Help Desk. We are currently a Nortel / Microcall (v5.3) shop and use Web Helpdesk (Solarwinds) for request/incident/problem tracking. One big problem that we have, since our incident tracking system isn’t tied to the phone system, is that we have a pretty substantial gap between the calls coming in (or going out) and the number of “tickets” worked on each month at the Help Desk. Because we are unable to gather general Help Desk phone-related metrics, we are unable to then track general Help Desk related KPI’s (Call Abandon Rate, Average Call Duration, Resolution Rate, Agent Utilization, etc.). The best we can do is use metrics based on our “tickets”. One of barriers we face is that our version of Microcall is older (which is related to our phone switch being older), the...

0 Comments

A Question of NAC

April 22, 2013 | Allan Chen

Another bay area school talked about how they decided against a NAC as they rolled out a new wireless deployment and instead rely on existing content and traffic filters via appliances and firewalls to handle activity. They do have students go through a portal page to authenticate that they are current, but that's it. On the guest side, they just provide an e-mail address and that's it.

This is St. Mary's, btw - in case Peter or his staff are on this list..

allan

Chief Information Officer
Menlo College
1000 El Camino Real
Atherton, CA 94027
v: 650-543-3889

0 Comments

Prevention and eradication of malware on campus

March 25, 2013 | Ruth Hillebrand

Hi All!

At the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) we have been looking into various anti-malware solutions to assist in removing viruses from campus workstations. During this discussion we discussed whether alternate security settings (using windows firewall, windows defender, etc.) may help reduce the number of infections on campus while maintaining usability of systems. Ultimately we would like to reduce the number of individuals with administrative access to their workstations but had a few legacy software systems that did not play nicely with Windows 7 and required administrative rights to run properly.

What have your schools done to reduce infections on campus? Are there any tools in particular that work well for your school in removing or preventing malware?

...

1 Comment

PC Local Admin Policy

March 18, 2013 | Michelle Dunn

Historically, faculty and administration at Trine University have had normal user rights on their PC’s and contact the IT help desk when they need software installed. Faculty are requesting the ability to load their own software and we are considering creating local admin accounts on their PC’s for this. I am in the process of modifying our standard SLA to include a policy and support expectations for those users who are granted this privilege. If any of you have such a policy that addresses users who have administrative privileges for their PC, would you please send me a copy?

Thanks, and have a great day!

Michelle Dunn

CIO

Trine University

One University Avenue

Angola, IN 46703

...

0 Comments

Student Evaluations?

March 6, 2013 | Kelsey Davis

I was wondering if anyone does student evaluations for their Help Desk/ Service Desk students? If so, what format do you use? What do you evaluate them on? How often do you do them? Do you find the evaluations beneficial?

We do student evaluations for our students once a term. If anyone is interested, I can send a copy of the evaluation form we use. While I have received positive feedback from the students about the evaluations, I have noticed that the feedback given to the students only lasts a week or so and then they fall back into their old habits/ ways.

I am looking to redo our eval form and gathering ideas on what others use.

Thank you!

Kelsey

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Kelsey Davis

...

2 Comments

Lab Desktop Management Best Practices

March 5, 2013 | Geoff Wild

We have recently restructured our IT shop. We are looking for better ways to do things in our labs.

Currently, we are using a combination of XenApp and a standard desktop image. This is not suiting our needs, so we are going to slowly change to VMware View in some labs while converting other spaces to just a full thick image.

The information that I am looking for is what other institutions are using as there workflow and best practices. Start by answering these questions below then feel free to add other information that you feel will be useful.

1. How do you determine what goes on the image?

2. How long do you test the image for, and do you test internally or allow instructors to test?

3. How often do you reimage your machines? How do you notify users (if at all), and how far ahead of semester are your machines imaged?

...

0 Comments

What do you call your Help Desk?

February 27, 2013 | George Eric Matthews, Jr.

* What do you call your help desk?

The Service Desk.

* Do you feel it is important for your unit's name to reflect the fact that you are a service desk rather than a help desk?

It is very important to our Service Desk staff.

* How often does your name change? Is there value in keeping your existing name simply for brand recognition?

Once in 17 years, from Help Desk to Service Desk. Our phone number is still xHELP and our web site is still help.wfu.edu.

Rick Matthews

Associate Provost for Technology & Information Systems

Wake Forest University

0 Comments

What do you call your support technicians?

February 27, 2013 | Elisabeth Greenwood

My unit provides institutional software support, training, and development assistance related to our LMS, and is a separate unit from our central Service Desk that handles networking, wireless, email, etc. In our case, our first tier are titled Support Assistants, the manager is the Technical Support Specialist, and myself as the team lead is the Instructional Technology Specialist. Some of our first tier are students, but not all.

~elisabeth

0 Comments

Subject lines - help

February 22, 2013 | Julie Ouska

Is there a way to have the list group defaulted in the subject line? I tried to go into my personal Educause settings and see if I could modify it, but I don't seem to be able to do that or I didn't find the right place. These emails are getting mixed in with my work-related email and that is not good. Any guidance would be appreciated. My other Educause subscriptions do have the group in the subject line – such as the CIO list. If we can't change this individually, would/could the list owner do it?

Julie

Julie Ouska

CIO/VP of IT

Colorado Community College System

Julie.ouska@cccs.edu

(720) 858-2781

0 Comments

MS Office Training

February 22, 2013 | Ferayi Karakaya

We are searching for MS Office training for our students primarily in the Business School. Our students are not covered under the Campus agreement therefore we cannot use MS Elearning portal. It would be best if we can upload the content in our LMS so that each faculty can customize it.. Any information about this will greatly be appreciated..

Regards

Fera

Fera Karakaya

Director of User Support Services

Department of Information Technology

Stonehill College

From: The EDUCAUSE IT Support Services Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:ITSUPPORTSERVICES@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of David Sisk
Sent...

3 Comments

Adobe Licensing Changes

February 21, 2013 | Brady Gallese

Hello everyone,

Today, I dialed in to an Adobe webinar sponsored by Digital River and The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP) with Adobe representatives included in the webinar. The topic was to discuss this whole licensing change. Essentially they communicated that the concurrent licensing for the Creative Suites are going away - they will offer an Enterprise package of the Master Collection, priced according to your FTE, and you can install it on all university owned machines. (They have some fancy acronyms for these licensing structures, and a whole sales pitch on value added features like more frequent updates, cloud features, etc. - but reading between the lines it sounds like more expense and more complexity). This Enterprise package model is their most cost-effective option, as opposed to individual licenses of the individual apps. From doing some rough math, this means...

4 Comments

Computer lab time-tracking software - any suggestions!!

February 20, 2013 | Michael A. Schalip

Hi folks…..

I’m back for more sage advice from all you really smart people…..(which – by the way – we always find extremely valuable!!)

Our computer lab staff is comprised of mainly hourly employees – and right now, they are using a time-tracking software called “PowerClock” - http://www.powerclock.com/ - but, we’re running into some issues.

While this software has served its purpose in the past – it isn’t meeting all of their needs. So – I’m wondering: What software everyone else is using to track lab employee time? Do you have a specific piece of software that you can recommend that basically allows...

3 Comments

Help Desk Training For Student Workers.

February 18, 2013 | Suzanne Gaynor

Until now, we have done training just before start of term, then 2 evening meetings per term for reminders and emerging issues. But that has not been completely successful, so we are struggling with this area again. I've started a topic list (attached) but I'm not sure what training format to use. If we train them in depth before the start of the term, what will they actually retain? If we train on a topic per week or month, how will I capture all of them since they work in shifts of about 2 hours? If anyone has solved this dilemma, I'd love to hear about it.

Suzanne Gaynor

Director, Technology Resource Center

Hartwick College

gaynors@hartwick.edu

607-431-4670

3 Comments

Needs Assessment for Service Desk

February 12, 2013 | Ed Zucker

Colorado School of Mines has been using Footprints for 10 years. We are a relatively small research university of 5000 students. The Footprints deal we got at the time included unlimited agents and 100 projects, so our configuration is quite flexible. When we first brought it in it was adopted by the Desktop Support group only. Over the years other groups within IT joined in, and now we have most of the IT department logging and tracking issues. We have created a web form for opening requests, and these requests are often not limited to IT, but may be intended for groups like HR, Payroll, Registrar, etc. We have invited these groups to use the system and have created teams and agents for them, but mostly they prefer to receive an email and work outside the system. We can’t make them use it, but our users do appreciate having one place to log requests. Our vision was a central clearing house for the campus. That being said,...

0 Comments

Fwd: Help Desk RFP

February 12, 2013 | Julie Ouska

Since several people asked, I am forwarding it to the list. Please let me know if you have any questions. Also please ignore the boiler plate stuff. Julie >

0 Comments

Welcome to the new combined constituency group! itsupportservices!

February 12, 2013 | Jennifer Burns

Hi Sean and Cathy,

We at UBC use ServiceNow in a distributed manner. We selected ServiceNow after a comprehensive RFP process as well.

We have an enterprise IT group (about 400 staff) and smaller local Faculty or IT groups that can use the system independent from our instance. We are still able to view, update, and escalate tickets across organizations. There are some standard configurations that everyone conforms to, and then local customizations as needed. Please email me directly if you or anyone else is interested and I’ll put you in contact with our ITSM program manager.

Thanks,

Jennifer

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Jennifer Burns,

Director, Client...

3 Comments

Welcome to the new combined constituency group! itsupportservices!

February 12, 2013 | Cathy O'Bryan

IT Support Services Members!

First off let me thank Lida Larsen and the Educause team creating our new listserv. Just a reminder that you need to break the habit of sending to the old User Services and/or Leveraged Support lists as they won’t work.

Check out our new constituency page!
http://www.educause.edu/discuss/information-technology-management-and-leadership/it-support-services

Here’s question to kick us off!

Here at IU, we’re wondering if other universities that are using their ticketing system with the central support center and other units (within the IT organization and outside of it) provide each unit with ability to configure their own site or sub-site? If you have...

7 Comments

Adobe Master Collection

January 29, 2013 | John Twigg

It would depend upon what resources I had available for deployment as well as a careful review of the license. I believe that the license for Adobe suites considers any part of the suite that is installed to consume the entire license for that suite. If possible, I would virtualize each app independently and deliver it via Citrix XenApp or Microsoft App-V. My second option would be to deliver it via a management platform such as SCCM or LanDesk. I would definitely roll it out in stages and test, test, test the deployment.

John Twigg

Manager, Field Technology

Regis University

Denver, CO

0 Comments

Help Desk Student Interview Questions

January 28, 2013 | Luis Nunez

Kelsey,

If you e-mail me privately, I will send you the questions I ask our students, There is a method to my madness, with the first few questions designed to get them at ease before they get the first “stumper” – a question almost no one ever gets right. What they don’t know is that I don’t want them to get the right answer. I want to see how they think, respond under pressure, and recover.

If you’re curious – here is that question: “Why would a wireless connection fail even when the correct credentials are being used, is properly configured, and has the latest updates to the OS.” By way of background, I tell them before the question that they are working at the Help Desk, there is an access point working, they are connected on the wireless on their notebook...

3 Comments

Help Desk Portal Question.

January 23, 2013 | Pedro Alvarado

Greetings All.

Our OIT department at Rider University has been working on updating our web portal. In the past we used to share information with community regarding the tickets submitted to the help desk and tickets solved in a one month period. This was a report that ran each week and was uploaded to our Help Desk portal. With this new portal format we trying to determine if this information needs to be shared with the community.

I would like to ask if any other school share this type of information on their website?. If so, what type of information and format are they using. Do you see any advantages for sharing this information?

I will appreciate any information that you can provide.

Thank you.

--
...

3 Comments

FW: Helpdesk & Project Management Software

December 8, 2011 | Jenni Piper

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

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

22 Comments

One Name to Unite Us!

January 9, 2013 | Jedidiah Rex

Support Services

Jedidiah

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Jedidiah Rex

Manager of Instructional Technology & Multimedia Support

Beloit College | 731 College St. Beloit, WI 53511 | 608.363.2456

[calendar] [google plus] [digital media toolbox]

[Please "Like" IT on Facebook...

15 Comments

Student Printing Allowances

January 8, 2013 | Debbie Whalley

Currently, Fairfield University offers full time students $25 of free prints and part-time students $5 per 3 credit class. We have been using Pharos for print management and have decided to make the move to WEPA. We are revisiting our "free prints" policy and I was wondering what other schools are doing. My questions to you are: 1 - Do you have managed print services for your students? 2 - If you do, how much do you charge per print? 3 - Do you offer your students free prints? If so how many (either in copies or $$) Thanks! **--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--** Debbie Whalley Academic Support Manager Computing & Network Services Fairfield University ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

15 Comments

Printer standardization question

January 23, 2012 | David Ecker

Stony Brook University is starting a Strategic Sourcing initiative around standardizing printers as a cost savings to gear the University away from local devices to multi-function devices. Has anyone gone through this process and could give us some insights about their experiences?

Thanks.

David
----------------------------------------------
David V. Ecker
Interim Director of Client Support
Division of Information Technology
Stony Brook University
S5410 Melville Library
Phone: 631.632.9800
e-mail: david.ecker@stonybrook.edu
********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

14 Comments

Organizational Chart Software

October 16, 2012 | Andrew Anschutz

Greetings all,

I am looking for software to create professional looking organizational charts. Our group has been maintaining one through Photoshop and it takes too long to get things updated with it. Does any one have any good pay or free suggestions? Thank you ahead of time.

--
Andrew Anschutz

IT Specialist/Event Coordinator

Information Technology

Ashland University

419-289-5405

https://kbox.it.ashland.edu

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

13 Comments

Question on providing virus protection to students

January 19, 2012 | Dan Donner

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...

13 Comments

Remote control solutions

February 9, 2012 | Listserv Anonymous User

Message from brandon.j.payne@svcc.edu

What software are you using to remote control users machines? We are a small IT shop with no help desk and limited budget. I searched past results and these were mentioned: VNC, Landesk, Webex, GoToMeeting. Free suggestions would be in a perfect world.

Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance both do not seem to offer good solutions.

Thanks,

Brandon Payne

Technical Support Specialist

Sauk Valley Community College

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

12 Comments

Anti Virus Solutions

January 14, 2013 | Luis Nunez

Good Evening;

As we are seeking to be much more pro-active and augment our current Anti-Virus/Malware solutions, I was wondering what other colleges were doing?

What products are you running, and have you found to be most effective in preventing and removing infections?

By way of background, at Stevens, all entering undergraduate students are provided with a notebook computer which we image in-house. We also provide many faculty and staff with either notebook computers or desktops, depending on their needs and preferences. We also image those in house.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Lou Nunez
Information Technology Help Desk Supervisor

Technology and Information Services

Stevens Institute of Technology
Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030...

11 Comments

How do YOU handle this.....Admin rights on classroom computers...??

January 12, 2013 | Michael A. Schalip

Hi folks....

Another "How do YOU handle this...?" kinda question: We are working our way through a multi-year project to add basic technology enhancements to all of our classrooms, (making sure they have a computer, projector, speakers, and all required cabling up to code).

Now that there are more computers available to enhance "traditionally non-technical instruction", faculty are wanting more and more access to the systems so that they can install whatever software they want, and run whatever updates they want. At first, this makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but - on the other hand, I can see someone wanting to be able to run simple little Adobe and Java updates....

How do you handle classroom presentation computers? Do you give all users admin rights?......ability to install software? Or, do you restrict that to your IT support folks? How...

10 Comments

After hour help desk recommendation

April 12, 2012 | Shahra Meshkaty

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.

...

10 Comments

Campus-wide e-mail messages

March 14, 2012 | Suzanne Gaynor

Hello all,

We are trying to address an issue with the volume of campus-wide e-mail messages being sent out to advertise events and other matters. We use distribution lists for all faculty, all students and all staff. Staff and faculty are currently permitted to send to any of these lists. Policy dictates that the messages are for school-business only, and formatted in a particular way, but that is not always adhered to and we are exploring other options. Can you tell me:

- Do you use email distribution lists to send messages to populations on campus? If not, how are they sent?

- Who is permitted to send those messages?

- How do you...

10 Comments

What do you use to "Chat" with your customers??

June 20, 2012 | Michael A. Schalip

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

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be...

9 Comments

[USERSERV]

November 27, 2012 | Lisa Kahle

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,...

8 Comments

Hardware Purchasing

June 11, 2012 | Treiva Dungee

Hello All,

I’m looking for suggestions on companies you have dealt with when it comes to hardware purchasing (desktops, laptops, and monitors). We are currently going directly to the manufacturer and would now like to look into purchasing through a 3^rd party vendor. Any information you can provide would be great.

Thanks

Treiva Dungee

Director of Client Support Services

Academic Computing Services | Information Services

Anderson Hall 24 | West Chester, PA 19383

P:610.436.3397 | F:610.436.3240

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group...

8 Comments

Apple Computers - Management and Imaging

May 31, 2012 | George Rollins

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

This transmission, regardless of modality, may contain confidential information and may be subject to protection under the law. If you are not the intended recipient, or an authorized agent for the intended...

8 Comments

Desktop Support Hourly Versus Salary

March 26, 2012 | Sandi Carpenter

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering how other universities are handling hourly versus salary for your desktop/application support staff?

What is the scope of their responsibilities? Desktop Support, Application Support, AV Support, Hauling and lifting heavy equipment?

If you have Desktop Support staff that are paid hourly and some that are paid salary what criteria determines how they are paid?

Thanks

Sandi Carpenter

Ashland University

Director Client Services/Tech Support Center

419-289-5405

********** Participation and subscription information for...

8 Comments

Lab Large Print Users

March 8, 2012 | Matthew Clark

We are starting to use Papercut and are beginning to see just how much users are printing. We have SOME users who are printing thousands of pages a month and would like to send them an e-mail outlining just how much they have been printing and how it makes more sense NOT to print. We do NOT charge for printing and we have NO policy to prevent or stop them from printing so we have to convince them it is a good idea to not print so much.

My question is, does anyone currently do something along this line already? If so, would you be willing to provide me a sample of what you send to the users? We are trying to make it accessible, readable, and not boring…

Thank you!

Matthew Clark

********** Participation and subscription information...

8 Comments

Welcome to the new combined constituency group! itsupportservices!

February 12, 2013 | Cathy O'Bryan

IT Support Services Members!

Check out our new constituency page!
http://www.educause.edu/discuss/information-technology-management-and-leadership/it-support-services

Here’s question to kick us off!

7 Comments

Student work scheduling software

October 16, 2012 | Deborah Moschella Saks

We have about 30 student workers and we currently do their scheduling in a very basic template in Excel but it is horrible and takes a long time, manually to schedule everyone forget about making changes or separate shift changes. Does anyone use scheduling software or created their own that they would be willing to share?

Thanks

Deb

__________________________________

Deborah (Moschella) Saks

Director of ITS- User Services

Framingham State University

Phone: 508-626-4930

e-mail: dmoschella@framingham.edu

Support: 508-620-1220 x4357

**********...

7 Comments

ITIL Certification

September 19, 2012 | Listserv Anonymous User

Message from t.g@rutgers.edu

Does anyone know of any reputable online programs for ITIL training and certification?

Thanks,

--
Untitled Document

_______________________________________
TINA G.| IT SERVICES MANAGER
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
School of Communication and Information
P 732.932.7500 x8999

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

7 Comments

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Jump Start Your Career Growth

Latest Topics

EDUCAUSE organizes its efforts around three IT Focus Areas

Join These Programs If Your Focus Is

From the Blogs

Find Others

Share Ideas

Get on the Higher Ed IT Map

2013 Strategic Priorities

Membership

Who We Are

Stay Informed

Uncommon Thinking for the Common Good™