This page last updated 9/17/09
The current model of Help Desks at UVa has become outmoded.
UVa’s much-anticipated, $50 million new Student Information System (SIS) will soon join already-existing IT services at the University such as those provided by the Integrated System Deployment & Support (ISDS) and the Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC). To consider how our collective help desks could more fully meet the needs of the University community, the VPCIO convened a discussion with these areas. The analysis has revealed that now is a good time to adjust and enhance UVa’s help desk services.
The current model of separate help desks for every University system, each only open during weekday business hours, has become outmoded. Students, faculty, and staff often find that seeking tech support is more complicated than they expected. Determining which help desk to call for an IT problem can be difficult, and if they guess incorrectly, they may be shuffled from one help desk to another. Often, the distinctions among help desks—which entity provides the tech support for which service—may be clear to service providers, but are less-than-transparent to users.
UVa students and faculty need tech support around the clock.
UVa students and faculty today are also on the go. They use technology everywhere, and they use it around the clock. Technological advances and distance learning have made it possible for academic collaborations to span the globe; students and teachers aren’t just logging on between the hours of 8 AM and 5 PM, Eastern Standard Time, anymore.
Now that tech support is required at all hours of the day and night, waiting until the next business day for an answer needed right now is sometimes unacceptable. When academic deadlines loom, and critical research or administrative problems simply cannot wait to be resolved, students and faculty need an immediate resource for a solution.
A unified Help Desk with 24/7 availability will enhance our services.
ISDS, ITC, and SIS are proactively addressing these realities by pursuing a single, unified help desk for IT services at UVa that provides complete 24/7/365 coverage. These entities have partnered with a company called PerceptIS, which specializes in providing help desk support to higher education institutions. Working with this company will allow us to provide a more integrated help desk environment with a single, easy-to-remember phone number and common call processing and trouble ticket infrastructure.
Although this service will initially provide support for IT-related questions, there will be opportunities for other, non-IT-specific University areas to join in later phases. Each additional participating University area will identify a coordinator to direct their area’s implementation and emerging support issues. An advisory group is also informing UVa’s relationship with the company as this Help Desk Implementation Project develops.
This potential partnership is not the result of budget reductions, but rather an effort to increase the services provided to the UVa community without increasing costs. Resources currently funding separate help desk call centers will be combined with new funding from the Student Information System (SIS) to finance a single, unified help desk.
And because the company’s rates are comparable to current operating expenses, this partnership is cost-neutral for the Integrated System and ITC, yet vastly expands the current hours of support coverage.
Your Feedback Is Welcome
As these changes are implemented, we welcome participation in the discussion. We invite your input, comments, and questions; send them to ITC Customer Communications via our Feedback form.