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Teaching old dogs new tricks

Teaching old dogs new tricks. Making IT work for the University?. I’m trying to. The evolution of the OUCS Help Centre Lou Burnard, OUCS. Organizational change: the pattern. Computing laboratory Research facility for some specific academic departments Computing Service

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Teaching old dogs new tricks

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  1. Teaching old dogs new tricks Making IT work for the University? I’m trying to The evolution of the OUCS Help Centre Lou Burnard, OUCS

  2. Organizational change: the pattern • Computing laboratory • Research facility for some specific academic departments • Computing Service • Nationally-funded mainframe for the whole university • Computing Services • Machine-defined services (ICL, VAX, ermine…) • Functionally defined services (micros, archival storage, humanities, typesetting… ) clustering around these • Research oriented services and facilities • Strategic push towards distribution of services Good news: wider range of expertise and a richer variety of services Bad news: duplication of effort , risk of contradiction, drowning in data…

  3. Duplication of effort: for example • Where do I go to ask for help about OUCS ? • Local Support Staff • Advisory Service • Registration Desk • PC Consultancy • Learning and Resource Centre • Centre for Humanities Computing • Aren’t these all doing much the same thing? • Well, yes and no… • Will these all give me the same advice? • errr, probably

  4. A reminder • University policy is to devolve support to colleges, departments, divisions • As a centrally funded department, OUCS has to consider the needs of the whole University • This means we urgently need • to respond to changes in the pattern of use • to simplify access to our services • By end-users • By support staff

  5. Access facilities • Modes • Walk-in face-to-face consultation • Telephone • Email • Web • Finding the right person • Asking the right question

  6. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was… • An integrated knowledge-base of expertise • Single point of contact for front-line walk-in support, coupled to learning access-points • Single automated point of contact for telephone enquiry • Single method of sharing, tracking, resolving email queries

  7. The Advisory Services Review Process • October 2001: Helpdesk software procurement abandoned: implementation of low cost alternative begins • November 2001: Internal “stake-holder” discussions (with ITSS representation) • Staffing, telephone service, training, facilities, email • Timetable • January: Detailed proposals for a unified Front office endorsed at OUCS SMG • February: implementation begins • April:Help Centre opens

  8. At the same time… • Internal reorganization of OUCS • Four major groups • Infrastructure Services • Technical Services Group • Information and Support Group • Learning Technologies Group • Repositioning and reprioritization of all services

  9. OUCS Help Centre • New walk-in service at Banbury Road • 0830 -2030 support for • all OUCS front-end services • basic computing queries • basic registration queries • administrative enquiries • direct access to self-help materials, books, videos… • specialist equipment (scanners, multimedia…) • Cybercafe-style access to facilities

  10. Telephone access • Automated attendant installed by University Telecomms • Help centre calls are routed to four pickup points • Seems to be functioning well • But email is the new telephone: • http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/feedback/

  11. Email Services • The preferred route for advice and support • Hoorah for requesttracker! • Substantial R&D investment is now paying off • Integration with registration data via LDAP • Logging and monitoring of all services • Involves all staff at some level • http://www.bestpractical.com/rt

  12. OUCS Help Centre • Who does it? • Two fulltime managers • Two rotas • Registration staff, operators, demonstrators • Expert advisors from all parts of OUCS • Volunteers welcome! • What’s in it for ITSS? • Single point of contact • All queries are monitored and tracked • Complements distributed services

  13. Consultancy Services • The OUCS virtual “back office” • Services all queries from RT • Buck-stops-here queries • Directly accessible for ITSS • Gives specialist advice by appointment • Who does it? • All OUCS staff, potentially • An extension to itss-discuss

  14. Desktop systems consultancy • Hardware and software • By appointment only • May become chargeable • (Fixed quota for Undergraduates) • Need for university-wide agreement on systems supported

  15. Who can use it? • Anyone with a valid University card • What, even undergraduates? • OUCS withdrew eligibility for support from all undergraduates in 1995 • This led to a marked improvement in provision of IT support by colleges and departments… • …and a decline in demand for support from OUCS to the point where it is uneconomic to make the distinction! • It is the OUCS front window

  16. Where does it fit? • Information and Support Group components • Research Technologies Service • Information Services • ITS3 • Registration and Databases • Gateway to complementary OUCS group activities • Desktop Services and NSMS • Infrastructure Group • Learning Technologies Group • http://staff.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ISG

  17. Research Technologies Service • Services • Oxford eScience Centre, • Humbul Humanities Hub, Oxford Text Archive • British National Corpus, Text Encoding Initiative • Technologies • Corpus Linguistics • Computational analysis • Database technologies • Grid computing • Interoperability • Text encoding • Keeping in touch with the leading edge…

  18. Information Services Section • Integration of web sites • Single XML source driving • Web site • (with customizable styles) • Print documentation • RSS feed / alerting service

  19. ITS3 • Promotes professional interests of IT support staff (training, awareness, lobbying…) • Informal communications channel and clearing house • OUCS has now allocated 2.5 staff full time to this activity, and will expand as demand and funding permit

  20. Database and Registration Sections • Development and maintenance of in-house database systems • Special expertise in University administrative structure • Work closely with Infrastructure in developing new technical solutions • Provide extensive “back-office” support to Help Centre

  21. How are we doing? • Steady flow of RT tickets over the week • Over 80% of all queries are resolved within a day • Majority of clients are University staff, senior members or postgrads (under 10% are undergraduates)

  22. Advisory (email) tickets by day of week

  23. Tickets raised in last 6 weeks, by queue

  24. All tickets by enquirer (%)

  25. Password changes in May, by enquirer

  26. What’s next? • New equipment to be installed over summer • Training and recruitment exercise in the autumn • Work with ITSS to develop common university policies • On support levels • On software and hardware • On building up the knowledgebase

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