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Teaching old dogs new tricks

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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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