Contact with IT Support Services
Staff can request information or support from IT Support Services using the following methods:
- Visit: itsupport.usask.ca
- Phone Internal: 2222
- Phone External: 306-966-2222 or 1-800-966-4817 Toll Free in Canada
- Email: itsupport@usask.ca
IT Support Services staff are trained in call escalation and resolution processes and are aware of call priorities and key business issues.
ICT Core Support Hours
Many services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days week, with the exception of maintenance windows. Support for these services is more limited.
- Core support hours:
- 8:00 am–5:00 pm Monday to Friday
Core support hours exclude public and U of S holidays observed in Saskatchewan. All services in this catalogue are available and fully supported during core business hours.
Limited, best-effort support is provided for ultra-critical and emergency situations that occur outside of core hours.
Priority Levels
|
Priority |
Definition |
|
Ultra-Critical |
The Ultra-Critical Priority is reserved for the most critical situations, such as a professor having issues with AV equipment in a full classroom, or other high priority issues. It can also be applied to tickets with a broad scope of impact (i.e. entire campus or college) where the impact is to core business functions within the university. Response may involve more than one technical resource. |
|
Critical |
The Critical Priority is reserved for tickets with issues that are critical to university operations or issues that include degradation of applications/system performance or excessive disruption of services. Impact to a large community and issue affecting work at multiple locations. Time sensitive tickets can also be prioritized as critical if the impact of the issue compounds while waiting for resolution. |
|
High |
High Priority is reserved for tickets that are disrupting business or university business, and impact more than one person. An example of this would be a small, college-specific non-business-critical application not booting up. Response may involve more than one technical resource. |
|
Medium (Normal) |
Medium Priority is reserved to tickets that have a medium impact. These types of tickets would typically be for impacts to a small number of clients, may impact normal-day-to-day business with impacts that are less urgent in nature. An example of this would be the requirement for an application to be loaded to a laptop. |
|
Low |
A Low Priority assignment is given to those tickets that are low in urgency, with little impact to the client. These tickets typically impact only one or a few users. An example of a low ticket would be a request for a mouse, or assistance with password reset in a non-urgent situation. |
Service Levels - Response and Resolution Times
Core Business Hours - ICT will achieve the following service levels. Core Business Hours are defined in above.
|
Priority |
Ultra- Critical |
Critical |
High |
Medium |
Low |
|
Response Time |
5 minutes |
5 minutes |
1 hour |
2 hours |
1 business day |
|
Resolution Time |
As soon as possible. 30 minutes |
As soon as possible. 4 hours |
1 business day |
2 business days |
5 business days |
After Hours - ICT will achieve the following service levels.
|
Measure |
Ultra-Critical |
Critical |
High |
Medium |
Low |
|
Response Time |
1 hour |
1 hour |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Resolution Time |
Best endeavours |
Best endeavours |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Resolution time is the time taken from logging a call in the request tracking system, to the restoration of the service.
Note: Where the resolution is dependent on the services of an external provider, ICT will ensure that resolution by an external provider is not unreasonably delayed.
Performance Measures
The following tables outline the performance measures to be achieved by ICT in the delivery of IT support services.
|
Performance Measure |
Performance Target |
|
Call Management |
|
|
Incident Management |
|
|
Customer Satisfaction |
|
IT Support Services Service Level Objectives
Guiding Principles
The Colleges and IT Support Services enter into this partnership based upon the following principles:
- Mutual benefit – This partnership will benefit IT Support Services and the Colleges, with all parties identifying areas of mutual interest and opportunities to further improve the relationship and services provided.
- Client and service focused – IT Support Services and the Colleges provide services to the greater university community and will strive, through this partnership, to improve the overall experience for shared clients and stakeholders.
- Collaborative – Effective service delivery will require IT Support Services and the Colleges to work closely and collaboratively to balance priorities with available resources.
- Innovative – Enhance best practices from both IT Support Services and the Colleges to foster an environment for innovation.
- Timely and transparent communications – To ensure success, IT Support Services and the Colleges will need to share relevant information in an open and timely manner. This will inform planning activities and ensure that resources are used effectively to achieve the priorities of both parties.
Service Level Objectives
SLO’s define the experience ICT’s customers will have with our support services.
|
ICT SLO Goals – University Wide |
|||
|
Name |
Metric |
Value/Purpose |
ICT Goal |
|
Customer Satisfaction |
Survey |
Customer Survey scores give us feedback on how a request went. Currently rated on a 5 Star Method. |
Score a minimum of 4.5 in 5 star method.
|
|
Re-opened tickets |
How often tickets are re-opened |
Track how often tickets are re-opened. Frustration can arise when the same incident or request does not have a permanent fix. |
Less than 3% of tickets re-opened |
|
Time to First Triage Response |
How quickly IT Support responds to a request |
This metric will help determine wait times for our customers. Shorter wait times will improve the experience with support (add more details) |
90 Minutes or less |
|
Service Outage Communication |
Time between outage and communication |
When technology outages occur, how quickly can ICT communicate to the university? Communicating and keep our customers up to date will reduce frustrations and confusion.(Tie to Rachels project) |
60 Minutes or Less
|
|
Information provided |
KB articles shared |
Providing clients with additional resources to further explain the resolution. |
35% of tickets with at least 1 article shared (To climb over time) |
Incidents
|
Request Type |
Description |
Triage Response Time |
Target Resolution Time |
Examples |
|
Classroom Blocker Incident |
Based on a 4263 Call to report technology problem with a On Campus Classroom while class is in progress, or about to start |
<1 Minute (4263 call) |
15 Minutes |
|
|
Critical Classroom Incident |
4263 Call – Classroom IT or AV Equipment is not functioning as expected – Class is not severely impacted |
<1 Minute (4263 Call) |
60 Minutes |
***Faculty has found a work around |
|
Critical IT Incident |
Multiple Clients across campus report that they are unable to perform their job due to a technology issue |
20 Minutes |
60 Minutes |
|
|
Major IT Incident |
Clients work is impeded by a degradation of services. Still able to perform some job tasks. |
90 minutes |
4 hours |
|
|
Minor IT Incident |
Clients work is slightly affected, |
90 Minutes |
12 Hours |
|
*Service Levels are measured against ICT Core Business Hours (8:00am – 5:00pm)
Service Requests
Service Requests
|
Request Type |
Target Response & Acknowledgement Time |
Target Fulfilment Time* |
Examples
|
|
Routine |
90 minutes |
3 Business Days |
|
|
Scheduled Setup |
90 Minutes |
7 business days |
|
|
Deployment |
90 Minutes |
10 Business Days |
|
|
Asset Disposal/Surplus |
90 Minutes |
30 business days |
|
**Service Levels are measured against ICT Core Business Hours (8:00am – 5:00pm). Tickets that need more information from the customer for fulfilment may be closed if there is no response after three client contact attempts (e.g. email sent, left a voicemail)
Incident vs Service Request
Service Request: A formal request from a user for something to be provided – for example, a request for information or advice; to reset a password; or to install a workstation for a new user.
Service requests are managed by the request fulfilment process, usually in conjunction with the service desk. Service requests may be linked to a request for change as part of fulfilling the request.
Incident: An unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service. Failure of a configuration item that has not yet affected service is also an incident – for example, client’s computer is not working correctly.
An incident is system focused while a service request is client focused. If a client is not able to perform some action because either our system is not functioning correctly, or their computer is not working correctly then it is an incident.
Appendix A - Modes of Request Intake
Preferred Methods (in order):
Portal – https://itsupport.usask.ca or IT Support Channel in PAWS
Search our knowledge base to potentially find answers to your questions.
There are general and specific request forms that ensure all the essential information we need is collected up front to cut down on any back and forth to capture the missing info.
Specific request forms will often direct the request to the correct team right away which lessens the time to complete your request.
The portal is great to look at the progress of your tickets but to also add comments to communicate with the person on our team that is helping you out.
The portal is also accessible from any smartphone or any network enabled device.
Email – itsupport@usask.ca
Critical Classroom Support – x4263 – support for when classes are in progress and issues arise with the technology, this includes WebEx related issues that impact the teaching experience.
Voicemail – General IT Support x 2222 – This number can be called for urgent, or non urgent issues – A voicemail will be created, and the Triage team will respond as needed based on the reported issue.
Walk -in Support – Murray Library