Future Projects
- IT Sweeps
- Improved Billing System
- New Webmail Project
- IT Academic Governance Committee
- IT Administrative Governance Committee
- IT Essentials
- UCM CROPS 3.0
Key Findings and Plans
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by many very positive comments about individuals and some IT services. However, a number of widely reported issues surfaced. Issues that were raised by only a few individuals and/or that are unique to specific requirements of particular departments will be discussed directly with those affected.
Some actions can be taken essentially immediately; others require more resources and planning. For the latter, any dates given are obligatorily approximate, depending on our achieving and maintaining full staffing as well as operational exigencies that may arrive. Still other actions will depend on future funding and staffing.
- Insufficient disk quotas
- Increase of quotas to 1 GB (Complete - June 2008)
- Lack of understanding / setup of SPAM filtering
- Move from reliance on individuals configuring SPAM filtering to central process (Complete - June 2008)
- Lack of functionality in webmail client
- New webmail client supporting HTML and other functionality to replace both the portal and independent webmail clients (Summer/Fall 2008)
Service Requests (Via Help Desk)
- Some requests seem to fall into a "black hole" with no progress or status updates
- Escalation of overdue tickets to managers(Complete - Fall 2007)
- Help Desk unable to provide status on many problems when contacted
- New online tool that allows users to check the status of their work orders from the web browser (In progress)
- Emphasis on technicians placing description of actions taken in tickets rather than simply closing them (Complete - Fall 2007)
- Many problems not reported to Help Desk per beleif that it was too much trouble with little likelihood of resolution
- "IT Sweeps"
- Desktop technicians reserving time on a regular basis to go through an area offering assistance to anyone with problems while they are there to handle problems submitted via the Help Desk (Currently ongoing)
- Large teams of IT staff offering assistance and providing information in a department or area on a pre-scheduled basis (Have begun on a limited basis)
- Simplification of communications; technicians directly contacting customers rather than using Help Desk staff as intermediaries (In progress)
- More relevant / useful information in tickets & email sent to clients (Complete - Fall 2007)
Services
- Lack of availability of training
- No solution as of yet
- More help needed in web site development
- No solution as of yet
- Macintosh support
- Commitment to train more desktop technicians in Macintosh and acquire an Apple site service agreement (Spring 2008)
- Confusion as to responsibilities for ordering hardware
- No solution as of yet
- Departmental application support uneven
- Additional staff position for supporting department and IT Windows applications
- Backfill of two long vacant UNIX and Network support positions (February 2008)
- Lead time too long for telephone moves, adds, and changes
- Inclusion of cell phone equipment and options in portal (Completed)
- Cell phone bills (and corrections in plans) way behind schedule; procurement process inadequate
- Additional administrative staff assistance to improve service times for telephone requests, cell phone billing, and other items and improve the availability of IT Operations Center manager for technical issues (temporary solution in March; funding requested for permanent position)
- CATV lacking in Library and Classroom Office buildings
- Construction of unfinished CATV infrastructure completed in Library and COB in collaboration with Physical Planning (Janurary 2008)
Communications
- Lack of general communication about IT services, projects, and priorities
- Ongoing IT column in Panorama (Started February June 2008)
- Use of UC Merced Happenings channel in portal for IT announcements and advice. Users can periodically log onto the portal or use My Preferences in the channel to request that IT announcements be sent via email when posted (Starting February 2008)
- IT web site not known about and / or expected documentation missing or out-of-date
- IT web site (it.ucmerced.edu) changes:
- Somewhat revamped to make information available along the lines of common requests rather than strictly hierarchically ( "How Do I..." completed)
- Extensive redesign of site supporting simpler access to information about services (Winter 2008)
- Thirty "How Do I.." documents brought up to date (Completed)
- Insistence that all staff members respond to email in a timely manner and keep customer updated on status (In progress; ongoing)
The basic premise was to use open-ended questions to elicit feedback that would not be bound by issues that we had already identified (information gleaned this way will help inform the creation of a more specific survey designed to yield metrics). We proposed individual or group meetings with one or two IT representatives. We opted for this interactive model as we wanted to be able to ask follow-up questions to ensure that we had a clear and specific understanding of issues raised. Although most of the Tour was conducted this way, Student Affairs preferred to distribute the questions internally, compile the responses, and then have a meeting to discuss them.
We were somewhat concerned that people might be reluctant to share overly frank viewpoints, detracting from the value of the feedback. To reduce this risk, we limited the participation of IT staff to one or two at the most in any given meeting, and tried to assign staff that did not typically interact with the individual(s) being met with. This had the added value of IT staff learning about units they might not be familiar with, and vice versa.