Technology support is provided by the IT&S Help Desk to customers on a wide array of technical issues including infrastructure, applications, telecommunications, mobile devices, desktops/laptops, peripheral devices and software. Technology support is organized into three tiers:
Level 1 Support:
School-Based Support: An individual, located at each school is the first level of support for school-based employees and students. If the school based individual cannot resolve the issue, they escalate the issue be either Phone or the Online Kace Ticket system to the Service Desk. The Service Desk is maned, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, most issues are resolved quickly by the phone agents, and the others are assigned to Level 2 or 3 support within IT&S.
All employees can submit tickets via the Internet, to report an incident (Online Kace Ticket System) or request service (under construction). The IT Service Desk staff processes all requests and if not resolved within Level I, escalated to the appropriate Level 2 or 3 group.
Level 2 Support:
The Workstation Support Group: Handles desktop, audio visual, printer and other peripheral device support as assigned either remotely or at the customer’s location.
Workstation Support may seek the assistance of 3rd partys to assist with various desktop, laptop, and printer warranty work , but retains ownership of the assign ticket.
The Networking Group: Handles network infrastructure issues. They troubleshoot switches, network drops, routers and other network hardware, both wired and wireless.
If any incident is not resolved within Level 2, the issue is escalated to the appropriate Level 3 support group.
Level 3 Support:
Information Management Services: Handles level 3 incidents, which include server, host security, and applications support. Application support includes NextGen, Edulog, Student Information System (STI), Time and Attendance, Destiny, and other custom applications.
Unified Support Strategy
The IT&S Help Desk is the hub of support for technology related issues. However, there are areas within the District that maintain their own technical support specialists. These specialists often resolve issues independent of the IT&S Help Desk. This has resulted in disparate work order systems and decentralized support processes. Our goal is a unified support architecture that identifies the support areas, with consistent processes for support/service requests, clearly defined responsibilities of support specialists, centralized catalog of technology services, and standard escalation processes.
The transition to a unified support strategy will require the implementation of a centralized IT&S Service Management Process, with the IT&S Help Desk as the Single Point of Contact for all technical issues. District employees will use this Process to route incident or service requests directly to the appropriate support group.
With increased participation in the centralized ITSM process, improvements can be made in incident tracking. Capturing metrics on incidents can transition support from reactive to proactive. Integrating the ITSM process with the Incident, Problem, and Change Management systems can result in increased efficiencies in issue resolution.
A centralized Service Catalog is under construction that specifies the technology services that are available to customers, and how to request those services.
Ongoing professional development for Technical Support Personel is critical for successful support processes. Support systems must be agile to adapt to new technologies and ever increasing demand. The IT Help Desk and school based Technical Support Specialists require training in new technologies and applications as they are introduced into the District.
Network Management
Support of end users in the classroom will continue to improved. New monitoring procedures will allow correlation between network, internet, applications and other systems to expedite resolution time for network issues. Active monitoring of the quality of service at each site will provide proactive alerts for technology issues in the classroom before impacting instruction. Examples of new monitoring will include:
- Monitoring of all internet access on a per site basis that will incorporate applications listening for connections on designated ports and monitoring available drive space
- Application transaction monitoring running timed synthetic transactions to various applications to identify performance issues before noticed by the end user
Equipment Maintenance and Replacement
District technology equipment is standardized to minimize support complexity. As we continue to deploy VDI, end user downtime will be minimized. Failing hard drives, frozen CPU Fans, and dead CMOS Batteries will decrease. Centralized deployment of applications via our datacenter host will continue to provide enhanced methods of managing software and hardware updates, patches and overall fleet management.