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Service Level Agreement

Service Level Agreements

General Overview

This is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the campus community and Woodbridge Campus Information Technology Support Department

  • The technology services IT provides to the campus.
  • The general levels of response, availability, and maintenance associated with these services.
  • The responsibilities of IT as a provider of these services and of customers receiving services.
  • Processes for requesting services.

IT and Campus SLA

Service Description

Service Scope

The IT SLA

  • Defines a general level of predictability for ITS communication and services.
  • Reflects how ITS does business today and the direction ITS is heading.
  • References the ITS Service Catalog for clear service-level descriptions.
  • Describes how work will be prioritized, response times for service requests, and outage notification process.
  • Includes reporting on service levels.

Assumptions

  • Services, access to services, and accountability measures provided by IT are clearly documented in the ITS Service Catalog. The ITS Service Catalog is continually updated to provide service information regarding what services are offered, how to request services, how to get help for services, and how much services cost.
  • Outages to services are communicated and documented to all stakeholders via the Change Management process.
  • Services are provided in adherence to any related policies, processes, and procedures. See the ITS Service Catalog for policies related to a service.

Roles and Responsibilities

Parties

The following Principal Officers are parties to the Agreement

Rachel Overbey, Woodbridge Campus IT Manager

ITS Responsibilities

Responsibilities and/or requirements of ITS in support of this Agreement include:

  • Meeting service delivery commitments outlined in the ITS Service Catalog.
  • Meeting response times associated with the priority assigned to incidents and due dates of service requests.
  • ITS implements defined processes to meet service level commitments.

Customer Responsibilities

Customer responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

  • Using the defined processes for requesting help and services.
  • Notifying ITS of forthcoming local events with ITS dependencies. Customers can use the phone (703.878.5872) email (ithelpdesk@nvcc.edu) or online ticket system (IT Request) to contact ITS with IT-related dependencies for local events.
  • Responding to inquiries from ITS staff who are resolving incidents and handling service requests.
  • Complying with the campus, College, and VCCS IT and security policies, available at NOVA Information Technology Policies. 

Education Level of Personnel

  • All IT Staff shall work towards Associate Degree, A+ Certification, or show equivalent work experience.
  • All IT Staff shall become proficient in MS Office and Windows Operating System Platforms.
  • All IT Staff shall become proficient in Mac OS X Operating Systems.
  • The IT Manager should have an M.S. degree in an appropriate field and/or maintain proficiency through coursework and professional development opportunities.

Disaster Planning

A list of vendor contacts on the campus shall be maintained in order to notify them by phone in the event of a network failure.

A list of Woodbridge IT Staff contact information, including home phone and cellular phone numbers, shall be maintained for ease of communication during an emergency.

Requesting Help and Service

A customer may request help or service from IS for a service published in the ITS Service Catalog. There are six methods of contacting IT for help or service requests.

Online / IT Request

By utilizing the web, your help or service request will be automatically associated with your division and visible to technicians. Using IT Request via the web interface is the most efficient method to log and process help or service requests.

Phone (703.426.4141 / ext. 24141 or IT Campus Emergency 703.878.5872 )

Phone service is available during regular business hours of operation, M-F 8 am to 8 pm or Saturdays from 8:30 am – 2 pm. Messages left during off-hours will be processed the next business day.

Email

Email or service requests sent to ithelpdesk@nvcc.edu will be processed during regular business hours, M-F 8 am to 5 pm. The IT Request ticket system tracks inquiries, incidents, and service requests emailed to ithelpdesk@nvcc.edu

In-Person

In-person service is available during regular business hours on campus in the WS Building Room 334, 336 A, B, or C, M-F 8 AM to 8 PM. Individual service pages may indicate additional in-person locations or hours for that specific service.

Hours of Coverage, Response Times and Escalation

For all help requests, the ITS goal is to have a staff member assigned and acknowledge requests within 24 business hours of receipt. Campus priorities may require exceptions to this goal during certain times of the academic year.

Hours of Coverage

  • The Support Center business hours are M-F 8 AM to 8 PM, excluding federal holiday, university holidays, and campus closures. Customers may use any of the methods of contact as stated in Section 4.
  • Tickets can be entered via the web interface or sent via email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and are processed on the next business day. Using IT Request via the web interface is the most efficient method to log and process service requests and incidents.

Response

For all help requests, the ITS goal is to assign and acknowledge them within 24 -48 business hours of receipt. Service requests have varying response times and due dates.

Prioritization

If you consider your help\service request urgent, contact WO IT at 703-878-5872 or ext 55872. An urgent example includes reporting a service outage or reporting an impact on instruction.

For reference, IT has a set of criteria to prioritize an incident as urgent based on a global campus view of IT needs. IT prioritizes incoming incidents as “urgent” priority if it meets any one of the following criteria:

  • Significant risk to life and safety.
  • Significant impact on the delivery of instruction.
    • Computer(s) will not boot up (turn on) there is no power going to the computer
    • No Internet
    • Phone not working
    • Printer not working or No one is able to print in the lab
    • Instructors computer has no sound
    • There is no power in your classroom or lab
    • Instructors computer has a virus
  • Significant or lasting impact on student academic performance.
  • Significant risk to law, rule, or policy compliance.
  • Academic and Administrative Calendar deadlines.
  • A significant number of people are affected.
    • Organizational structure is a multiplier for the number of people affected.
  • Percentage of total tasks that can no longer be performed by individuals.

If there is a problem with a computer in class and there are other open stations for the students to use please move the student and submit a ticket to IT HELPDESK: ithelpdesk@nvcc.edu  or 703.426.4141. Please provide detailed information about the problem and the computer number.

Escalation

If you are not satisfied with the level of service on a help or service request, contact the IT Manager, or Dean Kathy Bohnstedt.

ITS Maintenance

IT-related service outages and planned maintenance are necessary every semester.
We make every effort to communicate service outages and changes to the campus as necessary. Off-hours service failures are communicated the following business day.

There are two categories of service outages:

  • Planned Outages or Updates: A planned service outage is work that is planned and scheduled. The ITS Communication Manager communicates (as needed) to the appropriate audience.
  • Unplanned Outages or Updates: An unplanned service outage is a work that is unplanned due to an unforeseen event or urgent repair to prevent failure. Unplanned service outages are given priority (and communicated immediately) on a case-by-case basis depending on the type and urgency of the service failure. ITS responds to off-hours unplanned outages of an urgent nature using a service disruption escalation process. 

Guidelines for IT Maintenance Windows

A maintenance window is a defined period of time during which planned outages\updates and changes to production services and systems may occur. Production means college\campus staff, faculty, and students depend on the service to complete their business and academic tasks and objectives. The purpose of defining standard maintenance windows is to allow clients of the service to prepare for possible disruption or changes.

IT Plans system upgrades and updates outside of normal class schedules when possible. IT attempts to setup office computers and upgrades at a schedule that best suits our faculty and staff. We make every effort to be flexible when possible but when we are under a project deadline or we receive no response we are required to proceed.

Under cases of emergency, IT might be required to run patches and updates on computers as required by College IT Policy. All faculty and staff are required to adhere and comply with all policies and procedures.

Guidelines for IT Computer and Office Moves

Request for Office Moves must be submitted at least 3 weeks in advance of the move is before a semester begins, and at least 1 week during any other times unless it is deemed an emergency.

All office moves must be in the form of a ticket, which should be sent to ithelpdesk@nvcc.edu and IT Manager should be CC’d on the request. 

The request must contain the following:

  1. Names of Individuals Moving
  2. Locations they are moving from and to (Please include building along with office number)
  3. Phone extensions
  4. If they are in a shared office, all equipment should be labeled so that we know we are moving the correct equipment.

*** Faculty\Staff are not allowed to move any IT Equipment on their own, all IT Equipment must be moved by IT. This includes Monitors, Computers, Printers, Telephones, etc…

New Employee Procedures

When a new employee is hired a ticket needs to be put in with ithelpdesk@nvcc.eduimmediately, letting IT know the following:

  1. New Employee’s Name
  2. The Expected Start Date
  3. Full-Time
  4. P-14
  5. Is a phone currently in the office location?
  6. If yes, what is the current extension?
  7. If no, will a new phone be needed? (If so, please indicate this on the 105-45e, so that one can be sent for the employee)
  8. Network Devices Drives Needed
  9. Room Location
  10. Is this an existing position?
  11. Is this a new position?
  12. If an existing position, who held the position before them?
  13. Did this person transfer from another campus?
  14. If so, which campus did they transfer from, and did they bring any equipment with them? 

** Employees who have laptops that are transferring to another campus are able to take their laptops, however, we must know when people are transferring in and out of the campus so we can keep track of our IT equipment. Positions that are going to be re-filled will need a computer, we cannot guarantee a laptop is available for re-filling positions if a laptop was transferred to another campus with the employee.

This decision should be made by IT and the Department Supervisor/Manager. 

Laptop Request or Desktop Request

If someone has a desktop and now wants a laptop, they have to wait until their refresh cycle. IT no longer has spare laptops, for these types of situations and vice versa for desktop requests. 

*** Please remember we need at least a week’s notice for new employee computer equipment setup. In addition, it is not guaranteed that a new employee will receive a laptop. New employees receive equipment that we currently have available. 

Classroom and Lab Policies and Procedures

ALL CLASSROOM & LAB REQUEST REQUIRE A HELPDESK TICKET

  1. If new versions of software require hardware upgrades, the IT Manager will provide recommendations to the Division Dean in writing, so that the Division has time to decide whether they want to upgrade at that time or wait for additional funds.
  2. If an Instructor requires additional files and/or programs other than what is already loaded (ex. files downloaded from the Internet), he/she needs to submit their request in writing to the IT Manager. If the computers in the requested lab meet all constraints then the request will be honored.  If a license is required to load the software, the Instructor will be responsible for contacting their Division Dean to secure the license, before the additional software is loaded.
  3. Instructors are to notify the campus IT Manager of any network security software and/or tools they will be loading above and beyond what the PC already has installed by IT. This is due to the fact that many “Security” tools are not 100% trustworthy, and even those that are can cause disruption in many forms. That being the case, any tools, utilities, and/or software above and beyond what the campus IT department has installed, must be approved by the campus IT Manager and the college Information Security Officer, before an Instructor can install them.  In addition, such “dual-use” Information Security tools, software, and utilities will only be allowed on an isolated LAN with no internet or NOVA network access.
  4. Students shall save all work onto a thumb drive and not onto the hard drive. IT is not responsible for any lost work due to maintenance, hard drive failure, or computer updates.
  5. Students shall be supervised during the whole duration of the class.
  6. Students are not allowed in computer labs without an Instructor.
  7. Each Instructor will be required to turn off all computers, projectors, and TVs at the end of their classes regardless of the time.

Software Installation Request

Requests for software installation in Computer Labs and Classrooms must be made at least two weeks in advance of the first day the software is needed. This is to allow adequate time for testing and distribution to the computers on campus. All request must be made in the form of an IT help desk ticket and include the following information:

  • Contact Name
  • Contact’s Phone Number
  • Software installation media type and a web link if applicable, or the software must be dropped off to IT.
  • Software installation instructions, if there is a special configuration needed
  • Lab or classroom the software needs to be installed in, and Library if the software will need to be installed in that location.

SLA Review & Compliance Procedures

The Woodbridge IT Staff Support Services SLA is valid from 1/22/19 to 1/22/20 and it is subject to review each semester.

The Woodbridge Campus IT Manager is responsible for issues relating to this SLA and may be contacted at 703.878.5728 or Kathy Bohnstedt. Issues not resolved by the IT Manager will be escalated in turn to the Dean of Learning & Technology Resources. 

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