Brown University
Service Level Agreement
Computing & Information Services Help Desk
and
Biology & Medicine Computer Services Office
for
The Division of Biology and Medicine
Revised 11/5/08
Section 1 – General Information
This service level agreement has been written to define the working arrangements between the Computing & Information Services Help Desk (CIS Help Desk) and the Division of Biology and Medicine Computer Services Office (Biomed CSO). It sets forth the service levels that the Help Desk in conjunction with the Biomed CSO will deliver to its customers, and describes the processes that are used when a request for information or assistance is submitted to the CIS Help Desk or the Biomed CSO.
Service Level Agreement Period: This agreement will be effective from November 5, 2008 until superseded. It will be reviewed annually.
Parties Involved: CIS Help Desk, Biomed CSO, Computing and Information Services,
and Biomed Employees
The Brown University CIS Help Desk is a technical support team that provides prompt, knowledgeable, courteous desktop computing support services over the phone, in person, and via email, to the Brown community. The Help Desk resolves approximately 80% of all incoming issues independently. If we cannot resolve an issue we escalate your inquiry to another unit or do our best to provide alternative referrals or resources. If the problem or request concerns an unsupported operating system, hardware, software or service, we will do our best to suggest other avenues of support.
The Division of Biology and Medicine Computer Services Office (CSO) serves the majority of the Division, including most on-campus Biology and Medicine departments, faculty and staff. (A list of the specific departments and locations serviced appears as Appendix A.) It addresses all issues typically handled by Departmental Computing Coordinators (DCC’s) in other university departments, and is the primary source of desktop computer support for the Division. The CSO generally provides any onsite services required for campus-based Biomed departments. The Help Desk should not set up Service on Site (SOS) visits for Biomed users unless authorized by the CSO.
Section 2 – Product and Service
CIS Help Desk Contact Information
Please refer to the Help Desk’s University wide Service Level Agreement for details. In accordance with that Agreement, requests made by Biomed CSO to the CIS Help Desk via voicemail, email, or Remedy ticket will be acknowledged within three hours.
Biomed CSO Contact Information
The Biomed CSO may be contacted by calling 401-863-2464 or by sending email to Biomed_cso@brown.edu.
The Biomed CSO web page is available at: http://biomed.brown.edu/cso/
The Biomed CSO is open during the University standard business hours; however it is not always physically occupied. Voicemails left by the CIS Help Desk at the CSO main phone number (3-2464) will be returned within three hours. Contacts via email or Remedy ticket will also be acknowledged within three business hours.
After Hours Problem Reporting
Biomed users may report after-hours problems to the Help Desk, which will create a ticket subject to the problem-specific procedures described below and assign it to the Biomed CSO
Holiday/Recess Emergency Support
Biomed users may report problems that occur during a holiday or recess period to the Help Desk, which will create a ticket subject to the problem-specific procedures described below and assign it to the Biomed CSO
General Ticket Issuance Procedures
The CIS Help Desk will always assign newly-created tickets to the Remedy group “Biomed_CSO”. Biomed CSO will assign newly-created tickets to the Help Desk Remedy group. Ticket reassignments will be made to a group or individual as appropriate. All significant resolution activities and interactions with the user will be added to the ticket detail. Tickets which are erroneously assigned (e.g. by the CIS Help Desk to Biomed CSO for a user who is not in a CSO-supported department) will be assigned back to the originator with an explanation in the ticket detail.
The Biomed CSO will have the ability to update all Remedy tickets in the HD schema, but will update only tickets related to Biomed personnel.
Software Support
Software Installation and configuration:
Requests from Biomed Users in the departments listed in Appendix A for assistance with installing and configuring desktop software will be serviced by Biomed CSO. If these requests come to the CIS Help Desk, one of the staff members will create a Remedy ticket and assign it to Biomed CSO for service.
Software Use:
The CIS Help Desk will serve as the first level of support for Biomed users with questions about use of university-supported software. It will only assign a Remedy ticket to Biomed CSO for these types of requests if an on-site visit is needed.
Hardware Support
Biomed CSO triages potential hardware problems and does minor repair work. It refers users to CIS Service and Repair for major work, but often performs data recovery on non-bootable machines first. CIS Help Desk Representatives may exercise their own judgment in determining whether to assign a hardware support ticket to Biomed CSO, or to refer the user directly to Service and Repair.
Networking Support
Biomed CSO serves as the next support tier for localized network issues that the Help Desk representative cannot resolve. The CIS Help Desk should assign a Remedy ticket to Biomed CSO for these issues. Biomed CSO, in turn, will resolve the problem if it exists within the client device, or re-assign the ticket to the appropriate CIS group if it exists within the network itself or within other CIS-managed facilities.
Network outages that are clearly generalized should be assigned directly to the appropriate CIS group, rather than Biomed CSO.
VPN and wireless networking issues should be resolved by the CIS Help Desk unless an onsite visit is required and the user is in one of the Biomed CSO-supported departments listed in Appendix A. Tickets for users in other Biomed departments who are capable of bringing their computers to campus during business hours can also be assigned to Biomed CSO.
Biomed CSO maintains the authoritative list of Netware print queues, IP addresses (within CIS-designated subnet ranges), and DNS assignments for the Biomed division. Any user requests for maintenance of these items should be assigned to Biomed CSO. It will process the request and re-assign the ticket as needed to the appropriate CIS group for implementation.
Quality of Service Measures
When a user opens a ticket with the CIS Help Desk and the ticket is assigned to Biomed CSO, Biomed CSO will initiate contact with the user within three business hours. When feasible, Biomed CSO will close tickets within two business days.
When Biomed CSO assigns a ticket to the CIS Help Desk, the Help Desk will initiate contact with the user (if necessary) within one business day. The CIS Help Desk will close tickets within two business days for routine maintenance requests, and will attempt to do so within two business days for troubleshooting requests.
The CIS Help Desk will process requests for ticket maintenance which the Biomed CSO cannot perform directly within one business day.
If the above service level goals are missed by either party 25% or more of the time in two sequential months, the Biomed Director of Information Technology and CIS Director of User Services will jointly develop a Recovery Plan. In addition, if more than five tickets in one month are processed in a manner inconsistent with this SLA (e.g. erroneous assignments), the parties will develop a Recovery Plan. This plan will document operational process improvements that the applicable party will take to enable it to increase the service levels to agreed upon standards within ninety (90) days.
Approved by Biomed Director of Information Technology:
_____________________date_______
Approved by CIS Director of User Services:
_______________________date______
Appendix A—Departments and Locations Supported by Biomed CSO
The following Biomed departments are considered on-campus. Users calling from these departments receive full support from Biomed CSO, including on-site visits, as described in Section 2 of this SLA. The CIS Help Desk still provides 1st-level support for Brown-supported services and software.
- Animal Care Facility
- Business Affairs
- Center for Environmental Health and Technology
- Center for Environmental Studies (CES)*
- Center for Population Health & Clinical Epidemiology
- Community Health
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
- Environmental Change Initiative (ECI)*
- Facilities Planning and Operations
- Institute for Brain Science
- Medical Affairs
- Medical Education
- Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCB)
- Molecular Microbiology & Immunology (MMI)
- Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology & Biotechnology (MPPB)
- Neuroscience (not Clinical Neurosciences—see below)
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (on campus only—see below)
- Undergraduate Academic Affairs
* Not technically part of Biomed, but should be treated as a Biomed department for the purposes of this document.
The following department contains staff and faculty located both on- and off-campus. Biomed CSO provides full support only those who are on-campus (including the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine at 70 Ship Street)
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Pathology faculty at the following facilities are considered off-campus. They receive their primary IT support from non-Brown resources. The CIS Help Desk should provide support with regard to use of Brown electronic services. All other support requests should be referred back to the primary support resource for the user’s facility. Biomed CSO should be consulted directly by the CIS Help Desk representative when the proper way to handle a specific request is unclear.
MEMORIAL HOSPITAL OF RI |
MIRIAM HOSPITAL |
RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL |
ROGER WILLIAMS MED CENTER |
THE MIRIAM HOSPITAL |
VA MEDICAL CENTER |
WOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL |
The following Biomed Departments and Centers have independent IT support resources that are not part of Biomed CSO.
- Center for Alcohol and Addiction (Supported by Ricardo Smith)
- Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research (Supported by Robert Medeiros and staff)
- Center for Statistical Sciences (Supported by Paul Koussa and staff)
- Development Office (Supported by Jeffrey Pierce and Staff)
- Institute of Community Health Promotion (Supported by David Upegui)
The following departments exclusively contain staff located off-campus. They receive their primary IT support from non-Brown resources. The CIS Help Desk should provide support with regard to use of Brown electronic services. All other support requests should be referred back to the primary support resource for the user’s facility. Biomed CSO should be consulted directly by the CIS Help Desk representative when the proper way to handle a specific request is unclear.
- Clinical Neurosciences
- Dermatology
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- Medicine
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Orthopaedics
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Note: Support for Butler Hospital-based faculty is provided by Natalya Philibert)
- Radiation Oncology
- Surgery