Desktop Services Support Agreements

Information & Communication Services (ICS) provides central Desktop Services on behalf of the University. However, there are significant IT commitments that are the responsibility of departments and are not supported by ICS.

In recognition of this, ICS provides Support Agreements to offer Schools, departments and other units of the University an opportunity to buy in additional professional IT support to meet their responsibilities. In the University's Network Review, this approach was commended by the Review Group.

A Desktop Services Support Agreements is a standard agreement between ICS and the client School or department which details the standard services provided and the arrangements for delivering these services. Special services or arrangements required by the department may be negotiated and included in the agreement if feasible. Under the agreement, support is available throughout the University's working year (excluding Christmas closure).

The service is delivered by a team of IT Specialists and Technicians who have the appropriate skills and experience. The team has full access to the staff and other resources within ICS if a task requires additional support.

Each client School or department has a nominated contact who liaises with ICS, negotiates working arrangements and adjudicates on the priorities of the workload.

The team logs details of the support delivered to Schools and departments in the ICS Service Desk system. The nominated School or department contact will have access to this system on behalf of the School or department, and individual end-users will also have access to their incidents in the system.

The service must be self-funding so charges must cover all the costs of providing the service.

Costs are based on the support requirements, for example the number of user accounts; number of workstations; level of standardisation (support for SOE users and workstations provides excellent value); specialist software or hardware portfolio; facilities for students etc.

The agreements have different levels of support:

• Primary Pro - for users of the SOE with networked printing - excellent value for you and for the University.
• Secondary Pro - for non-SOE users and for some additional hardware and software requirements
• Custom Pro - for specialist requirements

We estimate the amount of support based on the number of staff and workstations in your department, along with any additional requirements. This can be reviewed on a regular basis and adjustments made accordingly

Additional support would be agreed within the Custom Pro level of the agreement.

The agreement provides different levels of support depending on the support category (Primary Pro, Secondary Pro etc.)

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Please contact the Service Desk for more information.

You can complete our online feedback questionnaire or use the ICS feedback form.

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