Brown University Service Level Agreement
University SLA | Help Desk Homepage
Computing & Information Services Help Desk and Biology & Medicine Computer Services Office for The Division of Biology and Medicine
Revised 6/21/11
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Service Level Agreement Period: This agreement will be effective from July 1, 2011 until superseded.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) or Information Technology Support Consultants (ITSC’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 ) onsite visits for Biomed users unless authorized by the CSO.
Section 2 – Product and Service
CIS Help Desk Contact Information
Updated contact information for the CIS Help Desk can always be found at our Help Desk Main site located here: http://www.brown.edu/cis/support/help_desk/
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
When receiving a request from a Biomed user, the CIS Help Desk representative will create a Remedy ticket if there is any significant interaction or exchange of information between the user and the Help Desk. 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 services.
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 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 (with the exception of peak support periods or during a network outage – at that time while we aim for one business day it may be within a 48 hour business day period. 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 IT Support 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 IT Support Services:
_______________________date______
Appendix A—Biomed IT Support Resources by Department
The Biomed Division has faculty and staff at a variety of on- and off-campus locations, and support resources vary. Please consult this table for the correct support contact for a particular user. Please remember that the CIS Help Desk still provides 1st-level support for Brown-supported services and software regardless of the support resource listed.
Biomed CSO contact information:
Email: biomed_cso@brown.edu
Phone: 3-2464
Remedy Group: Biomed_CSO
Department |
Support Resource |
Administration |
Biomed CSO |
Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Center for |
Ricardo Smith |
Animal Care Facility |
Biomed CSO |
Behavioral and Social Sciences |
Michael Gallino2 |
Biostatistics |
Michael Gallino2 |
Brain Science, Brown Institute for |
Scott Lessard2 |
Center for Environmental Studies (CES)1 |
Biomed CSO |
Community Health (deprecated) |
Biomed CSO |
Community Health Promotion, Institute for (ICHP) |
Michael Gallino2 |
Dermatology |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Development |
Advancement Information Services |
Diagnostic Imaging |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) |
Biomed CSO |
Emergency Medicine |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Environmental Change Initiative (ECI)1 |
Biomed CSO |
Environmental Health and Technology, Center for |
Biomed CSO |
Epidemiology |
Robert Medeiros |
Facilities Planning and Operations |
Biomed CSO |
Family Medicine |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Gerontology and Health Care Research, Center for |
Michael Gallino2,3, Jeffrey Hiris3 |
Health Services Policy and Practice |
Michael Gallino2 |
Medical Affairs |
Biomed CSO |
Medical Education |
Ronald McKay2 |
Medicine |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCB) |
Biomed CSO |
Molecular Microbiology & Immunology (MMI) |
Biomed CSO |
Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology & Biotechnology (MPPB) |
Biomed CSO |
Neurology |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Neuroscience |
Scott Lessard2 |
Neurosurgery |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Obstetrics and Gynecology |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Orthopaedics |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (off campus) |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (on campus) |
Biomed CSO |
Pediatrics |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Population Health and Clinical Epidemiology, Center for |
Robert Medeiros |
Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Note: Support for Butler Hospital-based faculty is provided by Natalya Philibert) |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Radiation Oncology |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Statistical Sciences, Center for |
Paul Koussa and staff |
Surgery |
End-User’s facility IT staff (see below) |
Undergraduate Academic Affairs |
Biomed CSO |
1 Not technically part of Biomed, but should be treated as a Biomed department for the purposes of this document.
2 Gallino, Lessard, and McKay are members of the Biomed CSO staff. Contact Biomed CSO if they are unavailable and there is an urgent request.
3 Gallino provides desktop computer support; Hiris provides server-side support.
External Facility IT Contacts
Bradley Hospital |
Lifespan IT Help Desk (401) 444-6381 |
Butler Hospital |
Care New England IT Help Desk (401) 921-1000 |
Memorial Hospital Of RI |
Memorial Hospital Computer Room (401) 729-3630 |
The Miriam Hospital |
Lifespan IT Help Desk (401) 444-6381 |
Rhode Island Hospital |
Lifespan IT Help Desk (401) 444-6381 |
VA Medical Center |
VA IT Help Desk (401) 273-7100 Ext. 3544 |
Women & Infants Hospital |
Care New England IT Help Desk (401) 921-1000 |