Client Support and the Key Services Provided together with Standards - Assignment Example

Client Support, Assessments 1-3-4 Name: Number: Course: Lecturer: Date: Service Level Agreement for IT Services The main aim of this service level agreement is to give better, reliable and quality services to employees with regard to desktop user support. Its purpose is therefore elucidating more on the crucial services that are provided by the IT department and the agreed upon standards with our users with regard to service delivery. This document spells out the services that we provide the ultimate goals in service provision and a mode for solving problems that relate to service delivery. Service objectives The first objective is to manage and developing a safer, high performance and resilient network for both voice and data access second is to offer a set of main IT services that are current, easy to use, and secure and conform to user demands. The main services include email, authorization and authentication, general purpose application software’s, data backups and storage, virus and anti-spam protection, and lastly giving advice, user training, and help in all the IT areas services. Service Availability In case of support need employees should attempt to contact the IT helpdesk at the first instance then from there they will refer them to various places for support. IT Helpdesk Email: ithelpdesk@sga.com Website: www.sga.com Tel: +45 5423 6478 Open weekdays from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Preview of the key services provided together with standards Helpdesk The major and central area in the IT department is the helpdesk which is the first instance of contact for all employee enquiries. The helpdesk staff will always attempt to resolve employee queries on the spot or in other case refer the employees to the respective IT group support teams. In cases where the helpdesk staff is busy their functions will be supplemented by some other technical staff from within the IT group. A part from addressing employee enquiries, the helpdesk also gives licensed computer software’s, provides compact disks together with universal serial bus drives, offers training sessions for employees and avail other devices such as scanners and portable hardware materials. The helpdesk do also provide networked printers to fit employee tasks. User Account Provisioning The IT group is also in charge of user account provisioning for the various restricted computing systems. Employees are automatically provided with accounts when they are hired at the company the accounts also come with default user passwords which employees are required to change them during their first logins. User Liaison The IT group also liaises with the company community such as the other two branches one in Parramatta and the other in Canberra so as to obtain employee feedback on the best IT strategies, changes in services and its quality. The IT group holds annual surveys directed towards user satisfaction while the feedbacks obtained via the helpdesk are also factored into analyses and appropriate measures taken to better this as much as possible service. Training The IT group also has a wide range of employee training resources aimed at providing all users relevant information and a little experience with regard to the use of the available computing systems. Occasional workshops and personal training sessions will be conducted to enhance employee knowledge on the above areas. Application Software The IT group is also in charge of maintenance, software packages provision together with its supply. The major application software’s are first general software which include application software’s that are in use within the company such as the Microsoft office suite, pdf readers, Dreamweaver software’s its goal is to give maximum support in every aspect of the application software’s in use. The other type of software includes specialist software’s which are of course used rarely within the company such as statistical packages, and web browsers. General Desktop Support to other departments The IT group does also undertake procurement, installation and support for desktop computing equipment together with other hardware materials for the employees thus facilitating the use of office software products though it mainly supports applications that run on Microsoft windows environments. Systems Administration The IT group is in charge of operation together with development of information technology related tasks as per professional standards. The major administrative tasks include desktop operating systems, Linux operating systems and lastly windows active directory facilities for Microsoft. Employees are required to The should at least be aware of and comply to all policies of the company in regard to computing policies, strictly adhere to the conditions and terms of license agreements that relate to computer software use, thoroughly go through the available documentations or in cases where there are no documentations consult the IT department, acquaint themselves with the stipulated mechanism to report problems and getting support, always keep updated with the IT announcements or new changes and lastly disclose substantial information to the helpdesk when reporting faults such as the location of the equipment together with its identification. General expectations and standards of services The main expectations include aiming at resolving disruptions that affect major services within the shortest possible time, keeping service disruptions caused by scheduled outages for important upgrades, and administration of systems less, ensure that employees are aware of service issues at all times, involve employees in new advancements and changes to services, service issues reported via the helpdesk will be acknowledged and dealt with accordingly, all those employees requesting advice will be addressed within three working days from the date that the request is received or in exceptional cases handled according to a scheduled agreed with the person making the request and lastly all major repairs will be scheduled to happen during holidays or during vacations to reduce its effects on the employee activities. Success Monitoring The It department will use the following ways to track performance First is provision of yearly progress reports against the set objectives in the agreement, conduct user satisfaction surveys annually the analyze the outcomes in relation to improvement of services, obtain feedbacks from employees regarding the provided services and lastly intra-department reviews with the aim of optimizing services provided. Part B No Item Cost Hardware and network tools $100.00 Training $40.00 Salaries $80.00 per month Software purchase $150.00 TOTAL $370.00 Services to be provided Networking operations, hardware repair and maintenance, software installing and updates and lastly procurement of new computing devices Response times Item Response time Network related issue Immediately Hardware problems One to two days Software problems Immediately Resources needed The resources will be divided into three groups according to the area of relation the first are is the networking area which will need tools such as network tester, crimping tool, RJ45, network cables and network interface cards. The hardware tools needed are tweezers, pliers and wire cutters, rework tools, meter, soldering tips, flux pen and finally screw drivers. The software’s needed are pdf readers, antivirus software together with its updates and finally Microsoft office suite. Assessment two The major stakeholders of this facility are first of all the people source agency together with its employees. It also came out during the interview that the job seeker community was part of the stakeholders and this included job seekers from within the headquarters and the other two sub branches. The manager at the headquarters did also disclose that they were looking at the IT department in order to optimize its growth and offer services efficiently. So as to meet these projections, the agency was considering adopting a network technology environment which would enable both the agency employees together with the job seeker community to interact effectively. The help desk would also improve on its services in order to facilitate smooth operations in the other departments that use computing devices. The current help desk facility has been in active and thus very slow in dispensing its services, the IT staff has also been relied upon in very many tasks including simple tasks which the other employees should have been trained on. The help desk team has in the past kept its records in a manual log book which are some times fed into an excel document hence they demand that the new technology aim at establishing a simple web document that can be used to store this records and at the same time accessed via the network. Assessment three Change Request form First contact procedure 1. The consultant ate the help desk attempts to solve the employee problem immediately 2. For enquiries relating to computing the help desk team may be required to ask basic questions such as what happened before the occurrence of the problem 3. Personal attempts to resolve employee problems by the consultants will be on the basis of personal experience 4. Complex questions by employees may be referred to other IT group sections Second level procedure 1. Complex troubleshooting consultancies are provided by other sections of the IT group who are well experienced and trained for that. 2. Complex questions are bound to take longer periods due to the nature of tasks Third Level Support All issues that have not been addressed by the second level support might call for the intervention of special analysis services which might be outsourced at this stage some of them will require effective consultation from within the IT group. Referrals At this stage all problems that have not been addressed by the preceding support groups are ou sourced to more specialized firms or intervention from the vendors sought. Tasks that are common at this stage include computing questions that cannot be handled without pursuing the respective vendors either software or hardware. Assessment Task 4 Change Management Plan (Individual) Solution of the problem The major problem within the agency is having a common platform that can be used by both the agency employees and the job seekers. The IT department should also be up to the task of maintaining the systems that have already been setup together with addressing employee queries. The major solution to this is building a local area network within the agency then connecting it to the internet to form a wide area network all common files should be directly accessible from anywhere via client server architecture. To address user queries all systems that are to be setup must be accompanied with appropriate documentations together with some user training to at least enlighten the employees with the new systems. Testing plan Test items Windows based operating systems for the client machines, redhat unix operating system for the server, kaspersky antivirus together with its latest update, Microsoft office suite, Mozilla firefox web browser, network tester and a monitor screen. Software risks aspects The major worries with the software are Incompatibility issues, lack of updates and the dynamicity of the software production field there is also issues to do with security especially that of the database management system. Features that need to be tested The database especially for security and data redundancy aspects, the network speed and its reliability, the functioning of the various hardware components and finally the response time of the IT helpdesk. Approach The test plan will involve three phases with three individual groups the first phase will deal with testing the network infrastructure while the other will take charge of testing the database and the last group will test the hardware components. An overall test of all the system components will be undertaken by a more experienced team to ensure that each part functions as expected. Training plan Objectives The main objective is that the employees who are the subject of the training should be able to be acquainted with the basic skills with regard to operations of basic components[Lor03]. Sufficient documentations should also be provided to assist employees in times of confusion. Constraints The biggest constraint is time that is available for preparation of the training manual and the resources that are needed. The other is the uncertainty over the availability of all the staff during the training sessions. Training prerequisites All employees should have some knowledge with regard to the basic computer packages and be available throughout the training program. Training deliverables At least all the employees should be able to diagnosis simple computer problems, be able to report simple computer problems to the IT help desk group and finally be comfortable with network operations. References Lor03: , (Arduser, 2003), Read More