Computing Service User Forum

Today (3^rd November) I attended the first meeting of CompuForum (Computing Service User Forum). The Forum has been set up to provide a channel of non-technical communication between Computing Services and other departments. At this first meeting there was approximately 26 attendees from various departments and campuses. Chris Smith (Computing Liaison Manager) is managing the Forum and started the meeting with an overview of the Computing Services staff hierarchy and where the Forum fits into that structure. Chris then went on to talk about the aims of the Forum and an overview of some of the upcoming computing projects that will have an impact on departments:

Aims:
Chris outlined the two main aims of the Forum as:

• providing a platform for departments to raise issues or feedback information to Computing service regarding the IT services within their departments.
  
• providing an opportunity for Computing Services to inform and engage departments concerning upcoming IT projects.
  

Within these aims, Chris also stated that Forum members (both from computing Services and other departments) had a responsibility to act as a communication channel between the Forum and their colleagues. This means that Forum members have an obligation to report back to colleagues on discussions within the meetings and to also raise issues at Forum meetings as a direct result of discussion with colleagues. Thus, we really need to start thinking (as a department) what are the main IT issues in the Library and how we can translate these issues into questions that can be raised at the next Forum meeting.

Projects:

Chris stated that Computing Services have put a lot of effort into designing websites for students as part of the 'student first' agenda, but haven't put the same effort into staff websites. To this end there will soon be a new website aimed at meeting the needs of staff.

The next project discussed was how staff are charged for printing to student MFD printers, but are not charged for printing to staff MFD printers. This is common knowledge to us in the library, but new to other departments. However, there are some other details about the new printing system that may be of interest. If you print to a student printer your print credits will be reduced as appropriate from the original £25...this we know. Then, this £25 will be replenished every term.. If you exceed £25 in printing to a student printer in a term, then you will need to contact the departmental director (Pete in our case, obviously) and he will then need to contact the i-zone with a request to have more credits added to your account. There is another option...you can purchase print credits yourself and top up your own account (although I'm not sure if this will be something you will want to do). I think the main point behind the discussion with printing is that it would be preferable for staff to print to staff printers, but if you have to print to student printers, then do it in very low volume. Incidentally there is a website dedicated to printing that explains all this information in detail and where you can check your current printer credits: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/printing

The third project discussed was the introduction of complex passwords in early 2010. As part of an internal audit it was stated that our password policy for computing accounts was too basic. At some point in February 2010 we will be required to change our password to something more complex. Information and documentation for this will be disseminated to all staff and students in the new year.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) was the next topic. SLAs are being introduced on the call management system used by the i-zone. When a call is logged on the system it will be assessed as to how long this call should take to complete. This is the service level agreement between the user who reported the issue and the department, team, or individual who is responsible for answering that support call. If the time taken to complete the support call is longer than the SLA then the call will be escalated to a higher level and the department, team, or individual will have to justify why they have broken the SLA. This isn't just something that will affect Computing Services, but will be introduced to every department that uses the call management system.

The final project discussed was upgrading computers on campus to Windows 7. At present there has been no decision made on when or if staff PCs will be upgraded to windows 7. There was, however, indication that student PCs will be upgraded sometime around September 2010. At this time I have no idea what impact this upgrade will have on the PCs or the i-borrow laptops in AH.


Other Issues
The final part of the meeting was given up to discussion. There were two main issues that came from the general discussion around the table:


Out of hours support:
It was raised by a member of the finance team and echoed by many around the table that there needs to be some kind of computing support provision in the evenings. At present the computing support provision is available from 9am – 5pm. Chris stated that there is an ongoing discussion within Computing services and other departments as to: if and how an extended computing provision could be implemented. This is of course very relevant in AH where we are open very late into the night and there is the possibility of 24 hour opening in the future.

The loaning of AV equipment:
A member of the media department raised a concern that they were being approached for AV equipment because the existing AV provision has been partly moved to AH. I stated that there were some members of the library (me included) that felt that the library was probably not the best place for the loaning of AV equipment. There was discussion around the table from members of other campuses as well as this campus about how disparate the AV loaning service was and perhaps there needs to be a more structured approach to AV loans.

Last thought
I'm not sure what is the best way (as a department) that we can discuss issues we would like raised at the CompuForum...so if you have any suggestions, they would be very welcome. However, in the meantime, if you have any questions about CompuForum or you would like to raise an issue then email me and I'll find a way to generate discussion with everyone.