Service Level Agreement

Owned by Jenni Piper
Last updated: Jan 03, 2022
3 min read

Purpose

The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to document an expected level of support provided by Information Systems to individual faculty, staff, and students at EMU. This SLA will be reviewed periodically and evolve over time as there are changes in services or levels of support offered.

Scope

This SLA encompasses Information System's responsibilities and commitments, as well as Information Systems expectations of its customers' responsibilities. This SLA does not detail the exact level of support provided for all Information Systems products, services and University sanctioned technology, but instead provides a high level framework for managing expectations.

Customer Responsibilities

To deliver on their commitment to Excellent Services, the Helpdesk needs to rely on customers to:

  • Work with Helpdesk demonstrating mutual respect and courtesy.

  • Provide detailed information regarding their IT related issue.

  • Share current and preferred contact information.

  • Be available to communicate with the technical staff trying to assist.

  • Describe the desired outcome, and be prepared to hear that a recommended solution may differ from preconceived solution ideas.

  • Maintain reliable data backups.

Who Helpdesk Supports

Active faculty, staff and students

  • The first priority is to assist active faculty, staff and students as well as those working on current campus activities.

  • Support is most extensive for University owned technology used by active faculty and staff. Support for personally owned devices is less extensive, but will aim to cover the use of University licensed or sanctioned software and services.

Retirees

  • EMU retirees get to keep the EMU email accounts - this service extension is automatic for retired faculty and staff.

  • As time and resources permit, Helpdesk staff will try to help retirees with their EMU email account and other basic questions.

  • If Helpdesk takes a little longer to get to a retiree ticket, it is a matter of limited resources and the demands of an active campus community.

University visitors and guests

  • Guests are supported only in getting connected to the EMU guest network.

How to Get Support

When you have IT related problems or questions, contact the Helpdesk. Contacting the Helpdesk results in a ticket and an acknowledgement. Often the Helpdesk staff will provide the needed solution. When they cannot, they pass along the ticket with all the collected information to other teams with the right technical expertise to help. You can reach the Helpdesk by phone, email or by visiting in person. If you have a ticket already, referencing that ticket number will facilitate getting a status update.

When Support is Available

  • The Helpdesk is open and staff for walk-in support Monday-Friday 9-12 and 1-4. The Helpdesk is open and staff for phone support Monday-Friday 8-5. The Helpdesk is closed for University holidays or closings.

Outside of standard business hours, customers can:

  • Call or email the Helpdesk with a detailed message for followup when the Helpdesk reopens.

  • Use the Helpdesk Portal to submit a ticket or find self-help.

  • Leave a message for the Tech on Call (4541). This will create a ticket and send a message to the tech. Issues will be prioritized per this SLA.

Issue Prioritization

Helpdesk tickets will be prioritized using defined levels. 

Prioritization Levels

Limitations on Support

  • Helpdesk prioritizes issues that have a broad impact over those that impact a single individual.

  • When a service involves a third part vendor, the vendor may introduce changes that are beyond the control of Information Systems and outside the scope of support provided by Helpdesk.

  • Helpdesk supports only activities that comply with acceptable use and security policies.

  • Helpdesk supports only University sanctioned, standard and current hardware and software.

  • Helpdesk supports only properly licensed software and cannot install software licensed for University owned machines onto personally-owned computers.

  • Helpdesk supports only current or recent releases of software and operating systems.

  • Helpdesk provides no support for public or  home networks even if the computer is University owned.

  • Support for personally owned hardware is limited to network configuration and connectivity. 

  • Only computers running up to date antivirus are allowed on the campus network.