DII Customer Support Service Level Agreement
Hours of Operation
Business Hours:
The Department of Information and Innovation Information Technology Help Desk is staffed M-F 7:45 to 4:30.
Non-Business Hours:
DII after hours coverage of its data center operations, telecommunications, server environment and network monitoring is with Contact Communications. DII does not traditionally respond to desktop issues after business hours. Calls placed for support for Network Engineering (after 4:30 PM and weekends/holidays) or 828-3544 (After 12:00 AM and weekends) will be redirected to Contact Communications. Issues requiring immediate attention will be forwarded to the appropriate DII employee who will triage the report and follow proper procedures to restore activities to normal operations
Holiday Schedule
If the State is on Holiday, the DII Help Desk will be closed. It will need to be minimally (no less than two agents) manned on any historically slow support intervals such as the week between Christmas and New Years
Duties and Responsibilities Overview
The DII Help Desk performs a valuable function in that it is the first line of defense when a user has a computer, mainframe, WAN or telecommunications malfunction. The team receives calls from state government employees all over Vermont as well as from other entities who conduct business with the state.
It is the vision of the Department of Information & Innovation to be the leading information technology resource for state government producing results through people, process improvement and collaboration.
To do this we need to give our customers a comfort level that we have taken ownership of their issue; that we will work on a solution; and we will resolve issues it in a timely manner. To that end we need to evaluate what we are doing now and how we can improve our service to the customer by working with them to gather feedback. This will be accomplished by external and internal customer surveys as well as team discussions and review.
DII Expections of Our Customers Include, But Are Not Limited to the Following:
DII expects their customers to partner with us to find an agreeable resolution to any situation. We understand that trust is an imperative, builds slowly over time and is quickly eroded with a single broken promise. Maintaining a positive connection by sharing information, demonstrating the ability the listen and remaining accountable are critical aspects for both the DII staff and our customers. We ask the following expectations from our customers:
1. A single point of contact and backup contact for technology issues will be assigned.
2. The Technology Contact (TC) will report technology issues in a timely fashion.
3. The TC will provide as much detail into the symptoms of the technology issue as possible.
4. Request and schedule special services well in advance. For example installation of new equipment.
5. The TC will negotiate any building access, end user scheduling, define training needs and act as the information conduit to the customer organization.
6. The TC will begin the escalation to the Help Desk Manager if warranted.
7. Not install unsupported software on user desktops.
8. Pay all charges for equipment or services rendered.
9. Problem Determination. Customers can use a number of tools to help them solve problems. Below is a list of them:
a. Previous tickets where the solution was given. – When people have been good at updating the resolution to in house issues, this can become a resource.
b. Google – can be used when you have an error message. Type the error message in word for word and you will usually find a solution. You can also use Google to research some issues that you might be having. Be careful that you are looking at reputable sites. Be very careful of the blogs and user supplied sites. These can have you do things that have not been properly tested. May indicate a requirement to escalate to Tier 2/3.
c. Footprints Knowledgebase – a collection of FAQ’s, How To’s and historical support transactions.
d. Right Answers – a module purchased for the Footprints platform which acts as a traditional knowledgebase.
E. Basic Procedures.
1. Reporting Outages of Any Kind. If there is an outage, there are a number of ways that information is delivered. The first way is to change the message on the DII Help Desk phone so that you know there is an outage and it is being looked at. A global Footprints ticket will be created followed by an email to the DII-VSMS distribution lists. The email will advise Information Technology contacts in other Agencies and Departments of the disruption and will advise that people link to the Footprints Global Ticket for ongoing updates and information.
2. Creating Tickets. The DII IT Specialists will be expected to create tickets that come in over the phone. Customers with access to the Footprints application via user name and password will also be expected to create tickets. Once the ticket is created it will be auto assigned based on pre-defined criteria or you can assign it to the appropriate group.
3. Assigning / Triage Tickets. The Footprints Ticketing system is designed to assign tickets to the appropriate support groups within DII. DII will respond to problems according to the following severity.
|
Problem Severity
|
Response Time
|
Acknowledgement Time
|
|
Critical
|
30 minutes
|
15 minutes
|
|
Urgent
|
1 hour
|
15 minutes
|
|
High
|
2 hours
|
30 minutes
|
|
Medium
|
4 hours
|
1 hour
|
|
Low
|
8 hours
|
2 hours
|
Below are the definitions of the problem severities above:
Critical – Response time is 30 minutes. Used when many people are affected by this incident.
Urgent – Response time is 1 hour. Used only for tickets coming from the Gov’s office or commissioners.
High – Response time is 2 hours. Used when 1 or more customers are experiencing a problem that needs fairly quick attention. .
Medium – Response time is 4 hours. Used when 1 or more customers are experiencing a problem that has a work around or is does not need to be solved in 2 or less hours.
Low – Response Time is 8 hours. Used when 1 or more customers is experiencing a problem that is not effecting their work at all, but they would like it fixed.
Acknowledgement time is defined as the time allotted for an IT Specialist to acknowledge receipt of the reported incident. This metric is measured monthly and the internal SLA is that 99.50% of the tickets will be acknowledged within the time defined.
Response time is defined as the base time allotted to begin the troubleshooting or implementation effort. If the customer requires a specific date or time for the effort to commence, it must be defined within the ticket information.
4. Changing/Updating a Ticket. Once a ticket has an owner, the owner of the ticket shall:
a. Advise customer of ownership.
b. Begin to investigate the problem. (May use a remote desktop solution if necessary to troubleshoot the problem)
c. Advise and organize a site visit if required.
d. Enter information into the ticket as it is gathered and methods used to solve the problem so that others can see what has been done.
e. Advise caller of resolution and close the ticket.
5. Closing a Ticket. Providing a complete resolution once it is found, within the ticket is required. This will help others in the future who run into the same problem. This can also be used to do some cross training. The DII Internal SLA for Closing Tickets is that 90% of the Footprints tickets will be closed within 10 Business Day.
6. Debriefing of Escalation. If an issue must be escalated to Deputy Commissioner (DC) level, the Manager of Footprints ticket assignee will schedule a debriefing of the event, provide written details of actions taken, time line and final resolution. If the solution is a temporary work around or less than complete resolution, then future plans or activities should be noted to correct the problem (if known). The DC will work to provide necessary resources, issue communications, where appropriate, make decisions related to options as appropriate. The DC will brief CIO and identify risks and consequences of the event; summary of the process, options and results as well as actions that can be taken to prevent reoccurrence (if feasible).
