Tier 2--April 2002
Summary of Responses

(web survey distributed to all ITS Tier 2 departmental ITS liaisons)

N of Responses = 32

What IT Support do you currently provide in your department?

• Liaison to ITS: 84%
• Application support (e.g., for MS Office): 84%
• Desktop support (e.g., hardware + installations): 75%
• File/print server support: 63%
• Network support: 63%
• Web page creation and/or maintenance: 63%
• Web server support: 31%
• Other (listserve, programming, database, etc.): 31%
• Assist faculty with integrating technology into courses: 22%

How has the 4-Tier IT support model been most helpful in providing IT support to campus technology users?

• Training
• Better structure for support, leading to greater efficiencies
• Good to have a single point of contact in departments, a more proactive approach to user support
• Better campus connections

How has the 4-Tier IT support model been least helpful in providing IT support to campus technology users??

• There are additional layers now, it's more difficult to get to Tier 4 Core Experts, and it sometimes seems disjointed.
• Not all services are offered or communicated
• Don't know if problems brought forward by Tier 2 representatives are being addressed campus wide
• Lack of timely communication

If you were empowered to make changes to the 4-Tier IT support model, what would you change?

• More departmental independence
• More control over access to Tier 4
• Better communication
• More (mandatory) training
• Phase out Tier 2 and replace with IT Professionals; stop trying to make everything fit into four tiers
• Contradictory suggestions of "I could never trust ITS" and "Stop dumping work on the departments"

How will we know that the 4-Tier IT support model is successful four years from now?

• Reduction in calls, repeat calls; happy, more educated users; won't be able to blame ITS for everything
• Better communication
• ITS is a source of information, not the ones who solve every problem
• An evaluation model should already be in place.

The following information was provided about assistive technology support:

• 17% provide some sort of assistive technology support; 63% say that no one in their department needs assistive technologies
• 30% of respondents indicated that hardware/software recommendations, workshops and opportunities to test assistive technologies would be helpful.
• More than half indicated they would be unlikely or neither likely nor unlikely to attend workshops on available assistive technologies or the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
• Just over half indicated that they would be likely or very likely to attend a workshop on creating accessible web pages.

Respondents indicated that the following e-mail features were important or very important:

• Automatic, seamless anti-virus processing (78%)
• Elimination of "spam" (78%)
• Web-based e-mail system (75%)
• Easy to remember e-mail address (75%)
• Guaranteed availability of e-mail systems (72%)
• Unlimited capacity to store e-mail messages (60%)
• Of those features, web-based e-mail and anti-virus processing were deemed most important.

Support for classrooms and labs

• Slightly more than 10% indicated that they provide support for technology-enhanced classroom facilities; the support provided is low-level.
• Suggested improvements to labs or technology-enhanced classrooms include:
  • improved layout
  • more up-to-date equipment, including laptops for faculty

Other responses:

• For departments with needs for file sharing, most report that those needs are being met departmentally.
• 87% of respondents indicate that it is important for the campus to project a common, unified, professional image through its web pages.
• ITS Help Desk is the most used support service. 93% of respondents reported using it; most of them rated the service as fair or very good.
• Three-quarters of respondents have used Bug Busters; a majority of them rated the service as fair or very good.
• 45% of respondents have taken a Smartforce (Computer Based Training) course in the past year.
• Suggested improvements to the campus IT environment include:
  • Better communication
  • More staffing, more funding
  • Centralized security and anti-virus software/protection
  • More coordination between departments and ITS
  • ITS service has improved over the past three years

Please direct questions about this survey to Deborah Keyek-Franssen at deblkf@colorado.edu.