Adventures in XSC: our six-week countdown to extended service coverage

ABSTRACT

In Summer 2001, Information Technology Services (ITS) - New York University's central IT organization serving some 65,000 students, faculty, and staff - was charged with taking major steps toward meeting our clients' growing requirements for round-the-clock IT services and support. From this, our Extended Services Coverage project (XSC) was begun.ITS had been formed two years earlier when three distinct IT organizations were combined under the leadership of the University's first Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO). XSC's Phase I allotted ITS a mere six weeks' time to gear up and extend integrated, formalized business-hours-type support to all our services during evenings, nights, and weekends. Helpdesk hours alone would be increased by more than 73%; onsite technical system support during "off-hours" would also be significantly increased - for University administrative systems, NYU-NET, e-mail, and instructional systems. We would need to be ramped up by the time students and faculty returned at the end of August.All this raised significant challenges for ITS' 200-member staff. XSC would require changing how we worked together. We would need to devise incident management workflows and operating procedures that cut across previously distinct service groups; formalize notification procedures and mechanisms for our staff, service partners, and clients; develop standard protocols for prioritizing, routing, escalating and resolving problem reports; quickly recruit new staff and train all staff in new procedures; and measure, track and improve our practices systematically.This paper will outline ITS' early experiences with XSC - challenges, implementation issues, and future plans - particularly from the perspectives of the managers of the two helpdesks from which XSC processes are initiated. We will also note how we leveraged on initiatives already underway with respect to our helpdesk procedures and Remedy incident management system, and how, as an unanticipated benefit of XSC, we were better prepared to support the NYU community in dealing with the September 11 WTC tragedy and its aftermath.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Management techniques (e.g., PERT/CPM)

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.3 Organizational Impacts
          Subjects: Reengineering
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Strategic information systems planning; Staffing; Training

General Terms:
Documentation, Management, Performance

Keywords:
extended service, helpdesk, incident management, new services, staff training, standard operating procedures