Response Expectations

Table of Contents

1. General Overview

This is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the campus community and the Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) Information Technology Department (IT) to document:

  • The technology services IT provides to the campus.
  • The general levels of response, availability, and maintenance associated with these services.
  • The responsibilities of IT as a provider of these services and of customers receiving services.
  • Processes for requesting services

2. Service Description

2.1 Service Scope

The IT Department and Campus SLA

  • Defines a general level of predictability for IT communication and services.
  • References the IT Service Catalog for clear service level descriptions.
  • Describes how work will be prioritized, response times for service requests, and the outage notification process.
  • Includes reporting on service levels.

The service to be provided is the provision of IT Department for the information technology infrastructure of college user.  Serviced locations include:

  • Main Campus
    143 Bostwick Ave
    Grand Rapids, MI 49503

  • DeVos Campus
    415 E Fulton Ave
    Grand Rapids, MI 49503

  • Leslie E. Tassell M-TEC
    622 Godfrey Avenue SW
    Grand Rapids, MI 49503-4941

  • Lakeshore Campus
    12335 James St.
    Holland, MI 49424-5439

The complete descriptions of all the networks, devices, servers, workstations, operating systems, and applications to be serviced (currently in use or predicted) are listed in the IT Service Catalog.

IT Services do not include:

  • Service to personally owned devices (printers, computers, phones, etc.)
  • Work on home networks
  • Equipment purchased and installed by third party vendors (credit card machines, ATMs, etc)
  • Support of software not purchased by the college

2.2 Assumptions

  • Services, access to services and accountability measures provided by IT are clearly documented in the IT Service Catalog. The IT Service Catalog is continually updated with additional service information regarding what services are offered, how to get services, how to get help for services and how much services cost.
  • Outages to services are communicated and documented to all stakeholders via the Change Management process.
  • Services are provided in adherence to any related policies, processes and procedures. See the IT Service Catalog for policies related to a service.

3. Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 Parties

The following Principal Officers are parties to the Agreement

  • Debra Hintz - CIO - Information Technology
  • Dr. Clemon Moorer - Dean of School of Business & Industry
  • Lisa Radak - Dean of School of Health Sciences
  • Jason Vinson - Dean of School of Liberal Arts
  • Dr. Kristi Haik - Dean of School of STEM
  • Dr. Eric Mullen - Dean of Student Success
  • David Selmon - Dean of Strategic Outreach
  • Julie Parks - Dean of School of Workforce Training

3.2 IT Responsibilities

Responsibilities and/or requirements of IT in support of this Agreement include:

  • Meeting service delivery commitments outlined in the IT Service Catalog.
  • Meeting response times associated with the priority assigned to incidents and due dates of service requests.
  • IT implements defined processes to meet service level commitments.
  • Appropriately notifying clients of all scheduled maintenance via the IT Status Page via www.grcc.edu/status.

3.3 Customer Responsibilities

Customer responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

  • Using the defined processes for requesting help and services.
  • Monitoring the IT Status Page and notifying IT of forthcoming local events with IT dependencies. Customers may use any contact method listed in this document to contact IT.
  • Responding to inquiries from IT staff who are resolving incidents and handling service requests.
  • Complying with campus policies and the Acceptable Use Agreement (AUA), available at http://grcc.edu/aua. Additional security requirements may be included on individual Service Catalog pages.

4. Contact Methods / Availability

A customer may request help or service from IT for a service published in the IT Service Catalog. There are five methods for contacting IT for help or service requests.

4.1 Online Ticket Submission

By utilizing the web, your help or service request will be automatically associated with your Campus Network Account and visible to technicians. Using the IT Ticketing System via the web interface is the most efficient method to log and process help or service requests.

4.2 Phone (616-234-4357 (HELP))

Phone service is available during regular hours of operation. Messages left during off hours will be processed the next business day.

  • Fall / Winter Semester:
    M-F: 7:00 AM - 9:00 PM
    Sa / Su: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
     
  • Summer Semester:
    M - Th: 7:00 AM - 9:00 PM
    F: 7:00 AM - 8:00 PM
    Sa / Su: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

4.3 Email (ITSupport@grcc.edu)

Emailed help or service requests will be processed during the aforementioned business hours. These email help or service requests are tracked as tickets in the IT Ticketing System.

4.4 In-Person

In-person service is available during regular walk-in business hours of M - F 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, at the following locations:

  • 130 Sneden, DeVos Campus
  • 004 RJF Hall (G2 Level), Main Campus

4.5 Chat

Visitors to the GRCC Information Technology webpage have the ability to start a conversation via chat. These chat service requests are tracked as tickets in the IT Ticketing System.

5. Prioritization, Response Time, and Escalation

For all service requests and incident reports, the goal within IT is to acknowledge all requests and incidents within an acceptable timeframe to remain efficient and responsive to all customers. Ticketing response times are mutually agreed upon between IT and the previously identified Agreement parties, escalation occurs during standard business hours of M-F 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

5.1 Prioritization

ITIL standards dictate that prioritization of help and support requests should not be chosen by a responding technician or representative. Instead, it should be data driven based on urgency and impact. Both are defined in their respective sections below.

Urgency

Category

Description

High (H)
  • The damage caused by the Incident increases rapidly.
  • Work that cannot be completed by staff is highly time sensitive.
  • A minor Incident can be prevented from becoming a major Incident by acting immediately.
  • Several users with VIP status are affected.

Medium (M)
  • The damage caused by the Incident increases considerably over time.
  • A single user with VIP status is affected.

Low (L)
  • The damage caused by the Incident only marginally increases over time.
  • Work that cannot be completed by staff is not time sensitive.

Impact

Category

Description

High (H)
  • A large number of staff are affected and/or not able to do their job.
  • A large number of customers are affected and/or acutely disadvantaged in some way.
  • The damage to the reputation of the college is likely to be high.

Medium (M)
  • A moderate number of staff are affected and/or not able to do their job.
  • A moderate number of customers are affected and/or inconvenienced in some way.
  • The damage to the reputation of the college is likely to be moderate.

Low (L)
  • A minimal number of staff are affected and/or able to deliver an acceptable service but this requires extra effort.
  • A minimal number of customers are affected and/or inconvenienced but not in a significant way.
  • The damage to the reputation of the college is likely to be minimal.

Prioritization is then classified using urgency and impact based on the following chart:

Impact

High

Medium

Low

Urgency

High

1

2

3

Medium

2

3

4
Low

3

4

4

5.2 IT Response Times

Service requests have varying response times and due dates relative to their assigned priority. Refer to the table below to determine how quickly your ticket will be acknowledged by IT.

A help request or incident may be associated with an interruption in the normal functioning of a service or system. For situations that affect a large number of people or otherwise generate a large amount of help requests, a mass mailing may be sent to the campus in lieu of an individual response.

Priority

Time to Acknowledge

1

Immediate

2

15 Minutes

3

2 Hours

4

8 Hours

5.3 Customer Response Times

Information Technology's ability to resolve service requests and incidents within the mutually agreed upon SLA's are dependent on feedback from our customers. Customers agree to respond to an IT inquiry within three (3) business days. Failure to respond to IT will result in the service request or incident report to be closed. 

5.4 Escalation

To maintain and achieve the agreed upon Service Level Agreements, all tickets must be acknowledged and resolved within a set timeframe by IT. Those that fall outside the agreed upon times will be escalated with the technician and managers being notified within the given times:

Ticket Priority

Acknowledgement Time

Acknowledgement Escalation Time Level 1

Acknowledgement Escalation Time Level II

Resolution Time Escalation I

Resolution Time

Resolution Time Escalation II 

P1

Immediate

90% (.9 minutes)

150% (1.5 minutes)

80% (4.8 hours)

6  Business hours

120% (7.2 hours)

P2

15 minutes

90% (13.5 minutes)

150% (22.5 minutes)

80% (4.8 hours)

6  Business hours

120% (7.2 hours)

P3

2  Business hours

90% (1.8 hours)

150% (3 hours)

80% (2.4 days)

3 Business days

120% (3.6 days)

P4

8 Business hours

90% (7.2 hours)

150% (12 hours)

80% (2.4 days)

5 Business days

120% (6 days)

*Escalation I – Technician is made aware of the approaching breach of SLA

*Escalation II – Technician and Manager are notified of the breach, CIO is copied

6. Maintenance and Service Changes

The Change Management process within IT minimizes unintended service disruptions or other impacts to the campus as a result of changes in the production environment. IT does this by monitoring, managing, and evaluating changes to maximize the service benefits to the customer, while minimizing the risks involved in making those changes.

6.1  IT Status Page

All IT-related service outages / notifications and maintenance periods are published on the IT Status Page located on the IT Web site at http://grcc.edu/status. The IT Status Page currently serves as the official outage and maintenance schedule for IT. Scheduled maintenance is not included in the calculation of availability metrics.

Campus units are responsible for monitoring the IT Status Page to notify IT of forthcoming local events with IT dependencies. In most cases, the IT Customer Support Team is responsible for communicating service outages and changes to the IT Department, service groups, and to the campus as necessary.

There are two categories of service outages:

  • Planned Outages: A planned service outage is work that is planned and scheduled at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date. The IT Customer Support Team communicates (as needed) to the appropriate audience a minimum of one week prior to the scheduled outage.
  • Unplanned Outages: An unplanned service outage is work that is unplanned due to an unforeseen event or urgent repair to prevent failure. Unplanned service outages are given priority (and communicated immediately) on a case-by-case basis depending on the type and urgency of the service failure.

6.2  Guidelines for IT Maintenance Windows

A maintenance window is a defined period of time during which planned outages and changes to production (see definition below) services and systems may occur. The purpose of defining standard maintenance windows is to allow clients of the service to prepare for possible disruption or changes.

IT strives to conduct all planned upgrades and maintenance between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM each Thursday. Work scheduled outside of this window should have explicit sign-off from the proper authority channel.

  • Planned outages and changes should not be scheduled during the first day of instruction, the last day of instruction through finals, the day grades are due for the academic quarters, student orientation week, fiscal year end close, during Commencements, or other significant campus events.
  • Production means college staff, faculty, and users depend on the service to complete business and academic tasks and objectives.
  • Major upgrades to a service are treated as projects outside the scope of this service level agreement.

7. Reviewing and Reporting

7.1 System Performance and Availability Reporting

Quarterly performance and availability reports are available upon request to the IT Directors.

  • First-contact response to incidents and service requests is based on information from the IT Request ticket system.
  • Target: 80% response time within SLA.
  • Resolution of tickets is based on information from the IT Request ticket system. Hours are counted as clock hours, weekends excepted.
  • Target: 80% of tickets closed within SLA.

7.2 SLA Reviews

The Designated Review Owner (“Document Owner”) is responsible for facilitating regular reviews of this document. Contents of this document may be amended as required, provided mutual agreement is obtained from the primary stakeholders and communicated to all affected parties.

Designated Review Owner: Kelly Webber – Director of IT Service Management & Endpoint Solutions

Previous Review Date: 03/01/2022

Next Review Date: 03/01/2025

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