The Project has initiated an evidence gathering phase that will ultimately make a recommendation to the sponsor. The scope enables a review of IS Helpline, Finance Helpline and to a lesser extent at this moment EdHelp and Library Heldesks. It will build upon the activities undertaken by a task force which formed in 2020 looking particularly at the IS Helpline. The project will engage externally via UCISA to assess the direction of travel of other Universities. By reviewing integration, career development, exploring what service means (support teams, academics, students, professional services, 2nd line teams etc), leasing with People & Money and hopefully some external analysis; the intention is to deliver a recommendation to the Sponsor and Senior Executives for providing help/support/service from IS to the University.

The core focus of the Project is:- 

• To deliver a new operating model for the various helpdesks in USD to ensure resources are being used efficiently and effectively. 
• To introduce the best practice processes to the Finance and IS Helplines to put them in line with the EdHelp service. A key deliverable here is to introduce the knowledge management process. 
• To prepare for an eventual merger of the desks into a unified Helpline. 

Along with these we should not overlook the work we have been doing over the last couple of years with the heads of IT in the colleges to align the Helpline service with their strategic business needs for IT support. There are already several overlaps between these two initiatives and it makes sense to take on board any items that are appropriate to the current project. 

The list below are examples of some of the areas we have been discussing with business partners.  

• Offer a single point of contact for IT support across the university. 
• Reduce the cost of IT support across the university. 
• Alignment of IS Helpline with business needs. 
• Use technology to drive up service quality and drive down costs.  
• Use ITIL best practice to improve the quality of service.