A technical support strategy should give consideration to how technical support functions will be
provided.
Technical support also requires some form of leadership and control to maintain the technical
support strategy and ensure that the people involved keep to it.
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Services are the ICT systems that are used in the learning environment and to support the school's
administration. It is important to understand what services are to be supported when defining the
technical support strategy as these determine the technology requirement.
Services should be defined in the overall ICT Strategy. Start by finding out if there is an overall ICT
Strategy that includes details of the services required and planned. In an ideal world this will have
been agreed across the school and have been committed to paper but it may be that it has
developed without a paper trail or that there is no clearly defined strategy at this stage. Ask the
headteacher or person responsible for ICT in the school what they have in terms of overall strategy.
An ICT School Development Plan may give some indication of the plan.
Alternatively, if you are responsible for ICT strategy and there isn't one as yet, start by
documenting the following important factors:
- What ICT systems are actually in use?
- What are these ICT systems for?
- Who uses them?
Use the ICT strategy or your initial information gathering to define the requirements of technical
support and use this early stage in the process to build an ongoing relationship with the appropriate
representatives of the users.
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Technology is the hardware and software that make up the services. It is important to understand
what technology is required so that it is clear what has to be supported and what skills are required.
Technology may be defined in an overall ICT Strategy or in the Technical Support Strategy.
If Technical Support are required to determine technology requirements they also have an
opportunity to take into account what will be needed to support it. A small team must consider the
impact on resources of technology selection.
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Tips on planning for new technology
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Tips on supporting the technology you have
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- Try to select a small range of
manufacturers and models to keep the
technical knowledge and spares
required to a minimum
- Try to select popular products that are
widely supported outside the school
- Try to plan the bigger picture and
consider the requirements of the whole
school and the potential for sharing
rather than focus on individual
requirements
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- If you have a variety of different hardware
and software a third party maintenance
or support supplier can be a good option
as they are more likely to have the
broad range of skills required
- Remember that third parties will need to
be involved in any changes you plan -
they will need to agree its ongoing
support and this may affect the cost
- A larger, non-specialist supplier may be
a good choice if you want to redesign
your infrastructure as they may have a
wider range of experience and skills
covering diverse equipment types
- Try and use a supplier who understands
the education environment
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Resources are the people, time and money involved in supporting the technology and the services.
It is important to understand the resource requirement to assist with deciding on staffing levels and
what is supported in house or by external suppliers.
The resource requirement is determined by the services and technology to be supported. In an
environment where resources are limited it is important to consider the support requirements of ICT
and take this into account when developing the overall strategy for ICT services and technology.
Technical support can therefore make an important contribution to the overall strategy.
Because resources are limited it is important to consider all resourcing options, both in considering
what services and technology are required and as a result of services and technology having
already been implemented. These are explored in more detail in the following sections:
If you have a limited amount of resource and a large amount of work click on the link below for a
method of allocating that resource:
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Ideally a school should have some level of technical support. This may range from part- time
responsibility for co-ordinating ICT requests and liasing with technical suppliers through to a
technical support team of technicians, network managers, and so on.
If you have some in-school technical support staff but not enough to comfortably support
everything, they should:
- concentrate on core activities, i.e. the main ICT systems in use or the most important
ones - consider outsourcing for anything else
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- have agreed priorities of types of work, e.g. 1 fixing incidents, 2 installing new
equipment, 3 training others in ICT
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- not be spread too thinly - provide consistent levels of support by ensuring that two
people are both skilled across a carefully defined range rather than having two
specialists who cannot provide cover for each other. If specialisms are unavoidable
ensure that these apply to non-core activities.
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The rest of the school can take part in technical support and this may be a way of agreeing ways of
providing support for diverse equipment or filtering the resolution of incidents.
Here are some of the things that the rest of the school can become involved in if appropriate:
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Being a 'super- user'
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A network of general super-users can provide a level of
logging, filtering and resolving of incidents and requests. This
can help to create a virtual helpdesk and can be particularly
useful in schools with multiple buildings or sites
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Being a 'specialist'
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A one-off piece of equipment used only by the science
department may be best supported by the science
department
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Being a 'technical author'
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If training teachers or pupils in the use of software is part of
your responsibility you may be able to share the workload by
asking your students to write "How to" guides to help other
users - it will help them consolidate their own learning too
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Other schools can be a useful source of additional resources and it may be possible to create a
mutually beneficial relationship.
Here are some of the possibilities:
- Collaborating with other schools in the area to create a virtual ICT technical support team
- Collaborating with other schools to create a virtual Service Desk
- Collaborating with other schools to buy in technical support services that are shared
- Sharing spares and storage spaces with local schools
- Providing off site storage for backup tapes for each other
- Agreeing to provide loan equipment or temporary space for each other in an emergency
- Developing strategy with other schools
Don't forget that it is easy for disagreements and misunderstandings to arise though, especially
when money is involved. It will be necessary to reach formal agreement on some of these.
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Suppliers will always be required for the purchase of hardware and software. They can also be a
useful source of technical knowledge about the products they sell or they may provide specialist
technical support services.
Suppliers can be useful for providing a number of services:
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Contracting out
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Contracting out of some services entirely on a permanent basis may be
an option. This removes the need for any participation in the process by
the school and might be applied to asset management for example.
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Outsourcing
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Outsourcing of technical support is really a partial contracting out - you
still need to use the ICT equipment yourself and you are dependent
upon the level of service provided by the outsource company. This
needs to be carefully managed.
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Support or
maintenance
contracts
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Entering into 3rd party contracts for support or maintenance can be
cost effective for specialist equipment or services.
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Temporary
services
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Filling of temporary requirements using bought in services, for example
holiday cover or a temporary need. This can be a costly solution if it
becomes a full time requirement but can provide cost effective flexibility
when needed.
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Consultancy
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Consultancy should be kept for one off exercises such as the setting
up of new equipment or the installation of software.
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Cultivate your suppliers and get the best from them. The table below shows how you might do this.
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Build good
relationships
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If you build a good rapport with suppliers, you may be able to use
their knowledge from time to time as a third level resource.
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Provide good
documentation
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If your suppliers support your systems, good technical documentation
will endear you to them. Ask them what they need.
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Give enough
notice
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Make sure you know how much lead time your suppliers need to
meet your requirements. Don't spring things on them - ask them
what they need.
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Transfer skills
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Enhance local knowledge and free up your supplier's time by asking
them to transfer appropriate skills to your own staff. Be realistic
about what is possible though - in house staff need to have time to
assume additional tasks or roles and trying to acquire all skills
internally may be counter-productive if core services are neglected as
a result.
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Ask their advice
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If you are planning changes to your ICT, ask your supplier(s) for their
technical advice. They may have important knowledge to share but
remember to stay in control when it comes to purchasing.
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Establish a
common
understanding
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Help to ensure a common understanding of agreements by producing
a 'working practices' document. This should be a plain English
document that describes the expectations of all parties and used to
remove assumptions in the day-to- day working relationship.
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Benefit from their
experience
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Talk to suppliers about any processes you are considering
implementing, e.g change management, if they are responsible for
your changes - they may be able to extend their own processes to
you.
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Be professional
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Ensure that the right level of formality exists between the school and
the supplier - if they provide you with an ongoing service contracts
need to be in place.
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Welcome them
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Help to build familiarity between supplier representatives and school
staff by accompanying new technicians, introducing them to key staff
and ensuring that they have what they need.
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Solutions to limited resources do not have to be people oriented. A little lateral thinking can
generate some alternative ways to spread responsibility for technical support. The table below
suggests some possibilities.
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Spares
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Consider the cost of some spares versus the cost of a fast response
support contract. It may be cheaper to swap out faulty equipment
and fix it over a longer period of time.
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Documentation
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Help users to help themselves by producing a User Handbook giving
simple diagnostic techniques and instructions for non- technical
tasks such as changing a toner cartridge in a printer.
This is explored in more detail in the Tools section of this
introduction.
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The following technique can be used to allocate resources to tasks.
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Step 1
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Identify all the tasks to be carried out in a given period such as a school term
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Step 2
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Estimate the person-time required for each task
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Step 3
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List the tasks in priority order and note the amount of person- time required
alongside
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Step 4
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Calculate the amount of person-time available in the given period = number of
people available x number of hours available
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Step 5
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Starting at the top of the list of tasks accumulate the person- time required until
the total matches the person-time available
Anything beyond this point is unachievable
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Keep the list up to date with new requirements and review priorities regularly.
Download a Resource Allocation Template (see attached) for this technique.
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