Cornell University
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In This Section:

End User Support

Initiative leader: Diane Sempler, CIT Client Services and Communication, dms4@cornell.edu

Against the backdrop of the Administrative Streamlining Program and the IT Service Management Initiative, the End-User Support Initiative was convened to recommend how to:

  • Improve the quality and consistency of the IT support experience for students, faculty and staff and deliver high-quality, consistent IT support to everyone at Cornell.
  • Provide more efficient IT support by implementing a Central Service Desk /Single Point of Contact, using one tool for incident reporting and request fulfillment tracking, developing service commitments and agreements, and implementing the processes that support these efficiencies.

The initiative approached these inter-related goals by devising two ITIL-related models. 

ITIL—Information Technology Infrastructure Library: ITIL is an industry-standard framework for delivering quality IT services. It attaches formal and extensive meaning to the terms “service delivery” and “support delivery”.

  • Service delivery model: Service agreements or service commitments are the core of the service delivery model. 
  • Support delivery model: This initiative recommends the Central Service Desk model.  The model reduces replication of support services.

Implementing these two models will address the multiple problems caused by Cornell's end-user support systems and processes being fragmented:

  • Often the end user is unsure which support group to contact for help.
  • The process for getting and receiving help is different depending on who you are and what organization you are part of.
  • Levels of support vary significantly among members of the community.
  • Support expectations for services are often undefined.
  • Costs are higher than necessary because processes and services are replicated from one college or unit to the next.

The goal of the End-User Support Initiative was to make recommendations leading to resolution of these and related problems.

The work of the initiative was completed in fall 2011 and many of its recommendations are being carried out under the auspices of the ITSM initiative's focus on incident management, knowledge management and service level management .