Team Organization

There are two important components to IT responsibilities that the department addresses organizationally:

1. Responding to work order requests and outages (tactical planning)
2. Planning for future technology needs (strategic planning)

The first responsibility is managed day-to-day by the Operations Coordinator, (Char Laurenti), who oversees Help Desk operations and response prioritization. The second responsibility is managed by the Program Manager, (Valerie Thompson), who oversees IT projects and budgets to support the IT Strategic Plan and yearly goals.

The Organizational Units within the IT department consist of:

Field Services: provides technical support for computers, printers, peripherals, and desktop applications.

Network Infrastructure: supports district servers, network infrastructure, and server-based applications.

Business Software Support: provides end-user training and support for enterprise-wide business software applications. Currently, this software consists of our Student/HR/Finance Information System (Skyward), and our Library Management System (Destiny). Future purchases of enterprise class software such as SAP, PeopleSoft, etc. would fall into this area of support.

Software Development: provides programmatic solutions for the district Internet and Intranet sites, including utility programming to support the district’s data warehousing and analysis needs.

Training: provides boot camp and recurring training in foundational technology skills. (e.g. the IT Orientation course for new employees and training in core productivity applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.).

Team Size
IT team size is very small by comparable business ratios.  The largest ratio of computers-to-technicians found in the business world is one technician for every 250 computers; most research groups put the average ratio at 1:50.  The RCAS computer-to-technician ratio is approximately 1:750.  Although not optimal, the effects of operating with a smaller staff can be mitigated by understanding and leveraging the relationships between staff size, issue queue sizes, issue priorities, service levels, quality of staff, technical automation and staff efficiency.  The department continues to optimize these parameters to provide the best service levels possible without adding staff. 

Customer Service Model
The IT Team uses a prioritized Help Desk tracking system coupled with remote management of computers to drive efficiency.  Customers can get assistance by calling the Help Desk (x6629), or by using the Online Help Desk from within the district (http://help).  The Online Help Desk allows customers to enter new issues, or check status of existing work orders.  Voice of the Customer (VOC) survey data is used to track customer satisfaction.  The IT Department will continue to make staffing changes and operational improvements that produce the best possible customer experience for district technology customers.