Service Level Agreement

Merrimack College Information Technology Services (ITS) provides a broad range of computing and information technology services to the college community including faculty, administration, staff and students. This Service Level Agreement (SLA) documents the level of service expected of the Information Technology Services department (service provider) to the Merrimack College community (customer) and the responsibilities of the community with regard to the use of information technology within Merrimack College.

Purpose: The purpose of the SLA is to ensure that the proper elements and commitments are in place to provide consistent ITS support and delivery to the customer by the service provider.

Goal: The goal of this SLA is to obtain mutual agreement for ITS provision between Information Technology Services (service provider) and the Merrimack College community (customer).

Stakeholders:
Service Providers: Academic Technology, Administrative Computing, MACK Card, Network Services, Telecommunications and User Services including the AskIT Help Desk

Customers: Faculty, Administration, Staff and Students

Hours of Operation:
During the Academic School Year, the ITS Help Desk & Walk-In Center is available during the following hours of operation:
Monday through Thursday: 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sundays 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Summer Hours (based upon college policy and college calendar):
Monday through Thursday 8:00 am to 7:00 pm

Requesting Assistance/Service:
Call 978-837-3500 (x3500)
Email AskIT@Merrimack.edu
Visit the Help Desk on the 2nd Floor of the McQuade Library

Expected Response Times during regular business hours:
(P1 & P2 must be called into x3500)
P1 - Highest Priority (2 hours)

• System is not operational for multiple users
• A major function of service is not operational for multiple users
• In-Class Technology Enhanced Classroom issues

P2 - High Priority - where there is no workaround (4 hours)

• Services or applications are not operational for a single user.
• A major function of service is not operational for a single user.

P3 - Medium Priority (2-3 Business Days)

• A minor function is not operational for one or more users (who can continue to use other application functions)
• A user has questions about functionality

P4 - Low Priority (3-4 Business Days)

P5 - Lowest Priority (5+ Business Days)

• A user would like to suggest a change be made or requires training

After Hours Response Times:
Major systems are automatically monitored 24x7. Response to critical P1 issues occurs between the hours of 7am and 11pm seven days per week.

Maintenance:
We will do our best to perform maintenance during times which will have the least impact on customers.  Customer impact, IT staff availability, and vendor availability will all be taken into consideration when scheduling maintenance windows. The Planned Downtime calendar is available at mackapps.merrimack.edu.

Service Provider Responsibilities:

• Respond to and resolve customer questions, problems with, and requests for enhancements to the application(s) to meet business needs.
• Respond to customer questions regarding application functionality.
• Respond to customer questions regarding data issues.
• Ensure that customers are adequately trained and that applications meet the business needs of the college.
• Provide clear and timely communications with the customers on outstanding issues and requests.

Customer Responsibilities:

• Provide detailed information regarding requests.  Include emails received, error messages received, examples, steps taken, parameters entered along with expected results and actual results.
• Go through the proper request channels to receive the quickest response.
• When the support staff responds via email, they may cc others to elicit assistance, keep other interested parties informed, even while away from their desks.
• Use IT as a strategic partner when making decisions about changes or new software or hardware purchases.
• Inform IT as soon as new releases of software are planned to be implemented which may impact interfaces to other systems.  Provide IT with interface change information and/or provide IT with a technical contact with the vendor.

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For a list of specific Information Technology Services’ supported systems and technologies, please refer to the ITS Service Catalog.

Administrative Systems (i.e. Jenzabar, Target X, etc.) available soon
Academic Technology (Classrooms, Blackboard, etc.)
Network Services (Infrastructure, Internet Access, etc.)
User Services (AskIT Help Desk)
Telecommunications (Telephone, Rave Alert)
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Revised 5/1/2013