paper -
87 The Distributed Support Program at NC State University: Challenges and Rewards of Successful Partnerships
Susan
Klein, North Carolina State University
The Distributed Support program at NC State University
has been in place since 1993, and has been an important part of our strategy to
provide effective desktop and networking support in departments and
colleges. More importantly, it has been
an effective way develop a strong partnership between the central IT
organization and our clients. The DS
program places professional computing staff in departments and colleges at the
university for long-term contracts. A
number of our staff support multiple departments, satisfying support needs in
departments where a full-time support person is not needed/affordable.
Over its past 7 years, a number of tenets have
developed regarding the DS program:
1) There are tremendous benefits to the central IT
organization in setting up these formal relationships.
2) Despite IT efforts to provide excellent support to
all departmental support staff, departments believe that there is value in
having an official support partnership with the central IT group.
3) Managing the relationship with the client
department is as important as managing the employee in that department.
4) It is important (and often challenging) to find the
type of employee with the "people skills" to be successful in a this
type of position.
This paper provides an overview of the Distributed Support program at NC State, and explores its successes and challenges. The intended audience is computing support staff who have interest in departmental support strategies, as well as managers of existing distributed support programs.