Generic workstation support for UT staff

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By workstation support within this framework is understood the service of ICTS as part of the UT workstation service, which focuses on the work stations (fixed or mobile) of the staff and provides safe availability of the necessary ICT facilities. These facilities comprise both the facilities/applications that are made available at the work station as well as those that are downloaded via a network connection. The network connection itself is a separately organised service and as such, is not covered by this framework. By generic workstation support is understood workstation support that is in principle established as being supplied to all staff at the UT level, to be paid for in a standardised manner and supplied by ICTS.

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The UT wishes to demonstrably economise on the workstation support of its staff by committing to a generic and standardised workstation support system for all staff. The idea behind this is that as many staff work stations as possible are covered by generic workstation support. This workstation support is paid for from central resources. Only where this is necessary, are staff members provided with additional and specific workstation support on the basis of charging it on to the management unit. The economy on the total cost of workstation support (generic + additional) must be made apparent to the CoB and the deans of the faculties.

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The UT provides generic workstation support for all staff with PCs and Laptops on the basis of the Microsoft Windows and Line operating systems. For the time being, workstation support for MAC-OS work stations is not covered by generic workstation support, but falls under additional workstation support. The support of MAC-OS work stations has therefore not been agreed bilaterally and is purchased by the faculties from ICTS and charged for on that basis. This type of workstation support is also standardised by ICTS wherever possible.

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The layout of the Windows and Linux platforms for generic workstation support will be standardised at the UT level and not in accordance with the UT-unit structure. Administrative pressure as a consequence of the mobility of the staff between the organisational units of the UT is thereby eliminated and this contributes towards the identity of the university as a single organisation. This implies that the e-mail addresses of staff will be implemented on the basis of @UTWENTE.NL (where existing e-mail addresses with subdomains within UTWENTE.NL will remain as operational aliases for a certain number of years) and these workstation facilities will be provided at the UTWENTE level.

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The workstation support is characterised by

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Remote installation and management (server-based management: installation, upgrades, patches, etc.)

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Self-services at the individual choice of staff members within the standard package (applications necessary for installation, etc.)

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On-site assistance on demand

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The facilities to be supported generically and accessible in principle with single sign-on/log-on (e-mail/calendar, anti-spam, user data, etc.) and applications (including those in the administrative environment of the UT) are established at the UT level and contain (in any case) the (standardised) smallest common multiple of necessary applications. The determination of which applications to support occurs on the basis of a UT-wide inventory of the applications and versions thereof in use. Among the applications to be supported could be applications that do not fall directly under the primary work processes serving the staff, but contribute towards the attractiveness of the working environment (travel information, weather programmes, etc.)

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The PCs and Laptops to be supported will be acquired under a UT umbrella contract and should be a standardised configuration such that generic workstation support can always be provided without modification. Individually acquired (home) work stations are not covered by generic workstation support, but possibly by additional workstation support if the unit so desires. These work stations however, are covered by the security requirements of the UT if connected to the UTnet.

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For the work stations a distinction is made between

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Installed work stations, where the staff member has administrative rights to the work station in order to manage it themselves (installations) over and above the standardised basic configuration. In the event of a breakdown of the work station, along with assistance in rectifying the problem, the basic configuration can be restored if necessary

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Managed work stations where the staff member does not have administrator rights and receives a full guarantee for the proper and safe functioning thereof.

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The server facilities are organised such that e-mail boxes, calendars, user data and other data and applications to be designated later are accessible (web-based) any time, anywhere to the staff. It remains to be seen whether open or de facto standards will be utilised.

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The support of PDAs and Smart phones is not currently covered by generic workstation support. They do not currently come under the standard facilities of the staff member. The support thereof is provided by ICTS in a standardised form however, is the subject of bilateral agreements between ICTS and the faculty information manager/director of operations and are charged for individually.

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SLA agreements will be made for the quality indicators of the services provided by ICTS (how good, how many, how quickly, etc.), including how these indicators will be tested and reported on.

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The costs of the generic and additional workstation support are related to the systems management in question (including hardware and software), technical applications management and second and first-line workstation management and should be demonstrably in line with market rates.