From time to time, we all have technical issues that frustrate us and cause precious time to be lost.  The time it takes to resolve your technical challenges is crucial to your productivity and directly impacts our reputation at Mines. 

When I arrived at Mines in the summer of 2022, I embarked on a listening tour with professors, students, administrative professionals, and leadership. Feedback was vast and highlighted the positive things ITS was doing and areas where we could improve.  The gift of feedback is priceless, and that feedback is guiding our reinvention of how ITS provides support. 

The reinvention of the model for how we provide service to campus started in the fall of 2022 when Rose Foster joined us as Senior Director of IT Service Delivery to centralize IT support. Together, we intend to develop a first-class support organization through the achievement of 10 specific goals:

1. Shift the majority of IT help desk staffing from students to full-time IT technicians who are highly skilled and can remote into computers (upon approval) to solve problems quickly and efficiently.
2. Extend our support hours to cover early morning and evening classes.
3. Expand live chat availability for those who prefer chatting to calling. 
4. Provide on-site technicians five days a week who can respond quickly and consistently to issues requiring desk-side and classroom support.
5. Create a simple extension/number to dial for IT help: xHELP or 303-278-HELP(4357)
6. Establish a first call to resolution (FCR) metric of 80% and an aging ticket metric of less than 5%.
7. Install a modern phone system for the IT Service Desk (Mines Service Center) so calls are routed efficiently.
8. Refine our comprehensive online knowledge base for our customers who prefer self-help.
9. Promote our simple customer service survey, which asks – How satisfied are you with the service you received? – so we can better understand how we are doing and constantly improve our services.
10. Publicize a clear escalation path if you are not getting the support you need.

Significant work is needed to put this model into practice. Through realigning positions, we are already hiring our service desk (call center) manager and technicians, a major step toward reaching our goals. We aim to complete most items by August to be prepared for the Fall 2023 semester.

I appreciate your support and feedback as we implement this new model. Your input is valued and can be shared directly with me at andrewjmoore@mines.edu.

Thanks,
Andrew, CIO (Chief Information Officer)