The ITS Service Desk serves as the front-line support for campus technology questions. They are the people who answer the phones and respond to chats and work tickets day in and day out to keep the university running. Whether it is helping someone who is locked out of their account or answering another 2FA question, the team does it with a smile on their faces. These folks truly enjoy helping individuals and solving problems. And if they could invent a magic button to make it easier to authenticate with Duo, they would.

What is your team’s role within ITS?

We assist with any IT issues in relation to the university. We are the front-line support for any issues with passwords, 2-factor authentication (Duo), networking issues, delegated access and emails and we take directory calls.

Who makes up the team and what role do they perform?

Our team is considered Tier 1 support, but we are broken up into two managers and two groups—Level 1s and Level 2s. Our Level 1 team is usually a six-person team managed by Kristina McDowell, currently with the following employees: Tai’Jahra (TJ) Armstead, Ashley (Ash) Davis, Alison (Ali) Jones, Marshall Copeland and Amber Norton. Our Level 2 team is usually a four-person team managed by Kenya Baker, currently with the following employees: Ausar Amadi, Alexander (A.J.) Burgess and Cayla Barton. The Level 1s are the main staff greeting you when you call into the ITS Service Desk, and our Level 2s are the middlemen between Tier 1 and Tier 2 support. They can do remote sessions if necessary and have a little more than basic knowledge of procedures.

What are your team’s current projects?

Currently, the Service Desk has been aiding users with the changes that have come from the One Office 365 email migration project.

What is the most rewarding project this year?

We are all in agreement that our most rewarding project has been the One Office 365 email migration. We have hired people specifically to aid with the team and while it has been challenging, the process has taught us a lot and we feel it will be beneficial to all once the bugs are ironed out.

What is your favorite part of working in ITS?

We are one community that works together and genuinely cares for each other. We have such an awesome team here at the Service Desk. Everyone in ITS is willing to help, inside and outside of the Service Desk. We are also always learning something new every day and enjoy resolving user issues so they can continue their work and educational pursuits.

What is the biggest challenge your team is facing?

Like a lot of departments, we are facing a staffing shortage which is putting a lot of pressure on our team but we are taking it day by day.

If your team was to invent one piece of technology as a team what would it be?

We could not decide on just ONE since we hear most issues on campus, but we mostly agreed it would be amazing if there was a magic button or a better way to Duo authenticate. We know the Identity Management team has our backs on this! Some other ideas were a password manager app, an easier way to register devices for our students' users in the residence halls and software that could troubleshoot and document each user issue with a device for better procedures.

In five years, what do you see your team working on?

We know in five years there will be a ton of interesting and fun changes in technology. We will continue to provide tech support service to the university, maybe as one centralized unit for all departments. And who knows, maybe we will be helping students access their accounts via microchips in their hands.