The distributed support program at NC State University
Susan West Klein · 2000
The Distributed Support (DS) 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 to develop a strong partnership between the central Information Technology (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 the past seven years, a number of tenets have developed regarding the DS program:• There are tremendous benefits to the central IT organization in setting up these formal relationships• 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.• Managing the relationship with the client department is as important as managing the employee in that department.• It is important (and often challenging) to find the type of employee with the "people skills" to be successful in this type of position.This paper provides an overview of the DS program at NC State, and explores its successes and challenges.