OIT Unscheduled Service Outage/Performance Issues Notification Process

During Normal Business Hours
Outside Business Hours
OIT Communications Process

The OIT becomes aware of service outages in several ways.  Ideally, system monitoring provides audible alerts to Operations staff when problems are detected.  For some services, full monitoring to detect all possible problems is not in place and those using the system may be the first to be aware of problems.  To ensure that appropriate OIT staff are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, and for communications to occur, it’s important that you inform either the OIT Help Desk or OIT Operations via telephone of service problems you experience.

During Normal Business Hours

During normal business hours if you experience a problem, please call the OIT Help Desk at (574) 631-8111.  If the telephone Message of the Day (MOTD) confirms that we are already aware of the problem, you can hang up.  If there is not a MOTD when you call, we may not be aware of the problem, so please stay on the line so you can relay your information to a Help Desk consultant.

Important note:  Email sent to support addresses, voice mail messages and/or electronic contacts via Assyst are assumed to be non-urgent, low priority contacts.  If you are reporting a service outage, please call us at (574) 631-8111 and stay on the line to speak to a consultant, to prevent delays in the notification process.

Outside Normal Business Hours

If you encounter a service outage outside normal business hours, please call Operations at (574) 631-5603 and speak to a technician to ensure that they are aware of the problem and repairs are in process. 

Please note that Operations staff cannot assist with individual desktop, application or account problems or questions, and will relay those calls to the Help Desk for further action during normal business hours.

OIT Communication Process

Once we become aware of a problem:

• Operations staff will contact the relevant engineers or administrators so they can investigate and make appropriate corrections. 
• Operations staff will complete a form that notifies OIT staff via email that a problem exists and specifies who they have contacted to facilitate repairs.  This preliminary notification is often incomplete, since we have not yet fully collected diagnostic information, but it alerts OIT staff to enable them to respond to customer contacts that might be related to the issue.
• During the normal business day Operations verifies that Help Desk consultants are aware of the problem so that they can coordinate communications to customers.
• Help Desk staff log a Major Incident in Assyst to link all customer contacts regarding the issue for appropriate follow-up.
• Help Desk staff record a Message of the Day (MOTD) that all new callers will hear before being connected to a consultant, enabling customers calling about a problem to receive information quickly.
• Help Desk staff will use Twitter to broadcast a short statement about the problem. (Twitter will simultaneously broadcast to followers via their specified method, and update the RSS Outage Alerts)
  • Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oithelpdesk
• Help Desk staff will contact one of the staff authorized to post email to relevant groups and web notifications to alert them to the problem. 
• Outside business hours, Operations staff will make this contact to initiate communications if the service is a high priority with a potential for large impact to the user community.
• OIT Communications team members will post email, Twitter and/or web notifications, activating the Outage Alert tab on the right side of the http://oit.nd.edu site, and the RSS feed with links to further details. 

The above communication steps occur as quickly as possible when OIT staff become aware of a confirmed service problem.

 

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