IT Support department structure

[Rockpile99]

Hopefully this is the right place to ask...

 

Our school governors have asked for a comparison between our IT Support department and other secondary schools (I get the impression they're trying to push out-sourcing). In particular they're looking at my experience and skill set.

 

Would any network managers mind responding with just a very general breakdown of their departments and schools? By way of information I work in LA controlled secondary school with around 1200 pupils. I have one Technician with basic AD/OS deployment skills to do the 'day to day' user support and I handle everything else. We use G Suite for Education on around 800 mixed Windows,Chrome, and OSX devices, Hyper-V for our server environment (mainly 2012 R2 and 2016 with a couple of Linux VMs), Cisco for our networking (including wireless), and I've been doing this for nearly 20 years across industry, local government, and education.

 

I understand that this is a big ask but any help will be gratefully received.

 

Thank you.

[DannyG555]

Very simple here now.... 1x Network Manager (me) and 1x Technician just supporting the one high school of around 700 students. My technician is expected to cover the majority of the day to day reactive support. Me - everything else beyond that.

[Oaktech]

My Large Primary structure is Exec Head - NM (Me) - Technician

 

My Old Senior school structure (4 years ago now) was 'Exec Head - HOS - NM - Senior Tech (me) - 3x Tech'.

 

I believe the structure there now is 'Director of Technical Services - Senior Tech - 3x Tech.'

 

The Academy is about 2500 users/1500 devices across a 2 sites: senior school and free school. They also look after a 3 form/500 pupil 0-Y6 Primary school.

 

The Director of Technical Services oversees: Site Management (buildings maintenance, caretaking), Estate Services (Grounds Maintenance), Music & Theatre Tech, IT, Reprographics, Security & Access.

[stevec_]

We're LA school with around 950 students and about 130 staff. We're a community school so also have a kindergarten and leisure centre.

Our staffing structure is:

 

Network Manager - term time only, mostly deals with general IT management issues, main decision maker

Assistant Network Manager - full time, mostly deals with network/servers, helps make decisions

IT Technician - term time only, mostly first-line support but also helps with network side

 

We don't generally contract or outsource any work - main exception is for major cabling work (fibre etc).

 

Hope the info is useful

[mrbios]

Same size school, roughly 1200 pupils.

 

Network manager - Me

Full time technician

Part time, term time only technician on 20 hours a week, though I'm still arguing that needs to be full time.

 

Very similar numbers of devices to yourself just differing slightly on brands (HP and UBQT for networking, Aerohive for wireless) and office 365 instead of G suite, and VMware instead of Hyper-V.

 

Interesting to see you're based in Dursley, I imagine i can guess which school based off that...funny looking orange building perchance?

[Rockpile99]

Well I certainly live in Dursley but couldn't possibly comment on where I work

[jthompson]

Secondary, 1500 pupils, 200 staff, ~1000 Windows client machines.

 

1 NM and 1 tech, both FT.

[hardtailstar]

Im the technician but there is only me and the Network Manager supporting 1200 pupils and about 250 staff.

 

My skill set is a bit of everything but I mainly repair everything along with installs of kit and user support.

 

The Network Manager does all the server stuff (except password resets and account creation) and any bits I dont have time for.

 

In terms of skills/qualifications we both have.

 

Network Manager

10 years in Education IT support as Technician and Network Manager, No degree but started on an apprenticeship. Self taught server knowledge.

 

Technician (Me)

10 years in IT Support as a Technician, 2 years in Corporate, 8 years in a mix of different schools. College diploma, self taught everything else.

 

I am actually older (only by a year) than the Network manager but we both have the same amount of years experience.

[leegcvcc]

Just been thinking about this, and each school is so different...we know that. Interesting read the various staffing levels and tech numbers.

 

Here it's 1 x NM FT, 1 x senior tech FT, 1 x tech (Pro Rata +10 days) in a school that's 900 students, 130 staff

 

The key is what you actually do. IT do, CCTV implementation and monitoring and requests, electronic door swipe card creation and support. All projectors, whiteboards etc. A bit part of it is 150 staff laptops where all staff have admin rights to the laptops for ease of use. Hard to keep updated and hard to make changes unless machine based GPP for example. This is a real time sapper.

 

Can't believe some are running bigger networks with less people, so it really comes down to what the IT dept do a lot of the time. Seems to be more shozzle coming our way that's not really IT but because it involves a computer... must be us!

[Davit2005]

Seems to be more shozzle coming our way that's not really IT but because it involves a computer... must be us!

 

It is not jus you :-) .

 

I've worked in a school where the Manager was non-technical, there were only 2 of us, only 450 students and 60 staff, everything in house. Worked in a large secondary school with one NM and 2 techs, watered down to no NM and 2 techs I think Office365 for student email but everything else in house.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Davit2005

[psydii]

1700 student, 300 staff, 1100 computers/iPads/laptops/iMacs, 110 classrooms. NM is not SLT but has ownership of IT across the site as a member of SLT would normally. 3 technicians, one of whom is primarily responsible for the maintenance of the photocopiers, printers and IWBs. This technician is also expected to attend out of hours events where AV is required, in exchange for TOIL.

 

 

1x NM - Strategy, Planning, engagement, project management, line management, "solution design", network configurations, AD/GPO design, documentation, procurement management (including only tangentally related services, such as Theatre, CCTV, Access Control, and even a little bit of FM), reporting to SLT, reporting to Governors.

1x Snr Tech - Server/Cloud Management, Software image design and implementation, 2nd line support, and providing support and guidance for Jnr Techs.

2x Jnr Tech - Helpdesk, Desk-side assists. Passwords, Permissions (following a script), software allocations, stock control, management of warranty/repairs, IWBs, desktop imaging, asset management, "bookable device" management

 

We did once outsource from this structure, but quickly discovered the level of service we were used to and expected was not deliverable by a smaller team backed by offsite 'solution architects, specialists and support professionals'. It was a disaster and set the use of technology back ten years.

[Rockpile99]

@leegcvcc - it's not just you with the shozzle. I also have to look after CCTV, electronic doors, ID badges, boards & projectors, lift access, cashless catering, website, ad-hoc support for two primary schools, and do the technician's job in school holidays (there used to be an additional FT techie but the HT wouldn't fill the post after he left).

@everyone else - thanks for sharing and your fast responses, it's appreciated.

[psydii]

I should say that our head teacher does not accept "so and so was ill/had child care issues/on annual leave" for something not getting done on time. So we have a team that is sufficiently buffered that we can be two people down (for a week or two) and still hit targets. Indeed, occasionally the IT team is the buffer for other teams as most things these days require IT training, so we *can* turn our hands to most jobs in a pinch.

[leegcvcc]

@psydii targets? What sort of targets?

[psydii]

Mostly being able to drop what is being done and do what the Head has asked for immediately, while also still being able to respond to classroom issues immediately (15 minutes - but practically we get there within 5) and replacing projectors during lesson breaks, delivering and supporting device bookings on time etc. Most other targets are set by us at the time of the job ticket being first opened - the key is that we do things when we say we will, without excuses.

[leegcvcc]

ah ok. Thought you had actual performance targets to hit, as in a defined number of repairs a day etc :-)

 

I am going to start a thread on what IT depts. actually do these days. It must have moved on from previous threads! (when I get time!)

[chris11256]

We're an independent day & boarding school with 750 pupils and 1/4 of those boarding. 8 of us in total under the umbrella of IT.

 

Director of IT: budget & strategic planning, is in overall charge of department. All IT staff report to him, so structure is essentially flat

Deputy Director of IT: Deputises for Director of IT, solely responsibly for cyber security & disaster recovery as well as back end of the telephony system. Also responsible for major projects.

Network Assistant(me): responsible for day to day running of the network & server infrastructure, third line support.

Helpdesk Manager: Second Line support, responsible for ensuring SLA's are not being exceeded. Also plans annual desktop replacements and deals with classroom AV kit. Deals with ordering of day to day supplies.

IT Apprentice: First Line support, also responsible for ensuring IT equipment in Houses is in working order and consumable replacement

2 X developers: Our MIS was made in house, so they're responsible for maintenance as well as for the Intranet

Reprographics tech: As it sounds

Edited June 26, 2018 by chris11256

[unixman_again]

Sixth form college with 1800ish students

 

1xIT Manager who looks after the servers & network

1xSnr Techie (me) who does all the carp that nobody else wants to do - website, intranet, printers, Macs, inhouse programmer, etc

1xTechie who looks after the Windows PCs - rolls them out, fixes them, etc

1xVery Jnr Techie - we have people on placement for a year who run about fixing things that we don't feel like doing. Ideally they would run the help desk but I do that.

[Jonah]

MAT of 4 schools (currently, six by next year), ~3,800 users, ~1,600 devices, ~120 servers.

 

1 x IT Director, 2 x Infrastructure Engineers, 3 x Onsite Engineers

[ThatBoringBloke]

Comp. 800 Students. 100 Staff. 9 servers. 300 PC's. 100 Chromebooks. Me.

[KevinB]

Standalone academy, 1200 students, 150 staff, 900-ish devices (plus BYOD, ugh!), on prem Exchange, SQL, storage plus hybrid O365 Exchange and OfB storage. Also support 5 primary schools, 3 "large" and 2 village.

 

Four of us in the team, broadly ad below but we all have to cross-role quite a bit.

IT manager (me) - strategy, budgeting, purchasing, project management, infrastructure & DR, e-safety, phone system, 3rd line helpdesk support

Sr technician - primary schools, Sharepoint, wifi, SQL, helpdesk manager and 2nd line support

Technician - helpdesk, primary schools, day to day maintenance

Apprentice - helpdesk, day-to-day maintenance and mentored co-working with the other three, primary school shadowing