blue_n_white

Thanks for the comment, I like the idea of it being a vision statement of where we want to go and to use an SLA as a way of identifying next steps/improvements that can be made.

I would be reluctant I think to put in a consequence for a failure to meet SLAs, I would rather use it as a basis for a discussion on where an improvement is needed and how this improvement can be achieved, as many have said, there is a need to for flexibility within a school setting and I think not having penalties/conseuqences for not meeting SLAs would help to achieve that flexibility.

I would say yes the admin, site management, catering are providing a service to internal customers and all have a clear structure within which to measure performance and reinforce accountability. The IT support team do not. I am looking for the SLA to provide a structure to enable us to measure the performance of the IT team and give them clear and measurable targets that are transparent and to avoid issues such as "Why has this not been done by now" by allowing them to prioritise and allocate jobs to members and give me as the line manager an overview of what they are doing and where there is underperformance to be addressed and where credit is due. It will also avoid them having to deal with vague targets that can be used against them. The lack of transparency is simple, when an email is sent to the helpdesk by a member of staff rarely is a reply sent showing that a solution is being worked on, there is a lack of transparency about which problems of recurring regularly and which are not, there is a lack of transparency about when a problem is partially solved or needs more time to be done, there is a lack of transparency of when actions were taken and how long things like deploying hardware such PCs/tablets will be take. It has become obvious from the constructive/helpful comments on this thread (of which there are many) that the SLA can also be a document to reinforce the role other staff have to play in making sure that things are reported correctly and in a timely manner, I'm sure this will be helpful to IT team, rather than micromanaging them. I have asked the IT team to take part in the process and they have resisted, I could conceivably impose a SLA, instead I have turned to IT professionals to help formulate a supportive SLA rather than impose one with targets I would like to see. I see this as a supportive measure, if I wanted a weapon I would not be asking for advice on the approach to take.

Thanks for the guidance

Telephony is from a different budget Broadband and Filtering is from a different budget The only licenses that need to be purchased from this budge come to approximately £6k

Our school is half the size of the school you worked at with approximately 800 students and around 100 staff, over £40k seems in line with the numbers of staff and student at both schools (as a crude comparison). We are trying to support the NM and IT support team, they have not previously been held to account and finding the process difficult.

What size school was the school where you got £60-70k? In terms of staff training we have offered to pay for any training the NM requires, so far the quote he has given us is for Microsoft server training, this has been agreed. Training for teachers in using ICT done in house by others teachers, the IT team contribute to this where necessary

Addressing each of your points: Each member of the team has their own desktop and phone line that the work from With 3 people on the IT team I would expect a NM to delegate and prioritise based on the need rather than the person who needs support. As mentioned in an earlier post the annual budget given to the NM is well over £40k, toners and papers come from a different budget, the IT budget is for hardware refresh, annual licenses etc. I am investigating how this compares to other similar sized schools Teachers do report things and report them regularly to the IT email. There is little or no follow up to communicate on issues. This is one thing we are working to address.

Thanks for the constructive advice!

The annual budget given to the NM is well over £40k per annum, I am investigating how this compares to other schools. This is for full IT provision, refresh of IT suites (4 year cycle), teacher laptops/desktops, license renewals, servers etc.

Thanks for the advice, I agree that some KPIs are too rigid for a school environment and there needs to be a degree of flexibility due to the nature of the school environment. I will be developing a responsibility matrix, this sounds like a really good way forward.

I'm the direct line manager of the IT team, and my role is Director of IT and I have been appointed to sort out the issues that have affected the running of the school for a number of years. In short the NM is not doing this....The NM has worked in the school a number of years, does not have a clear chain of support (he does not use EduGeek as its "full of white noise"), is never able to give a clear timescale of when a problem will be solved. This is intended to help improve the performance of the IT team and the NM, rather than a punitive measure.

I have tried that, since I have been at the school it seems there has been a complete breakdown in trust between staff and the IT team, due to valid complaints on each side. The staff just want an improvement in the basic IT services available at school and quicker responses to problems that affect teaching and learning, which are rarely acknowledged when reported and in some cases left until the end of the day (especially frustrating when a teacher can't log on at the start of a lesson). As I mentioned earlier the IT team are reluctant to set time limits and have not engaged in the process, this is me trying to start the process and avoid SLAs that are imposed without any input from an IT professional working in a school.

For the IT Helpdesk, after much cajoling, the IT support team have moved away from the email system that made it impossible to track tickets and issues quickly and efficiently to using Freshdesk (on the free plan), I am looking at the features within Freshdesk that would help us to measure agreed targets.

Brilliant, thanks for that, it is a good starting point to generate the KPIs.

Thanks for the suggestion

Thanks for the suggestion, I was looking at using a measure of how many people are affected. I feel that the IT support team is providing a service to internal customers, currently the customer service is viewed as unsatisfactory (based on feedback from support staff, teachers, SLT, office staff), lacks transparency for people generating tickets and for me as the person supporting them. If someone feels the lack of progression within a school environment is a reason to become unmotivated, I would hope that they would have enough pride in their job and skillset to actually perform their job in a professional and timely manner and if we do not define what constitutes adequate performance (through an agreed SLA) then accountability will be enforced through soft targets rather than measurable targets. I think this will in the long term lead to stress for the IT team.

Thanks for the reply, you make a valid point about the need for flexibility and how SLA's can lead to a trade off between flexibility and adherence to strict limits. However, I do feel that a network team with three people (NM + IT technician + apprentice) should be able to cope with the situation you have outlined. The precise reason I wanted input from the network team towards the SLA was to have agreed limits, they are reluctant to cooperate (I am already anticipating a barrage of criticism of me/SLT for their reluctance to cooperate), hence the reason for my request on the forum. At this moment in time there is no transparency about how long things will take and I'm hoping the SLA will allow the network team to prioritise and increase transparency, a time limit on a response times and giving clear information about when a task is completed shouldn't be too hard a thing to accomplish (even if the response is I am working on a solution)

Hi I have been asked to formulate a SLA/KPI document for out IT support team in a school of approximately 900 students. I do want to work with the technicians in formulating these however they have not been too keen to engage in the discussion (when I asked what would be a reasonable time to deploy tablets the network manager asked me how long would it take me to change an exhaust pipe on a car). Rather than implementing SLAs decided on by teachers and SLT I was hoping someone here could give me a pointer. Thanks in advance.