Support Services
For many educational institutions, information and the technology that supports
it represent their most valuable, but often least understood assets. Successful
educational institutions recognise the benefits of information technology and
use it to drive community value and effectiveness. These educational
institutions also understand and manage the associated risks, such as increasing
regulatory compliance and critical dependence of many processes on IT. The need
for assurance about the value of IT, the management of IT-related risks and
increased requirements for control over information are now understood as key
elements of educational governance. Value, risk and control constitute the core
of IT governance. Educational institution users must understand the effect they
have on each other. Their respective demands and expectations must be defined
and agreed on. The most effective way of managing this is through the
service level management
process.
Service level management is a defined process that
enables IT to deliver exactly what is expected of it and to ensure that these
services are recognized as beneficial to the educational institution. IT can
facilitate effective cost management of the services, focus on the full range of
services available, monitor the service components, and ensure that the service
is delivered through monitoring, reporting, and developing knowledge of the
services that are offered.
IT governance integrates and institutionalises good
practices to ensure that the IT supports the educational institution objectives.
IT governance thus enables the educational institution to take full advantage of
its information, thereby maximising benefits and capitalising on opportunities.
These outcomes require a framework for control over IT and good best practices.
IT Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management
and/or day-to-day execution of IT activities to ScadCo.
The educational institution and ScadCo enter into a contractual agreement that
defines the services to be provided. The client agrees to procure the services
from the supplier for the term of the contract.
Educational institutions that outsource are seeking to realize benefits and
address the following issues:
-
Cost savings. Lowering of the overall cost of the
service to the institution. This will involve reducing the scope, defining
quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower
cost economies through "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between
industrialized and developing nations.
-
Focus on Core Business. Institution resources (for example investment,
people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business, teaching and learning.
Often institutions outsource their IT support to specialised IT services companies.
-
Cost restructuring. Outsourcing changes the
balance of fixed vs variable costs. A move from fixed to variable cost and also
making variable costs more predictable.
-
Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through
contracting out IT services with a new service level agreement.
-
Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider
experience and knowledge brought in by ScadCo.
-
Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding
contract with legal redress. This is not achievable with internal services.
-
Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice
that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
-
Access to talent. Access to a larger
talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in complex
technology like servers and application development.
-
Capacity management. An improved method of capacity
management of services and technologies where the risk in providing the excess
capacity is borne by ScadCo.
-
Catalyst for change. Educational institutions can use an
outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be
achieved alone. ScadCo becomes the change agent in the process.
-
Enhance capacity for innovation. Institutions increasingly use
external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for
technology innovation.
-
Risk management. An approach to risk management for some
types of risks is to partner with ScadCo who is better positioned to mitigate the risks.
Service Catalogue
The ScadCo Service Catalogue provides a full-featured, yet low-cost, set of foundation services to support all IT operations.
The solution has been architected in such as way that it addresses all required aspects of IT support required by schools and colleges.
The service catalogue, will govern service delivery within the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and SLA objectives.
|
Service
|
Pricing Model
|
| SC1 |
Access Devices Support Services |
|
|
Desktops and Laptops |
Per device |
|
Tablets |
Per device |
| SC2 |
Server Support Services |
|
|
Hardware Support Services |
Per server |
|
Software Support Services |
Per server |
| SC3 |
Connectivity Services |
|
|
Switch/Router |
Per LAN switch/router |
|
Wireless |
Per WLAN node |
|
Connected Devices |
Per connection |
|
Network Management System |
Per NMS |
| SC4 |
Remote Access Support |
Per remote access user |
| SC5 |
Software Assurance Service |
|
|
Applications |
Per application |
|
Web Applications |
Per application |
|
Web Store Applications |
Per application |
| SC6 |
Security, Risk and Governance Management Services |
|
|
TMG Firewall |
Per TMG instance |
|
Intruder Protection |
Per IPS |
|
Secure Information Access |
Per user |
|
Digital Certificates |
Per installation |
|
Data Encryption |
Per installation |
| SC7 |
Disaster Recovery Service |
|
|
Backups |
Per Service Protected |
|
Offsite Backups |
Per Service Protected |
|
Service Recovery |
Per Full Recovery |
| SC8 |
Asset Management Service |
Per service |
| SC9 |
Internet Access Service |
|
|
ADSL/Fibre Access |
Per fixed IP ADSL |
|
Firewall service |
Per firewall instance |
|
URL filtering |
Per URL Filtering service |
| SC10 |
Collaboration Service |
|
|
Messaging |
Per mail box |
|
Messaging Office 365 |
Per mail box |
|
Remote Messaging |
Per internet mailbox |
|
Mobile Messaging |
Per mobile mailbox |
|
SMTP Bulk eMail |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Instant Messaging |
Per Lync user |
|
SharePoint |
Per SharePoint portal |
|
SMS |
Per Scadsys instance |
| SC11 |
Printing Service |
Per printer |
| SC12 |
Web Services |
|
|
School/College Domain |
Per domain |
|
Scadsys Web Service |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
School/College Web Site |
Per web instance |
| SC13 |
Application Services |
|
|
School Management System |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Financial Management System |
Per Pastel instance |
|
Classroom management system |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Media Management system |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Asset and Stock system |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Parent and Student Portals |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Parent and Student Mobility |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Access Control System |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Notifications system |
Per Scadsys instance |
|
Time and Attendance |
Per Scadsys instance |
| SC14 |
Information Lifecycle Services |
|
|
SQL Database |
Per SQL instance |
|
Shared Folders |
Per shared folders option |
| SC15 |
User Education Services |
Per user |
| SC16 |
Problem and Incident Management Service |
Fixed per month |
| SC17 |
Capacity Management Service |
Fixed per month |
| SC18 |
Configuration Management Service |
Included |
| SC19 |
Change Management Service |
Included |
| SC20 |
Project Management Services |
Per hour |
| SC21 |
Architecture Management Service |
Included |
