Service Description and Rates Service Offering Update - October, 2002 A wide range of Johns Hopkins divisions, departments and functional units Johns Hopkins use Desktop Computing Services (DCS) to provide a core of network services to faculty and staff. Currently, more than 6,200 desktop systems and 250 servers are managed as a part of integrated system of ongoing support, customer service, network and data management. Some of these efforts are funded as part of an ongoing project or application. The majority of these departments support their user community by funding a portion of a LAN administrator through internal fee transfers to DCS. This offering by DCS is generally referred to as “LAN Services”. Assigning a LAN Administrator or Desktop Technician to provide support is a key element of the service. It ensures that you have a primary contact for ongoing support needs. In addition, team of support professionals and specialists are used as needed to deal with the complexities of the Johns Hopkins networking environment. As members of the Johns Hopkins community, the staff is keenly aware of the issues faced by internal faculty and staff, and offers a low cost alternative to departmental staff or outside service providers.
Desktop Computing Services provides the following services to its clients:
- Specific LAN Administrator or Desktop Technician assigned for functional units
- Responsibility for the configuration of desktop PC’s
- Access to shared data resources on file servers
- Management and update of file servers, not including software license costs
- Access to a protected server location for individual files and documents
- Backup and restore of data stored on file servers.
- Accounts on the Johns Hopkins GroupWise email and calendar system
- Phone support, on-site support and remote control support for desktop PC and network problems.
- Installation and updates of standard application software, such as Microsoft Office, the Host Interface Program (HIP)
- Anti-Virus software, currently Norton Anti-Virus (with updates)
- Updates to Windows and Internet Browser software
In addition, the group provides liaison with independent software vendors and other technical support departments within Johns Hopkins. When your department needs assistance with a project that requires the use of computers and automation, our Project Leaders are available for advice, vendor negotiations and technical assistance. Desktop Computing Services also offers database & intranet development services. What’s new for FY2003-2004? - No rate increase is planned for fiscal year 2003 or 2004. DCS has managed its costs effectively to ensure that costs are stable. Departments are asked to make every effort to purchase standard PCs offered by the group, use standard software, and involve our staff early in computer related projects, moves and software installations. The use of standard desktop configurations greatly reduces the incidence and resolution time of problems.
- Departments should implement a PC replacement plan in which 25-35% of PCs are replaced each year. A standard PC configuration can be found at http://nts.jhmi.edu. Most departments are faced with technology upgrade issues on a yearly basis, due to the fact that the useful life of a PC is generally no more than 3 years. Desktop Computing Services recommends that budgets for FY2003 and FY2004 include funding to replace PCs slower than a Pentium III with 128MB of RAM. LAN Administrators assigned to each department are able to supply a list of PCs that do not meet these specifications. Desktop Computing Services will assist departments that wish to use alternative funding for replacement PCs by providing technology refresh justifications that address the specific requirements of each department.
- Yearly software licensing fees will be charged to all clients to ensure compliance, reduce administrative overhead and reduce software license costs. For most clients, this fee is $35 per workstation per year. Microsoft and Novell software covered under this fee is listed below. This fee will be collected at the beginning of each fiscal year. Departments are asked to migrate to the MS-Office suite, rather than paying additional licensing and installation fees for Corel Office and Lotus 1-2-3. A variety of training & migration assistance is available to accomplish this.
- Email and backup tape retention policies have been outlined in greater detail.
- Hosted Groupware support is available for those departments who have their own Desktop Support staff, but want DCS to manage their GroupWise system. This is a distinct and separate service from comprehensive LAN support.
- DCS fully supports Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s) when used in a way that meets the PDA standards established by the Institutional Computing Standards Committee. We support both Palm and Pocket PC devices, and have some limited expertise with RIM devices. Departments should contact DCS for advice when purchasing PDA devices to understand what functionality can be provided. Additional software is often needed for connecting these devices to Hopkins email systems.
- Departments are encouraged to use document management services inside of GroupWise. These features are now fully supported by the group. In addition, remote access using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and web-based file systems are available. Please contact DCS for further information.
- Hardware costs for file storage and GroupWise mailboxes are included in the yearly rate. Departments are still responsible for the purchase and replacement of servers for department-specific applications.
LAN Services Rate Schedule: LAN Services: | $33 per user per month | Server Management Fee: | $300 per server per month | | One time PC setup fee: | $130 per workstation (for new clients, or non-standard PCs) | | Software Licensing Costs | $35 per workstation per year |
Alternative Rates: Full-time employee (FTE) Based Rates are used in cases where it is in the best interest of DCS and the client to estimate the yearly effort involved in supporting a project. This is often used in cases where clients seek predictable costs for a given set of services. These rates are intended to recover for the salary, benefits, space, phone, PC, training and management costs of an average DCS staff member. FY03 FTE Based Rate: $81,000 per year Hosted Groupware support is included in the LAN Services Rate noted above. Some departments use DCS to manage Groupware for them, but still have staff to provide desktop and other computer support needs. This service includes a flat fee for the hardware, services, account management and licensing for GroupWise only. Hosted Groupware: $70 per mailbox per year*
$10 is collected as a yearly fee for licenses, $5 per account per month is billed for services and hardware Hourly Rates are used for database and web development projects, and for unusual one-time or emergency support needs. The current hourly rate for these types of services is $65 per hour.
Explanation of Rates:
The LAN Services rate will continue to be $33 per user per month for FY03 and FY04. All non-project or FTE based clients are subject to this rate. FTE based rates are $81,000 per year, or $6,750 per month. Desktop Computing Services (DCS) is able to control support costs by the use of standard PCs and software configurations. DCS issues a new standard PC configuration every 6-12 weeks using a Dell PC. Clients purchasing non-standard PCs, either as replacements or additional workstations will be charged the workstation installation fee. We reserve the right to charge for the installation of non-standard office applications, such as Lotus 1-2-3 & Corel Office. Please contact your DCS contact for information about software standardization efforts to eliminate the need for these charges. There are no fees to setup replacement users or standard PCs for existing users. When a user community grows, the monthly services fees are adjusted accordingly. Support for departmental applications or third-party products are negotiated on a case- by-case basis, as are special projects. In practice, the cost of supporting some departmental projects is covered under our standard rates. Vendor relations and automation consulting from a LAN/WAN Architect is included in the cost of LAN Services. Early involvement with vendors is a critical part of our ability to properly support a project. Service Level Goals Desktop Computing Services strives to provide timely service for all users under our care. Guidelines for certain types of services are indicated below. Individual incidents may be resolved more quickly, and sometimes resolution may require more time. We agree to meet the following goals 90% of the time. On-site service hours are 8:30-5pm Monday – Friday. Our staff maintains several on-call pagers for emergencies, especially regarding server problems. In the case of loss of a server, our staff is required to restore functionality within 24 hours of the failure. Our ability to restore data is based on a variety of factors, including hardware and network related issues. If data contained on a server is lost, DCS can restore to the previous evening’s backup. On rare occasions, DCS may have to restore a server from data that is 48 hours old. If your department requires increased levels of support, please contact your LAN administrator, or the LAN Services manager. Password reset | 1 hour | Response to problem call | next half-business day | Response to priority 1 problem call | 30 minutes | Server failures | 4 hour response, 24 hour restoration | Account creation (replacement) | 24 hours | Account creation (additional) | 48 hours (requires a service request) | Software installation | 7 days | PC Installation | 7-10 working days from time receipt of PC |
GroupWise Email Retention Practice GroupWise is a server based email system, accessible from any PC that has the GroupWise software loaded on it, or via the web. Email, notes, reminders, tasks and calendar items are deleted from the server after 180 days. Restoration of mail deleted after 180 days is not offered. Computing Services does not maintain archival records of business, clinical, research or academic records. Users who need archival copies of email should print, save to disk, or use the archive function in GroupWise. This practice is intended to provide the best level of reliability and performance and does not reflect any Johns Hopkins legal, clinical or business record retention policy User Accounts & Passwords Each person will be issued a unique user ID that allows access to a workstation and the network. Passwords must contain a combination of letters and numbers and users will be required to change passwords at a minimum of 90 days. Many Hopkins systems and applications have additional passwords that need to be entered. Such accounts and passwords are managed by the group providing the application or service. Contractors and temporary staff will be provided accounts that identify the person, rather than temporary, anonymous accounts. Groups and special accounts DCS will manage groups of user accounts that allow multiple people access to shared file areas and GroupWise mailing lists. In these cases, it is important to ensure that someone in the department is a contact for keeping these lists up to date. Departmental accounts can be used to receive mail from a web site or GroupWise list. Conference rooms and other resources can be scheduled using special GroupWise accounts. Tape Backups & Retention All data contained on servers is backed up nightly. Tapes are retained for 60 days, and are intended for system restoration in the event of a server or database failure. Tapes are not retained for archival storage of business, clinical, academic or research data. Groups requiring archival storage of data should contact the Director of Desktop Computing Services. In the event of data loss, or a problem with a data file, please contact the Support Center as soon as possible, so that a LAN administrator can assist. DCS will make a best effort to restore data that has been deleted or overwritten by a client. Software Licensing Johns Hopkins has negotiated a variety of software agreements. Novell & Microsoft software is covered under a $35 per workstation per year fee, due each fiscal year. The agreement covers desktop and server software licenses and is intended to reduce costs, administrative tracking and to increase software license compliance throughout the Institution. This fee covers upgrades to GroupWise, MS-Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access), Windows, Internet Explorer, and all the server connections to SQL, NT Server, GroupWise, NDS and Netware. Visio and Project are not covered under this agreement. Norton Anti-Virus is provided at no additional charge to all users at Hopkins. Software covered under this agreement can be installed on a home PC. Contact the Support Services group to get a CD. Additional work PCs or laptops must be covered individually, even if the same person is using the computer. Service Requests Service Requests should be entered for most routine services, such as additional accounts, PCs moves, installations and software requests. Please contact your LAN administrator to understand what routine requests can be handled by phone or email. Please call 410-955-1544 to place a Service Request or use the on-line Service Request form at http://itsr.jhu.edu, or http://itsr.jhmi.edu. Requests for user accounts can be sent to accounts@jhmi.edu. Server Monitoring All servers are monitored 24 hours a day. Notification of many server related problems occurs within 20 minutes by pager. Managed servers should be located in one of the Johns Hopkins data centers, either in the 1830 Building or at Garland Hall. Servers in these locations are protected by auxiliary power, air conditioning and fire protection. In addition, access to these locations is restricted to technical support staff. Problem Notification & Help Desk Expectations Problems should be reported to the Help Desk by email, phone, or entering a problem using the JHMCIS web site. Properly assigned calls are entered into a tracking system and a pager message with a short description of the problem is sent to the assignee. Due to the large volume and variety of calls to the Help Desk, Desktop Computing Services expects that most problems will be relayed to one of our technical staff, rather than solved at the Help Desk. Priority 1 pages are assigned as a result of server outages, problems affecting many users, and those that affect direct patient care. “911” type pages should be reserved for those types of situations. For additional information: please contact Steve Sears, Director, Desktop Computing Services at ssears@jhmi.edu , or by calling (410) 614-4921. Our mailing address is:
2024 East Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
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