Support Process
This page describes the support processes for the VSETH IT infrastructure.
Support on site
VSETH employees and VSETH activists (student associations, commissions, student organisations, VSETH bodies, board, etc.) have the opportunity to visit the support on site. In direct contact, the VSETH IT Support Group (ISG) helps to answer questions and solve problems. On-site support takes place once a week during the semester.
Every Wednesday, 12:00 - 14:00, 16:30 - 18:30 at CAB E15.2 or Via Zoom (email vseth-it-support@ethz.ch and we will send you the meeting link)
In addition to on-site support, we also answer inquiries by e-mail to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch. This is described in more detail on this page. A quick tip in advance: A detailed inquiry and nethz abbreviations of the people concerned help us a lot to understand your inquiries and to process them quickly.
Support via E-Mail (Ticket System)
Prioritising
Support inquiries are prioritised as follows:
- VSETH employees
- VSETH board
- Student associations / commissions / other VSETH bodies
- Other student organisations
Categorisation of inquiries
The VSETH ISG categorises inquiries into the following three categories:
| Category | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Acute problem (incident) | An acute problem concerning the IT infrastructure which needs to be solved in some way as soon as possible because it hinders people in their work. | High |
| Non-acute problem (problem) | A problem that has occurred and should be resolved, as it requires a work-around, for example. | Medium |
| Feature request (service request) | A request for a new feature of a service or to start using a service. | Low |
Reaction times for inquiries (SLAs)
Processing times for tickets are essentially distinguished in three different ways:
- Initial answer: The time that elapses until the ticket is processed by a person for the first time (classification of the ticket in a category, possible inquiries, etc.).
- Updates during processing: The time that passes between responses to the ticket (processing status, etc.)
- Time until resolution: Time in which a ticket should normally be resolved
The VSETH Support Group has set itself the following objectives for the various categories of requests:
| Category | Initial answer | Time between updates | Time until resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incident | 5 working days | 5 working days | 20 working days |
| Problem | 5 working days | 15 working days | 3 months |
| Service-Request | 5 working days | 1 month | 6 months |
These are indicative values, but depending on the complexity of the underlying problems different arrangements may be made with users on a case-by-case basis. The aim of the ISG is, of course, to always deal with problems satisfactorily and in the shortest possible amount of time.
Support process
In essence, there are two support processes in the association:
- VSETH actives: This includes all active members of student associations, commissions, student organisations, VSETH bodies, board, etc...
- Employees: This only concerns VSETH employees.
Actives
A request should always be sent to VSETH ISG via e-mail to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch.
A support inquiry should contain at least the following information:
- When did the problem occur? (date and time)
- Which user does the problem concern? (nethz abbreviation)
- How bad is the problem? (How many people are affected? How urgent is the solution to the problem?)
- What steps can the problem be reproduced with?
All other channels like e-mail to IT Board / ISG members, slack messages, phone calls, personal conversations are generally ignored. We don't do this out of malice, but because we want to collect all support requests in one place, which makes our work easier and thus improves the quality of service.
Employees
Workplace support for permanent VSETH staff is generally provided by the ETH Zurich IT Services ("Managed Service"). All problems with IT services are thus handled by this IT Services team and the VSETH only provides support for VSETH-specific services (e.g. programmes, websites, etc. developed by the VSETH).