We had a Service Quality Team meeting today - the group that oversees our Service Level Agreements - always a useful meeting and today we spent some time looking a the results of our staff and student surveys which we've carried out this year. Always easy to focus on where we've not done well and need to make improvements, but we also need to celebrate those areas where we perform well and get positive comments.
A hot topic at the moment is how we are going to deal with increasing financial constraints - how can we not just maintain service levels but innovate as well. The only way is by a controlled reduction in service in some areas to protect others, and today we discussed the effects of recent budget reductions and possible consequences at length.
I have been around long enough to remember many periods of financial pressure, and was reminded the other day that nothing is new. Does this sound familiar?
Meanwhile the financial question is a very serious one for all Universities at the present time, and all possible means of retrenchment are being considered. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds went so far as to say in July that he would not lay heavy odds on the survival of Sheffield or Leeds University.
That was taken from Floreamus, the Sheffield University magazine, in 1921, and sent from the VC's Office to the Director of Finance in 1988 with a note saying "things have always been desperate".
I'm pleased to say however that there was a note of optimism even then as the article finished with:
Our own Vice Chancellor refuses to be so despondent. He told an interviewer: "I am more hopeful; I believe as long as these Universities are fulfilling their purpose, they will get plenty of support". We have little doubt that this optimism will be justified.
Thanks to Matt, our records manager for unearthing this.
Showing posts with label sla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sla. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Service Quality Team
Service Quality Team this morning - this is the body that oversees our Service Level Agreement. Interesting meeting - two of our SLAs looked at in depth today - Room Bookings and Car Parking. Always good topics to stir up a bit of emotion! Lots of praise for how we carry out duties in these areas, but a lot of comments on policy which I will need to follow up.
We also looked at how we convey news about our services and SLA compliance to staff - currently we have a number of web pages which we need to look at bringing together including our service status page and our compliance page for example. We also talked about the way we consult staff about our services and carry out mini surveys - the results of the latest two can be seen here.
This afternoon we met colleagues from Leeds University - it's always good to talk to colleagues about issues, particularly to share what we do and how we might work together. We talked about collaborating particularly on issues relating to our SAP implementations. Watch out for some half day sessions where our SAP staff get together with Leeds and Newcastle.
We also looked at how we convey news about our services and SLA compliance to staff - currently we have a number of web pages which we need to look at bringing together including our service status page and our compliance page for example. We also talked about the way we consult staff about our services and carry out mini surveys - the results of the latest two can be seen here.
This afternoon we met colleagues from Leeds University - it's always good to talk to colleagues about issues, particularly to share what we do and how we might work together. We talked about collaborating particularly on issues relating to our SAP implementations. Watch out for some half day sessions where our SAP staff get together with Leeds and Newcastle.
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Service Quality
Like the rest of the Professional Services here, we have a Service Level Agreement with the University which is agreed with, and monitored by a Service Quality Team (SQT). Ours is chaired by Professor Sheila Corrall from Information Studies, and met last Friday afternoon. We discussed a number of things that have affected the level of service we've provided in the last six months including the various power outages (planned and unplanned) and the budget cuts we've had to cope with this year. We also looked at the results of the student survey and our action plan.
As well as approving any changes to the SLA, the SQT also looks at the service measures, and whether we've met them or not. For example, do we deliver all of our print jobs to agreed timescales? Do we check all helpdesk emails within 30 minutes? Do we achieve an up time of 99.98% for the network? If we don't achieve our service level by more than a 5% margin, or for two consecutive semesters, then this is reported to the SQT, and I have to explain why. Sometimes there are exceptional reasons, sometimes the numbers are so small as to be meaningless, and sometimes we have dependencies on other areas or departments. Our figures are pretty good, and we hit most of them. Some we don't do so good at and we are looking at how we can make changes to our working practices to achieve them. We also discussed putting the results on our web pages so that our customers can see how we're doing, and this is something I'll be raising with our Customer Services team - I think it's a good idea, but would be interested to hear your views.
As well as approving any changes to the SLA, the SQT also looks at the service measures, and whether we've met them or not. For example, do we deliver all of our print jobs to agreed timescales? Do we check all helpdesk emails within 30 minutes? Do we achieve an up time of 99.98% for the network? If we don't achieve our service level by more than a 5% margin, or for two consecutive semesters, then this is reported to the SQT, and I have to explain why. Sometimes there are exceptional reasons, sometimes the numbers are so small as to be meaningless, and sometimes we have dependencies on other areas or departments. Our figures are pretty good, and we hit most of them. Some we don't do so good at and we are looking at how we can make changes to our working practices to achieve them. We also discussed putting the results on our web pages so that our customers can see how we're doing, and this is something I'll be raising with our Customer Services team - I think it's a good idea, but would be interested to hear your views.
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