CERN Accelerating science

The User Support Group

  Miguel Marquina IT/User Support

At the beginning of June, some of the general IT Support services (User Consultancy Office, User Registration, Computing Bookshop, Accounting Service...) run by the DCI/ACT unit were relocated under a new group in IT Division, the User Support Group.

The core of the group is the former DCI/ACT team and its functions are very much the same, with the focus on improving contacts and relationships with the User Community in different areas, notably on the quality of response to user interventions (as received through our Help Desk) and the organization of generic Information Technology Training (acting as complement to the more focused and dedicated Training Programme offered by the CERN Education Services).

The highlights of the mandate of the User Support Group within IT Division are:

• Provision of the infrastructure to host (part of) the Front-Line Support to the divisional services, in close cooperation with other units.
• To promote IT services and general computing knowledge through training initiatives and contacts with user groups as required.
• To ensure adequate investigation and follow-up of user interventions received at the Front-Line services, and improve the efficiency and the quality of responses provided to end users.

Our main targets for this year are therefore the overall improvement of the User Consultancy Office (UCO) as an effective user channel, and the setting up of a general Training Programme in order to address and anticipate problems in the usage of the services offered by IT. Two other articles in this CNL ("UCO Service Description" and "The IT Training Service") describe these two services in detail.

Many of us may already be known to you (at least from previous CNLs) and in that sense we have not changed much the kind of activity we have been developing over the past few years. However, it is important to remark that the formation of the User Support group corresponds to an open IT Management policy to improve by all means available to us the relationships with our customer base, which after all is our "raison d'être". It should also be noted that the dynamic nature and increasing complexity of our services, in terms of number of platforms, their interconnectivity, and applications offered, present us with a major challenge.

We certainly welcome your feedback and viewpoints on these matters, either addressed to our Desk (User.Support@cern.ch, x74952) or directly to me if you prefer. We hope to serve you to the best of our skills and knowledge.