At least annually, the CITES Help Desk will publicly publish a list of software that we support. Publishing such a list provides guidance to customers, helps manage client support expectations, and helps us to manage our work. The list will define what “support” means. Support may be inclusive, such as usage questions, installation/configuration questions, etc. Other support may be limited to answering what questions we can, or forwarding to other resources. Some applications on the list may be supported by CITES Help Desk, while others may be supported by other CITES units.

Categories of Support

Software on the list will be categorized by the type of support offered. Support will fall into these categories:

• Category 1: Primary CITES services
• Category 2: CITES-sponsored services
• Category 3: Other

The categories are explained further below.

 

Category 1: Primary CITES services

Category 1 Software includes programs that CITES offers as primary services, such as Exchange/Outlook, virus protection software, and other email clients. Programs on this list are fully supported by CITES Help Desk and imply:

• The CITES Help Desk will have at least one copy of the software installed.
• The CITES Help Desk staff will attend training on the software when possible
• We will answer all types of questions about the program, including usage, installation/configuration, compatibility issues, bugs, etc.
• We will have escalation procedures in place so that if we can't provide a timely answer, ourselves, we can call upon resources to get a solution as quickly as possible. (This may mean a support call to a vendor.)

 

Level 1 software applications include (except where noted, latest non-beta version is understood):

• Classroom: Illinois Compass and Illinois Compass 2G
• Email: Outlook 2010 (Windows), Outlook 2011 (Mac), Apple Mail (most current version), Google Apps @ Illinois web client, Outlook 2010 Web App (OWA)
• Operating Systems: Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) & above, Windows XP Service Pack 3 & above
• Productivity: Lync 2010 (Windows), Lync 2011 (Mac)
• Others: Current enterprise-licensed release of McAfee Anti-virus products, QuickConnect, CITES VPN, IllinoisNet

Category 2: CITES-sponsored services

This category comprises other CITES-distributed software: free or discounted programs that we offer to customers through the CITES WebStore (for example). Though software in this category is "CITES-sponsored", full support may not be available. Other Category 2 programs are those in common usage that we receive regular questions about. Examples are operating systems and desktop productivity programs such as word processing software and spreadsheets. Support for Category 2 includes:

• Additional help, as needed, in gaining access
• Usage support if we have staff who know the program or if we have access to other resources
• Referral to outside support sources

 

Level 2 software applications include (except where noted, latest non-beta version is understood):

• Web Browsers: Internet Explorer 9.0, Mozilla Firefox 12 & above (not extensions), Safari 5 & above
• Productivity: Microsoft Office Suite 2010 (Windows) & above, Microsoft Office 2011 (Mac) & above
• Email: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 & above (not extensions)
• Other: Illini-Alert

 

Category 3: Other

Category 3 covers any other software that customers use, obtained from sources outside of CITES. Support includes:

• Limited installation/configuration/usage support based upon our ability to spend time on the problem.
• Referral to outside support resources
• We will not publish a list of this software

 

Changes

We have defined the following criteria for adding or dropping programs to or from the list. Criteria will include:

• Extent of use among customers. A program in widespread use is a candidate for our support. A program that grows into disuse may be dropped from our list.
• Mandated. The university, campus, etc., requires that we support the program
• Currency, viability, or compatibility. When possible we will support the latest release of software unless that release is known to be buggy or otherwise incompatible with other important software.
• Ease of support. Complex or esoteric software programs are less likely to have (at least, full) support.
• Special request. Departments may contact the CITES Help Desk to request support of programs meeting their special needs. These will be evaluated on a request-by-request basis.