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School of Nursing Information Technology Support Policies & Guidelines

The School of Nursing Information Technology Support staff (SN-ITS), provides technical assistance and support for the School of Nursing computing environment for faculty, staff, and students. This includes assistance with classroom and auditorium equipment and the School's offsite locations.

General Computing Use Policies and Guidelines
All computers, peripherals, software, or devices requiring support by SN-ITS or connection to the School of Nursing network infrastructure must be setup, configured, managed, and connected to the School of Nursing network by SN-ITS.

Computer Shutdown Policy
School of Nursing workstations are configured to download security, virus, and OS updates and patches on a daily basis. In order to facilitate keeping workstations as up to date as possible it is recommended that Nursing faculty and staff:
* Lock workstation (ctrl-alt-del) when leaving it unattended for short intervals (10-20 minutes)
* Log off workstation when leaving it unattended for significant intervals (30 minutes or more)
* Restart workstation prior to leaving for the business day

Administrative Rights Policy
The purpose of this policy is to define The University of Michigan School of Nursing's criterion and rationale for assigning the various levels of administrative access on School workstations and servers. This policy was created in recognition that certain circumstances require that administrative rights be delegated to faculty and staff to perform their duties at the School of Nursing, but also recognizes the principle that the administrator of a workstation must be responsible for its maintenance, upkeep, and troubleshooting.

Rationale and Criterion
Access rights are to be assigned to faculty and staff based on the standard of giving the least amount of access needed to perform work tasks. For most faculty and staff, standard user rights are adequate to allow use of applications and tools needed to complete work tasks in a timely fashion. Standard user rights prevent many viruses, trojan software and malware applications from being installed on workstations and provides the most stable system.

Some faculty and staff use applications that require that they be given administrative rights to their workstations. While giving faculty and staff administrator rights allows them to install software and make system changes as necessary, it also opens a large infection vector for viruses, trojans, and malware. Allowing individuals to install software also makes troubleshooting and diagnosing system problems very difficult because there is no way of tracking what changes have been made to the system.

This policy is based on the principle that the individuals who have administrator level access to a workstation are the de facto administrators for that workstation. As administrators, users with administrative rights have greater control and flexibility, but also greater responsibility for their workstations. Administrators are responsible for its maintenance and upkeep. SN-ITS shall be wholly responsible for workstations which it administers, faculty and staff shall be wholly responsible for workstations which they choose to administer.

Access Rights Levels
There are two levels of access available for faculty and staff: Standard User and Administrator

Standard User Level
By default all workstations are installed with standard user rights. This level of access allows most faculty and staff to use standard applications, print, and access the internet. It does not allow installation of software or changes to system files and settings. This is the most secure and stable level of access and is fully supported by SN-ITS. Workstations with this level of access are managed and administered by SN-ITS. All OS patches, security updates, virus updates, and software installations, and hardware troubleshooting are the responsibility of and are performed by SN-ITS.

Administrator User Level
Upon request and approval, faculty and staff may be given administrative rights to a workstation. This level of access gives faculty or staff members complete access to the workstation. Faculty and staff can install hardware or software, manage local user accounts, and alter any system settings. This is the least secure and least stable level of access if the workstation is not fastidiously maintained. This level is NOT SUPPORTED by SN-ITS. Faculty and staff who require administrative level access will be required to administer their workstation and sign a compliance agreement indicating that they will adhere to all pertinent Federal, State, and University of Michigan computing policies and laws.

Software Configuration and Installation
SN-ITS will install, test, configure, and troubleshoot all supported software for faculty and staff within the School of Nursing. A list of supported software can be found at: http://www.nursing.umich.edu/snits/support

SN-ITS will install software not explicitly supported for faculty and staff if it is determined through thorough testing that the software is interoperable with the School of Nursing standard loadset. Any non standard software that is found to cause performance or networking problems will be removed by SN-ITS. In all cases SN-ITS will work to implement acceptable work around solutions for faculty and staff if software critical to faculty or staff work causes performance issues.

Licensing
All software and support activities performed by SN-ITS are subject to copyright and intellectual property contracts, licenses, and law. SN-ITS will not install software that is not properly licensed or perform any activities which violate copyright law or licensing agreements.

Consulting Services
SN-ITS provides consulting services to faculty and staff to aid in the purchasing of equipment and in the determination of technology needs. SN-ITS can help faculty and staff locate and evaluate internal University services and external technology resources. Some of the services SN-ITS provides consulting for are website development, UMCE support, database development, networking, equipment specifications, IT staffing (interviewing), Courseware, application hosting, computer security, remote access, staff training, and spam management.

Purchasing
SN-ITS must pre-approve any purchases of equipment requiring SN-ITS support (computers, peripherals, network devices, PDAs, etc.). When ordering, all purchases must be delivered to SN-ITS at the following address:
Attn: SN-ITS
University of Michigan
School of Nursing
400 North Ingalls
Room 4237


Orders should also include the name of the faculty or staff member (and their room number) that the equipment was ordered for, as well as the department, division, or research project for which they work. SN-ITS will also inform faculty and staff of yearly sales offered by MSTORES and make recommendations for upgrading equipment. In general divisions, departments, and research projects should expect to replace computer hardware every 36 months at the latest. SN-ITS does not supply computers or peripherals to faculty and staff. Equipment for faculty and staff must be purchased by their department, division, or from research funds. This includes items such as speakers, keyboards, mice, ethernet switches, etc.

Inventory
SN-ITS maintains and updates the School of Nursing equipment inventory. Computers, monitors, peripherals, and networking devices will be inventoried once per semester by SN-ITS staff. Reports will be generated and given to each division, department, and research office each semester.

Computer equipment deployments
SN-ITS deploys new and existing computers and equipment for Nursing faculty and staff as needed. Faculty and staff should notify SN-ITS staff of their desired setup location for their equipment (either desktop or floor side) prior to their deployment date. Equipment must be setup within a maximum distance from an accessible electrical outlet equal to the length of the equipment's power cable. Faculty and staff may provide SN-ITS with surge protectors or UPS devices to extend the range of an outlet, but will be responsible for insuring that any extensions are safely used and do not obstruct pathways. SN-ITS will not run cable (electrical or ethernet) through ceilings (it is a fire code violation) unless proper conduit and properly rated cable are used in accordance with fire codes. All computers deployed by SN-ITS will contain the School of Nursing's standard loadset (exceptions are made for research projects and faculty or staff that need special configurations).

Off Site Support
Any request that requires SN-ITS staff to leave the School of Nursing premises is considered off site support. SN-ITS may provide some limited offsite support for faculty and staff. Offsite support when provided is limited in general to offsite events in which the School of Nursing is a primary participant (ie MNRS). Approval of offsite support is made on a case by case basis. Requests for offsite support must be received by SN-ITS two weeks in advance for locations within Ann Arbor city limits. Requests for offsite support outside of Ann Arbor must be received 4 weeks in advance. All offsite requests are subject to review, and approval will be determined based upon staff availability and availability of transportation.

Extended and Supplemental Support
SN-ITS may provide extended or supplemental technical support to faculty, departments, or research projects who require additional technical services. Requests for extended support must be received by SN-ITS 3 weeks in advance. A flat rate will be charged for extended services and an SLA (service level agreement) defining terms of support must be signed by SN-ITS and the requesting party before additional support can be provided.

Equipment Removal
Faculty and staff can check out equipment for use at home when necessary. Prior to physically removing any equipment from the School of Nursing faculty or staff must complete and submit an equipment removal form to OBFA. The Request for Removal and Use of University Equipment form can be found online at http://www.umich.edu/~ofa/propertycontrol/EquipLoan.htm.

Property Disposition
All divisions, departments, and research offices should send obsolete and non-functional computers and equipment to property disposition. SN-ITS transports equipment to property disposition the fourth Friday of each month. Units who wish to have equipment delivered to property disposition should notify SN-ITS and we will pick up the equipment, delete all data, and deliver the equipment to property disposition at our next scheduled appointment date. SN-ITS will not store equipment prior to delivery, so equipment will remain in your department or unit until the delivery date.

Personal Computer, Peripheral and Device Support
SN-ITS does not support personally purchased or owned computers or devices. If you are performing official University business at home or in the School of Nursing on a personal computer we recommend that your department purchase or provide a computer for your use. SN-ITS will fully support any computer or device bought by the School and approved for use in the Nursing computing environment by SN-ITS. You may check out a computer from the School for home use (see Equipment Removal section above). Additionally, all personal computers or devices brought into the School of Nursing must be examined by SN-ITS to verify that they are properly patched and clean of viruses prior to use on the network. All computers and devices must also be registered and inventoried by SN-ITS prior to use on the School of Nursing network.

Removal of Computers from network
SN-ITS works diligently to secure both the School of Nursing network and individual workstations as much as possible. Periodically however, computers may become infected or may be compromised by trojan programs or other malware applications. When this occurs these computers must be removed from the network immediately as they pose serious threats to the security of the rest of the network and can potentially infect or be used to initiate attacks against other machines. We receive regular reports from UMNET regarding computers on our network that are generating abnormal traffic. In these cases it's imperative that we locate and remove these computers from the network, as UMNET will block network access if they are not removed in a timely fashion.

The following are cause for immediate removal of a workstation from the Nursing network:

* Infected computers (Viruses, Trojans, malware)
* Notification from UMNET or other departments of abnormal network traffic
* Notification from RIAA or other entities of copyright violations
* Computer or device causing network degradation

If a workstation is removed from the network a loaner workstation will be provided (if available) until the computer can be cleaned and replatformed.

Replatforming of Computers
In order to keep School of Nursing computers running properly and to ensure network security, SN-ITS periodically replatforms Nursing computers as needed. Computers may be replatformed for the following reasons:

* Performance degradation of workstation
* Virus infection and/or detection of Trojan or malware software on workstation
* Computer redeployed to new (or different) faculty or staff member
* Removal of obsolete operating systems (Upgrades)

Replatforming of computers usually takes 1-3 days to complete. Loaner computers are available for staff to use during the replatform.

Supported Services
SN-ITS supports several internal services utilized by faculty and staff. Any questions or problems with these services should be directed to sn-its via web form (http://www.nursing.umich.edu/snits/req.html) or email. The services internally supported by sn-its are:

* School of Nursing Servers (Novell/Windows/Linux)
* School of Nursing Databases (CCPD/SID/Recruitment)
* Meeting Maker
* DHCP
* GE Systems Centricity Physician Office Practice Management System
* MEDS Learning System Online
* Backup of internal data
* Connected Network Backup
* Helix Streaming Server
* Patient Data Logs
* School of Nursing Website
* Printing services
* Desktop Support
* Instructional Technology Support

In addition to supporting these internal services SN-ITS also assists faculty and staff in accessing services from external departments such as MCIT, ITCS, and ITCOM.

The following services are not performed by SN-ITS:

* Moving of furniture
* Transportation of non School of Nursing computing equipment
* Assembly of furniture
* Reserving of equipment
* Publishing of Ctools websites
* Providing of spare equipment (monitors, keyboards, mice, printer, etc)
* Storage of equipment
* Hardware repair

Supported Applications
The following software applications are fully supported by SN-ITS:

Note: The most current list of supported hardware and software is kept on the School of Nursing website at: http://www.nursing.umich.edu/snits/support

Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 and greater
Adobe Acrobat
Mulberry (Standard Email Client)
Eudora
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher)
Meeting Maker
Netware Client
McAfee VirusScan
RealPlayer
Quicktime
Netscape
SSH client (w SFTP and SCP client - Secure Replacements for PINE AND FTP)
Freezip
Checkpoint VPN Client
Citrix ICA client
Connected Network Backup
Internet Explorer 6.x and higher
MIT KFW 2.6.x

Unsupported Applications
Microsoft Outlook without ITCS Exchange Service
Mac OS and Mac software
P2P software (Kazaa, Bearshare, Morpheous, etc.)
IM clients (MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc)
Streaming radio applications
Non-standard screen savers (Webshots, etc.)
Obsolete operating systems (Win9x, Windows ME, Win NT)
Unix operating systems
Third-Party (malignant) applications (Bonzi Buddy, Weatherbug, Weather Channel, etc.)

Note: SN-ITS reserves the right to amend this policy as frequently as required. New software may be added to the "Unsupported Applications" list in the future. We will notify all departments of any changes at that time.

Supported Hardware
(Note: The most current list of supported hardware and software is kept on the School of Nursing website at: http://www.nursing.umich.edu/snits/support
All SN-ITS approved purchases of workstations, servers, peripherals, and network devices purchased by the School of Nursing (either from research, divisional, or general funds) are fully supported (Personal computers and devices are not supported). This includes speakers, scanners, and PDA's, etc.

Unsupported Hardware
Fax machines
Phones
Copiers
All-in-one printers (all brands)
Epson printers, Lexmark Z series printers
Obsolete computer hardware (see document "School of Nursing unsupported hardware and software")

Submitting Service Requests
All work performed by SN-ITS must be entered in the SN-ITS request tracking system. Requests are entered manually by SN-ITS technicians after receiving a request in person, via phone call, or voicemail. Requests submitted via web form or email are automatically entered into the system.

Please submit service requests via the SN-ITS ticketing system at:

http://request.umich.edu/snits.

You may also submit requests via email at sn-its@umich.edu. Please include the following information when you submit your request:

Your Name
Your Room Number
Your Phone Number and times of availability
A brief description of you computer issue
If your computer is not functional or you do not have internet access and cannot use the web form or email, please call us or stop by the office to submit your request. SN-ITS Request Priority Levels and Response Times

Emergency (EMG): As soon as possible or within 90 minutes
Infrastructure outages or issues that affect multiple users or individual users with immediate time constraints (Computer not powering up, faculty/staff unable to login to computers, network printing unavailable, etc.)

Urgent (High): As soon as possible or within 1/2 working day
Critical application failures where there is no work around (Email, Internet access, printing, etc.)

Elevated: As soon as possible or within 1 work day
(Work around solutions available, but permanent remedy should be implemented within a business day. Example: Local printer not setup, but main printer available.)

Standard: As soon as possible or generally, 1 - 3 days
(General requests for software installation, information requests, etc.)

Sometimes Backlogs Occur and depending upon the amount of requests received and time required to complete currently pending requests, responses times may be vary slightly. Please contact SN-ITS if you have not received a response from a SN-ITS team member regarding your request within the stated response time.

Hours of Operation and Contact information
Hours of operation
Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM
Closed Holidays
School of Nursing Information Technology Support (SN-ITS) is located at:

The University of Michigan School of Nursing
400 North Ingalls Building
Room 4237

Email:
sn-its@umich.edu - SN-ITS technical support requests
sn-its-accounts@umich.edu - Nursing account requests
sn-its-web@umich.edu - Nursing website requests
sn-its-fac@umich.edu - Nursing facilities requests
sn-its.comments@umich.edu - Comments, questions, suggestions for Nursing IT

Phone: 734.764.4425

Note: SN-ITS technicians are frequently out of the office during the day. In the event that your call is not be answered, please leave a voicemail message. We check voicemail throughout the day and we will respond to you call as soon as we possible.

These policies are frequently updated. Please check regularly for the most accurate version of the document.