General Policies

Hours of support:  

Unless otherwise stated in your departmental support agreement, standard business hours for  support are, Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 5:00pm excluding Yale University recognized staff holidays.  Any work outside of standard hours requires prior arrangement with an IT or AV manager.  A department is required to cover all IT and AV support Tech overtime charges for work outside of the stated Support Service hours.

Submit a support ticket to initiate AV and IT support:

A support ticket is required to be submitted before support work can take place.  Support staff will prioritize work on submitted support requests.  Not submitting a support request can cause significant support delays.

Support Provided:  

Whenever possible,  support staff will provide support through remote technologies first.  In person support calls are only performed when necessary

Work Locations:  

Support staff only work at Yale University owned and leased properties.  Personal vehicles are not to be used for travel between work locations to perform service duties.  Only Yale bus transport, Yale owned and leased vehicles, or Yale approved car sharing services such as ZIP car are allowed for transport.  Walking to remote locations is limited to a few blocks from Yale Shuttle bus stops.

Staffing Levels and Concerns:

Service levels are determined by hours of coverage, client headcounts, and additions for any specialized service levels.  Best effort is made to meet support levels but staffing turnover, illness, vacations, and other factors may have temporary impacts on service delivery timelines.  Client should immediately raise any concerns regarding their support with the Technology Support Services management.

Disposal of Obsolete Equipment:  

All IT and AV equipment is the property of the Yale School of Medicine.  The department is responsible for all theft and damage to their equipment.   Disposal of retired equipment is subject to Yale University and YSM policies.  

Work from Home and Yale Equipment:

All equipment that needs support in a work-from-home location will need to be taken to a designated-on campus service location.  Support techs do not enter personal homes for any reason.

Data, Data Risk, Certification, and Data Management:

Support techs can copy, backup, and recommend/configure university vetted solutions for storing data.  They do not manage, move, modify, or delete data.  Support techs cannot certify, or verify that hardware, software, cloud solutions, or data transfer technologies meet or are appropriate for any security requirements, certifications, or regulations.  For assistance and guidance with this, please reach out to Yale’s Information Security team at: security@yale.edu

IT and AV  Outages:

Outages of centrally provided Yale IT technologies or contracted vendor technology services will potentially impact services to supported departments.  IT and AV support does not cover repair or replacement of these technology infrastructures, including but not limited to telephones, data networks, electrical, cloud-based services, and email.

Moving Yale Equipment:  

Support staff are not allowed to move equipment.  This needs to be done by Yale’s Transport, Receiving, and Storage (TR&S) or an outside contractor such as Red Thread.  IT and AV support techs will be needed to disconnect and reconnect equipment by submitting a support request.  The department is required to coordinate and manage these services.   A separate fee for service is required if IT and AV are required to assist in the coordination of the moving of IT and AV infrastructure.  This fee for service is determined after a scope, timeline, and project proposal is established.

Personal Computers and non-managed Yale computers: 

Personally owned equipment and non-managed Yale computers are not directly supported by IT and AV support techs.  We provide IT support for Yale Managed computers (Bulldog Computers) and software purchased and supported by the university.  For support of personal devices and non-managed Yale computers, users need to call the Yale IT helpdesk or use the university STC services. 

Loaner Laptops: 

IT and AV support Techs are not responsible for providing alternate equipment in case the users primary device (laptop, desktop, or phone) is not functional.  The IT support tech will direct the user to the Technology Support Center

Coordinating with other IT services:

IT and AV support techs perform their work in cooperation and consultation with the ITS Helpdesk and other central IT and AV support teams.   IT and AV support techs follow standard Yale technology procedures and practices including, but not limited to, information security protections (including HIPAA), technology purchasing, software licensing and usage.   IT and AV support techs will not duplicate or replace services offered by other IT support teams, such as Telcom, YPPS, AV, information security, networking, managed services, MyApps, high performance computing, etc. as part of a normal service agreement.  Requests for technical support that exceeds the normal service agreement can be negotiated with the HSIT as a special support contract.

Multi-Department Support Environment:

IT and AV tech support staff operate in a Multi-Departmental Support (MDS) environment.  Primary IT and AV support tech(s) will be identified for your department.  This ensures we have adequate support coverage for time off, training, during emergencies, remote work, and excessive support periods.

Computer warranty repairs and the Apple store:

IT support Techs will provide guidance and assistance with Yale Managed (Yale Bulldog) workstations that have Yale provided active warranties.   We do not assist with warranty work for Non-Managed Yale computers and personal devices.  For Apple products, if you are instructed to take the device to an Apple Store, the owner of the device will need to take the device to the Apple store yourself.