Introduction
Office 365 is a productivity environment that resides in the cloud. Office 365 includes email, calendaring, tasks, and contacts (Outlook); file storage (OneDrive); and a number of other productivity tools such as OneNote and Delve. Office 365 allows you to access your email, files, and other productivity applications from anywhere you have an internet connection. Office 365 may be accessed from various mobile devices.
There are many Office 365 applications that may be useful to ISU students, faculty and staff. Because there are so many Office 365 applications, OIT saw the need to establish the level of support that will be provided by OIT for each one. The level of support to be provided is driven by a combination of factors, including: (1) how simple the application is to use; and (2) whether the application is mission-critical (OneDrive is a good example of a highly mission-critical Office 365 application.)
Some applications are simple enough to use that a basic tutorial is all the support that most people will need. Delve is a good example of a simple application that most people will be able to use with minimal guidance. Some applications have more complex functionality, and people may have questions about how best to set up and use them. Teams is a good example of a more complex application.
OIT has evaluated the Office 365 applications and established a standard level of support that OIT will provide based on our perception of the application's value in our environment, and our perception of the need for support by most application users. Defining support levels will help OIT to identify and maintain the training necessary for our staff on this large number of applications, and will also guide our response when our customers reach out to us for assistance.
Support Levels
Level 1: Availability
At this support level, OIT will make sure that the tool is accessible and that it works in our environment. If a user reports that they cannot access and/or open a Level 1 application, OIT will investigate and resolve any problems that prevent use of that application.
Level 2: Availability, Basic Support
At this level, OIT will make sure that the application is available and working, as with Level 1. Beyond that, OIT will also find, curate, and make available Microsoft-provided help documentation and self-service training. If a customer calls for help using a Level 2 application, OIT will also provide best-effort assistance, based on available time and our familiarity with the application. This is similar to the support we currently provide for applications such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook.
Level 3: Availability, Basic Support, Training
For applications at this level of support, OIT will ensure that an application is available and working, and OIT will curate support documentation. OIT will also position one or more subject matter experts who can provide a higher level of support for these applications, and provide group and/or one-on-one training.
Level 0: No Support, Not Recommended for Use
In most cases, these are applications with functionality that is duplicated in another enterprise application that is fully supported by OIT. OIT discourages the use of these applications.
Level Unassigned: Support Level Not Yet Determined
Unassigned applications have not yet been fully reviewed and assigned a support value.
Office 365 Support Matrix
Additional Resources
Please see related articles for more information.