What do you do when you’re just about to join a critical meeting on zoom and your computer freezes, or you’re nearing the last hour of a proposal deadline and Adobe crashes? Call Yale’s main technology lifeline: the ITS Help Desk.
The ITS Help Desk team provides solutions for everything from simple, functional questions to more complex, technical problems. They tackle inquiries and problems related to a variety of applications; computer hardware or software; mobile devices and MFA-DUO log-on issues; NetIDs; performance issues; and system outages, to name a few. However, they can’t address building (roof leaks) or security access issues (lost ID). Those issues may be reported to the Yale Facilities Customer Service Center, the Yale Central ID Center, or Yale Public Safety as necessary.
“We handle many different issues, and the ITS Help Desk team members need to have knowledge of a broad range of information to help callers,” said Bob Haig, manager of the Help Desk. “We must also keep up to date on campus happenings because we will get calls about them.” In addition to having access to informational articles, the team attends weekly training to stay informed of the massive amount of technical information, upgrades, and ongoing campus work.
The ITS Help Desk team receives just over 100,000 contacts annually comprised of calls, tickets, and chats. Most inquiries come from staff, faculty, and students, but occasionally alumni, parents of students, and retirees call for assistance. “This team independently resolves over 80% of all contacts. If they cannot resolve an issue, they will escalate to a partner IT group or provide the best alternative resource,” said Haig.
Local IT support
Yale’s central IT and distributed campus IT partners provide technology support for students, faculty, clinicians, and staff. Often, depending on your organization, the quickest and best help can be provided locally, but the ITS Help Desk is always available for additional support.
The ITS Help Desk is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Call 203-432-9000 to speak to a team member, or visit Get Help to start a chat, view answers to trending questions, report a problem, or solve the issue yourself using how-to articles. In-person support is also available at on-campus Walk-in Centers.
