Help and advice

Smiling man with headset and two computer monitors

 

One of the most important things we do is to help users across the whole University get the most out of IT and deal with problems when they arise. IT support – as you would expect – is a big part of this, but it’s not all we do.

General support

Our Service Desk staff are available to help with all aspects of University IT. We support students, academics and administrative staff, whether they are working in Oxford, at home or abroad.

Support for local IT Support Staff 

For our fellow IT Support Staff within departments and colleges, we provide dedicated, fast-track, expert-to-expert support through the IT Support Staff Services team (ITS3).

ITS3 can also help colleges and departments looking for new IT staff. There is no charge for this service, and our specialist technical knowledge can make a real difference to the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Support for business services

Via specialised support centres, we also provide help for the University’s business services such as HRIS, Student Systems, Financials and DARS. 

Support for researchers

Our Research Computing and Support team can help you to think creatively about how IT can be used in your research, to scope work packages for a funding proposal, and to deliver IT-related project tasks.

Consultancy

Does your college or department need some extra or specialised IT help? Ask us first, and we’ll discuss what you need, advise on the choices available, and put you in touch with the right people to help. 

We offer a free initial consultation (up to a maximum of four hours). This might lead to you taking up some chargeable services but we will let you know as part of the initial discussion whether there will be additional costs involved.

Common queries are about IT audits, networking, server provisioning, software development and web hosting, but we’ll do our best to help whatever your need. Some examples of more specialist solutions include:

  • our web content management system, Oxford Mosaic: this was developed so that you can easily create your own website without specialist input but we also offer add-ons such as web design support (including information architecture and SEO) and consultations for researchers (including advice on data visualisation)
  • infrastructure: we can help departments and colleges in need of specific infrastructure services, such as server management, device management and cloud computing, that they can’t provide in-house