IT support staff provide critical functions for campus security, including ensuring that workstations are running updated patched operating systems and software. While some departments have robust local IT teams, others have only one or two, or no IT staff. This can lead to uneven employee support and cybersecurity risks.

In August 2019, CIO Division leadership witnessed UITS support techs help some members of the campus community update their computers to the latest operating system to meet new technical and security needs. They saw that computers several OS versions behind took hours to bring up to current platform levels.

This realization of how many devices were running obsolete system software caused the UITS Support team to begin looking at unified endpoint management (UEM). The immediate value UEM could bring to the university is the ability to perform updates and security patches centrally for all enrolled devices. Instead of updating desk-by-desk or department-by-department, a UEM system can secure thousands of computers at once.

Technology Lifecycle Care (TLC) was implemented as a new service in 2021 to address state audit security priorities and provide a more modern service platform for units.

In addition to the UEM system, Technology Lifecycle Care offers desktop support services to departments. Regardless of IT staff size, departments can choose to outsource their desktop support to TLC, where their employees will have a dedicated support team and multiple modes of contact to request help, in addition to security upgrades always being a priority.

Using unified endpoint management as the basis for the service, a relatively small TLC team can provide security updates to end-user devices, including centralized encryption and patching to improve workstation security. This service also provides for efficient remote desktop support with customers and in-person provisioning and support of equipment at the Tech Studio, Support Service’s walk-in support center. The UEM holds an application catalog with vetted software customers can download at will, and an Admin by Request feature for customers or IT staff to make changes that require operating system level access. For maintaining and tracking of equipment, there is an automatic inventory of enrolled machines in ServiceNow and data reports for instant response to audits or information needs.

In Spring 2023, the Support Services team began migrating departments that were already using UITS desktop support into the TLC service. The College of Veterinary Medicine and the Division of Human Resources, who had their own in-house IT staff, also joined TLC.

The College of Veterinary Medicine has had one or two full-time IT employees since launching in 2020. However, director of operations Kathy McCarthy was excited to onboard into TLC with full desktop support. “Our IT person can take time off, go on vacation, and our operations and our customer needs for faculty and staff are still being met.”

Kathy and her staff appreciate the assistance. “There still is plenty of IT support needed at our college. Being able to pass off desktop support was a huge plus so our IT personnel can help navigate other issues that that come up. And the TLC team has been so responsive. Their customer service is 5-star.”

The Technology Lifecycle Care team supports employees with their workstation hardware, manages application account provisioning and assists with adding printers. This allows IT to focus on other tasks like supporting conference room technology and digital signage, requesting Zoom Phones, and managing departmental Box accounts.