Service Level Agreement

This document outlines the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that is offered by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for the delivery of Computer Lab Services. OIT will follow all items outlined in this document. When necessary, specific details such as system counts, cost calculations, and signatures (or electronic proxies for such) are represented in the related MOU for each group.

The purpose of this agreement is:

• To represent the capabilities of the service.
• To establish a shared set of expectations regarding the operation and support of the service.
• To provide a framework for communication regarding satisfaction with the service.

LST Lab Services will provide professional technical support for environments requiring a large number of computing devices (in excess of 5) in teaching and learning spaces and that share the same software and settings throughout all of the machines.  Devices will also be joined to the network to allow for directory login authentication for customers. Supported devices include:

• Desktop computers
• Laptops
• Tablets

LST Lab Services also provides ongoing technical support and maintenance for lab devices with Windows or Apple operating systems, and installed applications, as well as support for certain specialized applications that are used in each lab, as specified in the specific details document.

Support includes recommendations, specification, installation, testing, and troubleshooting of computer systems within established campus standards and best practices. Professional assistance includes timely troubleshooting, on location, with application software and operating systems to diagnose and resolve unique, non-recurring issues. Recurring problems will be addressed through an established problem resolution process, which strives to address underlying causes, resolution and identifying workarounds if possible.

Funding is provided through departmental fees and/or OIT central funds.  The cost to department funded labs are calculated based on the software requested to be installed.  Software titles are calculated individually based on size and complexity. Staff time is also considered in these calculations. These costs are included in the annual MOU’s sent to each department that pays for LST Lab Services.

Included in the MOU are usage statistics of the specific lab as well as estimates of the cost to replace machines in a lab after the 3-5 year warranty has expired.  Furthermore, MOU costs will not exceed 5% annual growth.  In special circumstances, OIT will work with the department to adjust the costs.

LST Lab Services, in collaboration with CU Events Planning & Catering and Academic Scheduling, offers computer lab reservations for both CU Boulder teaching and learning needs as well as to external customers.  The same general responsibilities, coverage, response times and escalations are provided to our lab reservation customers which can be viewed below. 

Internal CU Boulder customers needing a computer lab to teach in should contact Academic Scheduling to reserve labs based on hardware type and software needs.  CU Boulder academic use takes priority over non-academic scheduling requests. They can be reached via email at academicscheduling@colorado.edu.

Daily Department Sponsored and External Customer Reservations

Department Sponsored or External customers (non-affiliates) who wish to reserve a computer lab must contact CU Boulder’s CU Events Planning & Catering department to begin the process of renting a lab.

1. Force Majeure
   Neither party shall be considered to be in default as a result of its delay or failure to perform its obligations herein when such delay or failure arises out of causes beyond the reasonable control of the party. Such causes may include, but are not restricted to, acts of God or the public enemy, acts of the State or the United States in either its sovereign or contractual capacity, fires, floods, epidemics, strikes and unusually severe weather; but, in every case, delay or failure to perform must be beyond the reasonable control if and without the fault or negligence of the party.
2. Indemnification and Hold Harmless
   All clients who reserve space with CU Events Planning & Catering are subject to:
   • Lessee hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate, its officers, administrators, agents, employees, and students from and against any and all claims or demands. Indemnification is not limited, and includes any liability or payment (including costs and attorney fees) by reason of any damages of bodily injury (including death) sustained by any person or persons, or on account of damage to property including the loss or use thereof, arising out of or in connection with the event or this agreement.

Reservation and Rental Costs and Availability

Prioritization is given to CU academic use, and follows the Registrars regular centrally scheduled reservation process. OIT reserves the right to reserve lab spaces for upgrades during Winter, Summer, Fall, and Spring breaks. Please see costs and other information below:

Rental Type	Reservation Costs (all applicable fees included)
CU Boulder Departmental Rentals for Teaching and Learning	Free
Daily department sponsored rentals	Free
All other external customer rentals (includes one conference IdentiKey)	Please contact the labs team by email at oit-labs-req@colorado.edu for more information.
Additional software not pre-installed in a reserved lab	Will be quoted at time of request, please include needs when reserving labs

Research Project Usage

Research projects do not align with the intended purpose of OIT-managed computer labs. For computing research needs, please contact OIT’s Research Computing department.

General Responsibilities of the Agreement

1. The LST Labs Service is responsible for building computers to configure efficiently/effectively to the CU Boulder campus network and installation of: Windows and Apple operating systems, appropriate security software, software (as per the campus software standards), departmental software as needed to fulfill the specific teaching and learning needs of the department, and connections to most peripheral devices as agreed upon by the department and OIT.
2. All computers will be part of, or migrate to, the OIT provided central Campus AD domain from the signing of the MOU and all computers will have desktop management agents installed, where applicable, for remote administration, patching and upgrades. During the initial migration or installation phase all systems will be built or rebuilt to meet OIT LST Labs security standards as well as all departmental teaching and learning needs.
3. LST Labs will configure and maintain computers in a way where user data will be wiped/deleted after each user session upon logout.  The intention of this process is to reduce the likelihood of hacking and other security compromises; and will demonstrate the best efforts of the department to appropriately protect university data. Furthermore, this process will provide a uniform experience for each user that logs into the lab machine. As a result, data for each session will not be recoverable.  It is highly recommended that students, faculty, and staff that use OIT-managed lab devices save data to external sources such as cloud drives and USB drives.
4. Devices that have fallen out of warranty will still be managed by OIT on a case-by-case basis with the intention of helping the department extend the warranty of out of warranty machines or helping the department procure new machines with sufficient warranty coverage. OIT will notify the department of any out-of-warranty machines. If it is determined that system instability or application instability is related to the age of the hardware, LST Lab Services will notify the department that the system needs to be replaced. As part of the department MOU, LST Labs will work with the department to establish a custom renewal and replacement cycle for all systems in the department lab.
5. Department lab liaisons are highly recommended to help OIT and departments achieve open channels of communication.  Lab liaisons are dedicated department employees who act as a gateway to all software requests and issues/requests with a given department lab.  LST Lab Services will primarily communicate with lab liaisons for all software requests, issues, and other requests in the lab.  A current lab liaison list can be found here: (https://oit.colorado.edu/services/learning-spaces-technology/computing-labs/help/liaison-list)
6. Software requests will be primarily taken before the start of Spring and Fall academic semesters.  LST Lab Services will communicate with department lab liaisons when the initial software requests are due prior to the start of the Spring/Fall academic semesters.  Software requests that fall outside of this window will still be taken however, OIT will require ample time for testing and deploying software as to not disrupt classes and activities that may be happening in the lab.  Typically, LST Lab Services can test and deploy software within two weeks.  However, depending on how complex the software request is, LST Labs Services reserves the right to utilize extra time for deployment or to reject the software request.  LST Lab Services will work with departments to come to a resolution in cases such as these.  Please see below for additional recommendations for software support:
   • LST Lab Services does not specialize in the operation of requested software.  Our expertise focuses on the mass deployment of requested software.  As a result, we rely on the expertise of our customers and vendors to solve operational issues with software.
   • Requested software should be currently supported and updated by the vendor.
   • The software vendor should offer an enterprise or institutional version of their software to allow remote deployments and remote licensing (i.e. server-based licensing
     Software that requires individually licensing each machine (with a unique license) will not be supported by LST Labs.
   • Software licensing that requires an additional cost will be paid for by the department requesting the software.  OIT can help facilitate the purchase, communication, and license setup with the vendor if a department decides to proceed with the purchase.
     It is highly preferred to have licenses acquired/purchased during the summer and winter breaks. This time-frame will prevent licences expiring during the semester.
   • Requested software that is outdated or that is considered freeware/shareware will require further evaluation by LST Lab Services to determine if the software can be deployed or managed.  More time may be required to deploy and/or troubleshoot if the software is not currently supported by the vendor.  We recommend that alternative software is considered if LST Lab Services cannot meet the initial request based on the criteria above.
   • If a software title is too complex or does not work in a lab environment, that software may not meet the requirements to be installed in a lab.  Therefore, the LST Lab Services group reserves the right to deny these types of software requests.  Alternative options can be discussed in the event of this situation.
7. When needed, LST Lab Services can act as a technical liaison for the purpose of custom IT solutions that may be needed for the department. When a custom IT solution is needed (e.g.. smart classroom configuration), LST Lab Services can coordinate other areas of OIT and or vendors to provide the correct strategic direction for the department.

Hours of Coverage, Response Times & Escalation

LST Lab Services hours of operation are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, excluding University holidays and official closures. During official summer hours LST Labs hours of operation are 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. In the event of an incident occurring in a lab after hours or during weekends, LST Labs will address issues as soon as possible and no later than the start of the next business day. Depending on the severity of the incident or outage, LST Labs will determine the best course of action including resolving the issue after hours.

Reporting Problems in Labs

Reporting problems in OIT-managed labs can be done through our Lab Problem Report Tool. Any problem submitted through this tool will automatically generate a ServiceNow ticket and the OIT Lab Services team will be notified. Please see below for a matrix of incident response times.

Incident Response Times via LST Lab Services

Category	Initiation of Support
Urgent	15 minutes (during normal business hours)
Normal	4 hours

General Requests

Customers can submit general inquiries or requests through our group email list: OIT-Labs-Req@colorado.edu. Please also use this email for any software requests you might have. Your email will automatically generate a ServiceNow ticket and the OIT Lab Services team will be notified.

If you have a question that falls outside of these guidelines, email our group at OIT-LST-Labs@colorado.edu.

IT Service Center

Departments may also contact the IT Service Center at 303-735-4357 or oithelp@colorado.edu which can contact the LST Lab Services personnel.