Campus invited to learn about new tech support portal

Getting computer and software help at the University of Oregon is about to change for many people on campus.

The UO campus community is invited to get a sneak peak of the new information technology service portal at demonstration events in May and June. The service portal — a new website for getting tech support on campus — will be launched in August at service.uoregon.edu.

The demonstrations will be held three times:

  • Thursday, May 25, 8:30-10 a.m., Crater Lake South Room, Erb Memorial Union.
  • Wednesday, May 31, 9:30-11 a.m., Knight Library Browsing Room
  • Friday, June 9, 2-3:30 p.m., Jaqua Center auditorium

Staff, faculty and students are invited to attend.

Service.uoregon.edu will provide a new way of getting tech support on campus. Students, faculty and staff will be able to use the service portal to contact IT staff for tech support, learn about IT services offered on campus and find step-by-step instructions for do-it-yourself solutions to technology problems.

Information Services — the UO's central IT department — is working closely with other campus IT groups to launch the service portal, aiming to increase efficiency and effectiveness and improve the tech support experience on campus, both for those seeking help and for those providing it.

In August, four departments will start using service.uoregon.edu for tech support: the School of Architecture and Allied Arts (soon to be the College of Design), the School of Journalism and Communication, the Division of Student Life, and Information Services, whose Technology Service Desk serves all UO students and employees.

Additional departments are expected to start using service.uoregon.edu in the future.

Once the IT service portal launches, the IT staff in the above departments will be asking people to contact them through web forms at service.uoregon.edu rather than by email.

“We know it may take people a while to get used to contacting campus help desks in a different way, but we’re confident it will pay off in terms of faster resolution of their tech problems,” said Sara Stubbs of Information Services.

Some of the new web forms will be on view at the demonstrations in May and June.

More information about the new IT service portal is available at the project blog. Anyone with questions can contact the Technology Service Desk at techdesk@uoregon.edu or 541-346-4357.

— By Nancy Novitski, University Communications