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Work Area Service Current Activities

Current activities

PC Workarea refresh 2016

During Summer vacation 2016, PCs in Social Studies Cafe, Theatre Studies and Avon Multimedia Centre have been updraded to the latest addition of HP computers with solid state hard disks and Intel i7 processors for swift loading and processing.

In addition all IT Services machines in over 15 locations across the three campuses have been re-imaged using the latest system image and all workarea locations have had carpets deep cleaned.

Help Desk information leaflets have been refreshed and will be made available and notice boards updated with relevant information by start of academic year.

PC Workarea refresh 2015

During Summer vacation 2015 all IT Services machines in over 15 locations across the three campuses have been re-imaged using the latest system image - softwware programs have been re-installed including MS Office 2013 and I.E 11.

All workarea locations have had carpets deep cleaned, latest Help Desk information leaflets made available and notice boards updated with relevant information.

A new workzone has been made available in Theatre Studies, roomG44, Milburn House.

PC Workarea refresh program 2014

Over the 2014 summer vacation IT Services have replaced every single work area computer on campus with a new, faster machine. Over 450 machines have been installed in the 15 different work areas, all with advanced components and an eco-friendly setup to help reduce campus carbon emissions.

The new computers are very fast with an average login time of under 10 seconds, and solid state hard disks and Intel i7 processors for quick loading and processing. They all come with a 23 inch screen supporting a 1920 x 1080 resolution.

As well as the new computers, we've also refurbished the work areas themselves. We've given the carpets in all areas a deep clean, re-painted areas that needed it, and replaced the furniture in some locations.

PC workarea refresh 2013

A program of work to make the new student image with Microsoft Office 2013 on all ITS workareas PCs and other key departmental locations with high student footfall was conducted during September.

Expansion of Workarea Service - new workzones

Due to the high demand for the service we have been looking at opportunities to expand the service in locations with high user footfall such as cafes and foyers and departments offering dedicated space for additional workarea PCs.

  • During June 2014 a new workzone was set up in Theatre Studies
  • During September 2013 PCs were installed in Social Studies Cafe

Upgrade to Netbook Loan Service

In order to enhance the workarea service, we piloted a new netbook loan service in conjunction with the Library in 2010. The pilot demonstrated constant demand for this service and during summer 2013 the netbooks were replaced by 30 Toshiba laptops with 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i3-3120M Processor, HD non-reflective High Brightness display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting and 320 GB hard disk.

We have continued to use some software called 'deep freeze' to help maintain the security of the laptops and reduce the requirement for constant support and maintenance. The laptops allow access to a web browser, Microsoft Office and wireless printing.

Service Support Improvement

We looked at variety of support models and tools to assist us with the ongoing support and maintenance of our workareas as even small service outages e.g. a row of PCs unavailable can have a disproportionately large impact on the perception of the service as a whole. Labstats monitoring tool was selected and implemented during the first quarter of 2012. This has greatly reduced the dependency on customers reporting issues to us and overall support efficiency has improved as the tool has enabled us to be more proactive and resolve issues in advance of them being highlighted by the user.

New SEATS Service

The new SEATS service was launched to help users locate free machines in our workareas. The service displays information embedded in a sitebuilder page with a graphical list of computer rooms with the most free seats, summary of the top 5 locations by availability and links to the interactive map showing location of all workareas.