Table of Contents
Definition

Software support is provided to help clients solve difficulties with software they’ve been trained to use and to identify problems with such software.

Purpose

To improve the effectiveness of postgraduate students and staff of UCT in their use of information technology, enabling them to solve problems on their own.

Exclusions

This service is not available to undergraduate students or non-UCT people. The service also excludes the following:

  • Projects: ICTS will not undertake computer-based projects on behalf of clients, except where ICTS provides LAN Engineering Services. In these cases it is ICTS’s responsibility to undertake those tasks which make services available on the fileserver and to give clients access to these services.
  • Debugging: Finding errors in programs or code developed by client (i.e.: Microsoft Access databases). This includes version upgrades of the MS Office suite and changes to server paths.
  • Incompatibilities: Resolving problems of inherently incompatible software or hardware, though we may be able to suggest a “work-around”. 
    Software support (for software programs that DO appear on the support list) may also be limited when they are installed on a computer with hardware not purchased through ICTS PC Acquisitions.
  • Illegal software: Software not approved for use at UCT by ICTS, will not be supported.
  • Bundled software: Software that is bundled with certain hardware drivers, is not supported, unless specifically mentioned in the support list. Examples are: NeroBurn, WinFax Pro, etc.

NOTE: The ICTS PC Acquisitions department is able to provide various hardware and software items to UCT departments. This does not imply that the product is approved for use and as such supported by the IT Helpdesk. Feel free to ask the staff of this department whether an item is supported or not.

Support levels

Support is graded on four levels:

A : Full

ICTS approved these software applications for purchase and use at UCT, and will attempt to solve any problem associated with them.

B : Partial

ICTS will attempt to solve any problem associated with these software applications. However, as some research may be required, such support calls will not receive high priority.

C : Wind-down

ICTS has provided full support for these software applications in the past. These applications are no longer considered appropriate for use at UCT and ICTS strongly suggest that you upgrade or change to an application that qualifies for full support.

D : Disallowed

It may be necessary to explicitly disallow the use of some items or software on machines connected to any of the University networks. 
Support may be refused for computers that have these software applications installed, even if this application is not the cause of the problem.

E : Available; not supported

Software in this category is available from ICTS Front Office as per various site licenses. Availability of these software packages does not imply support.