Software Support Services

About general software

Distribution

This is the specific duty of a member of the MITS staff - the Software Administrator. All matters dealing with arrival, distribution, information on availability, follow up to ensure that delays are minimised are included in this administrative responsibility.

Copies of the software are distributed to academic departments by way of the Faculty IT administrators or the lab managers ; and to the administrative departments by way of the (MITS) LAN administrators. As far as possible software is installed on the appropriate server and distributed via the network.

A list is compiled of the persons receiving the software, the target destination and the number of licenses allowed.

Maintenance and product upgrades

Some (indeed most) of the software we purchase, provide, at a cost, an optional maintenance agreement. This usually grants us version updates and support privileges. It may also allow us to purchase the new or substantially upgraded product at an advantageous rate. Where we purchase maintenance agreements, where we purchase non-perpetual licenses, where products change substantially, where products offer new add-ons useful to our users, we manage the maintenance arrangements against two conflicting constraints a) the best fit for the need of the end user, and b) optimization of our budget. We involve the user in the decision by supplying information relevant to the product and product changes.