Category: General

ICT Service Desk Changes – 26 June 2023

Changes to how you contact the ICT Service Desk

ICT are introducing changes to ASK (ServiceNow) to improve how our staff, students, and external customers interact with the ICT Service Desk.

From Monday 26 June, the following changes will be implemented:

  1. Emailing service.desk(at)imperial.ac.uk will no longer automatically create new tickets in ASK.
  2. Improvements to ASK, our online service portal including a new general ICT enquiries form used to access general IT support.
  3. New service status on ASK, displaying ICT services that are unavailable.
  4. New customer facing ASK portal for prospective students and suppliers to submit IT enquires.

 

Why are ICT making these changes?

This work will reduce the reliance on email, providing an efficient, more seamless user experience, with tickets going directly to the right team. It also sets the foundations towards ICT’s vision of a simple, user-friendly portal where staff and students can benefit from knowledge articles, live service status updates and quicker resolution time using automated forms.

ICT’s vision is to continue to improve ASK so that it is a useful resource for all staff and students to find solutions and seek ICT support. You can follow our progress by reading our Cross Functional Product release notes.

Visit ICT’s changes to how you contact ICT Service Desk web page for the latest information including how this change impacts you, the benefits, how you can help and an FAQ section which will be updated in line with feedback from our user testing group.

Updating your Device(s)

ICT actively encourages users to regularly update devices for a number of reasons …

 

    1. Security patches and updates
    2. Device health
    3. Compatibility with applications and services
    4. Latest features and functionality

 

All of the reasons are important, but in a world where we now work on the basis of “zero trust”, security is of paramount importance.

 

Suppliers and software application work on a similar basis of “trust no-one” and “keep the device up to date”.

 

Many applications will only work on a limited subset of previous versions.  Most of the major software companies, including Microsoft, work on the basis of supporting apps to run on the current and one or two previous versions.

 

On 1st March 2023, Microsoft Teams will only work on iOS 15 and higher.  This ensures security and functionality stay “in step” and provides the best experience to you.

 

If you use Microsoft Teams on any iOS device that has a version of 14 or lower then you should be updating the operating system to the latest version possible for your device so that you can continue to work.  This will also ensure that you have the latest security patches and updates and are not putting yourself or others at undue risk.

 

Updating your device is simple and easy.  Head to the device settings and under General look for Software Update.  Ideally you should turn on automatic updates.  Update your device or upgrade to the latest iOS 16.

Screen capture in Windows and Mac OS

There are lots of reasons why you might want to grab a clipping of the whole or part of your screen.  Whether you are writing instructions for a handbook or a procedure, or just trying to capture an error message to pass on to your local support person.

 

Both Windows and Mac operating systems have built in screen clipping functionality.

 

Windows

To invoke screen clipping on a Windows 10 or 11 system press the Windows, Shift and S keys at the same time.  You will be presented with a floating bar which allows you to choose to clip the whole screen, or you can click and hold the left mouse button while selectig the area to “clip”.

 

Once clipped you can choose to open the clipping in an editor where you can add ink and highlighter marks, and you can save your clipping as a picture file for later use.  You can also copy your edited clip including inking and paste that into a document or email.

 

Find out more about Windows screen clipping on Microsoft’s support pages.

 

Mac OS

You can grab the whole screen by using the Command, Shift and 3 keys at the same time.

 

If you just want to select part of a screen then press Command, Shift and 4 at the same time, then use the mouse cursor to select the area that you wish to clip.

 

Find out more about Screen clipping for Mac OS at Apple’s support pages.