Webcast Service Level Agreement 2019/2021

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General Overview
Service Description
Roles and Responsibilities
Requesting Service
Hours of Coverage, Response Times and Escalation
Maintenance and Service Changes
Pricing
Review and Reporting
Approvals

1 General Overview

This is a Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) between the campus community and the Information Technology Services Division (ITS) to document:

The Webcast Service
The general levels of response, availability, and maintenance associated with these services
The responsibilities of ITS as a provider of these services
The responsibilities of the clients receiving these services
Deviations from the standard processes documented in the ITS and Campus SLA

This Agreement is valid from July 2019. Review is every two years, or as otherwise needed

2 Service Description

ITS clearly documents services provided in the ITS Service Catalog (http://its.ucsc.edu/services/)

2.1 Service Scope

The Webcast service is the process of recording data display with audio and making it available for viewing online. The Webcast can currently be accessed at: http://webcast.ucsc.edu/. With the proper arrangements, files can also be accessed through Canvas.

Webcasting features include:

Automated capture, conversion, and availability online of class presentation and/or audio
Online availability as a video stream or download
Instructor initiated (opt-in) request for recordings and password protection
Protection for privacy and copyright protection
Uploading option for instructor produced recordings
Choice between video and audio or audio only

In addition, ITS provides infrastructure, people, and processes including:

Escalated support services
System operations, administration and network connections
Web access
System level backup processes and disaster recovery

2.1.1 User Requirements

Users must have the following:

A broadband internet connection
A compatible platform (Windows or Mac)
A compatible browser (latest version of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge)
Browser plugins may be required (latest version of Flash)

2.1.2 Boundaries of Service Features and Functions

Courses are captured only with the permission of the course instructor.
This service is available only for courses. A course is defined as being listed in the schedule of classes and having a class number.
Webcast files are only available during the quarter of the course’s instruction.
Instructors can upload files they have recorded themselves.
Service is only available in only specifically equipped classrooms (see list at http://webcast.ucsc.edu/request).
Webcasting of non-course events may be available on a recharge basis (as time and capacity allows).

2.2 Service Level Performance

2.2.1 General Service Levels

Webcast files are only available during the quarter of the course’s instruction.
Files are archived (held after the course’s completion) only with instructor request. Otherwise, they are removed to make space for future files.
Lecture capture is dependant upon adequate electrical power. A power outage may result in loss of the files being recorded at the time of the power loss.
Hardware, software or programming failure resolutions can range from 4 hours to 2 days depending on the nature of the problem.
Intermittent failures can take much longer to diagnose and resolve.
Recovery from other system outages can range from 4 to 12 hours depending upon the event.

2.2.2 Specific Service Levels

System availability will be 99.1 – 99.9% on an annual basis except for planned maintenance periods
Support response time will be within eight business hours

3 Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 Parties

The following Service Owner(s) will be used as the basis of the Agreement and represent the primary stakeholders associated with this SLA:

Stakeholder	Title / Role	Contact Information
Phillip Stark	Computer Systems Integration Manager	phillip@ucsc.edu
Divisional Liaisons

3.2 ITS Responsibilities

ITS will provide the infrastructure, technology, people, processes and monitoring tools necessary for Webcasting and:

Meet response times associated with the priority assigned to incidents and service requests.
Will generate quarterly reports regarding utilization
Appropriate notification to Customer for all scheduled maintenance via the Maintenance Calendar, Service Catalog web page and/or a communication to campus via the ITS Communication Specialist.

3.3 Customer Responsibilities

Client responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

Presenters should wear microphones for the best quality audio
Viewers should have correct software installed and be familiar with its usage.
End users should report incidents, issues, and outages to the ITS Support Center.
Contact the IT Service Manager for requests for additions or changes to the established service levels
If an instructor wants to keep a permanent copy of lecture recordings, they are responsible for downloading and saving copies of the video files. In general, recorded lectures are only kept on the server during the academic quarter in which the class occurs.

4 Requesting Service

See the ITS and Campus SLA for standard methods of contacting ITS for service.

Instructors may request that their class be recorded online at http://webcast.ucsc.edu/request.
Other requests, issues, questions, or comments should be directed to the ITS Support Center (http://itrequest.ucsc.edu, 459-HELP, help@ucsc.edu).

5 Hours of Coverage, Response Times & Escalation

For all requests, the ITS goal is to have a staff member assigned and acknowledge requests within 4 business hours of receipt. Campus priorities may require exceptions to this goal during certain times of the Academic year.

5.1 Hours of Coverage

Webcast is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except for periods of planned maintenance.

5.2 Incidents

5.2.1 Incident Response
See the ITS and Campus SLA.

5.2.2 Prioritization
See the ITS and Campus SLA.

5.2.3 Service Request
See the ITS and Campus SLA.

5.3 Escalation

See the ITS and Campus SLA.

5.4 Information

See the ITS and Campus SLA.

5.5 Other Requests

Requests for service features and functions not yet implemented can be submitted though IT request.

5.6 Service Exceptions to Coverage

Webcast files are available only during the quarter of instruction. Instructors must make a special request if they want their materials archived or available during another quarter.

6 Maintenance and Service Changes

The Maintenance Window for Webcast is bi-weekly during a time slot when the service is least utilized (to be determined).

See the ITS and Campus SLA for details of our standard maintenance and service process.

7 Pricing

Data/Audio or audio-only capture is provided without charge to the courses using one of the rooms with capture capability. Instructors uploading class recordings are also not charged for this service. Anything else is a recharge activity that could include $50 hourly for webcasting equipment, an annual fee of $80 for hosting of a 1 hour video ($80 each for additional hour) and $43 an hour for support labor.

8 Reviewing and Reporting

8.1 System Performance and Availability Reporting

Quarterly service performance and availability reports will be published for review.

Webcast service performance will be based on our success rate of lecture captures, our ability to make those captures available for viewing shortly after recording, the meeting of system availability metrics, and client satisfaction data.
Webcast availability metrics will include system availability expressed as uptime percentage.
Webcast system information will include the number of file requests made by viewers.
Support response time will be tracked and reported separately as part of the ITS and Campus SLA.

8.2 SLA Reviews

The Designated Review Owner (“Document Owner”) is responsible for facilitating regular reviews of this document. Contents of this document may be amended as required, provided mutual agreement is obtained from the primary stakeholders and communicated to all affected parties. The Document Owner will incorporate all subsequent revisions and obtain mutual agreements / approvals as required.

Next Review Date: July 2021

This Agreement will be posted to the following location and will be made accessible to all stakeholders:

Document Location: http://its.ucsc.edu/sla/

9 Approvals

The Divisional Liaisons and ITS Senior Managers approve this document. This document is then published on the ITS Service Catalog web site along with other service level agreements. Service level information is integrated into the service page in the ITS Service Catalog.