The on-call rotation system for the IT department aims to balance quick issue resolution with employee work-life balance. Currently, limited expertise outside of individual specialties requires on-call staff to contact experts who may not be on-call. This reduces the effectiveness of the rotation. The proposal is to define the on-call process, provide procedures to increase effectiveness, cross-train staff, create a phone routing system, document issues and solutions, and store support contact details in a central location for on-call staff.

1. On‐Call Process
In order to achieve quick response times and resolutions to issues that
arise during off‐hours while continuing to have consideration for the
personal lives of ITS Department employees, the IT on‐call rotation was
instituted.
Currently, a group of individuals, experts in key fields, managers and
directors rotate their shifts on a weekly basis to respond to any unplanned
outages to key systems and services. Unfortunately, the limited
knowledge, outside of the realm of expertise of the on‐call staff, forces
them to call the experts, which may or may not be on‐call, regardless. In
most cases, this renders the on‐call rotation ineffective.
Our proposal is to
 define and document the off‐hours on‐call process
 provide suggestions and procedures for increasing its effectiveness

4. Milestones Resources
 Process in place to document the  ITS personnel to create processes for
typical/critical issues that occur via On‐ documentation, phone number routing,
Call regularly or faced by the expert on and postmortem review.
a daily basis.  Creation of location/document for
 Cross‐train the group members to support contact details.
handle the typical issues. For example,  ITS helpdesk ticket history
cross‐train or combine telecom/  Training designer and trainer to create
network group so only one person and implement cross‐training program
from either group is on call.
 ITS Wiki
 Create a phone number routing
 Google Voice (suggested)
process. (For example, Google Voice)
 Process in place for immediate
postmortem of issues and updating of
wiki.
 Support contact details stored in an
easily accessed central location known
to all groups “On Call”.

5. Why?
 High Impact
 Increased Customer Satisfaction: Issues occurring during on‐call hours are resolved
more efficiently and effectively.
 Increased Employee Satisfaction: ITS employees are able to maintain a healthy work/
life balance.
 ITS is able to compile a detailed online knowledgebase for critical systems.
 Effort and Resources is minimal
 No cost for implementation.
 Cross‐training design and implementation can be completed by ITS personnel.
 New process/documentation design and implementation can be completed by ITS
personnel.
 The ITS Wiki is existing.
 ITS has complete control over implementation
 None of the changes require input from any group outside of ITS.