Services Impacted by Loss of SSCC Software Support Position

SSCC’s Software/Administrative Support Specialist position, held by Deb Brauer, is being eliminated March 31, 2005 due to reductions in SSCC's budget, primarily a cut in CDE’s center grant. This memo summarizes the services that will be impacted by the loss of this position.

Help Desk

SSCC’s help desk hours will be reduced by one hour per day. At the suggestion of the SSCC Steering Committee, the 1:00-2:00pm hour is being dropped. The new schedule will be 8-12, 2-4 Monday through Friday. Sandra Wald will be the consultant on duty in the mornings and Russell Dimond, our statistical computing consultant, in the afternoons. We'll be monitoring whether or not these are the best hours for most people.

Software Support

Software support will be the area most impacted by Deb’s departure. Deb has software expertise that no other SSCC staff have. The table below lists software that we will only be able to support at a reduced level after March 31st. SSCC supported software not on the list below will continue to be supported at its current level by SSCC staff. Visit SSCC’s Software Support Policy page for a list of all SSCC supported software and support levels.

                  Current       Support
                  Support       Level after
Software          Level         3/31/2005
--------          -------       -----------
Access            Full*         Minimal***
Excel             Full          Limited**
PowerPoint        Full          Limited	
QuatroPro         Limited       Minimal
Word              Full          Limited
WordPerfect       Full          Limited

PowerPoint Full Limited QuatroPro Limited Minimal Word Full Limited WordPerfect Full Limited

*Full support - SSCC staff will explore all known resources in attempting to provide users with answers to questions they may have on the product or to fix a problem that occurs when using it.

**Limited support - SSCC staff will make reasonable efforts to answer questions or resolve problems with the product. However, if more extensive research proves necessary, it will take on a secondary priority.

***Minimal support - The product is made available to users but SSCC staff cannot do much other than reasonably assure its basic functioning. If problems arise or there are questions on its use which cannot be resolved immediately, little more can be undertaken than making recourse to available documentation sources.

In addition, Deb answers Mac questions. Mac questions SSCC PC support staff cannot easily answer will be redirected to DoIT.

Training

Most of the software training classes Deb offers will be discontinued.

Administrative Support

Deb's administrative tasks have been distributed to various SSCC staff members.

I trust everyone will join me in wishing Deb well in her future endeavors. If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or comments, feel free to contact me.

Nancy McDermott, Director
Social Science Computing Cooperative
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 262-3206
mcdermot@ssc.wisc.edu