Secure. User-centered. Demand-oriented.
New computer center service desk opened

The new service desk at the University of Regensburg (UR) data center focuses on the needs of users: “It is a milestone in terms of IT support at the UR and a step in the continuous development of the data center as a central service facility,” said the head of the UR data center, Dr. Christoph Bauer, at the official opening ceremony on 21 May 2025. Christoph Bauer, welcomed numerous members of the university and university management to this event together with the UR Vice President for Digitalization, Networks and Transfer, Professor Dr Susanne Leist.

"You need support? We are ready!"

In her welcome address, Vice President Leist outlined the further development of the IT support strategy as part of the university's IT strategy and reported on the associated concerns, expectations and concerns. She highlighted the specific added value offered by the central service desk:

“The focus is always on the users, the goal is high accessibility via various channels, short response times, expert contact persons who not only take up tickets but also actively support the solution, clear communication, about the processing status and further steps, as well as a friendly approachable approach to every concern.”

Every request is an important step in the further development of the entire service concept, said Leist, who thanked everyone involved in the design, technology and processes with the aim of expanding the existing IT support and changing the location of the service desk.

"With a view to our goal - to expand the IT system as the best support for research, teaching, studies, outreach and university management and thus also in the sense of a smoothly functioning everyday working life - I hope that you will need the support as rarely as possible. But if you do - we are ready," says the Vice President.

30 years of IT support at the UR

Before Leist and Bauer cut the red ribbon to officially open the premises on the first floor of the RZ, RZ Director Dr Christoph Bauer looked back on 30 years of IT support at the UR: from 1997, a decentralized support concept was established, a physical contact point for students was created in 1999, a ticket system was introduced in 2009 and processes were standardized.

IT-Support+ has been in place since 2014 - an “all-round happy system”, with which chairs and central facilities were able to book extended services for the first time, thus establishing binding partnerships and further increasing the quality of the service, Bauer reported.

His conclusion: “IT support is fun and is a continuous improvement process”, which ultimately depends on the people at the service desk. Bauer concluded by proudly presenting the dedicated team at the service desk, including the student employees and team leader Robert Giebel, who started at the data center as an apprentice.

According to Bauer, the new service desk offers everything from a single source and is now the central point of contact in the new premises. This takes the pressure off the data center departments, problems and their solutions are documented and there are clear responsibilities. In fact, the entire data center staff is involved and is primarily involved in second and third level support for inquiries. These colleagues are also relieved by the new support structure: “Seven out of ten tickets are already resolved at the first level.”

Overall, the quality of the services offered is important to the data center management: “We have student and academic employees with an affinity for IT as well as trained staff with many years of professional experience,” explained Bauer. Training courses on current IT topics and communication training are provided, key performance indicators are measured and evaluated and measures for the continuous further development of IT support and the IT services offered are derived from this.

Next steps

Bauer named the web relaunch on July 17, 2025 as the next step in the IT support of the data center, where the data center will be launched with a new web presence. Among other things, a chatbot will be integrated that uses a knowledge base in the background and is available to all members of the university.

Another major step will be the introduction of support for macOS on campus. In future, the data center will support this platform in addition to Windows and Linux. At the same time, a mobile device system will be introduced so that Mac users receive the same support and security services as Windows and Linux users.