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Desktop Support Specialist

Department: Office of Advancement Effective Date: January 2013
Grade:

USG 8/9

35 hrs/week

Reports to: Associate Director, Systems

General Accountability

The Desktop Support Specialist is one of 6 systems positions within the Office of Advancement (Advancement) that reports to Associate Director, Systems. The position is technical in nature, but will require the individual to have an understanding of the business activities as they relate to a fund raising or advancement services environment.

 

The Desktop Support Specialist will be responsible on a daily basis for providing a broad range of computing support and plays a critical support role to the Advancement Services business operation and all department staff. The position will be required to provide computing support for our Advancement Information System (The Raisers Edge) to providing direct support for computer (PC) hardware, the desktop environment, email systems and Outlook support, MS Office, Blackberry and mobile device support as well as general end-user computing support and training.

 

He\she will work closely with other members of the department’s Information Systems team (IS Team), department staff, the University’s central Information Systems and Technology (IST) group and other information technology staff across campus to achieve the goal of maintaining and providing the department with effective information systems and technology solutions.

 

Nature and Scope

The Office of Advancement is a fast paced business oriented environment that supports multiple demands associated with fund raising activities and the delivery of alumni programs.

 

The department is responsible for the execution of a variety of University fund raising campaigns; the most recent major being Campaign Waterloo which raised over $600 million dollars. The department is supported by a staff complement of over 120 people that are distributed among several operational units (including in each faculty and several schools) that handle fund raising, record keeping, prospect research, donor cultivation, gift and pledge processing, event planning, annual fund programs and alumni program delivery.

 

The computing environment consists of a mixture of Microsoft Windows and UNIX based systems and applications across several locations on campus. There are over 125 desktop and notebook computers, a variety of networked printers and Blackberry devices. The departments’ end users primarily use MS Outlook for email, MS Office 2010 and Sharepoint as their primary office productivity tools.

 

The department’s main computing system is The Raisers Edge Enterprise which is a critical component to the operation of the Office of Advancement and hosts the central databases that store alumni and donor biographical data, research and event information, correspondence

management, gift, pledge and financial information. Custom interfaces with several UW administrative systems are supported or managed by the IS team.

 

There are also a number of in-house developed databases, applications, event registration systems, diploma frame sales and web sites which support the department’s business activities. The IS team supports and maintains the department’s public web sites that support the department’s activities as well as the Alumni eCommunity which provides various e-services to 55,000+ of UW alumni.

 

Finally, the department’s annual fund program is supported through a call centre that allows for year round telephone based appeals. The call centre currently uses RuffaloCodys Campus Call software running on 23 Windows  PCs.

 

Statistical Data

The Desktop Support Specialist is one the Systems positions within the IS group, that is responsible for supporting the departments main computing system “The Raisers Edge” as well as providing maintenance and support of the computing environment and technology being used by all department staff. The position is demanding with a variety of daily requests and in general requires the individual to work independently on assigned tasks or work within a team structure for specific projects as appropriate.

 

While the position will have specific areas of responsibilities and focus, He\she will at times be required to backup, assist or provide support as needed to others within the IS team or participate on other projects within the group’s overall IT portfolio. The exposure to a variety of different assignments will provide the individual with the opportunity to grow or advance their skill and training in different technological areas.

 

Computing Support

 

Advancement System Support/Raisers Edge Enterprise

 

Procurement

 Mobile Device Support

 

Project Management and Leadership

 

Other Duties

A University degree in Computer Science, College diploma or equivalent work experience is required. The applicant should have strong analytical, organizational, communication, problem solving skills and the ability to handle multiple projects and work independently. 

 

The Desktop Support Specialist position the applicant should have experience and knowledge in the following areas;

 

CAREER PATH

There are a variety of skills required for the Desktop Support Specialist, and areas of technical responsibility can be expected to evolve to keep pace with changes in technology and the needs of the Department. It is expected that the progression through this career path will be a result of substantial increases in depth and breadth of technical and work related skills. The expectation for this position once the highest level is achieved is for the individual to continue the career path along stream of Computing Systems Application Support. 

 

The IS Technical Skills Table (attached) is the source from the applicable skills description is derived for the Desktop Support Specialist. Please refer to this document for a complete description of the pertinent skills for this position. In each of these skill areas there are four levels of skills: in ascending order they are Foundation, Proficient, In-Depth and Expert. It should be understood that the specific skills required at each USG level also include all the skills identified in any of the lower levels.

 

Skill / Level

USG 8

USG 9

Technical Knowledge

 

 

Hardware

In-Depth

Expert

Operating Systems

In-Depth

In-Depth

Network

Proficient

In-Depth

System Administration

In-Depth

Proficient

Desktop Computing Env.

In-Depth

Expert

Raisers Edge Application

Proficient

In-Depth

Programming

Proficient

In-Depth

 

 

 

Problem Solving

 

 

Problem Solving

Proficient

In-Depth

 

 

 

Communication

 

 

Communication

Proficient

Proficient

Teaching / Presenting

Proficient

Proficient

Leadership

Foundation

Proficient

 

 

 

Organizational

 

 

Project Planning

Proficient

Proficient

 

Specific Accountabilities

 

Working Conditions