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GENERAL IT SUPPORT
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General IT Support

HMDC is the local IT service provider at the Center for Government and International Studies.  HMDC offers specialized and customized IT services to complement services provided by Harvard's central and school-based IT department. Our goal is to provide timely, friendly service to the staff and faculty within the CGIS community.

HMDC IT Support Hours of Operation

The Faculty & Staff Desktop Support group is available for help to all CGIS affiliates between the hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday thru Friday.

Making Support Requests

To submit a support request to the Faculty & Staff Desktop Support group, please send an email to support@help.hmdc.harvard.edu. In your email please include a description of your request or question along with your phone number and room number. Finally, indicate a convenient time for a member of our team to assist with your request. If you request is urgent, please state this in your email.

Once a request is made, the HMDC tracking system immediately sends an automated response and notifies the relevant HMDC personnel of your request. Most issues are resolved within a few hours. In the event of a delay, our help system continues to notify HMDC personnel until a resolution, and you are kept apprised of progress along the way. Help requests are considered open until formally closed, at which point you will be notified via an automated email notice.

Resources for new CGIS affiliates

Please fill in this form so that HMDC can prepare your system and computer accounts in advance. (link to new form to be posted shortly)

The form will help the HMDC Core Services Group configure your email and shared network resources accounts as well as gather the necessary information for various administrative purposes.

Additionally, to better acquaint yourself with the CGIS community you can visit the CGIS Web Site which has information about the various University departments and research centers that call the Center for Government and International Studies Home.

If you need immediate technical assistance please do not hesitate to call our Faculty and Staff Help Desk at 617-495-4734 or email us at support@help.hmdc.harvard.edu.

Additional Support Resources

FASCS Help Desk 6-2727

FAS Network Operations 5-1262/6-1984

Financial Applications Helpdesk 6-2001 or helpdesk@harvard.edu
 
Microsoft Windows Vista
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HMDC Computer Recommendations


Hardware Support Levels

Full Hardware Support

The Faculty and Staff Desktop Support Group at CGIS is proud to support a variety of hardware including PC and MAC desktop and laptops, printers and scanners as well as Palm phone devices such as the Treo 650 and the Treo 700P.

In addition to troubleshooting day-to-day hardware issues, HMDC is happy to provide assistance in procuring and setting up new systems.

Requirements for supported systems:

  • HMDC supports only Intel Pentium (or higher) microprocessor-based personal computers running Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Apple Mac G3 (or higher) microprocessor-based personal computers running Mac OS 10.2 (or higher)
  • Apple: All desktop, laptop and monitor products
  • Dell: All desktop, laptop and monitor products
  • Hewlett-Packard: Laserjet printer products
  • IBM/Lenovo: All desktop, laptop and monitor products

HMDC desktop support staff are not yet trained to support Linux/Unix operating systems.

Systems supported are limited to desktop or laptop computers purchased with Harvard University Departmental or Research Center funding or systems belonging to visiting associates as long as the system is their primary computer at Harvard.

Best Effort Support

For computer hardware falling outside the guidlines set forth in the Full Hardware Support statement, HMDC Faculty and Staff Desktop Support technicians will provide Best Effort support. Computers falling into this category could either be systems manufactured by a company not listed above or systems that are not a staff member or affiliate's primary work computer.

For systems purchased with University funding that are made by unsupported manufacturers HMDC will provide up to 2 hours of technical troubleshooting. If a solution or diagnosis is not found within the 3 hour troubleshooting window, HMDC will recommend an appropriate course of action to either replace parts in the system or to replace the system with supported hardware.

For systems belonging to CGIS affiliates that have not been purchased with University funds, HMDC technicians will provide a maximum of 2 hours support if the request falls within the normal parameters of our technical support. If the request is regarding unsupported hardware devices or software, HMDC cannot commit to offering any support.

Software Support Levels

Full Support

HMDC Faculty & Staff Desktop Support offers support and installation for the following applications:

Available via the HMDC computing server:

  • Stata
  • R
  • SAS
  • S-plus
  • Matlab

Via FASCS site license:

Operating System Software

  • Windows XP (including all default software but not Outlook Express)
  • Mac OS 10.2.8+ (including all default software)

Free, commercial:

Via Government Department site license, Gov Dept. Affiliates can also use Mathematica.

For all other licensed software: Each HMDC department and research center is responsible for purchasing site licenses for all software installed on staff members' machines.

 

The technician will make all attempts to provide a solution for the problem. Should diagnostics or solutions exceed a reasonable amount of time, the HMDC technicians reserve the right to schedule a follow-up visit(s) until the problem is resolved.

Other Applications: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe ImageReady, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Photoshop, FileMaker Pro, KeyAccess, Macromedia DreamWeaver, McAfee VirusScan, Meeting Maker, Meeting Maker Palm Conduits, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Virex

Best Effort Support

If the system in question was not purchased with University funding or is not the affiliate's primary work computer, HMDC can only commit to offering Best Effort support for supported software. HMDC cannot commit to providing any support for applications not listed above.

 
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