EdFITS Framework

EdFITS stands for Education Framework for ICT Technical Support and it is based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

ITIL is derived from the collective experiences of ICT technical support providers all over the UK. It represents their learning curve over the last 20 years and has been distilled into a set of common processes applicable to any establishment using ICT. We have applied them to schools, and EdFITS is designed to enable you to by-pass all the mistakes commonly made and implement the processes successfully from the start.

The emphasis of EdFITS is on proactive tasks as well as reactive ones. It views technical support not just as a function responsible for resolving incidents, but as a service provider whose main objective is to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. We see this as the ultimate goal of technical support and we aim to help you make it happen.

There are many benefits of EdFITS. Here are just a few.

• gives you the benefit of hindsight over the last 20-plus years of the development of ICT technical support techniques.
• It contains tried and tested processes that have been adapted with the school environment in mind.
• It provides simplified and ready to use processes that can be used immediately.
• It contains templates, checklists and downloads that can be used as they are or personalised.
• It has a quick-start approach to help you make the best use of time and resources available and see quick results.
• It separates administrative tasks and technical tasks to help you assign the most appropriate resources.
• It helps you keep costs to a minimum.
• It helps you protect teachers from having to get too involved in technical support issues.
• It helps you measure technical support as shown in our example service report (see Appendix A).

This section is for the technical and non-technical alike and aims to promote a common understanding of the meaning and requirements of technical support.

Please encourage all of those involved in ICT provision to join us and help you implement best-practice technical support methods in your own school.