Equipment Maintenance and Support Service Section

Discover how Kyambogo University’s DICTS Maintenance Section ensures peak performance and reliability of ICT equipment, providing essential support for seamless university operations.

About

Kyambogo University DICTS comprises of fives specialized sections among which include: Equipment Maintenance and Support Services, Networks and Infrastructure Development, Management Information system and research, Telecom and equipment support.

Equipment Maintenance and support services section collaborates with other Sections, Directorates, Departments, Faculties and Schools to ensure peak operational efficiency. This is achieved through monitoring, repairing, Troubleshooting, technical inspection of procured ICT equipment, systems and utility software installations and modifying equipment and systems in the University.

Irumba Paul - ITO (Equipment & Support Service)
Irumba Paul – ITO (Equipment & Support Service)

As an ICT professional, I bring a unique blend of technical expertise, innovative thinking, and a passion for making a difference. I am excited about the opportunity to continue growing and contributing in this dynamic and fast-paced field, and I am confident that my skills and experience make me well-suited to excel in any ICT role.

Role of the Section

The DICTS Equipment Maintenance and Support Section plays a vital role in ensuring the reliability and longevity of all University ICT equipment. Their main responsibilities include scheduled maintenance to prevent premature failures, replacement of worn-out equipment/parts, specification of ICT equipment for new requisitions, inspection of supplied items for compliance with University standards, management of ICT equipment disposal, support for the public address system, ICT equipment inventory management and maintenance and handling general incident occurrences/activities for effective university administration. 

This is a continuous/ongoing process that ensures equipment is replaced or upgraded before failures occur, with regular testing conducted as per regulatory requirements or licensing conditions.

Section Staffing and Supervisory

The Equipment Maintenance and support personnel at the Directorate are highly trained and skilled individuals who undergo rigorous initial training programs and ongoing training to stay updated on new procedures, equipment, tools, software’s, systems security skills and processes. The section is led by an experienced ITO who acts as a first-line supervisor with extensive maintenance experience, well-versed with task assignments, procedure adherence, resource management, and task supervision. The Equipment maintenance and support section leader sets high standards, models ethical behavior, evaluates performance, and ensures continuity through trainings to enhance the skills of his team members

Section work Procedure and operations

The maintenance done in this section includes both hardware and software of the computers and their peripherals. Both are very important since they decisively influence the healthy operation of the system. There are different types of maintenance done for better uptime.

  • Preventive Maintenance

This is a frequent type of maintenance, which is carried out in order to prevent possible failures and improve the computer and their peripheral uptime. It also lengthens the useful life of the different components of the systems.

Preventive maintenance is useful in many aspects. For example, it decreases the number of system downtimes or it reduce the number of repairs, and it can also detect weak points in the system that might affect its operation.

Software preventive maintenance aims at operations such as the creation of backup copies, the freeing-up of hard disk space, the freeing-up of RAM memory or the scanning and cleaning of computers through antivirus.

Hardware preventive maintenance aims at periodic cleaning of equipment and its components, or active preventive maintenance, which aims to ensure its durability by protecting the systems from possible environmental aggressions, for example, by separating the computers from areas with a direct impact of sunlight, this is known as passive preventive maintenance.

Equipment cleaning and servicing

Equipment cleaning and servicing

  • Corrective maintenance

This is the solution that must be applied when the predictive and preventive maintenance have not worked properly or when we have not been able to avoid failure. There are times when a computer or system fails (for example due to a hardware failure) but we want it to be operational again and in optimal conditions. Then this includes repairing or replacement operations, depending on the needs of each case. One of the considerations to be made regarding this type of maintenance is that, not only will it be important to solve the failure, but we must also determine what was the cause of it, in order to find the possible repercussions that might have affected other parts of the system and to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Equipment repairs, Upgrades and Replacement of Malfunctioning Parts

  • Evolutionary maintenance

Evolutionary maintenance is not aimed at addressing or preventing failures; rather, its purpose is to enhance the existing computing resources.

In the dynamic landscape of technology, tools and user requirements are in a constant state of evolution. Evolutionary maintenance is employed to ensure that computer systems stay current and do not become obsolete. The goal is to provide users with the latest technology options, aligning with the capabilities of each department.

Tasks under evolutionary maintenance encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from routine software updates to the comprehensive replacement of equipment or systems, all tailored to meet the evolving needs and possibilities of the University.

 

There are other crucial activities done in the university which require support from the Equipment maintenance section. These include support on a public address system for events, workshops, meetings, university Galas, and functions. The section also handles live streaming support for university events and activities. 

Public address system and livestream support

The section also gives support to the University systems since they are deployed on the computers which we take custody of. Activities like populating ACMIS database with course unit, and general staff and students support. There are also other systems like IFMIS, HCM information system support.

 

ICT equipment and support services we look forward to give you ultimate support