The UK's first Mac walk-in Service Desk at a University!

Back in January of this year, Plymouth University opened “The CORE”. The CORE is the first Mac walk-in Service Desk at a University in the UK.
The service, which is staffed by Amsys Apple Certified Technicians, provides staff and students with a walk-in Mac support service, similar to that of the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store.
This service, which is more than just a support desk, provides members of the university with “a visible presence of IT that allows the business and students to gain the benefits of Plymouth University’s highly skilled staff without the usual pain of process and call logging that normally applies.”
Last month, one of the lecturers was trying to use a new high-res scanner that hadn’t been set up to work with their Macs, so he walked over to The CORE to see if his problem could be resolved. Lecturer, Mike, explains:
“Previously I would have had to send software requests and complete spreadsheets that could take days but today I walked over to ‘The CORE’ next to the illustration studio and was able to get the correct driver installed in less than two minutes by a member of the Amsys team. This made my job so much easier and was a huge improvement over the previous Mac support system we had to endure.”

Other situations where The Core has been on hand to help include:
Helping a student who had accidentally deleted their system files, and needed help and assistance on recovering them from Time Machine.
Another student had issues with Word crashing whilst in the middle of a dissertation (due in the next day!). It turns out that he had no free space on his Mac. Our team were able to resolve the issue, and then advise the student on how to clear some space and to remember to keep saving regularly, plus backups!
“The CORE is a great opportunity to change the method of I.T service delivery so that it is right where the users need it. We’re delighted to be in the flagship Roland Levinsky building and to provide this very user centric support service for the university.”
David Acland, Technical Director Amsys
Click here to read the complete case study.