Changes to how you contact the ICT Service Desk

As of June 2023, we made some changes to improve how our staff, students, and external customers interact with the ICT Service Desk and get IT support at Imperial, these include:

  1. Emailing service.desk@imperial.ac.uk will no longer automatically create new tickets in ASK, our online service portal. 
  2. Two new forms have been added to ASK, including an ICT- Ask a question form (for general IT enquiries) and ICT -Report an issue form (for reporting any issues, interruptions or a decline in the quality of an IT service or device).
  3. New service status on ASK, displaying ICT services that are unavailable. 
  4. New ASK customer facing portal for prospective students, alumni and suppliers to submit IT enquires.  

Why are we making these changes?

This work will reduce the reliance on email, providing an efficient, more seamless user experience, with tickets going directly to the right team. It also sets the foundations towards our vision of a simple, user-friendly portal where staff and students can benefit from knowledge articles, live service status updates and quicker resolution time using automated forms.  

How does this impact me?

  • It will no longer be possible to open a ticket by sending an email to service.desk@imperial.ac.uk. Instead, you will be able to use the refreshed ASK online service portal to find answers, submit a request or log an issue. 
  • If you send an email to service.desk@imperial.ac.uk from 26 June, you will receive an auto-reply message directing you to ASK. 
  • Like before, you can continue to reply to ticket updates by email, you just can’t create new tickets by emailing the ICT Service Desk.  
  • For IT support you can continue to call us on extension 49000 to speak to one of our analysts or visit us at the Main Library in South Kensington. For more information, see our website for how to contact us.  

What are the benefits: 

  • By using ASK you have access to knowledge articles for not just ICT, but other professional services departments such as Finance, Move (Ethos gym), the Library and more.  
  • You can log an IT issue, submit a request for general ICT support or search our catalog for specific IT requests. 
  • Our new service status feature allows you to see what IT services are unavailable before logging an issue. 
  • You can easily track the status of your ticket using 'My items' which has a user-friendly interface.  
  • Standard IT requests can be quickly resolved using automated forms. 
  • Our ICT staff can more easily triage your ticket, resulting in quicker resolution times. 
  • Our external customers, anyone without an Imperial username or account, for example, prospective students, have access to an easy-to-use online service portal: ASK customer facing portal creating a more structured and managed conversation for IT related enquiries and support. 

Our vision is to continue to improve ASK so that it is a useful resource for all staff and students to find solutions and seek ICT support. You can follow our progress by reading our Cross Functional Product release notes.  

How you can help with this change? 

  • Please communicate these changes with your department 
  • If you manage a process or a web page which includes contacting the ICT Service Desk via email, please update this by directing people to our contact the ICT Service Desk web page.  

Further help

  • Read our FAQs at the bottom of this page.
  • If you have any questions about these changes you can speak to Okan Kibaroglu, Director of Customer Success.   
  • Staff who manage tickets using the backend of ASK (ServiceNow) will be invited to online training and sent resources for naviagting the changes. If you need further support with this, please contact Dilip Halai through the Outlook address book.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How accessible is ASK for people with disabilities?

Digital accessibility is a priority for Imperial and we carry out accessibility tests on our digital products. The 'accessibility statement' can be accessed from the bottom of the page on ASK  and explains the current status and how our customers with accessibility needs can get further help. If you have difficulty using ASK, you can call us on x49000. If speech impediment is making it difficult, we will work with you to find the best option to make our services digitally accessible.

Can I reply to an email notification from ASK using email?

Yes, ticket notifications will be sent from ask@imperial.ac.uk and email replies will update the tickets with your comments as before.

I need general IT support, how do I request this?

If you are unable to find a specific form for your enquiry from the ICT service catalog, please use our ICT- Ask a question form. You can track the progress of your request by going to 'My Items' and then 'My Cases' in ASK.

This Form will create a Case ticket for you which will be assigned to the ICT Helpdesk Team to review.  If a form is available on the portal for your enquiry, we will send the link for the form to be completed.

How can I log an issue with an IT service or College owned device? 

If you are encountering any issues, interruptions, a decline in the quality of service or if something isn’t working as you expect it, please report this to the ICT Service Desk by completing our ICT – Report an Issue form. A ticket will be opened for you and you can track the progress by going to ‘My Items’ and then ‘My Incidents’ in ASK.

How to contact the ICT Service Desk on x49000 using Microsoft Teams?

If you have a College extension number assigned to you, you can use the “Calls” menu on Microsoft Teams to place calls to any extension number. If this is not available on your Teams:

  • You can speak to your departmental telecom rep for this to be requested from ICT; there will be a recharge to your department as this requires an additional licence.
  • You can call Service Desk using the full number 020 759 49000 from any telephone.
  • We are working on making it available before the start of the new term, so that you will be able to place a Teams call to the “ICT Service Desk” just like when you search and contact any other College staff member.

Why do I have three different ASK ticket types in ‘My Items’? (case, request, Incident)

  • A Case ticket will be created when you submit an IT- Ask a question (general enquiry).
  • A Request ticket will be created if you use a specific form from our ICT service catalog.
  • An Incident ticket type will be created if you use our IT - Report an issue form (for reporting any issues, interruptions, or a decline in the quality of an IT service or device).

You can manage all your tickets in ‘My Items’ on ASK.

How will the new ICT service status page on ASK work? 

The status of ICT services will be available in real-time on the ASK homepage. The service status will be updated by our ICT Duty Incident Manager between 08:30 and 18:00 hours, and cover what we know about ongoing incidents, what we are doing to recover from the service disruption and when we will provide the next update.

 What happens once my case ticket has been resolved? 

When a resolution is provided to a case ticket, you will be provided with an option to either “approve” or “reject” the resolution. If you reject, the case will go back to an open status, and ICT will continue to work on it. If you accept, this will close the case. If no response is provided, the case will close automatically after waiting for a response for 10 days.

I don’t have an Imperial username or password; how can I get IT support?  

If you are not a staff member or student at Imperial College London, you can still access IT support by using our ASK customer portal.

Follow the below steps to complete the registration process: 

  1. Visit our ASK (customer support portal).
  2. Click on ‘Register a new account’.
  3. Enter your first name, last name, and preferred email address, then click ‘sign up’.
  4. An email notification will be sent to your entered email address.
  5. You will be asked to ‘Verify your Account’.
  6. An email notification will be sent confirming your user account has been successfully created on our ASK customer portal.
  7. Click on ‘Set a new Password’ and enter your password and click on the ‘Reset Password’ button.
  8. You can now log in to our ASK customer portal with your email and password.