Office of Information Technology

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) assists with IT services, consultation, vision and leadership, and works to plan, develop, implement and support technology with functional users and organizations who hope to enable their operational or ministerial initiatives through the use of technology.  We work with Pastoral Center agencies, departments, parishes and schools (as resources permit).

OIT operates and supports the Pastoral Center local area and wide area networks linking Pastoral Center agencies, locations and users.  OIT provides the systems and applications used by Pastoral Center staff. Additionally, OIT operates and administers the Archdiocese of Chicago E-mail system with users in agencies, parishes and schools.  OIT also hosts many of the official web sites of organizations within the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Our responsibilities include reliably operating and supporting the technology and applications infrastructure providing the production capabilities.  Functions also include providing IT direction, guidelines, alignment, and support for the overall mission on an Archdiocesan-wide basis, developing and maintaining strategic relationships and partnerships to leverage opportunities, assisting with networking, computer applications and training, hardware/software support, and technology purchases.

Our goal is to assist every Archdiocesan organization, whether an agency, department, parish or school, to realize the best results when using technology.

We recognize that technology can be very challenging and we are here to help to the degree that our resources allow. Whatever your need or concern, we are committed to assisting you to get the most from your technology investment or project.  Please call us so that we may work with you. 

Progress is continuing on Archdiocesan-wide initiatives and we want to work together to insure that your plans and ours are complementary and would not limit your future participation or be more costly than required.

We offer technical consultation, training, job aids, technology recommendations and standards, guidance with troubleshooting, project services, procurement advice and other assistance.  If you need on-site services that we may not provide—like installation or repair services—we will work with you over the phone to resolve the problem or refer you to a service provider.

The IT Service Center is here to provide remote and onsite technical assistance to our Quigley and Meyer Center customers as well as phone support to our customers who are members of the Archdiocese of Chicago Parishes and Schools.

As the single point of contact for our customers, the IT Service Center is positioned to ensure each problem or question reported is resolved in as expedient a manner possible, as well as help our customers fully utilize the benefits of the Technology Solutions currently offered.

To submit a question or problem you are experiencing, please contact the IT Service Center in one of the following ways. By using one of these methods, it will ensure the question or problem is responded to as quickly as possible, and that the right resources are able to be engaged if required.

Contact and Hours of Service:

IT Service Center
(312) 534-5227
ITServiceCenter@archchicago.org

When contacting the Service Center, a Ticket will be opened detailing the question or problem you are experiencing.  This ticket will assist us in following through with your call or email until you have received a resolution.

Normal Service: Monday - Friday, 8am - 6pm

After-Hours Critical Incident Service: Monday - Friday, 6pm - 8am

Should an incident require escalation or there are concerns over the handling of the incident you reported, please contact Aaron Finnemore., Infrastructure and Technical Services Manager.
 

Services offered to departments and agencies within the Pastoral Center network include (but aren't limited to):

• IT Technical Assistance Line
• Training 
• Telephone consultation—regarding troubleshooting, hardware repair, expansion, replacement, life-cycle management, software
• User administration and management — accounts, rights, application privileges
• Server and application administration — daily oversight, monitoring, updates, patches
• Technology purchasing assistance
• Software management — licensing, updates, patches and distribution
• Installation and maintenance of hardware and software
• Product evaluation, testing, research, recommendations
• Network services — printing, file sharing, VPN's, LAN's, WAN's
• Internet services — proxy, firewalls, logging, anti-virus, content filtering, trusted domains, site blocking
• Web hosting — public sites and Intranet sites
• Domain hosting
• E-mail services — anti-virus, spam management, filtering, quarantine, post office functions, delegations
• Consulting
• Application maintenance and support
• Back-up and recovery
• Telephone and voice-mail system support — moves, adds, changes, billing

Services offered to schools, parishes and agencies that are not part of the Pastoral Center network include (but aren't limited to):

• IT Technical Assistance Line
• Telephone consultation—regarding troubleshooting, hardware repair, expansion, replacement, life-cycle management, software
• Technology purchasing assistance
• Vendor referrals
• Product evaluations, testing, research, recommendations
• Archdiocesan Web-accessible Email—anti-virus, spam management & blocking, filtering, quarantine
• Consulting
• Technology standards and recommendations