Supplementary Information
Two Castles:
Two Castles Housing Association Ltd is a registered social landlord providing
housing and housing services throughout the North East and North West. It has
its head office in Carlisle in Cumbria and has two regional offices: one situated
in Carlisle and one in Newcastle upon Tyne. There are also two other smaller
offices situated in Whitehaven and Kendal in Cumbria.
The central IT facilities are based at the head office in Carlisle and all the above
offices, plus 25 remote sites based at housing schemes, gain access to the
central applications via a wide area network.
All staff are equipped with a desktop terminal or PC (approximately 100) and
have access to a range of Windows-based applications including Microsoft
Office 2007 with Outlook and Explorer offering access to the Internet and email
using MS Exchange.
The majority of staff access programs and systems through Citrix Thin Client
architecture. The Servers are all hosted in Carlisle using MS SQL, Exchange,
VMWare, Citrix and Windows 2003.
IT Department:
This information pack relates to the IT Assistant Post.
Duties of the Post holder (IT Assistant):
The main duty of the post holder will be to support the IT Officer in the
operation of the IT Service Desk in order to provide a rapid response
service to IT user calls, queries and problems. This will involve logging
calls and, where appropriate, liaising with external suppliers to
implement solutions. This will include responding to breakdowns of
hardware, software and general network failures.
The post holder will also be asked to carry out other duties that relate to
the general maintenance and development of the Association’s ICT
infrastructure.
On occasions the post holder will be expected to visit the different offices
of the Association as part of his/her day-to-day duties and at such times
any incurred travelling expenses will be reimbursed.
This post reports to BSTI Manager.
Duties of the Post holder (IT Officer):
The main duties of the post holder will be focused on the maintenance
and development of the ICT infrastructure. This will involve working
closely with the IT Manager and external suppliers to guarantee the
performance and integrity of the infrastructure and ensure that systems
and applications are implemented and kept up to date in accordance
with business needs.
The post holder will also play an important role as a member of the IT
Service Desk team, supporting the IT Assistant in a second-line support
capacity but also at times acting as first-line support to the Association
and its IT users.
On occasions the post holder will be expected to visit the different offices
of the Association as part of his/her day-to-day duties and at such times
any incurred travelling expenses will be reimbursed.
There will be two IT Officer Posts within the IT department, both posts
perform the same type of duties although there will be a difference in the
level of involvement between the two posts, one post performing more IT
systems management and the other performing more business project
work.
Both posts report to the BSTI Manager.
Duties Of the Post Holder (Business Systems and Technical Information
Manager):
The main duties of the post holder are to ensure the ICT department
delivers the systems and infrastructure to meet the business needs of
the association. This involves working across the organisation with
involvement in user groups and strategic teams.
The post holder is responsible for the management of the IT department,
its staff and the services it delivers. This includes the ownership of the
IT budget and the management of the appropriate business continuity
and disaster recovery.
The post holder will also play a role as a member of the IT Service Desk
team.
Training & Development:
Two Castles is committed to the development of its staff holding the status of
Investors In People, relevant training and development will be attached to all
posts where appropriate.