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Guidance and Support

Digital Services provide guidance and support on tools and applications that staff can use for working from home.

This will include support for:

In addition, the LinkedIn Learning platform is available to all staff via the portal, and Digital Services have produced a collection of courses to support staff.

For more information contact digitalskills@ulster.ac.uk.

Guidance to staff for home working

Guidance to staff for home working

The following information provides guidance to staff for home working whilst maintaining high levels of IT security similar to working on site.

  • Keeping your laptops and mobile devices safe

    Ensure you have up to date security protection installed on your computer or mobile device.  The University does not permit work desktops to be taken home but if appropriate, headsets may be removed temporarily for home use.

    Staff should ideally use devices supplied by the University with the protection pre-installed.  Where this is not the case, they should ensure that any personal laptop or personal desktop used to work on University data is:

    • Protected by Anti-virus software and ensure it is up to date and working correctly.  This will help protect your device and data from viruses, malware and ransomware.
    • Running an up to date operating system with security updates applied to ensure it is less vulnerable to attacks.

    Be vigilant for scams and phishing

    as always treat any email with caution that asks for personal details, especially those from an unknown sender or any containing links to external websites.

    Look after passwords and PINs

    Digital Services will never ask for this information, it should never be disclosed. Guard your passwords and always change if you suspect they have become known to others.

    Stay Safe Online

    Further useful information is also available via staysafeonline.org

  • Office 365 – Staff Email and Calendar Service

    Office 365 is the most common piece of software used by staff, this is cloud based which means colleagues can access from home using personal or university portable equipment.

    Please Note

    You do not require the Secure Remote Access Service (SRAS) to use your Office 365 account
  • MS Teams

    MS Teams is a unified communications platform available to all staff that enables instant messaging, audio/video calls and online meetings.

    Personal Laptops

    To install on personal devices, follow the Office 365 download.

    University Laptops

    The software should be installed.

    Mobile devices

    To replicate MS Teams features on mobile devices, go to the App store on your device, download the free MS Teams App entering your university credentials to log in.  Please note, there is no need to divert calls.

    Please Note

    You do not require the Secure Remote Access Service to use access your MS Teams account.
  • Did you know you don’t need Remote access to work on most systems?

    There are a number of Ulster online cloud services that work without a Remote connection and can be accessed by logging in with your Ulster credentials using a web browser. Some of these are listed below:

  • Secure Remote Access Service (SRAS)

    Other Corporate Systems that are not cloud based are known as “on premises software”, some examples are listed below:

    • Talis
    • Liberty
    • Room Service
    • Raisers Edge

    If you use any of the above systems or believe you need SRAS, further details can be found online

How to contact the Service Desk

You can also Live Chat with a Service Desk team member. When a team member is available you will see a button on the bottom right of this screen. If the button is not visible, you can still contact us via the methods above.

Service Desk Hours

Opening Hours

Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday – Sunday 1.30pm – 5pm

Extended Closure - Easter and Christmas Holidays

Data Protection and Working From Home

In these difficult times, remote working presents both significant benefits but also potential risks.

Whilst staff may have remote access to information held on our secure data centres and approved cloud services, this may now be without the protection typically available on site.

This is even more significant if staff are using non-corporate personal computing devices.