Sponsor Teams

Last updated: August 6, 2020

A Sponsor Team is a cross-functional group whose primary responsibility is to "own" a Unizin service or product deployment at their Member Institution. Sponsor Teams work closely in concert with the Unizin Support Team to escalate technical support issues, receive customer service requests, and otherwise support Unizin products and services.

Why a Sponsor team?

Many of Unizin's products and services entail implementation, service, support, and management responsibilities that are best coordinated with an authoritative group that represents the Member. For example, Unizin's Institutional Data Warehouse product requires a centralized authority at the Member to authorize new user accounts, IP whitelisting, and other security details.

General Sponsor Team responsibilities

Generally speaking, a Sponsor Team's responsibilities will include:

• Implementation. Sponsor Teams will initiate implementation requests and work with Unizin to implement a new product or service.

• Tier 1 Support. Sponsor Teams must establish Tier 1 support for their service or product. Common solutions include delegating to existing Help Desks or establishing new Tier 1 support paths at their Institution.

• Ongoing development. Unizin's services and products are regularly updated with bug fixes, new features, and major version releases. Sponsor Teams will receive periodic updates (e.g., release notes) that may require action on their campus (e.g., updating Tier 1 support procedures).

• Adoption and growth. Sponsor Teams are often involved in the adoption and growth of a product or service at their institution.

Sponsor Teams are partners

Sponsor Teams are Unizin's Member partners for particular products and services. We strongly urge Member Institutions to create cross-functional Sponsor Teams, although we expect that in nearly every case the IT Organization at the Member Institution will need to be included in the Sponsor Team.