Feature • Service Delivery

"Service Is a Promise" Thato Lehutso on Leading IT Support

By Susan Wolff, Problem Analyst, Vanderbijlpark Campus Information Technology

As Director: Service Delivery, Thato Lehutso describes his role in simple terms. "My job is to make sure that IT keeps its promises." These promises include stable systems, responsive service desks and a support experience that helps staff and students focus on teaching, learning and research, not on technical frustration.

"We have to lead with a unified, user centric strategy," he explains. "NWU is one university across three campuses. Service delivery must feel consistent, reliable and fair for everyone, whether they are logging a ticket from Mahikeng, Potchefstroom or Vanderbijlpark."

For Thato, the fundamentals are clear: service desk responsiveness, infrastructure stability and digital literacy. If a staff member cannot access the LMS, if a lab network is down, or if a student does not know how to use a core system, it has an immediate effect on productivity and learning outcomes. "Our first responsibility is to keep the environment healthy and to respond quickly when something goes wrong."

Collaboration with faculties and campuses plays a central role. Thato and his team maintain regular forums with faculty IT coordinators and campus service managers. "These conversations keep us honest," he says. "They show us where the pain points are, what is working well and where we need to adapt our processes. Service Delivery cannot sit in a silo. We must listen, adjust and improve together."

Security and accessibility are often seen as opposite forces, but Thato believes they belong together. He supports a layered security approach with strong authentication, endpoint protection and user awareness, combined with role based access and single sign on. "If security becomes a barrier, people will try to bypass it. Our task is to protect the university while still making it easy for staff and students to do their work."

Behind these systems are people. Recruitment, leadership and performance management are important parts of his portfolio. "High quality service depends on motivated teams," he says. Clear goals, regular feedback, mentoring and access to training platforms help staff grow in their roles and feel proud of the work they do for the university.

Looking ahead, Thato is especially excited about innovations at the service desks. AI powered chatbots, predictive analytics for incident management and richer self service portals will help users solve common issues faster and free up technicians for more complex work. "The idea is not to replace people but to give them better tools so that the entire service experience becomes smoother," he explains.

Several strategic projects are already in progress to support this vision. A unified IT service management (ITSM) platform will standardise processes across campuses, making it easier to track requests, measure performance and identify trends. A digital inclusion initiative aims to improve access to devices and connectivity for students who need it most.

"Ultimately, Service Delivery should be proactive and data driven," Thato concludes. "We want to anticipate needs, not only react to problems. When staff and students experience IT as a responsive and reliable partner, then we know we are doing our job."