An Interview with Jason Hayden: IT's New Director of ITSM
Welcome to Tulane, Jason, and thank you for taking the time to let me interview you. Can you start with a little bio about where you’re from and how you got here? Jason Hayden: I was born and raised in New London, CT which is in the southeast corner of the state. New London is perhaps best known as the home of playwright Eugene O’Neil. I went to UConn for college and have worked in IT for 22 years. My first IT job was at the service desk doing desktop support. For the last 10 years I’ve worked in Service Delivery Management at both DXC and Dimension Data. In Sept. of 2018 I moved to New Orleans, and on the 15th of April I started here at Tulane as the new Director of Service Management (ITSM).
Since you’re our first Director of ITSM, can you explain what it is and what you do? I translate and implement cross domain services using best of breed processes based on ITIL (infrastructure library) frameworks. As the Director, I gather needs and assure implementation and adherence to processes required to provide operational excellence and high-quality users services. To put it in the simplest terms, my job is to create and enforce the guidelines to make sure the service desk is running at it’s best.
Sounds like something we really need around here. What are some of your goals moving forward? Some of my goals include alignment of incident prioritization according to industry standards and SLA measurements against those priorities. Can you explain what SLA stands for? As a service provider, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a plain-language agreement between you and your customer (whether internal or external) that defines the services you will deliver, the responsiveness they can expect, and how you will measure performance. Thank you. Go on. Also, implementation and improvement of major incident management processes. Essentially how we respond to things like Gibson going down or emails not working.
I know I would like a faster and more streamlined process when things aren’t working. I’m sure the Tulane community would agree. Outside of work, how has the move down south been for you? As a lifelong New Englander, moving to New Orleans has taken some adjustment. My first Mardi Gras was exhausting. Yeah it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Now you tell me! I just went full sprint the whole time. Krewe de Vieux was particularly fun. I’m really into site seeing, and I’ve loved walking around the city just to see the awesome buildings throughout this city.
And you have pets, right? Oh, yeah! I’m a major animal lover and big into animal rescue. In Connecticut I donated a lot of resources to shelters. My pets, two cats and a dog, are all rescues. My dog was found walking on the side of the road in Arkansas, one cat is from Tampa, and my other cat was a barn cat in Woodstock, CT.
Well, Jason, I’ll let you get back to work, since it seems like you have a lot to tackle. Thank you again for taking some time out to introduce yourself to the ITeam and the Tulane Community!
