Unique services represent specialized solutions tailored to the needs of a specific college or administrative unit, division, lab or another localized workgroup. The functionality and value gained from Unique services can be significant for the groups using them, particularly when their use cases are requirements are not met by Common or Core services. Some of the criteria used to define Unique services are required, while others are typical but not universally applicable.  For example, a unique service, such as two-way SMS, may still use single sign on.

Characteristics of a Unique services

• Minimal user base: While there may be a significant number of instances of unique services, the overall user base will be low in numbers.
• Highly specialized or customization: Unique services provide unique and specific functionality to workflows, niche functionalities, or specialized user groups. Each instance, if there are multiple instances, may be bespoke and have unique settings or configurations to meet unique needs.
• Localized support responsibility: Unique services are generally funded and supported by individual units, such as departments, labs, or colleges. Support is often provided by a single staff member or subject matter expert, who may not belong to a formal IT job classification.
• Limited escalation pathways: Escalation for troubleshooting may be minimal or informal. Central ITS involvement is typically limited to basic support or infrastructure-level concerns (such as network or authentication). More advanced issues are escalated to local IT leadership or designated service owners.

Examples: Proprietary applications, research-specific hardware and software, and custom-built solutions fall into this category.

Identifying Unique services

• Supports the operations of a specific department, lab, or program with limited applicability beyond that context.
• Not broadly licensed or deployed across campus; often acquired independently and managed locally.
• Often installed or configured independently, with multiple variations across similar units.
• More likely to involve open-source tools or niche commercial software with limited documentation or formal support contracts.
• May lack standard documentation such as security assessments (e.g., SOC 2 Type 2) or accessibility compliance (e.g., VPAT).
• Provides a unique key function not able to be utilized by many other IT Services.
• May be important to research, clinical, or program-specific academic efforts. 

Examples of Unique services

Unique services may have limited installation instances and multiple variations due to business needs at the feature level. Examples are:

• Instructional software specific to a program of study. Aquifer Test, used in hydrogeologic data analysis, is a software package designed for analyzing, interpreting and visualizing pumping and slug test data.
• Two-way SMS service (Clerk SMS, SimpleTexting, Textedly). These services facilitate near real-time communication between departments and their audiences, such as students, event attendees, or research participants.
• Technology (often software) attached to hardware. Enersight is a software package that interfaces with Leica microscope Flexcam integrations. Enersight allows camera images to be saved directly to a storage location without using a traditional USB key for transfer.
• Other examples include wi-fi enabled kiln controllers, motion sensors used by the National Advanced Driving Simulator, or dental simulation technology.