University Business - March 2009 - (Page 41)

Changing Your Institution’s Help Desk James RiandhaRd, co-foundeR of PResidium, offeRs these suggestions when considering changes to the help desk. 1. Look at the help desk from a best practices perspective. 2. Remember that any technology changes will bring in more calls to the help desk. The Dreamographer program at Mohave focuses on empowering staff members so they can provide improved customer service. 3. Implement multimodule support, including phone, e-mail, live online chat, and self-help. 4. Build a strategy around the actual call center operations. Make sure you have the right people in the right place at the right time. 5. Determine which tasks should be handled internally, with a partner, or outsourced. 6. Establish service level agreements between the help desk and users. Make sure end-users know a projector not working during a lecture will take priority over an individual needing a password reset. Ille, director of technical services at Alloy Software, a provider of ticketing and asset management software. The self-service trend can save money and free up IT staff. University of Missouri leaders selected a solution from RightAnswers when they decided to have a single knowledge base location. “We had content everywhere. It was difficult to find what you were looking for,” explains Nathan Eatherton, manager of information technology. He says the new database shaped up quickly—they were able to create their own content in addition to using the “canned content” RightAnswers provides for common software applications. Eatherton says the knowledge base deflects common problems, so that IT staff can concentrate on more complex issues. Reporting features allow them to see which topics users are searching and to provide new or additional content to meet demand, an important aspect of keeping the database relevant. “You have to keep it current and populated. You can’t just implement it and walk away,” Eatherton cautions. “If they don’t find their answers, they won’t use it.” Better Internal Processes Improving ticket handling and tracking can get problems solved faster and improve user satisfaction, something the IT staff at Hodges University (Fla.) discovered after implementing IT and maintenance help desk, asset management, and facilities scheduling solutions from SchoolDude in March 2008. “We’re a small staff. We don’t need more servers or software updates,” says Wendy Gehring, director of information technology, of the decision to use a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. “Before we had a help desk it was insanity,” she relates. Requests would come in by email, phone, or, occasionally, the appropriate paper document. “By the time you got back to your desk you would forget half the things people asked you.” In addition to helping prioritize tasks, the new system allows Gehring to see where the staff members are spending a majority of their time. “We spend a lot of time distributing printer toners,” she shares. She advises choosing a system that will be easy for faculty and staff to use when filling out online requests, especially if they are acuniversitybusiness.com customed to just calling IT for help. Gehring’s staff is not tied to phones in a help desk center. They monitor e-mails on their Blackberries, which she says saves on overhead costs. However, she would prefer a solution that doesn’t require paying overtime and “my people not having a life.” A combination of new phones from Avaya and Numara Software for ticket management has improved satisfaction on both sides of the help desk at Georgia State University. Help center manager Darlene Ward-Wright explains that the help desks at the academic colleges use the application her department Alloy Software, put in place, which allows for better interacwww.alloy-software.com tion, since her team can assign and transfer Avaya, www.avaya.com trouble tickets to the other locations. Because Bomgar, www.bomgar.com it is a SaaS solution, the Numara software BPA International, did not take long to implement. “Once we www.bpaworldwide.com got the software we were good to go,” WardGoToAssist, www.gotoassist.com Wright says. Jenzabar, www.jenzabar.com Besides its large knowledge base for comMicroMain Corporation, mon IT questions, the new software allows uswww.micromain.com ers to open and track trouble tickets online. If Numara Software, there’s a problem affecting a majority of users, www.numarasoftware.com Ward-Wright can open a global ticket, to which PerceptIS, http://perceptis.com people can subscribe, as well as receive e-mail Presidium Learning, updates on the status of the problem. Since www.presidiumlearning.com the new Avaya phone units all have voicemail, RightAnswers, www.rightanswers.com the help center can also put an outgoing mesSchoolDude, www.schooldude.com sage on the voicemail system that people can Service-now.com, hear, preventing multiple tickets from being www.service-now.com opened on a campuswide problem. Spectrum Pacific Learning Company, “For the customer, as long as their issue is www.spectrumpacific.com resolved they don’t care what system you use,” SunGard Higher Education, Ward-Wright says. “But for the internal staff www.sungardhe.com it was a big deal, because it helps us support Talisma, www.talisma.com them better.” Resources March 2009 | 41 http://www.alloy-software.com http://www.avaya.com http://www.bomgar.com http://www.bpaworldwide.com http://www.gotoassist.com http://www.jenzabar.com http://www.micromain.com http://www.numarasoftware.com http://perceptis.com http://www.presidiumlearning.com http://www.rightanswers.com http://www.schooldude.com http://www.Service-now.com http://www.service-now.com http://www.spectrumpacific.com http://www.sungardhe.com http://www.talisma.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - March 2009

University Business - March 2009
Contents
Editor's Note
Company Index
Advisory Board
College Index
Behind the News
Human Resources
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Special Report: Higher Ed and the Economy
Helping the Help Desk
Acts of Adaptation
10 Questions & Answers About the Cloud
What's New
End Note

University Business - March 2009