Help Desk Strategic Plan The motivation for an Help Desk is to deliver computer services for faculty/staff while providing real-world training for students interested in becoming computer technicians. Utilizing student help to augment the full-time staff also represents an attempt to deliver timely and effective computer services in the current environment of limited resources. The creation and running of a Help Desk is a significant undertaking. Besides the great educational opportunity this could provide for students, there is considerable risk in failing to provide computer services needed by the campus, since so many activities require computer usage. The following plan will outline the Goals and Strategic Objectives for carrying out this endeavor. Goals 1. To provide real-world experience for students interested in pursuing a career in computer services. This includes the skills needed to handle all aspects of a computer service call. In addition, this experience can be extended to include participating in the planning that goes into a successful service organization. 2. To provide timely computer services for the campus (Honolulu Community College). 3. To build a help desk that has continual improvement built into its design. 4. To build a knowledge base that helps to resolve computer problems more rapidly in the future. To utilize this knowledge base to maintain continuity in service even as students leave and are replaced. Also, to utilize this knowledge base to raise computer maintenance skills throughout the campus. 5. To provide training for faculty/staff wishing to upgrade their computer maintenance skills. 6. To provide a workspace that supports student group computer activities. 1
Strategic Objectives I. Provide real-world experience for students in the following areas: Technician 1 (A3) Answer Call Center phone(s), entering requests into database Monitor Student Computer Lab, assisting with lab activities such as printing, connecting to wireless network Image computers In-house Tech work (what does this include?) Technician 2 (A4) Updating knowledge base of problems and resolutions Field Tech work (making service calls) 1st Level Network Troubleshooting Innovation/Research All skills for Technician 1 Technician 3 (A5) Train and supervise Technician 1 and Technician 2 workers Creating/updating procedural manuals All skills for Technician 1 and Technician 2 A. Provide training for students so that all students are can perform skill levels up to Technician 1 within a semester of starting work. B. Provide training so that at least 50 % of students can perform up to Technician 2 skills. C. Provide training so that at least 25 % of students can perform up to Technician 3 skills. II. Provide timely and effective computer services. A. Respond to 90 % of requests for service within 24 hours of the request for requests made during working hours. B. Respond to 100 % of requests for service within 48 hours of the request (for requests made during working hours. C. Respond to 100 % of requests made on weekend by second working day of the following week. 2
D. Resolve 90 % of software-related requests within 3 working days for supported software. E. Resolve 100 % of software-related requests (for supported software) within 5 working days. F. Diagnose 90 % of hardware-related problems within 3 working days. There is no set time limit for resolving these problems as ordering replacement parts depends on getting the money to pay for the replacement parts (unless administration wants to provide a budget for hardware replacement). III. Build a Help Desk system designed to continuously improve. A. Provide high (online) visibility showing records of handling computer service requests. This includes displaying the initial request within one working day of the initial response. This also includes displaying the resolution of the problem within one working day of the problem's resolution. B. Conduct semi-annual surveys that have the campus assess the Help Desk performance in all areas involving (external) contact with the campus. Provide a written plan for improvement for all areas scoring 3 (out of 5) or lower. C. As part of follow-up for a resolved problem, allow the client to assess the quality of service. Students must discuss any quality assessments that are 3 (out of 5) or lower with their supervisor. IV.Build a knowledge base that improves our ability to resolve computer problems. A. Add new problem record or update existing problem record within 2 working days of discovering a new problem. B. Create written documentation for the top five most commonly occurring problems. This is an ongoing process that should be updated once a month. C. Create public versions of problems and documentation that are available online. Update these public versions within one week of creating new entries. V. Develop and provide training in computer administration skills for interested faculty/staff A. Create public versions of problems and documentation that are available online. Update these public versions within one week of creating new entries.develop classes that support training for two levels of expertise: 1) can administer their own computer, 2) can administer their departments' computers. Create exams that must be passed to complete each level. Award certificates for passing each level and give associated privileges to awardees. 3
B. Award at least 20 certificates at level 1 and at least 10 certificates at level 2 within the first year of operation. C. Award at least 20 certificates at level 1 and at least 10 certificates at level 2 for every subsequent year for next 5 years. VI.Provide workspace for student group computer work. A. During first semester, average a minimum of 2 group sessions per week. B. During each subsequent semester, average a minimum of 4 group sessions per week. 4
Implementation Items Item No Item Description 1 Develop and deliver training in each of the skill areas IA 2 Have Technician 3 workers train Technician 2 and Technician 1 workers Strat. Outcome IA, IB, IC 3 Develop and maintain protocols for handling service calls IIA, IIB, IIC 4 Make weekly assessments of time needed to resolve softwarerelated requests. Make adjustments if strategic objectives are not being met 5 Make weekly assessments of time needed to resolve hardwarerelated requests. Make adjustments if strategic objectives are not being met. 6 Develop procedure for using HERT system to record initial requests for service, and resolution of problem. Utilize HERT data to come up with publicly viewable records of performance. 7 Find and/or design software that can automate (at least partially) the process of making publicly viewable records 8 Find and /or design software that can serve as a better knowledge base than HERT. This new software would be easier to search and possibly easier to use in automatically generating reports and the publicly viewable records of performance 9 Develop surveys that are used to assess Help Desk performance on a semi-annual basis. 10 Conduct semi-annual surveys that assess Help Desk performance 11 Create written plans for improving all items that show up as unsatisfactory performance (3.4 out of 5 or lower) 12 Develop mini-surveys that allow customers to assess quality of service. Make sure that such mini-surveys are part of the standard procedure of resolving problems. 13 On a monthly basis, document the 5 most commonly occurring problems. This will include descriptions of the symptoms of the problem as well as solutions to the problem (if resolved) 14 Initiate research that solves problems not resolved in Item 13 IVB 15 Develop list of skills needed to pass level 1 certification for individual computer administration. In addition come up with list of allowed activities for level 1 certificate holders 5 IID, IIE IIF IIIA, IVA IIIA IIIA, IVA, IVC IIIB IIIB IIIB IIIA, IIIC IVB VA
16 Develop list of skills needed to pass level 2 certification for individuals administering department computers. Come up with list of allowed activities for level 2 certificate holders. 17 Conduct training for item 16 VB, VC 18 Create sign-up sheet for groups using computer lab group area. (Monitors will use this sign-up sheet to relocate students who are using the group area when the area has been reserved. The sign-up sheet will be used to keep track of the number of group sessions) 19 Assess the number of groups using the computer lab group area. Come up with different strategies/layouts if usage does not meet strategic objectives VIA and VIB. 20 Obtain feedback from students using group areas on what can be done to make group areas better VA VIA, VIB VIA, VIB VIA, VIB 6