by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 1 Help Desk Operation Beisse

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 2 Objectives In this chapter you will learn: About help desks and typical help desk organization The incident management process How hardware and software tools are used to manage incidents Help desk trends

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 3 Introduction to Help Desk Operation Organizations can choose to provide support to employees and customers in several ways Informal peer Support Formal structure Support Group Information Center Information Technology Department

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 4 Help Desk 1. Single point of contact for end user support Components of a Successful Help Desk The four components of a successful help desk are tightly integrated and each must be given attention.  People  Processes  Technology  Information Customer Service – The Bottom Line 2. Strategies and tools

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 5 Supplying Support 1. Single point 2. Concentration of expertise 3. Multi level support model

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 6 Multilevel Support Model

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 7 The Incident Management Process Incident Management is a well-defined, formal procedure that help desk staff follow to handle problem incidents, get the information users need or solve their problems, and close the incident Call Management describes the steps in handling primarily telephone contacts between end users and support staff

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 8 Call Management / Incident Process 1. Receive call Receive the incident either by call, or web based Establish relationship with the user using specific script Confirm the name of the organization, the user support name 2. Pre-screen call (user) The prescreening process is a filtering process to try to respond and identify to simple request for information quickly For example if the user wants to know when the next version of a software will be released 3. Authenticate the user If the problem/incident is not simple, some authentication procedure is needed This involve some verification on the product serial number, software license number or user’s id number against database

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 9 Call Management / Incident Process 4. Log call To document the incident and its problem If the user information already exist, the incident just can be added to the user 5. Screen call During the screening, series of questions will be asked to categorize and describe the incident The incident can be categorized as Request, Question, Problem, Complaint, Work order 6. Prioritise call Based on the category of the problem, the incident will be given priority code The priority code indicates how serious the problem, how many users affected and what happen if the problem is not solved immediately Example (1-Urgent, 2-High,3-Medium,4-Low), a queue is a waiting line, like paying your groceries in the store.

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 10 Call Management / Incident Process 7. Assign call When the level 1 help desk cannot handle the problem, it will assigned to another expert 8. Track call Incident tracking refers to the process of updating the incident record with information about a problem as it progresses Such as problem history and how the problem was solved 9. Escalate call If the person assigned to that problem cannot solved it, it will be escalated to higher level of expertise This process is usually automatic using an incident management system

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 11 Call Management / Incident Process 10. Resolve call The resolution process means that the user’s problem has been solved or referred to product designer 11. Close call During this process, the user support will review back the steps taken in solving the problem The user support also get the feedback from the user to get his satisfaction level 12. Archive call The call made by the user will be copied/archived in a database for documentation purpose

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 12 Help Desk Tools and Technologies 1. Help desk software 1. Product Information 2. Client Feedback 3. Asset management 4. Contact Information 2. Computer telephony systems 1. Computer Telephony – product that incorporate telephone and computer technology into an integrated package 2. Automated call distributors (ACD) – is a telephone system that answer calls, greet callers, provide menus, and route the call to specific agent 3. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – is a system that allows a user to interact with a database of information by pressing keys on telephone. The IVR retrieves the information from the database and plays the response to the user 3. Web Site support 4. Physical layout of help desk work areas

by Anthony W. Hill & Course Technology 13 Help Desk Tools and Technologies 3. Web Site support For example in Microsoft website it offers product information, specification, prices and updates 4. Physical layout of help desk work areas In large scale helpdesk operation, each agent works in a cubicle, have their own computer, an incident management system to work with and a headset