HELP DESK SYSTEM

IZZAT HAFIFI BIN AHMAD ARIZA

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the awards of Bachelor of

Computer Science (Computer Systems & Networking) with Honours

Faculty of Computer System & Software Engineering

Universiti Malaysia Pahang

DECEMBER, 2012
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ABSTRACT

Essentially, the Help Desk is a central point which problem or issues are reported
and subsequently managed or coordinated. The role of the Help Desk System is
providing support for employees within an organization, where the system can give
solution the problem are reported as soon as possible. Help Desk System was developed
to provide technical information to users and solves technical problem by providing
support and information. This system was developed based on observations of current
mobile technology growing. With web based and web mobile Help Desk System,
organization can access information at anytime and anywhere. In order to finish this
project, System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) method has been adopted in
developing this project. System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) has been chosen
because the system had to be developed in short period of time. Help Desk System has
been developed by using Aptana Studio for the interface and PHP (Hypertext
Preprocessors) for scripting language and Adobe Dreamweaver 5.5 and mobile jquery
for developed the web mobile section.
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ABSTRACT

Pada asasnya, Help Desk System adalah pusat dimana semua masalah atau isu-isu
yang dilaporkan akan diuruskan atau diselaraskan. Peranan Help Desk System ialah
memberi sokongan melalui juruteknik dalam sesebuah organisasi, di mana sistem boleh
memberi penyelesaian masalah dilaporkan secepat mungkin. Help Desk System telah
dibangunkan untuk menyediakan maklumat teknikal kepada pengguna dan
menyelesaikan masalah teknikal dengan menyediakan sokongan dan maklumat yang
diperlukan. Sistem ini juga telah dibangunkan berdasarkan perkembangan teknologi
telefon mudah alih. Dengan berasaskan web dan mobile web, pengguna-pengguna
dalam sesebuah organisasi boleh mengakses maklumat pada bila-bila masa dan di
mana-mana sahaja. Bagi menyiapkan projek ini, kaedah System Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) telah aplikasikan dalam membangunkan projek ini . System Development Life
Cycle (SDLC) telah dipilih kerana sistem ini perlu dibangunkan dalam jangka masa
yang pendek. Help Desk System telah dibangunkan dengan menggunakan Aptana Studio
untuk penyediaan antara muka (interface) dan and PHP (Hypertext Preprocessors)
untuk skrip penyediaan enjin sistem dan Adobe Dreamweaver 5.5 dan mobile jquery
untuk penyediaan mobile web.
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TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

Student’s Declaration i

Supervisor’s Declaration ii

Dedication iii

Acknowledgement iv

Abstract v

Abstrak vi

Table Of Content vii

List Of Table xi

List Of Figure xii

List Of Symbol xv

List Of Appendices xvi

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1 Introduction 1

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Problem Statement 2

1.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Scopes 3

1.4 Organization of the Project 5

2 Literature Review 6

2.0 Introduction 6

2.1 Existing System 7

2.1.1 Web Help Desk 8

2.1.2 VersaSRS HelpDesk 10

2.1.3 Hospital Pekan Helpdesk 13

2.1.4 UMP Helpdesk System 15

2.2 Overview Help Desk System 17

3 Methodology 19

3.0 Introduction 19

3.1 System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) 20

3.1.1 Planning 21
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3.1.2 Analysis 22

3.1.2.1 Use Case Diagram 22

3.1.2.2 Sequence Diagram 24

3.1.2.3 Context Diagram 26

3.1.3 Design 27

3.1.3.1 Interface Diagram 28

3.1.3.2 Database Diagram 29

3.1.4 Implementation 34

3.1.5 Maintenance 34

3.2 Project Requirement 35

3.2.1 Software Requirement 35

3.2.2 Hardware Requirement 37

4 Implementation 38

4.0 Introduction 38

4.1 SQL Explanation 39

4.1.1 User Table 39

4.1.2 Ticket Table 39

4.1.3 Technician Table 40

4.2 Coding Explanations 43

4.3 Conclusion 46
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5 Result And Discussion 47

5.0 Introduction 47

5.1 Result 48

5.1.1 Login Page 49

5.1.2 Administrator Module 50

5.1.3 Technician Module 52

5.1.4 User Module 57

5.2 Discussions 59

5.3 Advantages and Disadvantages 60

5.3.1 Advantages of Help Desk System 60

5.3.2 Disadvantages of Help Desk System 60

5.4 Assumption 61

5.5 Constraint 61

5.6 Future Development Help Desk System 62

6 CONCLUSION 63

6.0 Conclusion 63

REFERENCES 64

APPENDIX A - B 65
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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

3.1 Software Requirement 35

3.2 Hardware Requirement 37

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Web Help Desk's Assign Ticket to Technician 8

2.2 Web Help Desk's Knowledge Base 9

2.3 VersaSRS HelpDesk Call Logging Screen 11

2.4 VersaSRS HelpDesk Knowledge Base 12

2.5 Flow Chart of Hospital Pekan Helpdesk 14

2.6 UMP Helpdesk System Flow Chart 16

2.7 Help Desk System Flow Chart 18

3.1 Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) 20

3.2 Use Case Diagrams for Administrator 23

3.3 Use Case Diagrams for Technician 23

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3.4 Use Case Diagrams for Users 24

3.5 Sequence Diagram for Administrator 25

3.6 Sequence Diagram for Technician 25

3.7 Sequence Diagram for Users 26

3.8 Context Diagram 26

3.9 Level 0 Context Diagram 27

3.10 Design Interface for Login 28

3.11 Design Interface for Content Page 29

3.12 Database Design 30

3.13 Data Dictionary for Administrator Details Table 31

3.14 Data Dictionary for User Details Table 31

3.15 Data Dictionary for Technician Details Table 32

3.16 Data Dictionary for Ticket Details Table 33

4.1 Table User Details in Help Desk System database with 39

SELECT Statement

4.2 Table Ticket Details in Help Desk System database with 40

INSERT Statement

4.3 Table Technician Details in Help Desk System database with 40

UPDATE Statement

4.4 UPDATE Statements in Ticket Details Table 41

4.5 SELECT Statement to VIEW 42

4.6 Home Page Login 44

4.7 HTML Code to Implement the Button 45

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4.8 HTML Instructions to Implement the Image Hyperlink 45

4.9 PHP code for send SMS 46

5.1 Homepage of Help Desk System 49

5.2 New Tickets 50

5.3 View List of Ticket 51

5.4 List of Technician‟s Task 52

5.5 Details of Tasks 53

5.6 Update Task Page 54

5.7 Send SMS Notification 56

5.8 User‟s New Ticket 57

5.9 User FAQ Page 59

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LIST OF SYMBOLS

UMP - Universiti Malaysia Pahang

PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor

MYSQL - Open Source SQL database management system

SDLC - Software Development Life Cycle

SMS - Short Message Service

FAQ - Frequently Asked Question

PTML - Pusat Teknologi Maklumat & Komunikasi

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A Project Planning (Gantt Chart) 65

B Turn It In Result 67
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Help Desk are now a needed and one of a core part for good service and operation.
Essentially, the Help Desk is a central point which problem or issues are reported and
subsequently managed or coordinated. From a wider prospective, it is a main part for
service function which is collected multiple resources to solve a problem.

A Help Desk System allows an organization or helpdesk center to track the problems
that users are having. The role of the Help Desk System is providing support for employees
within an organization, where the system can give solution the problem are reported as
soon as possible.

The Help Desk System is developed to help the organization effectively communicate,
organized, track and report issues. With web based Help Desk System, organization can
access information at anytime and anywhere.

Nowadays, a lot of company still depends on traditional help desk. This system
encourages users to fill method in a form to report their problem. Besides, some help desk
system allows users to log report through phone call or by sending an e-mail to help desk
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center. After identified the problem reported, head technician will distributed the task to
technicians manually. When the problem solved, the technician will prepared a report and
keep on a file for future references if the problem happen again. If the user did not make
any complaint after problem solved, help desk center will assume the problem has been
settled.

1.1 Problem Statement

The problems which organizations or helpdesk center encounter today include:

i. Filing method still used to store users information.

ii. The job assignment is assigned to technicians manually by the administrator or head
of technician when users log complaints or problems.
iii. The users log complaints or problems to the technician‟s support or helpdesk center
by makes phone call, e-mail or go to the center individually.

1.2 Objective

The project objectives are to solve the problems of the existing system. The system can
benefit the users that can be staff or customers, the administrator and the technician. The
system to be developed can lessen the burden of the administrator to do job assignment.
While the user now can log complaints, problem or assist for assistance not only by phone
call and e-mails, but also via the website.

This project is developed to achieve the following objectives:

i. Provide a Help Desk System application which can supply an effective

communicate, organize, track and report issues to improve the current system.
ii. Allow administrator to maintain, manage, access and view reports for all the
problems.
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iii. Allow the users to rises complaints, problem or assist for assistance easily via
website and mobile.

1.3 Scope

The scopes of the project are to achieve the objectives of the project. Help Desk System
is a web enabled Help Desk Management System, where users can access via network.

The specific users for this system are:

i. User
- User can be staff or customer that log report or complaint the problem.

ii. Head Technician or Administrator

- Person in charge as an administrator which can view all the report and progress
of the solution that have been done.

iii. Technician
- Person that responsible to give the solution or settle the problem reported.

The modules that will be include and enhanced in the Help Desk System are:

i. User module
- User can check the frequently asked question (FAQ) knowledge base to check
their problem has been reported or not.
- User can send or report their problem through their mobile or web-based
application.
- User will get the solution or status of their problem through their SMS.

ii. Technician module

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- Technician will get list of their task in an inbox.

- Technician will receive a notification for new task through short message
service (SMS) or message that will be sending by the system.
- Technician can update the status of the problem through mobile or web.

iii. System module

- It has FAQ knowledge base for users check the previous problem has been
reported.
- It has a form for users log their problem.
- System has ability to distribute the task to the technician after problem has been
logged.
- Head technician can view all the problem reported, current status of the problem
and generate report for each problem.
- System will send SMS for new task assigned to the technician.
- SMS will be generated to user after problem has been solved.
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1.4 Organization of the Project

This thesis consists of six (6) chapters. Chapter 1 discusses on the introduction of the
system. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly explain about the overview system that is
developed. It consists of the problem statement, objective and scope.

Chapter 2 is Literature review. It is explained about the project and techniques that are
used from previous projects.

Chapter 3 is the methodology used in the system. This chapter is discussed about the
techniques and related software that is used for the project development which is Systems
Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Chapter 4 is the implementation of the system. It explains about the implementation of

the system.

Chapter 5 is the result and discussion. This chapter explains briefly about the results
and data analysis that obtained from the application. The contents included in this chapter
are result analysis, project constraints and also recommendations.

Lastly, Chapter 6, the conclusion concludes and come out with a summary about the
developed project.
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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

Literature review is process which is include of searching, collecting, and analyzing

and prepare conclusion from all debates and issues raised in relevant body of literature that
implies of make use of other people work that related to the topic of the project. These
review that can be books, journals, technical reports, proceeding conferences,
anonymous references, publication of international bodies or agencies and also web pages
or e-book that contain the topic that been studied. The review will help in making
comparison and interpret the project that is done.

The resources on the topic of helpdesk system have been widely published. Every
huge company in the world wide needing this system to be help the company run in the
smooth way. Generally the helpdesk system is familiar in the industry. The several existing
system will be reviewed and compared. The information collection for the literature review
on helpdesk system is from many resources, which are in e-book and published
documentation such as whitepaper and journal in web site.
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The helpdesk is characterized by the following properties. Helpdesk fulfils the

support functions for its customer. The helpdesk customers are people that use the support
of a helpdesk. Subject of support is product and services. Helpdesk serves as a central
single point of contact for question and problem reports. Helpdesk are solution oriented.
The purpose is the efficient and effective answer of questions or solution of problems.
Decentralized the helpdesk can be distributed transparently over several locations from
user's perspective. [1]

The helpdesk is created to protect the developers from excessive interruption by the
users. However the helpdesk has limited knowledge and passes the majority of its queries
on to the developers. [1]

Based on the studies on whitepaper written by Andrew (2001), an effective helpdesk

application should be included the powerful scripting and scheduling suite to provide
effective unattended reporting and diagnostics. From the statement we realize that how
important is a helpdesk ticketing system if that helpdesk ticketing system can produce a
reliable report and will be in the scheduled period.

2.1 Existing System

There was some existing software or projects in market which is quite similar to the
project that wants to be developed. Research and review was carried out to get more
detailed and information of the project which will be developed.
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2.1.1 Web Help Desk

From the study made, the Web Help Desk features allow administrators,
technicians, and users to utilize the application with only a web browser. User can access
with remote access from any with an internet connection and a web browser, which is all
platform supported.

The Web Help Desk software included with intelligent business logic to select the
technical support for each new service request ticket. Factors that applied in the decision
logic include submitter (users) and technician‟s location, submitter and technicians
department, skill-set of technicians or category of ticket, technician's work schedule and
availability and work load balancing for technicians. Based on the request ticket category,
Web Help Desk identifies the appropriate group of customer support staff. Auto-
assignment can be used in the Web Help Desk at the following levels such as a specific
technician, group manager (for manual assignment), head technician (for manual
assignment) and none.

Figure 2.1 Web Help Desk's Assign Ticket to Technician

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The new problem can be submitted via email which is can be dedicated to several
email. Help desk e-mail accounts are monitored by the application, with new messages
used to automatically generate as new tickets. Any requests can be updated through e-mail
such as to add new notes, change the status, attach a file or reassign a technician. Web Help
Desk keeps all of the technicians and users up to date with any activity happen with e-mail
alerts. All new tickets and ticket updates can be e-mailed to the selected recipients.
Technicians and management can be alerted if jobs have been left unchecked, unassigned
or incomplete for a specified time period or over the due date.

Knowledge base functionality is built into Web Help Desk, created for provide a
huge database, with searchable database for previous requests with their solution available
for self-service by users, technicians, and administrators. Previous ticket will be uploaded
to Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) to make knowledge sharing become more powerful.

Figure 2.2 Web Help Desk's Knowledge Base

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The Web Help Desk can be accessed in MAC OS X Server, Windows

2000/NT/XP/2003/2005 Server, Linux and Solaris. Any server with Java 5 installed can be
run this system because it written in Java.

2.1.2 VersaSRS HelpDesk

VersaSRS HelpDesk has been designed to automate service desk processes and meet
all the customer requirement need from a help desk. This help desk consist of several key
features that make it become a interesting help desk. A problem report or ticket is the basic
building block around which a Help Desk or Service Request System is built. A ticket is the
request from a customer, the problem, or the request from an internal worker that needs to
be actioned. VersaSRS HelpDesk allows calls to be logged in one of two ways:

i. directly via the system (operator input)

ii. via email

Each queue within versaSRS HelpDesk can be configured with a primary email
address. Email destined for versaSRS HelpDesk is interrogated, and the „mail to‟ address
extracted, with the system attempting to map to the primary address of a queue. VersaSRS
HelpDesk has been designed to automatically send an open confirmation email to either the
primary or secondary requestor of the call. This email is template-based, and is unique to
each queue as is the close confirmation email which is optionally sent when a call is closed
(configurable).

Each call is assigned with a unique ticket number that is used by the system to track
call-related correspondence like if an email is sent to the primary requestor via the system
and the requestor replies, the incoming email will automatically form part of the
correspondence history for that call.
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Figure 2.3 VersaSRS HelpDesk Call Logging Screen

VersaSRS HelpDesk also contains an extensive knowledge base allowing the

collection of problems and solutions for all users of the system. The knowledge base may
be searched to appropriate article or solutions that are found easily from all sources such as
driver, manual or feedback from user.