Help Desk Operation

by Rodger Burgess Information Technology Depa 1

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 Objectives

In this introduction you will learn:

 About help desks and typical help desk

organisation
 The incident management process
 How hardware and software tools are used to
manage incidents
 Help desk trends

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 Introduction to Help Desk
Operation
Organisations can choose to provide support
to employees and customers in several ways

 Informal peer Support

 Formal structure
• Support Group

• Information Center

• Information Technology Department

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 Help Desk

1. Single point of contact for end user support

Components of a Successful Help Desk

2. 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

3. Strategies and tools

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 Supplying Support

1. Single point
2. Concentration of expertise
3. Multi level support model

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Multilevel Support Model

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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

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Call Management / Incident Process

1. Receive call 7. Assign call

2. Pre-screen call (user) 8. Track call
3. Authenticate call 9. Escalate call
4. Log call 10. Resolve call
5. Screen call 11. Close call
6. Prioritise call 12. Archive call
(1-Urgent, 2-High,3-Medium,4-Low)

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 Help Desk Tools and
Technologies

1. Help desk software

2. Computer telephony systems
3. Web Site support
4. Physical layout of help desk work areas

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Introduction to Help Desk

by Rodger Burgess Information Technology Depa 10

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 Objectives

Here you will learn:

 The role automation tools play in support

 How processes and procedures are used in support
 The primary types of support tools available
 How support tools evolve
 The reasons why tools don’t work in a particular
environment
 How constant change affects support and support
technology
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 Help Desk Tools, Technology,
and Techniques

 Technology includes the development of new

materials, equipment, and processes to improve
goods and services production
 Companies established information centers, places
within companies where employees could receive
training and help in using personal computers
 A help desk is a single point of contact within a
company for managing customer problems and
requests, and providing solution-oriented support
service
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 Understanding the Role
Technology Plays in Support
Technology affects support in several ways:
 The increase in the amount of technical support available
 The complexity and interconnection among technology
components has increased the needs for support
 Businesses depend on technology to collect and manage
information, which enables them to react to trends more
quickly
 Better and more complex electronics are used both at
home and in business, including computers,
telecommunication systems, network devices, and
software

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 Resource Challenges

 Support resources are the company employees

who provide support services
 Technical skills refers to basic computer literacy
and experience with specific hardware or software
 Support staff also need good problem-solving
skills

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 Resource Challenges

 In addition to technical skills, the entire

support staff needs good communication
skills
 Communication skills are those skills that
enable a person to interact effectively with
others by speaking, listening, and writing

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 Importance of Goals,
Processes, and Procedures

 The support group depends on its resources to

deliver services and accomplish its goals
 Every company uses a mission statement, which is a
broad, general, written guideline that defines the
company’s vision and specific goals
 Goals are further refined into different processes and
procedures so that the support staff knows how to
accomplish the goals

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Sample Support Group
Mission Statement

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 Importance of Goals,
Processes, and Procedures
 A process is a list of the input, the interrelated
work activities (or tasks), and the desired
output needed to accomplish a goal
 A procedure is a detailed, step-by-step set of
instructions that describes who will perform
the tasks in a process, along with how and
when those tasks will be performed

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 Importance of Goals,
Processes, and Procedures
 To better understand the
relationship between a
goal, process, and
procedures, consider a
teenager who wants to
drive a car
 Consistent delivery
means that the output of
a process is the same no
matter who completes
the procedures

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 Types of Support Tools

 Support tools are specific to the processes and

challenges of a particular group
 Some tools are designed for support staff

 Computer users can use some support tools

to address their own support needs

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 Support Staff Tools

 The correct technology can help support staff

work more efficiently
 Tools are the equipment, processes, or
software that are necessary to perform a task
or that assist someone in practicing a
profession
 Support staff use tools to organize,
troubleshoot, and deliver services
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 Support Staff Tools

 Logging tools track all questions that the support

group receives
 Organizing tools help support staff manage their
daily work
 Troubleshooting tools help equalize the skills of
the support staff by providing reference materials
the staff can use to quickly and easily find
information about a particular problem or topic
 Other tools are designed to deliver a particular
service
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 Management Tools

 Management-oriented tools enable managers to

review all work for the support group and to
supervise their resources
 Most important tools support managers use is
reporting software
 Managers also regularly run monitoring reports to
show how support staff performance improves over
time

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Sample Database Records

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Driver’s License Workflow

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 Chapter Summary
 Automation tools can be used to address resource
and service challenges
 Support groups have common goals, which are
defined by processes and procedures
 Support staff, managers, and computer users employ
different types of tools
 A small support group may start out with very
simple support tools
 Automation does not guarantee a support group will
meet its goals
 Technology continues to change rapidly
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Introduction

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 Objectives

Here you will learn:

 Basic help desk concepts
 Internal support processes
 External support processes
 What core activities support staff complete in
different environments
 Special challenges unique to some support
organisations

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 Support Environments
and Processes
 Support staff complete different tasks as they follow
procedures, based upon the company’s business and the
tasks its customers are trying to complete
 Most business tasks are completed using technology that
has grown very complex
 The support environment is the collection of customers
that a support group assists, the tasks customers need or
want to complete, the technologies those customers and
staff use to complete tasks and the experience and skill of
the support staff

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Multilevel Support Model

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 Basic Help Desk Concepts
 A multilevel support model defines the role a
support person plays in different support processes
and the amount of interaction they have with a
customer
 Front-line support, or level one support, is the point
of first contact with the customer
• Level one support staff answer the telephone,
record problem details, and attempt to resolve the
problem or answer the question
 A dispatcher is a front-line support person who
answers the telephone but forwards the problem to
someone else to solve
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 Basic Help Desk Concepts

 Dispatchers pick up overflow calls if all level one

support staff are busy or when the problem requires
someone to visit a remote location to repair hardware
 Subject matter experts (SME) are usually members
of level two or three support, with a greater amount
of experience or knowledge about a particular subject
than level one support
 They have more detailed knowledge about specific
products or more experience troubleshooting

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 Basic Help Desk Concepts

 Level three support also may include network

specialists, database administrators, or programmers
 To escalate an issue is to raise the issue to the next
level of support or to notify managers
• First, the lower level support staff may already
know that a particular problem requires more
knowledge or experience to resolve
• Second, customers may think that the problem is
taking too long to solve and ask that more
resources or more experienced staff work on the
problem
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 Internal and External
Support Environments
 Support environments are divided into two types—
internal and external
 An internal support group, or help desk, is a
department within a company that responds to
questions, problems, or requests from company
employees
 In a small company, employees may be able to rely
upon a guru, a coworker who learns to use new tools
quickly and who helps other employees unofficially

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 Internal and External
Support Environments
As the internal support group delivers service, it may also:
• Answer questions about software that is purchased or
developed within the company
• Troubleshoot software problems and identify hardware
problems
• Take requests for network or administrative services
• Refer callers to other support centers or corporate resources
• Distribute information to employees about system
availability
• Identify employees who need more attention or training in
specific areas
• Install or upgrade new versions of software or hardware

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 Internal and External
Support Environments
 The use of a guru is practical only as long as that can
still complete his or her own work
 Frequently, companies set up a help desk as a
necessary evil at first, because computer users need a
centralized point of contact
 An external support group addresses questions,
problems, or requests from customers who buy their
company’s products and services
 External support groups may be called “customer
support”, to differentiate them from internal support
groups
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 Internal and External
Support Environments
 Large companies that sell products usually have both
internal and external support groups
 There are two good reasons that a company will set
up an external support group
• First, if most of a company’s competitors provide
customer support, then it also must provide some
level of support to remain competitive
• Second, a company may find it profitable to sell
maintenance or repair services for its products

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 Internal and External
Support Environments
External support groups often:
 Troubleshoot computer hardware or software problems with
other electronic equipment
 Explain installation or instruction manuals that are difficult to
understand
 Decide when broken equipment needs to be returned for repair
or replacement
 Start or stop services from utility providers, such as water or
power companies
 Provide additional information about a product or service
 As the support group provides good service, customers renew
their annual maintenance contracts, providing a source of
revenue for the company and funding for the support group
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Processes Common to All
Help Desks

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 Call Logging
 Call logging is the process of creating records that
capture details about problems, requests, and
questions as they are reported to the support group
 A problem is an event that prevents someone from
completing a task
 Some problems take longer to solve than others,
requiring support staff to collect additional
information
 A request is a customer order for new hardware,
software, or services, or for an enhancement to a
product or service a customer already uses
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 Call Logging

 Customers make inquiries about small tasks or

subjects they don’t under-stand, which are logged by
support staff as questions
 Questions usually begin with standard phrases, such
as:
• How do I…? - Where is the…?
• When will…? - Who do I call if I need…?
 Some questions take only a few minutes to answer
 However, questions can become either problems or
requests, depending upon the answer

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 Problem Management

 Problem management is the process of tracking and

resolving problems that are reported to a support group
 The problem management process defines procedures to
ensure that staff members collect problem details, work
on outstanding problems regularly, assign additional
support staff when needed, and provide status updates
to the customer
 Finding the cause of a problem, removing or preventing
the cause, and correcting the disruption that the problem
caused is part of problem resolution

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