Goals and Mission Statement
Service Desk Mission Statement
Summary List of Essential elements for the Superior Service Desk
The 6 P’s
Conclusion
Service Desk Mission Statement
“To help our customers make the best use of technology in the support of the University and to provide leadership in technical support for the Cal Poly Community.” We will provide “TLC”, Technical Leadership for the Cal Poly Community and our other Customers, and provide a central, single point of contact, for our customer’s questions and problems.
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Service Desk Values
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Resolve problems, not just provide quick fixes
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Be proactive, not reactive, prevent problems from happening
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Be courteous and professional
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Our top priority is to minimize customer down time
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Serve as the single point of contact for all campus technical calls
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Service Desk Objectives
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Implement ways to improve our skills, service, and equipment.
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Establish effective workflow management at the Service Desk.
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Increase positive response to the Service Desk; establish query closure methods to ensure customer satisfaction as well as analyzing completed tasks/tickets.
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Communicate with our customers through newsletters, workshops, and personal contact.
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Survey our customers regularly; find out their views on our service.
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Increase self-sufficiency of our customers.
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Respond to changes quickly and fix quickly.
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Automate when possible.
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Monitor and report technology use and performance.
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Increase communications between ITS groups.
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List of Services
It is a common mistake to underestimate the number of services the Service Desk provides. This leads to users neglecting available support services and an underestimate in the number of support staff required. We are listed in the Cal Poly telephone directory as ‘Service Desk’; it is not uncommon for people to think we can help with anything, not just computers. The fact is, we usually can!
A closer analysis of the Service Desk services list is:
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Provide central point of contact for questions and/or problems.
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The Service Desk will be responsible for problem recording, tracking, ownership, and resolution.
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Problems that cannot be resolved immediately will be passed on to the appropriate group or area, and monitored for resolution.
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Provide Service Desk web site and keep updated.
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Emergency Taskforce - Service Desk is able to notify, assemble and monitor ITS departments to deal with an IT emergency.
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Computer consultancy - users can contact the Service Desk for advice on hardware & software to meet their requirements.
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Maintain IT Software library. Provide software-licensing support for labs and faculty.
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Participate in ITS groups for standards, H/W & S/W services.
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Broadcast information on systems availability, provide user bulletins.
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Provide Automated Call Distributor (ACD) phone system to provide users a phone menu tree that they can easily route their call.
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Maximize the Service Request call tracking system to its fullest capacity.
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Support Microsoft software distribution and licensing.
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Create/burn CD’s for software distribution.
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Provide support for the Cal Poly modem pool and the Imagine CD and software.
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Provide ‘satellite’ Service Desks on campus.
Summary List of Essential elements for the Superior Service Desk*
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Managing Expectations - Clearly establish procedures and expectations for problem handling, estimated time to resolve, and resolution procedures.
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Feed back/Advisory Communications - Survey customers on support and services.
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Status Reporting - Customers are kept informed of status on requests and are contacted regarding change in status and confirmation of resolution.
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Knowledgeable Support Staff - Train and keep support staff, provide professional development and merit-based compensation.
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Continuous Quality Enhancements - Process and procedures designed to enable staff and systems to most effectively serve customers.
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Results Measured - Use of metrics to evaluate performance against goals and standards, assess customer satisfaction, and evaluate changing requirements.
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Service Desk Structuring
Levels of Support
Figure 2 shows the call handling structure of the Service Desk. Calls come into the front line. If the front line (general) support can’t handle the call, or the call will take more than 10 minutes to answer, it is passed on to second level (subject specialist) support, a more specialized or knowledgeable analyst who is away from the front line and can handle the call without tying up the front line. If the second line determines it still needs more specialized support, or the call requires an analyst to go to the callers area (such as hardware replacement), the call will be passed to the third level of support (subject experts), which typically is another department in ITS. All calls are entered into the Service Rquested system and tracked.
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Front line of support tries to resolve but may pass on to 2nd level (front line = generalist)
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2nd level support provides specialized support, more time to resolve (second level = specialist)
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3rd level support other ITS groups or external groups (third level = expert)
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Figure 2
After call resolution or completion, the Service Desk will contact the customer to obtain information regarding their satisfaction with the problem resolution procedures.
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The 6 P’s
Usually have good upper body invincibility. The need for control of the workflow is mandatory at the Service Desk. If we do not control the workload, it will control us. Measurement provides an indication of what is happening. Measurement is defined by the following:
Procedures
Well-defined procedures for all services provided by the Service Desk are necessary for success. They must be consistent and correct; we can’t make up rules as we go. We must document our procedures. A documented procedure is much easier to automate.
Policies
Push for and assist in the creation of policies that will be supported by ITS. The Service Desk can stand by and support these policies. With supported policies the customer cannot shout or whine their way to making us provide a service. ITS policies should be documented and readily available at the Service Desk.
Personnel
Hire the required number of staff and student assistants necessary to support a ‘resolve’ and ‘proactive’ focused Service Desk.
Priorities
Establish work and task priorities. Assign incoming calls priorities according to requirements. Make sure priorities are balanced; priorities must be assigned so users don’t wait to long or are responded to before necessary.
Performance
Demonstrate exceptional performance for our customers and expect outstanding performance from other ITS groups. Exhibit professionalism in all we do.
Purchases
Provide the hardware, software, equipment, or tools to allow us to do the best job possible.
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Conclusion
The Service Desk is the eyes and ears of ITS User Support Services. We are the first to hear from our customers and are expected to resolve their problems. The Service Desk must keep pace with changing technologies, user expectations, and increasing numbers of calls. In order to do this, the Service Desk and all of ITS must embrace the mindset of User Support. Our mission is to support the Universities goals of education by providing computing and technological support to our users. We must optimize and improve the way we do things, we must be proactive and try to spot trends and resolve problems before they happen. We must be allocated the resources, staffing, software, tools, and management approval in order to succeed.
To achieve our support vision, we must implement and understand the ‘Critical Success Factors’ as outlined in the ‘Best practices’ White paper developed by the Blackwell Consulting Group. These are:
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Proactively Manage the Customer Relationship
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Align IT Support Strategies and Goals to the Organizational Mission, Vision and Priorities
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Measure Performance to ensure continuous improvement
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Recruit, Develop, and Reward IT Support Staff
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Continually Refine Processes to Enhance Support Services
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Evaluate and Implement Tools to Improve Quality of Service
