Asella TVET College

Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

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ASELLA TVET COLLEGE

HARDWARE AND NETWORKING SERVICES

Level III

LEARNING GUIDE’S#06
Unit of Competence: Provide First Level Remote
Help Desk Support
Module Title : Providing First Level Remote
Help Desk Support
LG Code : ICT HNS3 M06
TTLM Code : ICT HNS3 TTLM 1114

LO 1: Analyze client support issues

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INTRODUCTION Learning Guide

This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following content
coverage and topics –

This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page.
Specifically, upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to –
 To Check problems logged by the client
 Investigate and documenting support issues
 To Notify and investigation and advice provision
 Document procedures Obtained by the client feedback and make changes

Learning Activities

1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.

2. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1” in pages 3-4.
3. Accomplish the “Self-check” in pages 7.
4. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 1.
5. Read the information written in the “Information Sheet 2” in pages 8-11.
6. Accomplish the “Self-check” in page 12.
7. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Lap Test”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 2.
8. Do the “LAP test” on page 13 (if you are ready) and show your output to your teacher. Your teacher
will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your teacher shall
advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to Learning Guide 7.

 Your teacher will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your
teacher shall advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to the next topic.

Client support issues

Information Sheet 1
Checking problems logged by the client

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Client support issues:
You need to be aware of important issues that might arise from individual help desk calls.

Priority of calls

Some calls will be allocated a high priority, as they involve critical IT functions which cannot be carried out
until the problem is resolved. Extra resources may have to be allocated to high priority calls, and the progress
of these call needs to be closely monitored.

Warrantees

Hardware equipment will often be covered by warranty. In this case the vendor responsible for the warranty
repairs can be contacted. In the case of failed hardware, it is important for you to find out the timeframe for
repairs. This is particularly important when hardware needs to be ordered from a vendor and delays may
occur. It may be necessary to consider temporary measures so that clients affected can perform their required
tasks. In the case of software that has to be ordered, the time frame involved also needs to be ascertained.

Training

If training is needed, you will need to determine when can it be arranged. Some training is straightforward and
can be provided in the short term, if suitable people are available to deliver the training. If more complex
training is needed, delays may occur. Many organisations now make use of online learning. You will need to
familiarise yourself with any online learning products available in your organisation.

Documentation

It is important to document the issues you have found relating to the support issues raised by the client. You
may be part of a large team, any of who may have to deal with the problem at some stage. It is unprofessional
and a source of embarrassment when team members cannot easily inform the client of the status of their
calls. Even if you are solely responsible for client support, documentation is superior to relying on your
memory for details of client problems.

Checking problems logged by the client

Contacting the client
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If you are the support person who has been contacted by the help desk, you need to contact the client soon
after receiving their request from the help desk. You’ll also need to investigate and document the issues raised
by the client.
The contact with the client may be just letting the client know that you’re on the way to see them at their
workstation. As mentioned previously, non-complex client problems can be resolved quickly. The solution may
be as simple as providing a short set of instructions, which the client can follow to fix their problem.
At other times, you may need to contact the client for other reasons, including the following situations:
 If the problem is more complex, and likely to take time to resolve, the client needs to be informed of
this.
 You want to clarify with the client exactly what their needs are. To do that effectively, you’ll need good
communication skills, including skills in active listening and reflective questioning.
 You cannot meet the initial target completion date because of other competing deadlines and you
want to re-negotiate the priority (or the completion date) with the client. Successful changes to
completion dates come about through successful negotiations. This is the result of building up good
client relations.
It is important for you to keep the client informed about the progress of their call. Frustration over delays in
solving IT problems can be a major cause of concern to people. This frustration can be made worse by poor
communication from IT support staff. As a result of your investigations, you should be able to inform the client
about the nature of the solution. You should also be able to tell the client how long it will take to resolve the
problem.
Clients can often make requests which they perceive as simple, but which are not easily carried out by IT
support staff, as they involve excessive cost, or will result in a breach of organisational guidelines. In these
circumstances, you will need to be able to explain to the client why it is not possible to carry out their
requests. You should be able to suggest alternative actions, which will allow the client to perform the same
tasks.

Information Sheet 2 Investigating and document support issue

Client support roles

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Information technology is an integral part of the operation of modern organisations. Users of information
technology need timely, high-quality support. These readings cover some of the skills and knowledge that you
will need in order to provide that support. In addition to sound technical skills, IT support staff should have a
range of skills that improve their ability to successfully provide IT services to their clients.
The circumstances in which you are required to provide advice on IT problems will depend on the nature of
your organisation. Small organisations often do not have IT technical staff. They may rely on local IT businesses
to provide support, or take out a contract with a company which provides IT support services. A growing area
of IT is businesses specifically set up to provide IT support to organisations. These companies provide
employment opportunities for individuals with the right skills and knowledge.
Many medium and large organisations provide a centralised help desk support service. Clients with IT
problems report these to the help desk. Support is typically provided for areas such as hardware and software
faults, networking problems (including login problems), and email and Internet problems. Help desks will often
provide additional services to those listed here, depending on the needs of the organisation. They often
provide training for clients as well. This can be performed in-house, or external training providers can be called
in.

First level support

Clients typically contact the help desk by phone or email. Help desk operators log the calls and enter them into
a centralised database program. There are many commercially available programs which have been designed
specifically for IT help desk operations. In many organisations, help desk operators attempt to fix
straightforward problems. This is known as first level support. In some organisations, operators simply log
calls, which are then allocated to the appropriate technical staff. In the case of organisations with only a few
employees, IT problems may be handled by an employee who combines support duties with other functions.
The proportion of problems that can be handled at the first point of contact will depend on the skill and
training of the help desk staff. As a large proportion of calls to any help desk are trivial problems, first line
support can ensure that the time of the specialists in the various skill groups is not wasted and is only used
when there is a problem that requires their attention.

Reflection

Can you think of some problems that could be solved directly over the phone without escalating the call to an
IT specialist?

Feedback

You could come up with many answers here. Here are some suggestions:
 deleting a job from a network printer
 saving a file to disk
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 locating a file
 changing the screen brightness/contrast/resolution
 changing the name of a file
 Resetting user logon (user has forgotten password).

Responding to help desk calls

In organisations which make use of specialised help desk software, technical staff usually access logged calls
through the centralised database. Alternatively call details can be sent to the email account of the technical
staff member who will be responsible for resolving the call. Timely response to help desk calls is important,
given the importance of IT to most organisations. Calls are often prioritised, according to the severity of the
problem, and the impact on the normal operation of the organisation.
As well as applying a suitable priority level, escalation procedures must also be followed.
It is vital that there are adequate tracking mechanisms to make sure that the client’s problem has been
resolved. Documentation of all stages is therefore very important when working in this role.
Finally, when it has been determined that the problem has been resolved, the call/request can be closed off.
Apart from dealing with these day-to-day requests, a client support officer is generally involved in analysing a
range of support issues. For example, this may involve:
1 identifying potential problems that could affect users
2 working on eliminating problems before they affect users
3 identifying the root causes of recurring problems (from logged calls).
It is common for organisations to provide service level agreements to clients, which guarantee that calls will
be dealt with in a specified time frame. Modern help desk software can provide managers with the tools to
monitor the time taken to answer and resolve help desk calls.

Recording details of a client’s request

If you are on the help desk and a client rings in with a request, what details do you ask them to provide? In
larger organisations, particularly there is usually specialist software in which these calls are recorded.
Below is a sample of a typical data entry form for recording details of client requests. Examine the type of
information you need to record.

Sample of a typical data entry form

Data required Entry

Log number:

Help Desk Operator’s name:

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Date and time of client request:

Client’s name:

Client’s contact details:

Section and location:

Problem:

Date and time problem

occurred:

Computer/peripheral ID:

Impact of the problem on

operations:

First line support provided (if

any):

Escalate to support staff?

Yes/No

Support staff request details:

Date and time reported:

Name of support staff:

Practice using the form

You may have logged a call to a help desk yourself in the past. Try to recall your experience and think about
what information you would include in the above form. If you don’t have a real example, think of a typical
problem a client may have. If you wish, print the form and fill in the details.

Checking the help desk database

When a problem has been reported, it is useful to check help desk logs to see if similar problems have been
reported previously. There are a number of reasons for this:
1 Many organisations have large numbers of identical computer systems. Repeated instances of hardware
failure in these systems can indicate a fault which will progressively occur in many more systems. The
hardware vendor can be contacted to avoid large-scale disruption to operation.
2 Repeated calls for similar problems that relate to usage, rather than hardware failure, can indicate the
need for specific training. An example of this could be how to change a client password.

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3 Many organisations build up a knowledge base, where solutions to previous problems are detailed. Help
desk staff can check the knowledge base prior to escalating the problem. This has the potential to greatly
improve the time taken to resolve common problems, and can be particularly useful for new help desk
staff. As well, this ensures that knowledge built up over time is not lost as individual help desk stafe move
on.
4 Even if you are employed by an organisation which does not have many employees, you should develop a
system for recording calls for support from clients. This will avoid issues where calls are not followed up,
and will also provide an audit trail showing the nature and complexity of your workload.

Escalating a call
A call remains open until the client is completely satisfied that the problem has been solved.
If a help desk operator cannot immediately solve a problem, it will be passed to a member of the technical
support staff. For example, you may receive requests from clients that:
 are too complex or outside your expertise
 require a software upgrade to be done by a support officer
 require a system modification that would need to be done by an analyst/programmer
 Require a change to the database requiring the skills of the database administrator

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In such cases, the help desk staff will:

 apply a priority rating to the call
 escalate the call to an appropriate support person
 provide the client with a reference number for the job, and an idea of when the problem will be solved,
based on the initial priority
 record the referral details.
All open calls must be monitored and reviewed until they are closed. Often the initial priority rating has to be
revised.

Call escalation procedures

Call escalation procedures are defined by each company depending on such things as size and organisational
guidelines, but for call escalation to be effective, you will need well-trained and adequate support staff who:
 respond quickly to calls
 know when to escalate a call to an IT specialist
 know which IT specialist to escalate the call to
 Coordinate follow-up with the user.

Obtaining approval
Obtaining approval might occur in a number of ways. It might be a verbal approval to go ahead with work
based on the confirmation document. As mentioned earlier, you should never rely on a verbal approval.
Memories of events can differ very much and lead to confusion and conflict later.
One way of obtaining approval is to have the client provide a written purchase order for the work.
Alternatively, the client might write a letter outlining their agreement to your requirements document, asking
you to go ahead with the work.
Any approval document that is produced should include agreement on:
1 the standard of the goods or services to be provided
2 the price of the goods or services to be provided
3 the timelines for the project (either broken down into timelines for specific tasks or for the entire project)
4 any ongoing or follow up services required or foreseen.
Remember, a person’s signature is generally required for an agreement to be legally binding. You should
ensure that all documents are signed by an authorised person from your client’s organisation before you
commence any work.

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Information Sheet 3 Notifying investigation and advice provision

Notifying investigation and Documenting client feedback

The Help Desk Operator has given you a client’s request to attend to. The Help Desk Operator had filled in a
few general details about the client request. It wasn’t possible to resolve the problem by telephone, so you
need to investigate the problem further and record more details. You’ll need to contact the client to find out
more.
You’ve seen an example of the initial details recorded at the help desk. The following is a sample of a form
that a support person might use to record further information.

Resolving client’s problems

Where possible, client’s problems should be resolved with minimum disruption to their work.
The time taken to resolve the problem may mean that IT functions which are important to the organisation
will not be able to be carried out if equipment is not operational. In this case, some alternatives need to be
considered, to allow the affected client to carry out their tasks.
Many organisations provide support remotely. Software can be installed by support staff using the
organisation’s network. You may need to organise a suitable time for this to happen, to minimise disruption to
the client.
If warranty repairs are to be performed a staff member may have to be present to provide access to the IT
equipment to be repaired. You will have to make sure that someone will be available at this time. This will
avoid delays and extra charges from vendors.
If training is to be provided, you will need to organise a suitable time. This is particularly important when
clients need to attend group training sessions, which involve taking them away from their normal duties for
extended periods of time.

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Self-Check 1 Written Test

Name:____________________ Date:_________________
Instruction: Answer all the questions listed below, if you have some clarifications- feel free to ask your teacher.

Please ask your trainer for the questionnaire for this Self-Check.
Client request fill the necessary data based on the problem of your client

Data required: Entry

Name of support person:

Date and time client was contacted:

Alternate arrangements for client while problem

is being solved:

Problem details (incl. nature and degree):

Date and time investigation of problem

commenced:

Date and time overall system down:

Support required for resolution of problem:

Research required to solve problem: (Provide

details.)

Can problem be resolved by support person?

(Provide details.)

External service required? (Provide details if

‘yes’.)

Purchase of parts required? (Provide details if

‘yes’.)

Date and time parts or service person arrived:

Date and time problem was solved:

Date and time of commencement of recovery

action/configuring:

Date and time recovery action/configuring

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completed:

Date and time of restoration of normal service:

Details of staff involved in the investigation and

resolution (include names, roles, dates of
involvement):

Name of staff who closed the incident:

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