Cause10 manage helpdesk

How Do You Manage (To) and
Lead Your Help Desk?
A Panel Discussion
Chris King, NC State University
Fred Melchor, Elon University
Cindy Saylor, UNC Pembroke
Tami Violette, UNC Wilmington

How Do You Manage (To)
and Lead Your Help Desk?
Institution:
 Name: NC State University
 Public/Private: Public
 Number of Students: 31,000+ (~25,000
undergraduates)
 Number of Faculty and Staff: ~8,000
 Number of Institution Owned Computers: No good
current info
 Number of Student Owned Computers: No good
current info

Department:
 Name: Technology Support Services (in the Office of
Information Technology)
 Units: Help Desk Services (my group), Learning
Space Support (Labs, classrooms, ReNet), Client
Solutions (administrative support, distributed support)
 HDS Staff: 1 asst. director (me), Help Desk Manager,
Remedy administrator, 7 Tech Support professionals
(see also http://oit.ncsu.edu/n/oit-org-chart)
 Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-6pm plus on-call duties after
hours

Departmental Statistics: (average calendar year)
Productivity Tools:
 Remedy (call tracking)
 Angel.com (hosted phone service)
 Drupal (internal documentation, chosen over wiki-type site)
Top challenges?
 Keeping staff informed on current technologies and plans for
new ones Getting non-support folks to communicate with Help
Desk staff on projects and issues Managing expectations of Help
Desk responsibilities/duties to external folks Staffing (doing more
with less, students vs. admin privileges) Budget (as usual) for
retention, training, travel

Why do you do it?
 Someone has to guard the borders between
technology and its users. It might as well be
someone who enjoys it. ;-)

Institution:
 Name: Elon University
 Public/Private: Private
 Number of Students: 5,032 undergraduate, 677 graduate
 Number of Faculty and Staff: 1,298
 Number of Institution Owned Computers: 3,750 (3,053 PC, 697 Mac)
 Number of Student Owned Computers: Unknown

Department:
 Name:
Campus Technology Support: A division of Instructional and Campus
Technologies (Led by a Department Director reporting to the CIO)
 Units:
1st Tier Support:
Technology Help Desk: 1 Coordinator, 4 Help Desk Associates, 14 Students
2nd Tier Support:
Computer Support: 1 Assistant Director, 3 Computer Technicians, 3
Microsoft Engineers, 2 Apple Engineers, 2 Students
Classroom Support: 1 Assistant Director, 3 Audio/Visual Specialists
2 Students
Elon Student Computer Services: 1 Store Manager, 4 Students
 Hours: Mon-Thu: 7am to 10pm, Fri: 7am to 6pm,
Sat: 9am to 6pm, Sun: 1pm to 10pm

Departmental Statistics: (average calendar year)
 Calls to help desk: 36,000
 Emails to help desk: 3,000
 Instant messenger hits: 800
 Walk-in support: Unknown (it seems like billions)
 Escalations to 2nd level: 8,000 (approximately 20%)
Productivity Tools:
 Numara Footprints: Work order tracking
 Cisco Reports: Call tracking (custom written by Elon to
harvest reports from Cisco call data)
 E-mail: Outlook/Exchange reports
 Instant Messenger: “Provide Support” plug-in

Top challenges?
 Training professional and student staff. (staying current)
 Sharing the correct information quickly. (crisis
communication)
 Remembering information for future use. (WIKI)
 Internal conflict. (Between 2nd level and 1st level support)
 External conflict. (Between user support units and
infrastructure support units)
 Managing expectations of users.
 Managing expectations of senior staff. (CIO, VP's, Pres,
Provost etc.)
 Motivating people to fight the same fight year after year
after year after year.
 Planning for the future.

Why do you do it?
I do it because I know that technology is simply a
tool used to make people's lives easier and their
more productive. The faculty, staff and students of
Elon are the people that make this collection of
buildings special. As their Support Director, it is my
duty to ensure that our technology serves them in
their individual missions. In short, I believe in what
we are trying to accomplish as a university.
Therefore, I am dedicated to fulfilling my small part
of that greater effort.

Institution:
 Name: The University of North Carolina at Pembroke
 Number of Students: 5,700 undergraduate, 735
graduate
 Number of Institution Owned Computers: ~3,200
 Number of Student Owned Computers: Unknown
 Student laptop programs (3): Honor’s College (77),
Teaching Fellows (45), Leadership Program (35) =
157

Department:
 Name: Client Services (of the Division of Information Technology)
 Units:
• 1st Tier Support: Help Desk Services
• 2nd Tier Support: Academic Computing, Lab and Classroom, and Student
Computing Support (ResNet, Library Lab, Laptop Programs)
 Staff: 12 Full Time Staff + 20 Student Assistants
• 2 Help Desk Technicians (also provide 2nd tier academic computing support)
• 2 Academic Computing Technicians (also provide 1st tier Help Desk Support)
• 1 Help Desk Technician (on contract) for evening in-house Blackboard and
1st tier Help Desk support
• 3 Academic Computing Technicians; 3 Lab/Classroom Technicians; 1 Trainer
• 20 Student Assistants (30 @ 300 hrs/week)
• 1 Director (who is also the Assistant CIO)
 Hours: Monday – Thursday: 8am to midnight; Friday: 8am to 5pm; Saturday:
9am to 6pm (student assistants); Sunday: 3pm to midnight

Departmental Statistics: (Oct 2009-Sept 2010)
 Calls to Help Desk: 2,231
 Emails to Help Desk: 913
 Walk-in Support: 919
 Labs: 331
 Not Specified: 819
 Escalations to 2nd tier: not known with current ticket
order system; revamping system to separate 1st and
2nd tiers
Productivity Tools:
 Incident Management System (in-house customized
open source): work order tracking and management

Top challenges:
 Utilizing the talents of the Help Desk staff effectively as all have
a wide variety of skills and depth of knowledge.
 Scheduling so as to minimize burnout of staff.
 Funding for continuing education and training of staff.
 Sharing correct information quickly and effectively.
 Documenting the IMS with accurate information (misspellings)
 Documenting information as a knowledge base (wiki).
 Training clients to contact the Help Desk, not “who you know”.
 Managing expectations of users (“I need it now, although I did
not plan appropriately” syndrome).
 Planning for the future (aka, slowing down to speed up).

Why do you do it?
I do it because I am a problem-solver and I enjoy
finding solutions. I believe in the mission of the
University, and I believe in life-long learning. I get
a sense of accomplishment in helping the faculty,
staff and students find solutions to problems, find
easier ways of accomplishing a task, and
knowing that maybe I made a positive difference
in someone’s life at the end of the day.

Institution:
 Name: The University of North Carolina Wilmington
 Number of Students:
• 11,743 undergraduate
• 1,328 graduate
 Number of Institution Owned Computers:
• 7,569 PC
• 277 Macs
• 13,543 Faculty/Staff devices registered
 Number of Student Owned Computers: unsure but 14,085
devices are registered to student on our network

Department:
 Name: Client Technology Services (of the Information Technology Systems
Division)
 Units and Staff
• 1 Director
• Technology Assistance Center (TAC) – 1 manager, 5 staff, 40 students
• Computer Consultants – 1 manager, 10 consultants/tech
• AV Media Services – 1 manager, 2 staff, 2 students
• Computer Operations – 1 staff, 2 students
• Tech Store – 1 ¾ staff, 4 students
 TAC Hours:
• Monday – Thursday: 7:30 am to 12:30am
• Friday: 7:30 to 6pm
• Saturday: 12:30pm to 6pm (student assistants)
• Sunday: 12:30 pm to 12:30am

Departmental Statistics: (1/1/2010 – 10/15/2010)
 Total contacts with TAC: 35,566
• Calls: 9,788
• E-mails: 13,856
• Walk-in Support: 5,628
• Other: 6,294
 49% of tickets have been resolved in TAC
Productivity Tools:
 Remedy: Ticket tracking system
 ACD: Call management and reporting
 IM: Internal Communication tool for 4 service points
 LogMeIn Rescue: Remote Assistance Tool
 SharePoint: For document management, training material, wiki, etc.
 Boot Camp: Week long training program for all student workers

Top challenges:
 Budget cuts (staff retention, motivation, and training)
 Process coordination and information flow for
new/modified applications
 Managing expectations (internal and external)
 Time management to be proactive
 Managing multiple service points to ensure consistent
support
 Spyware/Malware – students get it but want us to
clean off their machines constantly

Why do you do it?
We care about people. We want to make the job
of each student, faculty and staff as easy as we
can so they can focus on their job – whether it’s
learning, teaching or supporting the university.

So, How Do You Manage (To)
Let the discussion
commence and the
ideas flow!! 

o Contact us:
 Chris King – chris_king@ncsu.edu
 Fred Melchor - melchor@elon.edu
 Cindy Saylor – saylor@uncp.edu
 Tami Violette - violettet@uncw.edu
Thank you!

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