IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done
This is a how to be an IT manager book, and it covers every area possible and then some.
TABLE OF CONTENTS IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done
Chapter 4: User Support Services
What You Will Learn
- How to set up and staff a Help Desk
- What service level agreements (SLAs) are and how to define them
- How to arrange for user training
- How to select a call tracking package
Introduction
Whether it goes by the name of "Help Desk," "Support Center," "User Services," or any of a variety of other similar sounding monikers, your IT department needs some kind of organization to provide assistance to your user population be it employees, clients, customers, or business partners. In general, IT Help Desks are designed to be one-stop shopping for all computer-related requests. For the majority, your support organization is the only interaction they will have with IT. For these users, IT is only as good as their last call to the Help Desk. As such, your support organization has an incredible opportunity to add value and improve the perception of your entire department.
4.1 Help Desk: How Do I Set One Up?
A Help Desk's responsibilities can include
- Ordering new equipment
- Password resets
- Requesting new IDs
- Computer supplies (diskettes, toner, CDs)
- Installation and move requests
- Scheduling training
- Routing and coordinating requests with other IT groups (application development, operations, networking, etc.)
- Providing application support
- Reporting and resolving hardware problems
- Helping remote users with dial-in connectivity
Two Critical Help Desk Issues
In setting up a Help Desk, you need at least two essential items:
- A centralized way for users to reach you usually a phone extension and/or e-mail address
- Sufficient staffing to answer and deal...
Copyright Bill Holtsnider and Brian D. Jaffe 2001 under license agreement with Books24x7
