Help Desk

17 Pages 4125 Words

Because financial resources for implementing a help desk at Ent Federal Credit Union were very limited, every aspect of planning the service had to be considered from a strict cost-benefit standpoint. What resulted was a low-budget "home-grown" facility with a highly effective operation. In the past five years Ent Federal Credit Union has taken a giant leap into the computer age. Its computing facilities have been transformed from a small VAX system, with little more than 100 users, to a complete network of 2,400 users with access from hundreds of terminals and microcomputers located throughout the city. Because of this rapid expansion in equipment and services, Information & Computing Services (ICS) established a help desk in August of 2001 to handle the increasing number of requests for services. The help desk is primarily a phone-based facility, where anyone may call one phone number for help with computing problems or requests. Planning for the help desk facility began in early 2001, with its implementation scheduled for the beginning of the next year in August. We gathered information on other help desk operations and used it in drafting our own set of guidelines. These guidelines included objectives, costs, support, physical setup, equipment and software needs, staffing and training, operating procedures, call tracking and phone management, marketing, credibility, and evaluation. We began to realize, as the help desk developed, that this in-depth planning phase was crucial to its ultimate success. The help desk (called the ICS HelpLine) was established to support academic and administrative customers in using computing resources more efficiently. It was also meant to serve an educational role by helping those customers learn more about their computing environment, while at the same time helping them solve their computer problems. Our department head supported the help desk idea, but money was very limited. Each expense had to...