Fifty-two percent of the time, Help Center consultants can find an answer to a caller's question immediately.
          When a problem must be referred to an IT staff expert for more in-depth analysis or research, the Help Center's tracking system-Remedy software-improves communication between the callers and IT staff as well as the efficiency of the referral process.
             
          Tracking progress
          "Since June, we've been using software from the Remedy Corp. to expedite the tracking process," Susan Allmendinger, IT/Help Center, said. "We are pleased with the system, and we're modifying it to fit our needs."

          "There are some very important things the software lets us do," Kathy Spako, IT/Help Center, added.

          According to Spako, users appreciate the accountability the trouble tickets represent.

          "Users are learning that when we give them a trouble ticket number, they can call us back to check on the progress of solving their problem," she said.

          She added that having a worklog associated with each ticket-a record of who has worked on each specific problem-has also made it easier for users and consultants to communicate about complex problems.

          "Let's say that a user calls in a problem about printing his e-mail. We refer the problem to an e-mail expert, who after consulting with the user, finds the problem is probably related to the user's network connection."
          In this case, the problem has to be referred to a second IT (network) staff expert.

          "The worklog saves everybody's time because the network expert can see all the information immediately, instead of asking the user to explain the symptoms again," Spako said.

          Tracking trends
          In addition to improving the communication cycle, the Remedy system records information about problems in various databases, which enables IT staff to track and evaluate Help Center traffic.

          "We can break down the calls based on whether the user is a student, faculty member or a staff member or sort our report data based on the types of problems," Allmendinger said.

          "That data helps us alert other units in IT of trends we see,"
          Spako added. "If we receive a lot of calls about a certain problem, we can suggest a training document or class be developed. Or, we can alert system programmers to a problem that needs to be fixed."

          Remedy also allows the consultants to pull up directory information about a user.

          "Sometimes users will say, 'How did you know that? That's cool,'" Della Scott, IT/Help Center, said. "But, we don't want to sound like 'Big Sister' when we verify the information in our databases."

          "Remedy lets us increase the amount of useful information our consultants share," Spako added.

          "It helps us be in a position to make a judgment as to how the user can best be helped," Linda Decker, IT/Help Center, said.

          "It's not always in the user's best interest to give him or her a quick answer. Sometimes, thanks to Remedy's databases or other calls we've received, we'll uncover that a simple symptom reflects a major problem."

          Decker added that asking users for the information entered with each ticket helps users give more accurate reports of the symptoms they see. "The system helps us ask the right questions to make the right referral," she said.

          "We appreciate the users' cooperation with us when we ask them questions," Spako said. "People seem to appreciate the system. Tracking progress on individual tickets and evaluating trends has helped all of us.

         
        December 1997
        University of Delaware