Help Desk Process

What is the Antioch University Information Technology (I.T.) Help Desk?

The Help Desk is the virtual part of the I.T. team that assists non-technical staff, faculty and students in the use of computer systems, and resolving related problems. It serves as the primary point-of-contact for the I.T. department, and coordinates technical issues for the I.T. department. Why contact the help desk and not the technician (on campus) directly?

The help desk knows who is on duty and what the current workload of the on-site technicians is. If you call a technician directly with a problem it will not get addressed until the technician returns. We have had numerous cases of this happening and work orders that should have been assigned a high priority not getting addressed for a few days because the technician who was called directly was not in the office. The help desk keeps track of help requests, whereas an e-mail or phone call directly to a technician may “slip through the cracks”. Also, the help desk can keep track of broader service issues and can provide data to help the I.T. department better focus its efforts.

Why do we have a process?

The I.T. department supports over 1000 computers, over 80 servers, many active classrooms, software applications ranging from individual desktop applications to enterprise wide applications, and a complex network infrastructure across the entire University system of five campuses. To provide the best possible support, we are using a help desk software package when requests are submitted. Each work order is assigned a priority and then assigned to the most appropriate technician. Depending on the nature of the work order it could either be assigned to a local (on campus) technician or to a system-wide admin/network engineer. This helps to provide continuity and consistency and also allows technicians to collaborate on specific problems as needed very easily, and provides communication with the user as well.

What happens when I call the help desk?

For any technical support request, the help desk staff will:

Answer the phone and enter the work order into the system.

2. Attempt to resolve the issue on the phone or by using remote control software, if possible.


3. If not resolved then decide on which technician the work should be assigned to and a priority.


4. Assign the work order to a technician with e-mail copy of assignment and the work order number going to the user. After the work is assigned, the help desk will continue to monitor the technicians’ workloads and answer user questions.

Given that, how do I contact the Help Desk?

There are several ways to contact the Help Desk:

• You can call the help desk, toll-free, any time. We never close.
  The number is 1-866-662-0056. We recommend that you call for urgent matters.



• You can log your own ticket directly into the help desk ticketing system at https://helpdesk.antioch.edu.
  You will need to know your Antioch e-mail address.
  Logging your own ticket is quite easy to do, and allows you to describe the problem in detail.



• You can e-mail the help desk:
  
  
  1. In First Class, send a message to user: Antioch Helpdesk
  
  
  
  2. From any other e-mail system send an e-mail to: helpdesk@antioch.edu

Please include in the e-mail message text your Antioch e-mail address, full name, and phone number along with a complete description of the problem.

My campus PC Tech is right around the corner from me. Why do I have to go through the help desk?

Let‘s not let “business rules” interfere with common sense. By all means, for an urgent issue, contact your campus PC Tech. If the matter does need immediate attention, he or she will log the ticket into Web Help Desk when the problem is resolved or if it needs to be escalated. You are saving your PC Tech time if you contact the help desk directly, though, and the technicians appreciate it. Please be aware that if you do contact a technician in person, it does not mean that you will always get priority service. Work order priorities always apply, regardless of the contact method. If yours is not a priority issue, the technician may ask you to contact the help desk directly. What constitutes “high priority” and who makes that decision is described later in this memo. When High Priority and Urgent problems are logged by the Help Desk they will contact the PC Tech by pager or cell phone to ensure the fastest possible response time. Creating tickets for problems ensures that work doesn't “fall through the cracks”. It also helps the technicians prioritize their workload, and it helps identify areas where additional training is required. Also, consider this: how does Antioch know that we need more technical support or equipment replacements/improvements? If we look at the number of help desk tickets being logged for a particular campus and find the number very low, there is no reason to assume that there is a problem in staffing or equipment.

What happens after the work order is assigned to a technician?

The technician is notified via e-mail of the work order and the priority. For High Priority and Urgent problems the Technician is also notified by pager or mobile phone. The technician then has to balance this new work order with his/her current workload and determine when to address the issue. For more complex problems the technician may document the steps they are taking to resolve the problem in the help desk system. After investigating the problem they may also want to get other technician involved in solving the problem and this is also documented in the help desk system. Whenever the ticket is updated in the help desk system, the user is sent an e-mail so they can see the steps that are being taken to resolve the problem.

What happens after the work order is completed?

After the technician completes the work order, they document what they did to resolve the problem, and close the work order. An e-mail is sent to the user with the resolution.

What if the problem still exists?

If you receive a closed work order notification and the problem has not been resolved correctly:

• You can simply reply to the e-mail message that you received from Web Help Desk—this will automatically re-open the ticket.
• Or you can call or e-mail the Help Desk and we will re-open the work order.

What if I am not happy with the service provided?

If you are not satisfied with the work completed or any other issue with the I.T. department operations, please contact Arif Khan (arif.khan@antioch.edu) the Antioch University Director of IT Operations or Bill Marshall (bill.marshall@antioch.edu) the Antioch University Chief Information Officer. The only way we can improve our operation is to know if users are satisfied with the support we provide. If the problem is related to a certain work order, please include the work order number. We appreciate your help and aim to provide excellent, responsive service to Antioch computer users.

Work order priorities

We wish it was possible to address every work order immediately as they come in, but this is not possible. Therefore, we assign work order priorities according to our Priority Matrix.

The Priority Matrix provides I.T. staff guidelines for assigning priorities to help desk requests. It also offers the Antioch community the opportunity to understand when to expect they will receive service. Please keep in mind, that a technical issue that seems initially easy to solve may take longer than anticipated. Following is the timeframe for response to issues escalated from the Help Desk. Resolution time will vary depending on the nature of the issue. If you are concerned about the status of your problem, contact the help desk.