On user documentation / self service. When I was employed elsewhere (understaffed and over worked :) Every time one of the administrative assistants (that was their title, they were more office managers for their departments) asked me something more then once, I wrote a one/two page document with pictures. This was simple stuff and you can grab most of the content from various places on the web and customize to your environment. I put all the documents up on an internal website. All of them. It wasn't fancy (this was 9 years ago) but it was available in a consistent location. (Today I would use a CMS)
Mostly this was simple stuff. How to setup your Outlook profile (we had automation but this document still existed). How to schedule a meeting. Where resources were located. How to connect to application X, etc. Every organization that is resource constrained on IT support will have 'power users' in their user base (and those that think they are power users). Over time, I found I tended to focus on those people more and they in general would help those around them reducing my call volume. One day as I was wandering by a new hire orientation I found that the administrative assistants had put several of the 'help docs' in the new hire packages and the link to the site. Documentation is something that doesn't have an obvious and immediate feedback on success. It is one that if you can pull it off consistently will have an effect on an environments culture over time and is a glacially slow process but can and will work. It can also help with ensuring your technical staff are all on board and configuring things the same way which helps with support. Steven On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 5:35 AM, John Hornbuckle <[email protected]> wrote: > +1 on the part about quantifying time spent. > > My org is laying people of and scaling back hours due to massive budget cuts. > I've stressed to my technicians that it's imperative that they document how > and where their time is spent so that we have no problem justifying their > positions. > > As for users self-servicing... Well, I truly believe that in my environment > the percentage of users who would do it is in the single digits. So in our > case, it probably wouldn't be worthwhile to invest too much time in creating > and maintaining a system for it. > > > > John Hornbuckle > MIS Department > Taylor County School District > 318 North Clark Street > Perry, FL 32347 > > www.taylor.k12.fl.us > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Steven Peck [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 1:58 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Help Desk Software > > So, a comment on the folks who are still using 'paper and pencil' tracking. > > Implementing some sort of help desk system that you can log and track > calls is a pain. A huge time distracting pain. However, it can and > will be beneficial in these economic times. > > So, "IT department, what value do you provide?" > > If you track your calls, all your calls, you can provide numbers. > Management likes numbers. Depending on how you categorize your calls > you can also determine what areas are your biggest time sinks and > focus improvements there. Sometimes you can determine and document > 'who' are your biggest time sinks and draw attention or provide more > training there as well. > > While the stereotype mantra is 'no one reads documentation', I find > that isn't actually true. If you can provide a consistent place for > people to find it, and make sure it is maintained as part of any new > software upgrade / roll out to the user community, then it will help > reduce calls. There are and always will be those who will not avail > themselves of this resource and depending on your companies culture > may be something you have to live with, but by having the > documentation available, you will at least have a starting point for > users to check when you are not available. > > Steven > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
