Management+of+Helpdesk

Management of a Helpdesk Kayser Hall 202 Facilitators: Connie Wickham Omaha Public Schools Notetaker: Regina Lupo Omaha Public Schools Description: This breakout session is for those staff members across the metro who work on or manage a Help Desk. Talking Points: What are the hours of operation of your Help Desk? How do you support students, staff, and parents? What skill sets do you look for in hiring a new staff member? What software program do you use to manage tickets? What does your support structure look like? 

Notes a. What are the hours of operation of your HelpDesk? OPS – 7-5 during school year, 7-4 summer hours, no after hours – requests made by walk-ins, email, voice mail, telephone. So Sarpy – no after hours, no home visitation, encourages some self support. No structured HelpDesk. Council Bluffs - 7:30 – 4:30 – first year of operation, still establishing the processes. Westside – 7:30 to 4 – Students have time to bring in computers for repair during homeroom – tracking system used. Elkhorn – no help desk, no hours yet. Email contact used mostly. Rare phone calls. (Hope you don't mind if I add for **UNO**) - Helpdesk open 7:30 am - 5:30 pm M-F; afterhours calls routed to computer lab consultant while the lab is open, else leave voice mail or send e-mail.

b. How do you support students, staff, and parents? Most districts currently only provide staff support. Westside does provide student support.
 * UNO** - supports faculty, staff and students with all available IT systems ; hardware support Only on University-owned equipment

c. What skill sets do you look for in hiring new staff? Council Bluffs – Modified and similar to OPS requirements: Degree, A+ Cert, experience OPS – More general requirements in addition to those for CB, they had HD conduct a 2nd interview the candidates to find a good fit. Patience. Following through until the user is satisfied. Westside – personality and familiarity with department helps, as well as positive attitude. User interaction needs to be positive. Elkhorn – Calm under duress, as well as an understanding of the situation. Prioritizing when the workload is large is often necessary. So.Sarpy County – Ability to discern what the problem really is.
 * UNO** - Excellent customer service skills; speaking/writing ability; prior computer experience - repairs, software installation, etc

d. What software program do you use to manage tickets? OPS – Altiris HelpDesk So Sarpy – Access Database West Side – Tracking system in connection with their asset management software
 * UNO** - a product from GWI Software company called c.Support; switching soon from Lotus/domino version to .NET/SQL (web-based) version

e. What does your support structure look like? Westside: Groups of individuals to support school levels Elkhorn – teacher tech in each building – boot camp during the summer Sarpy County – student assistance and single support individual. OPS: HelpDesk Level I, II (SME’s) and III (Data Center Support), Building Technicians and Field Support.
 * UNO** - Helpdesk - Manager and two full-time support techs and two parttime student workers; Desktop Services: Manager and 6 student workers; Lab Management - Manager and 8-10 students working various shifts as consultants

Guest questions: What is the turn-around time? Depends upon the request and whether can be resoled immediately via the HD. Do all teachers have laptops? Most districts are close. How do you prevent teachers from making changes? Admin rights allow changes. Trust comes into play as far as teachers following procedures. Backup of personal items to servers can be an issue. Locking down a computer can cause the user to avoid using technology. Apple Repairs at the Apple Store: request that if a machine repair request is made and the hardware has a school or district tag, repair be declined by the store.