Lesson 15 - Prioritising the service desk requests

An average service desk can get many calls/requests coming in. How do you determine which ones need immediate action and/or which ones are more important?

Service Desk request life-cycle

Ideally, a job or request coming into the service desk should follow these steps:

1. Request/job comes in
2. Request/job is assigned a ticket or job number
3. Request/job is resolved or escalated and then resolved
4. Request/Job is closed

 

Here are those steps in detail:

Step 1 is receiving the call and getting all of the information about the caller, the equipment details, and the problem or issue that they are having.

Step 2 is allocating the job a "ticket". A ticket is a unique reference number for a particula call or job. It allows the job to be tracked from start to finish. A ticketing system can be automated or it can be a manual system.

Step 3 is the resolution stage. If the issue can be resolved on the spot, then you should do so and close the ticket. Unfortunately, not all requests can be resolved on the spot, but there does need to be some system or process that will allow the job to be prioritised.

Step 4 is closing the job. Once the issue has been resolved, the ticket can be closed.

It is STEP 3 that we will focus on in today's lesson.

Prioritising/Escalating the request/job

What criteria do we use to decide which request is more important?

Read the following articles:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-systematically-prioritize-your-support-calls/

https://logicalread.com/prioritize-help-desk-tickets/#.WxUKkUiFOUk

https://it.ufl.edu/media/itufledu/itsm/prioritizing_in_myit.pdf

ITIL BASICS - Incident Management

Class Activity 1- individual or small groups of 2 or 3

1. You are IT Support for the Mysty River Regional Library Service. The following Tickets are in the system:

• One of the computers in the main library area is unable to connect to the Internet.

• The computer that is usually used for people to search the catalogue has an error and will not start properly.

• Printing within the library is not working - jobs are sent to the printer, but the print queue does not acknowledge them

• The Library Management System is down 

• The Library's Main webpage is down

• The CEO has placed a call indicating that her computer "freezes" when she tries to access her emails

How would you prioritise these tickets? What Criteria would you use? Using your responses to those questions, prioritise the above tickets.


2. You are IT Support for South East TAFE. What criteria would you use for prioritising jobs that come in to the service desk? Who would get priority from the following:

• The CEO unable to upload their weekly newsletter to staff

• A potential (new) student unable to complete their online enquiry/enrolment

• A current student who can not access moodle for an assessment due today

• A member of the teaching staff who is having a problem with the projector/datashow

• Student support services staff who can not access the student management system to update disability support information

• Customer Engagement team member who can not access our student management system to complete an enrolment

• Academic Administration team leader unable to start his computer

There are many different "brands" of Servicedesk ticketing systems, but they pretty much all perform the same job - They allow you to record the details of a servicedesk call and keep track of it until the issue is resolved.

I know that this is for a specific ticketing system, but it does explain the process in very simple terms

https://www.sysaid.com/help-desk-software/ticketing-system/what-is-a-ticketing-system

The following is a Summary from above link:

Identify and capture issues

The initial identification and capture can come from a wide range of sources and an effective ticketing system needs to be able to support them all, and be ready to accommodate the next source waiting to be invented too.

Manage the ticket

Often when considering an organisation’s support teams, much of the focus goes on new and challenging issues that require skilled engineers to understand and solve. But in reality, most issues are repeats of things that have happened before - if not identical then very similar. The best approach for resolving these issues should already be known and recorded in the knowledge base.

Resolve the ticket

Best practices of updating the knowledge base and doing continual service improvement (CSI) after resolution of tickets ensures:

• Alignment of activities and priorities with those of the parent business
• Enhancement of the business perception of IT and its services
• Saving both time and resources, and improving overall business efficiency
• End-user satisfaction with the quality of IT services

Conclusion

A ticketing system ultimately helps organisations to deliver an integrated and seamless response, offering a range of capture mechanisms and the ability to control progress and keep the people with a vested interest informed.

Ticketing process

Here is another article in how a ticketing system works

http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2260779&seqNum=7

Discussion:

What is the main purpose of a servicedesk ticketing system?

Why do we need one?

What are some of the benefits?

What information should be recorded?

Read the following article:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/user-support/what-info-should-help-desk-call-tickets-contain/

Demo Ticketing System

Class Activity 2

Try a demo of Solarwinds Web Help Desk. You can use this tool online without having to sign up or log in. The demo software allows you to see both the Tech Demo and the End User Demo. It gives you a good idea of what a ticketing system is about. If you don't want to try the demo, there are a couple of videos that you can watch to give you an idea on how this ticketing system might work.

https://www.webhelpdesk.com/demo

Class/Group Activity 3

In the same groups, review the features of some of the commercially (or open source) ticketing systems available. Select one for SE TAFE. Why did you choose this tool? What features does it have? How much does it cost?

Here are some links to help you with this task:

http://www.capterra.com/help-desk-software/

https://au.pcmag.com/cloud-services-1/36293/the-best-helpdesk-software

https://blog.hubspot.com/service/free-help-desk-software

https://www.softwareadvice.com/au/help-desk/

Chisholm Service Now

Chisholm staff can access the Service Now platform from the Intranet. Chisholm students can access the portal from the Chisholm website under Current Students.

https://chisholm.service-now.com/sp

Class Activity 4

Access the Chisholm Service Now portal 

Start by taking the tour when prompted

Have a look in the Knowledge base - select an article of interest

Try searching for articles about Zoom in the knowledge base