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Implementing
Your Help Desk
A Practical Guide
Implementing A Help Desk
Implementing a Help Desk may sound either remarkably easy or terribly difficult, depending on
who is pitching the solution. But, the actual process usually lies somewhere between these extremes.
This white paper offers practical advice to help you choose the right Help Desk software for your
organization, along with step-by-step procedures and timelines for implementing an efficient,
productive system.
Beginning with the definition of a Help Desk, we'll walk you through the entire process - from
selecting the software, to implementing the system and taking it live. We'll provide answers to common
questions about Help Desk systems; key factors to consider when choosing and implementing the
software; milestones to meet during the implementation process; and a real-world example of a
successful Help Desk implementation.
According to Rene Tenazas, Chief Technology Officer for Datawatch, "This database goes way
beyond just call management. The Help Desk actually becomes a global repository for critical data
and corporate assets - including information about customers, vendors, hardware, software,
locations, licenses, networks, warranties, service level agreements, problems and solutions.The
database also identifies the interrelationships among these items."
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"Implementing a successful Help Desk is 50% planning and selecting the right
vendor/product and 50% implementation."
In addition to being a database, a Help Desk must reflect the workflow of the support organization.
This includes details on how calls are assigned, how priorities are handled, how calls are escalated
and how problems are resolved. It must create a realistic framework for quick, effective responses
in every situation.
The business need for an effective Help Desk is compelling, but that's only part of the story. If your
Help Desk is not providing effective, efficient solutions to problems, you're sacrificing productivity
and increasing your cost of doing business.
Implementation
A successful Help Desk implementation demands careful strategic planning. You must establish a
clear methodology for designing and populating the database. Both the knowledge of your
organization's top management and the experience and knowledge that comes with your Help Desk
vendor are important here.
"Implementing a successful Help Desk is 50% planning and selecting the right vendor/product, and
50% implementation," according to Tenazas. "Both require very careful consideration."
The implementation process should include the following phases and steps to accurately reflect the
nature of the Help Desk system you wish to create: define the requirements, assess the products and
vendors, formulate the project plan, install the software and load the database, test the system, train
the staff, run the pilot program, and deploy and refine the system.
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Helpful Questions For Phase 1
z On average, how many service calls are answered each day by your current support organization?
z How many calls are bypassing the support center altogether and are handled informally? At
what cost?
z Do you know how to get accurate real-time data when you need it?
z Are incoming requests routed to the appropriate personnel right away, or is time being
methods?
z Is there a way you can leverage your existing infrastructure and expertise to implement a new
would you want a vendor to demonstrate that such a payback had actually occurred?
Most Help Desks have many of the same objectives that are discussed in "The Help Desk
Handbook". These objectives include the need to: serve the customer community, resolve problems,
improve the productivity of the customer community, manage change, and measure its own
activities and effectiveness.
Setting the objectives for your Help Desk is part of Phase 1. In addition to defining requirements
based on your organization's needs, you'll also need to identify hardware, software and call
handling tools according to their ability to meet your specific requirements.
Jonathan Clark, Datawatch consultant, has experienced numerous examples where individuals
would select a product to handle Help Desk activities and walk directly into trouble - simply because
they did not preplan, involve senior management or the Help Desk vendor, or ask the right questions
about their own support needs. "Once you understand that the Help Desk and the software that
helps to run it are two different things, you're already half way to a successful implementation,"
Clark points out. "Installing the software does not mean that all your Help Desk problems will
instantly be solved; it just means that you now have a tool that, with proper planning and
implementation, can provide a viable solution."
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1. Problem Management
Problem management is the most important and measurable Help Desk feature. Problem
management should include: problem logging; problem identification; call assignments; tracking
problems to resolution; alerting personnel if a call is taking too long; elevating a call's status to a
higher priority; and problem diagnosis.
One particularly useful feature is the ability to simultaneously track issues handled by your internal
support team as well as issues escalated to external third party support partners. With this feature
you can provide a single point of contact and can ensure that you're meeting your customers'
expectations and your support partners are also living up to their agreements with you.
A good problem manager, however, is more than the sum of its parts. What's most important is
how all the Help Desk functions work together and how they are presented to the user. Is the
interface intuitive, graphical and easy-to-use? Is the informationpresented in a logical way? Can
the user click on an item (caller name, hardware item, etc.) and see multiple levels of detail? Can
the product be configured easily to accommodate different call-resolution processes?
2. Asset Management
Asset management is important for two reasons. First, it allows Help Desk personnel to solve
problems by providing accurate, up-to-date information on the caller's environment. Second, it
serves as a library of information about your organization's asset base. According to Char
LaBounty, Director of Membership Services for the Help Desk Institute, "Often, a Help Desk
product with good asset management pays for itself simply by putting a real dollar value on a
company's current inventory of computer hardware, software and networking possessions."
Asset management looks at such items as hardware and software configurations, software
licenses, LANs and LAN addresses, and warranties. A good asset management feature
should help organizations:
z collect asset information with minimal effort (perhaps by using automated data collection
software, for example NetCensusTM from Tally Systems Corporation);
z minimize the number of unnecessary purchased software licenses;
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z enforce equipment policies regarding approved vendors, configurations, software revisions,
suppliers, etc.;
z maintain equipment warranties;
Good asset management allows companies to make vital decisions based on accurate information
about their possessions, for example, who's using the assets and how are they being used.
Answers to key questions will help provide important details about your organization's future
asset planning.
For example, how many PCs are there in the company? With what CPUs? What memory? Disk
capacity? What applications are they running and at what revision levels? What warranties are
scheduled to expire and when? How many users are connected to the server? All this information
has an immediate, dramatic influence on your organization, and can easily become an invaluable
resource for future asset planning.
3. Knowledge Capture
Often overlooked, knowledge capture is the "secret weapon" that makes the difference between
a system that merely logs calls and one that really leverages the skills of the people who use it. It's
also an area that pays big dividends with little up-front investment in user training and problem
assessment. "You'd be surprised," says Clark, "how many Help Desks finish a successful call just
by writing the words 'problem solved' in the call comments section. That isn't much help for the
next person facing the same problem." When using Datawatch’s Visual|Help Desk software,
support technicians are prompted to add their resolution to the knowledgebase, which then gets
sent for approval before it is actually submitted. This way, technicians are urged to describe
complete fixes in their resolution, and help desk management has the final say on which items
will be most useful in the future. The next time a user calls up and identifies the same problem,
the technician will have this resolution at their fingertips in order to resolve the issue immediately.
Help Desk software should encourage self-learning by prompting users for solution-type
information after the problem is resolved. This way the solution is captured for others who might
encounter a similar problem in the future. "You can't give everyone enough training in Excel and
Outlook to achieve a 24-hour, 75% fix rate," Clark says. "Nor can most companies afford to hire
enough specialized talent. Self-learning allows lower-skilled people to do the jobs of their higher-
skilled/paid colleagues."
Knowledge capture also gives Help Desk staff the ammunition they need to fix bigger problems.
For example, is there an overall pattern of failure by hardware type, software, department, service
provider, or customer? Does the customer who complains the loudest have a legitimate point?
Is the Help Desk really overworked?
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The Symposium Proceedings from the Gartner Group, a leading computer industry consulting
firm, indicate that "Users need to be informed on an ongoing basis about exactly how the Help
Desk is helping them. Often, when a Help Desk is operating efficiently, customers don't appreciate
how much they have been shielded from complexity and lost productivity. As a result, we feel that
the Help Desk must, on a regular basis, remind users of its accomplishments." In that regard, it is
useful for the software to include a standard call feature that makes it easy to register even the
simplest calls.
Additionally, the Help Desk should include the ability to tap into commercial knowledge bases.
Knowledge bases act as a "repair manual" and add an additional layer of expertise to the Help
Desk. For example, Visual|Help Desk from Datawatch allows a Help Desk to access external
knowledge bases from within V|HD. While working in a ticket, Technicians can search both their
proprietary knowledgebase or content from RightAnswers, an on-line knowledge base that
provides problem solving information and Help Desk resources for a variety of popular software
applications and operating systems. These external knowledge bases can be used to handle
and resolve calls quickly at the first level.
z What subject(s) would you use to describe typical problems, e.g. PC hardware, keyboard,
z What customer information do you want displayed on screen after you enter the customer's
name?
z What kinds of information would you want available (and reportable) on look-up tables? For
example, resolutions, call types, error codes...? What alerts do you want active? Do you need a
crisis response group and procedure?
z What features do you want mail enabled? Trouble call-in, client status updates?
z What metrics do you want to use to measure quality of service? Number of calls handled? Mean-
time resolution? Number of calls unresolved after 24 hours? Longest lifespan? Calls closed on First
Contact?
z What features do you want to integrate from external applications? Commercial knowledge-
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4. Reports
Top management needs tools for monitoring Help Desk activity and results, especially when their job
requires assessing the need for additional Help Desk resources. A Help Desk should include
easy-to-understand, pre-formatted reports for common applications (for example, a report that
clearly lists all calls that were handled over a certain time period). It should also allow users to
configure their own reports for unique information demands that they're likely to face in specific
situations (for example, a report that lists all calls with the same resolution, for company VIPs, or all
calls that were not resolved within time limits set by the SLAs).
These reports equip management with the information they need to move service and support from
a reactive to a proactive role. Trend and cost analysis can also help streamline the Help Desk
operation. With a full range of standard and custom reports, management can achieve significant
ROI (Return On Investment).
5. Technology Interfaces
The last item on the PC Magazine checklist concerns how the Help Desk ties into other
applications that can facilitate customer support, such as e-mail, paging, PDA devices and FAX
services. Users should be able to log calls from their PCs, without picking up the telephone. Also,
the software should allow the user to notify callers automatically when there is a significant change
in the call status. The Help Desk software should provide its own e-mail functions to pass calls
regardless of what email client your technicians are using. The email should contain a link to the
ticket which can launch the help desk client or preferably provide web browser access to the
help desk ticket.
Help Desk and Customer Support experts recognize that for a Help Desk to be truly robust, the
software must meet three additional criteria: 6. change management; 7. Service Level Agreement
(SLA) management; and 8. purchasing management.
6. Change Management
As the first to know about changes and their effects, the Help Desk staff should be the focus for
coordinating changes in hardware and software to ensure a smooth transition for customers. Help
Desk staff can communicate information to customers regarding known problems, upcoming
changes, educational opportunities and methods of improving productivity. The Help Desk software
should be the repository for all system information that can affect customer performance, such as
enhancements and upgrades. In this role, the Help Desk staff can act as the customer liaison,
reviewing and assessing proposed changes before problems occur.
7. SLA Management
A good Help Desk system provides customers with a clear understanding of how to use the Help
Desk and what service they can expect. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are an efficient method for
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accomplishing these goals. According to "The Help Desk Handbook" some companies report
savings from 5% to 40%, simply by establishing and managing service agreements. According to
LaBounty at the Help Desk Institute, key attributes of a successful SLA are:
z define products and services provided;
z establish a manner in which they will be delivered;
z establish quality standards to be achieved;
z provide measurement criteria;
z establish reporting criteria; and
z negotiate and accept cost of delivery.
The "Help Desk Handbook" points out that SLAs should include information on all assets, locations,
departments and individuals, as well as:
z Help Desk hours;
z typical response times;
z typical times for average and maximum resolution; and
z problem escalation guidelines and procedures.
SLAs can be informal agreements or formal contracts, often depending on whether you have
internal or external agreements. The Help Desk software must be capable of handling SLAs and
updating agreements as events occur. It should also be able to handle multi-level SLAs. For example,
service calls referring to third-party vendors should be managed to meet the user's expected
response level.
8. Purchasing Management
Finally, Help Desk software should provide the organization with a way to manage purchases
based on real usage figures for hardware, software, peripherals, networks (any possible asset that
can be added to the system). In addition, the purchasing functions should be closely integrated
with the Help Desk asset database. For example, with Visual Help Desk, both purchasing
and asset management are integrated within the core system. When the only way to resolve a
trouble ticket is to procure an item, your IT support team should be able to convert the help request
into a purchase requisition. The software should also help manage purchases through an orderly and
wellmanaged purchasing workflow, where all aspects of the purchase process are automatically
routed to the proper individuals for approval. Visual|Purchase Requisition is a workflow tool available
with Visual|Help Desk and can be used to establish procedures for request tracking, supplier
management, and inventory updating and control.
According to members of the Help Desk Institute, one common mistake in selecting Help Desk
software is to purchase a system that is too simple. You may end up paying severely in lost time and
productivity as you outgrow the system. In the long run, it is better to purchase an integrated system
that is robust and feature rich - one that can easily keep up as your organization grows and changes.
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From among the many choices of Help Desk products on the market today, you will probably
identify a few products that can meet your organization's needs. The decision then becomes one of
selecting the right vendor. Consider these points: Is your vendor going to be there to help you assess
your needs? Will your vendor help you identify the database information that must be captured and
entered into the system? Will your vendor help you through every step of system implementation?
Does your vendor have knowledgeable on-staff consultants available to support you and your
customers? Does your vendor have a consistent industry track record so you know they will be
around long enough to provide assistance even after the product is "out of the box"?
The vendor you select must commit to being involved from the planning stages through installation,
database creation, deployment, pilot testing, launches, and ongoing assessment and fine-tuning.
"If a vendor tells you that their product is the answer to all your problems," says LaBounty, "then
I would ask them to describe their implementation strategy for your company. Usually it's the
vendors who claim that the customers can do it all by themselves whose products become shelfware
40 to 50% of the time. Instead, it's the vendors who work to understand your specific situation,
and assist in the implementation planning process, who will be successful."
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Once you've completed the planning stage, you should have a solid understanding of how the
organization will use the software. This is the time to raise any issues or questions that may have
been missed in pre-planning. At this stage the team should also consider staffing and call
handling loads. By using customer service models as a guide (based on existing support
mechanisms), you can estimate call traffic and plan your staffing needs.
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z Knowledge documents from internal or external resources
z Asset data from network discovery tools or manual tracking database
As daunting as this might seem, you don't have to complete all of these steps before your Help
Desk is functional. The software product you choose should allow your Help Desk to begin
assisting customers quickly. Keep in mind, however, while you get up and running quickly, you'll
need to invest some time to take full advantage of all that the software can offer.
Once the data is loaded, the project team can be trained on maintenance routines, report
generation, and setup of standard reports. At this time, you can further customize the software to
add knowledge tools, default allocation and assignments, and call subject information. You can
also add call variables including subjects, escalation steps and resolution types, and priorities based
on organizational policies and SLAs.
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Phase 7 - Run Pilot Program
Once the Help Desk staff is trained, the system is ready for a pilot test. During this period, the
Help Desk should operate as close to "live" as possible, creating as many situations and call
samples as necessary to exercise both the system and the staff.
This is the time to make your final changes and adjustments. After one to two days of testing, the
system should be ready to go live.
The timeline presented in this white paper allows for a "reasonable period" to accomplish all the
requirements for implementing a successful Help Desk. For an example of how one large company
was able to compress the entire implementation process effectively, see the following: "Diary of A
Help Desk Implementation".
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Help Desk Case Study: Ingersoll-Rand
Ingersoll-Rand is a diversified manufacturer with over 40,000 employees globally, $9 billion in annual
sales, and a leadership position across numerous markets with trusted, well-known brand names:
Bobcat loaders, Schlage locks, Thermo King refrigerated trucks and trailers, and many more. It is up
to Ingersoll-Rand’s Global Business Services Business unit (GBS), based in Huntersville, NC, to
provide shared employee, finance and information technology related services for virtually all business
units within the company.
Previously, the overhead costs to provide these crucial services were unacceptably high, leading
GBS to find a solution to improve service and cut unnecessary costs. “Until recently, we relied on an
expensive help desk application and a classic manned call center to handle service requests,” says
Marcel Berkhout, Technology Engagement Leader for Ingersoll-Rand’s GBS. “However, we recently
switched from our old help desk application and call center to Visual|Help Desk (Visual|HD).
“Thanks to Visual|HD’s unique capabilities, we no longer need to operate a manned call center. The
cost savings and business benefits since migrating to Visual|HD have been simply remarkable:
Visual|HD has reduced our cost of routing a service request to only 1% of the cost of our old call
center structure!
“The missing ingredient was a system to allow us to move to a solid self-service method to address
our non-urgent service-related service needs,” Marcel adds. “That requires a solution that is completely
web-enabled, but our past help desk vendors simply did not have its web enabled capabilities
working reliably or simply enough for our needs.
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“As a result of Visual|HD’s complete web-enablement and its self-service and TPS modules, we
have been able to use Visual|HD well beyond traditional help desk software tasks. We have had
great success extending Visual|HD as a call center application,” says Marcel.
“Datawatch has delivered to Ingersoll-Rand a web-based solution in Visual|HD that goes beyond
traditional help desk to include strong self-service ‘eSupport’ capabilities as well,” Marcel concludes.
“Visual|HD has saved us substantial time and money, while extending our ability to respond more
effectively to employee requests.”
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may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic,
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Datawatch may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject
matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Datawatch, the furnishing of this
document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.
Datawatch, Visual|HD and Visual|QSM are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Datawatch Corporation in the U.S.A.
and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Datawatch Corporation
175 Cabot Street, Suite 503, Lowell, MA 01854
Tel: 978-441-2200, Fax: 978-441-1114
www.datawatch.com
1-800-445-3311
Implementing Your Help Desk: A Practical Guide
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