A case study: implementing supportworks professional helpdesk at drew university

ABSTRACT

Drew University, a leader in ubiquitous computing, has provided computers for all incoming freshman since 1984. The support structure has evolved with the technology, and now crosses several technology departments including Administrative Computing (AC), Telecommunications (Telecom), Instructional Technology Services (ITS), and Computing & Network Services (CNS).

CNS, home to the university Helpdesk, worked for a few years with two home-grown ticket tracking services, Helpdesk.drew.edu[1] and Beacon.drew.edu. These systems were not sufficient for escalating calls within and outside of the department. In February 2003, a committee was formed with representatives from all the technology departments at Drew University, and Enterprise Application Specialist Axel Larsson was charged with leading the search for the solution to the university's technology ticket tracking system.

Packages that were considered were Front Range's Heat, Blue Ocean's Track-It!, and Hornbill LTD's Supportworks Helpdesk Professional. Supportworks was selected for its ease of customization, shared mailbox features that would allow students to send e-mail from the department account, full-featured inventory tracking, knowledgebase, web-based self-service, and problem and resolution profiles. It also had the most attractive pricing for the number of licenses we needed.

This paper will describe the planning, selection, design, and implementation of Drew University's helpdesk solution.

REFERENCES

• 1: John Saul , Betsy Black , Erik Larsson, Helpdesk.drew.edu: home growing a helpdesk solution using open-source technology, Proceedings of the 28th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on User services: Building the future, p.289-298, October 29-November 01, 2000, Richmond, Virginia, United States [doi>10.1145/354908.354972]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software selection

General Terms:
Management

Keywords:
analysts, call tracking, database, helpdesk, helpdesk professional, knowledgebase, microsoft access, service level, supportworks