Building an IT help desk: from zero to hero

ABSTRACT

This paper is intended for Help Desk managers who want to learn how to expand their Help Desk without outpacing themselves and also for institutions that may be just starting out with centralized support or are thinking of opening a help desk.We will explain in detail how, from Winter of 2003 to Summer of 2005, Webster University went from having no Help Desk to having one that services over 40,000 people, provides international support and is primarily staffed by students.Our two major focuses will be how we have succeeded with a staff consisting of 90% student workers and also on how we were able to resolve territory conflicts that go along with support centralization.The evolution of centralized service, its pitfalls and successes, will be detailed using examples of our relationships with other support departments within the University system, including how we addressed territoriality, knowledge hoarding and being a new department in an already established IT infrastructure.We will look at how student workers give Webster University Help Desk its unique blend of personalized service with competent technical support; also, the challenges we faced, both internally and externally with students in regards to staffing, consistency of support, training and responsibility management.In conclusion, we will look at where the Webster University Help Desk is moving in the future: remote support via LANDesk, 24x7 support and resident student computing support.

REFERENCES

• 1: Information Services Coordinator is now Assistant Director of IT Information Services and co-author of this paper
• 2: Matthew Maddox, Webster University
• 3: http://whentowork.com/
• 4: Webster University Help Desk Statistics http://www.webster.edu/helpdesk/stats/
• 5: http://www.webster.edu/worldclassroom/about_us.html

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Life cycle

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Staffing; Training; Strategic information systems planning

General Terms:
Documentation, Economics, Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Performance, Standardization

Keywords:
help desk, management, student workers