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ABSTRACT

University-based help desks create a unique dilemma in their success. As customers realize your help desk has answers, and talented staff willing to assist them, you will create everything you most fear:

• Increased call volume
• Increased expectations of knowledge
• Greater inclusion of you and your staff in University-wide implementations
• Greater demand for knowledge to be shared with the computing community, before they request it.

.A successful help desk in a university environment faces problems that a commercial help desk does not. By virtue of the budget-funded help desk model most commonly found in universities, managers are faced with increased pressure to deliver ever-expanding services without expanded resources. Compound this situation with the reality that when your help desk provides better service, more answers and prompter responses, your customers will flock back to you, creating even greater demand for this improved service. In many ways, your help desk's success can be its own worst enemy.As demand for help desk service grows, we need to challenge the definition of "Help Desk Software" that has been status quo for nearly two decades. The idea that call-tracking software and a knowledgebase can meet the demands of your customers is fading; they simply cannot meet the needs of our university communities as computing becomes integral to nearly every aspect of the academic and campus life experience. Dynamically generated, web-based facilities are necessary to give you and your staff the flexibility and power of offering information to your customers before they ask for it; collaboration among academic institutions allows us to share our efforts and benefit from the same.Join us as we review the tools we use to reach our customers and improve our service, working more efficiently, instead of working more. CDs with examples of these tools (and their underlying code) will be available.

REFERENCES

• 1: Doherty, S. Helpdesk Salvation. Network Computing, (April 2001), 46.
• 2: McKeown, M., E-Customer. Financial Times, Prentice Hall, Great Britain, 2001, p.39.
• 3: Ibid, pg.30.
• 4: Ibid, pg. 174
• 5: Doherty, S. Helpdesk Salvation. Network Computing, (April 2001), 48.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.7 THE COMPUTING PROFESSION
      K.7.1 Occupations

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Collaborative computing

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Collaborative learning

General Terms:
Management, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
communication, help desk managers, tools for success, your worst nightmare