Out of the frying pan and into the fire: creating a help desk

Like most educational institutions, Whitman Collegek computing environment is changing rapid~. Each year the number and compl~ip of computers and applications used on campus increasa. In addition, specialized computing equipment such as multimedia and video editing workstations are becoming prevalent. Computer user support systems atablished when there were a few mainjame computers and a couple of dozen desktop computers on campus are no longer meeting the neeh of users. Problems apen.enced at Whitman, such as reinventing solutions, service requests falling between the cracks, multiple support persons working on the same problem without knowing it, and a chaotic workload dktribution were wasting user and user support stafls time, frazzling nervm, and raulting in uneven service to the user. To be more effective and to provide better user support service, ~itman College Technolo~ Services ~CTS) restructured iti user support environment. To determine which support model would be appropriate for ~itman, a computer support staff member visited fourpeer institutions and communicated with several other institutions regarding their user support situations. We decided a help desk would mitigate the avalanche of support calls while providing a more rapid and consistent r~ponse to user support requests. Problem tracking and inventory sofmare was evaluated in consultation with peer institutions and by aperimenting in-house. With the he~ desk now several months old a number of things have become clear: