RWALKER@UGA.BITNET (Rex Walker) (02/01/90)
For all of those interested in Help Desk issues, there is an organization which has been established for that purpose. It is called, appropriately, the Help Desk Institute. It publishes a newsletter entitled "LifeRaft" as well as presenting symposia around the country and an annual conference. Membership is open to corporations as well as educational institutions - but the membership fee is not cheap (about $395/yr). Their first annual conference is going to be held in Orlando from Feb 11 - 14, 1990. You may wish to contact them via their 800 number: 800-248-5667.
MFSDBE@NMSUVM1.BITNET (D. Bryan Emery) (02/01/90)
We have a help desk here (actually, two different desks - one to support micros and one to support mainframe & networks). Our current design is not working well and we are in the process of trying to redesign our setup. This is going to be tricky and I could use all the suggestions and help I can get (sort of a "Help Desk for Help Desks"). What we have now is six undergraduate students that take turns sitting at a desk in an open area approximately 10 hours per week (60 total). Their remaining hours (up to but rarely ever 10) can be spent working on programming projects. The concept is good, but students seem to come and go and our attempts at providing a "relaxed" schedule have caused chaos. We are considering replacing the students with either 3 graduate assistants or temporary full-time staff (i.e. no benefits). We started in November using a tracking system we got from Kansas State (called "consult" which runs on a PC). The student employees *HATE* it. You have to stop each user and ask all sorts of background information just to have them ask, "Can I see the FORTRAN manual?". We would also like to provide some on-line "smart" assistance. Right now, we have set up an e-mail address where users on *ANY* system can e-mail their questions and get help within 24 hours. One last thing that we are looking into is on-line manuals and documentation. We feel that with adequate documentation and access to it, the demand on User Assistance might drop. However, it also might just become more sophisticated. Well, that's about all I can offer right now for our current situation. Any suggestions or comments? ========================================================================= +--------------+ D. Bryan Emery | | New Mexico State University Computer Center | | Mainframe Services Division | | P.O. Box 30001, Dept 3AT | | Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-0001 | NMSU | (505) 646-1240 | * | | +--------+ Bitnet: MFSDBE@NMSUVM1 | | Internet: bemery@nmsu.edu +-----+ =========================================================================
PXGARY@WIDENER.BITNET (02/02/90)
I think John Holt's suggestion of a one day conference on "Help Desks" is a great idea. Setting up an effective Help desk seems to be a tough job and if someone has one functioning we can all learn somthing from it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Habermann Widener University Manager Technical Opeations Acadamic Center North Phone : (215) 499-1030 17 TH & Melrose Email: Pxgary@Widener Chester Pa. 19013 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MFSDBE@NMSUVM1.BITNET (D. Bryan Emery) (02/05/90)
The group of conferences sounds great to me also. I know we would never be able to justify a trip across country, but something more regional might be O.K. I would be happy to volunteer NMSU, but Las Cruces, New Mexico is not a very central location for anybody. ========================================================================= +--------------+ D. Bryan Emery | | New Mexico State University Computer Center | | Mainframe Services Division | | P.O. Box 30001, Dept 3AT | | Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-0001 | NMSU | (505) 646-1240 | * | | +--------+ Bitnet: MFSDBE@NMSUVM1 | | Internet: bemery@nmsu.edu +-----+ =========================================================================
SLPBB@CUNYVM.BITNET (Sheri Prupis) (02/05/90)
A one day conference for "help desk" is a great idea - BUT why don't we expand this idea --- it's really not practical for many/most of us to travel to Syracuse for a one day conference so why don't we find locations all over and schedule several one day conference s for the same week. then we can share speakers, ideas and materials. I would be more than willing to volunteer Baruch as one of the sites and work with people at other sites to plan these conferences. we could share preceedings etc.
ROGERDAL@LAVALVM1.BITNET (Roger-Daniel Laberge) (02/06/90)
signoff
U0BA9@WVNVM.BITNET (Olynyk, Roman J.) (02/08/90)
I figured there were enough of us interested in Help Desks to justify startup of a new list. So, here it is: HDESK-L@WVNVM. I've set it up as an unmoderated list for the discussion of Help Desk topics. Staff and management of Help Desks are encouraged to exchange experiences with the startup and operation of Help Desks at their sites, as well as experiences with problem-tracking software. Hope to see you there.
MCLEGHOR@UGA.BITNET (02/08/90)
Thank you for the info...