The UAMS Help Desk Today - Ten Years Later
The UAMS Help Desk Today - Ten Years Later
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 MAY 15, 2003 | Soon after its conception, the idea of a Computer Support Help Desk began to catch on and today, the Help Desk now consists of nine (9) Full-Time consultants working between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. From the hours of 11 p.m. until 6:30 a.m., our Production and Operations Staff in the main Computer Room takes over, and picks-up the coverage for those individuals working the late hours. We are now able to provide Computer Support coverage 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, 52 weeks-a-year; a significant leap from the coverage provided in 1993. And, as compared to the eight (8) Support Groups that were set up in 1993, there are now 35 different Support Groups across campus associated with the Help Desk.

The purpose of the Help Desk is to not only be the ONLY known contact a user can call for assistance on a computer-related issue, but also to be the place where assistance can be given to the caller, providing a solution to some of the majority of encountered problems. This means that while the consultants assist the user with Microsoft problems, they are also trained in Customer Service, Hospital Systems, Hardware/Software/Network Trouble-shooting skills, as well as resetting various users' passwords. Many calls are handled over the telephone and consist of explaining how to complete certain tasks, verification of Rights of the user on the Network, Monitoring Network Systems including the Internet and Intranet, as well as many other tasks. Beyond pure phone support, Consultants at the Help Desk can also remotely connect to a user's PC to assist them online.

Did you know that this April the nine (9) member Help Desk team received 8,010 new calls? Of those calls, 6,400 were received by phone, and 1,000 by email. The average time to answer the phone calls was 32 seconds and 84% of all calls were answered within just 60 seconds. The Help Desk resolution percentage as first point of contact was 41% for the month.

Not only do the consultants enter the calls in the logging system and resolve calls, but they review all open calls regularly until the other support groups resolve the calls. In addition, the Help Desk consultants make a final review of all resolved calls. The resolutions are reviewed to see if the solutions need to be added to the knowledge database for future use, and then the call is closed.

For information on the History of the Help Desk, click here.
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