Providing good help desk support for the implementation of any new computing system is essential to the success of that implementation. If end users cannot get help when they are starting to use a new system, they will view the implementation negatively, and they will either enter the data incorrectly or give up on entering it at all. Problems such as these can have a “domino” effect, where bad data entered during one phase of an implementation will negatively impact the data entered during the next phase. For instance, bad course data will lead to bad class data.
Another reason to provide good help desk support is to protect your implementation team. If end users do not have help desk support, they will seek other avenues for help, such as functional analysts. If functional analysts are spending all their time addressing help desk questions, they will not have time to work on the implementation.
For the STARS project implementation, the Training, Documentation, and Support (TDS) team will provide this mechanism through its help desk support service. The STARS help desk will be available by e-mail, phone, and in person during regular business hours before, during, and after the implementation of the new system. Because the consultants on the help desk will also provide end-user training, communication, and change management services to the project, they will be well-versed in addressing users' questions about using the new system.
The support model for post implementation has yet to be defined. One proposal is to have the TDS team employ a distributed support model, training "coaches" throughout the university to provide direct end user support within colleges, schools, and other student data administration units.
The goal of help desk support is to provide consistent, accurate, timely support for end user questions regarding the implementation of a new system for student data administration. The Training, Documentation, and Support team will track all help desk contacts, and will provide regular trends analysis reports to the STARS project team. Data gathered from the help desk also will be used to identify and fill gaps in training and technical documentation content. The scope of help desk support will be to answer questions regarding the STARS implementation only, which will include Admissions, Student Records, Student Financials, Financial Aid, and related Self-Service applications. TDS will provide help desk support until a distributed end-user support model can be put into practice across the university following the rollout and stabilization of the new system.
Providing good help desk support builds end user confidence in the implementation, makes the end users who are adapting to new business processes more efficient and effective, and protects the rest of the implementation team from being drained by help desk questions and problems. As part of the TDS team, help desk data can be used to drive the creation of new training and technical documentation to help end users, providing better support for the implementation overall.
The benefits of having a help desk are best appreciated as a chain of events starting with the end user: 1) an end user asks a help desk consultant a question, 2) the help desk consultant answers and tracks the question, 3) the user enters data into the system more accurately and/or uses functionality more effectively, 4) other members of the project team are instantly alerted to system problems if necessary, 5) trends analysis data from help desk questions is used to improve training and technical documentation content, 6) help desk reports inform the project team of how effectively end users are interacting with the new system, and 7) help desk calls gradually decrease because questions are addressed in training and technical documentation content.
The chief deliverable of the help desk will be fast, reliable, and accurate end-user assistance before, during, and after the STARS implementation. The Training, Documentation, and Support team will use an online database system to track, archive, analyze, and resolve incoming questions. TDS will use the data collected through calls to do trends analysis reporting for the rest of the STARS project team and to improve end-user training materials and technical documentation. System problems reported to help desk will be brought to the attention of functional and technical staff immediately to ensure their swift resolution.
A list of assumptions for help desk support, which are also inherently risks, follows.
Training, Documentation, and Support team members will be "frontline" consultants for the help desk support service, answering routine questions and tracking all requests for help. Subject matter experts from the STARS project team will be "backline" consultants, supporting the TDS team and end users alike with their in-depth expertise in given areas of the system. This approach makes support easy for end users to find and consistent across all services (training, communications, change management, help desk). It also allows for help desk question trends analysis data to be fed directly into future development of training materials and communications. Moreover, it allows subject matter experts to focus on the implementation itself instead of answering routine questions. TDS will provide regular updates to the rest of the STARS project team on the kinds of questions users are asking (trends analysis), and will bring functional or technical issues to the attention of the rest of the team so that problems may be addressed as efficiently and effectively as possible. After the implementation, the TDS team will train "coaches" throughout the university to provide direct end user support within colleges, schools, and other student data administration units.
Production support for all Oracle PeopleSoft database systems, including STARS, will be provided by Cornell Information Technologies (CIT).