ITU Support Center Unit Assessment

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Mission Statement

The Information Technology Unit (ITU) Support Center's mission is to anticipate and creatively meet the evolving technological needs of the George Mason University community. We will meet these needs with an emphasis on professional and friendly customer service and in support of excellence in learning and teaching.

The Support Center accomplishes this mission by providing technical support for computing, network, and phone issues for the University community. The Support Center is the first point of contact for reporting problems with computers, accounts, phones, and networks on campus.  The Support Center has the tools to resolve most questions on the first call.  If your problem cannot be resolved and your issue is a supported product or system, your problem will be referred to the appropriate resource within the Information Technology Unit for resolution

Organization Chart

ITU Support Center Staff and Responsibilities

Kathy Gillette, Manager, Responsible for managing the entire Support Center operation, develops recommendations for improved operations, systems, and services, develops operating budget, develops useful and meaningful metrics, establishes priorities, identifies ways to improve efficiencies, coordinates the periodic development and updating of publications.

Shai Kowitt, Supervisor – Responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the ITU Support Center, schedules staff to ensure coverage, sets standard procedures for daily operations, assists the Manager in hiring staff.  Delegates and develops work assignments. Identifies staff development needs.

Jan He, Database Administrator - Coordinates, develops, modifies, administers and maintains the Support Center problem/request management and reporting system (Support Magic) used throughout the ITU

Ejaz Abbasi, Backup Database Administrator – Acts as database administrator in Jan’s absence. Provides accounts for new users, creates new groups, and assists the database administrator with tasks.

Cheng Cheu, Knowledge Engineer – Acts as knowledge manager by posting entries and updating existing technical documentation on the Support Center’s online help and knowledge base in Magic.

Earl Allen, Webmaster for ITU Support Center’s Web Page – Updates web page and maintains consistency while ensuring that information needed by the University community is posted on the web page.

Debbie Penny, Statistician – Provides statistics on Support Center performance both weekly and monthly.

Patrick Hitapot, Liaison between Email Group and Support Center – Serves as a liaison between the Email and Support Center groups, provides training to Support Center staff on issues regarding email, ensures that calls forwarded to the email group are acted upon within a reasonable length of time.

Student Assistants - Respond to Support Center phone requests from faculty, staff and students on all types of computing and communications matters, analyzes computing related problems and answers users’ questions.

Jorge Martinez, Student Assistant

Beth Trimmer, Student Assistant

Jimmy Dotson, Student Assistant

The Year in Review

Accomplishments during Fiscal Year 2001-2002

Get Wired Program

The Get Wired Program was piloted at the beginning of the Fall 2001 semester in order to assist students in getting a jump-start on technology at George Mason so they were prepared for the semester.

The program consisted of three parts:

1. Jacks R Us – Ensured that all jacks worked in all residence hall rooms.
2. Account Activation – Assisted all students in obtaining email and Mason account login id’s and passwords.
3. Swat Team – Assisted freshman resident students in connecting to George Mason’s network during the first weekend of the fall semester.

The combination of the three parts of the project resulted in:

1. Fewer calls forwarded to other technical groups, thus lessening the typical heavy workload at the beginning of the semester.
2. A reduction in call volume at the Support Center by 500 calls during the first six weeks of the semester, thus giving the University community easier access to contacting the Support Center on other issues.
3. The University community’s affirmation that Client Services’ goal of being proactive to measurable problems worked.

STI Knowledge Health Check

The professional organization, STI Knowledge, performed a Health Check on the ITU Support Center in December 2001. The Health Check was designed to provide an expedited overview of the operational effectiveness of a client support operation. The Health Check was a benchmark analysis of our support compared to industry best practices. The consultant gave some specific areas for improvement, and these areas are included in the ITU Support Center Appendix immediately following the end of this unit assessment. A project plan that outlines the areas for improvement has been developed and will be implemented over the next year.

Integration of Second-Level E-Mail Support Position into the Support Center

Patrick Hitapot was hired in December 2001 into a unique and newly created position with the Support Center. As a way of trying to incorporate more second-level assistance, Patrick works half-days at the Support Center and half-days with the email group.  This unique position has afforded the Support Center staff to be more closely involved in email activities. Patrick’s experience with the email group has proven to have a positive impact on the relationship between the very busy email group and the Support Center. It is hoped that more positions similar to this will be established over the next few years, integrating second-level Support Center analyst positions into the Server Support and Network Engineering areas.

Newly Revised and Updated Web Page

The dissolution of UCIS and the Support Center’s move into the DoIT organization required a new and updated web page, which is found at http://itusupport.gmu.edu. (The Support Center, as most other UCIS counterparts, did not have their own web page when the UCIS web page went live in 1999.) The new web page incorporates a new approach to ensuring that the information that clients need is easily accessible in a streamlined format. The incorporation of Frequently Asked Questions has been extremely helpful in supporting clients. We simply refer people to our web page and then FAQs for run-of-the mill questions. We hope this will proactively persuade our clients to check the web page first before calling.

Online Help Changes

The Support Center used the Help Center on the old UCIS web page as a way of putting knowledge into our clients’ hands. The move to a new web page gave us the opportunity to increase the usefulness of this important knowledge base. Upon moving to the new web server, we also hired a cold fusion programmer to make changes that we felt were appropriate. The Help Center name was appropriately re-named Online Help. The revised Student Technology Guide was divided into parts and incorporated into Online Help. In addition, approximately 150 other files containing useful information were revised and uploaded to the site.

Important Documentation During 2001-2002

The following documents are considered to be the most valuable resources to our clients:

2001-2002 Guide to Information Technology Services

This Guide details services that are provided by the IT Unit.

Student Technology Guide

This guide has proven to be an important document that assists both new and returning students in the basics of computing at George Mason University.

Welcome to George Mason University for Students and Faculty/Staff

This new flyer was created for new students or new faculty/staff and details where to get help and how to obtain accounts. With the phrase “Welcome to George Mason University” prominent, we hope to make the transition to Mason as easy and uncomplicated as possible.

STI Knowledge Training and Certification

Our goal is to ensure that all Support Center staff are incorporating the customer service philosophy espoused by STI Knowledge. To that end, several members of the Support Center team were trained and most certified by this professional help desk organization. Kathy Gillette successfully completed the Certified Help Desk Director course, and was certified in November 2001. Shai Kowitt successfully completed the Certified Help Desk Manager course and is pursuing certification. Several members of the Support Center team successfully completed the Certified Help Desk Professional course and became certified, and our knowledge engineer completed the Certified Knowledge Management course.

Magic Custom Reports

During 2001-2002 it became evident that the IT Units that use the Magic database were in need of custom reports that give statistics and information on activity. Last year we had five custom reports available. Throughout the year, new Crystal Reports (which run on Magic data) were provided for a total of 18 customized reports. Some examples of new reports are: Help Desk Calls Assigned to a Group by Subject in a Date Range, Help Desk Calls Assigned to a Technician Sorted by Due Date, First Call Resolution Rate for Support Center Calls, Tech Work Queue Print Form.

Technology Coordinator Meetings

The Departmental Technology Coordinator meetings continued throughout 2001-2002 with a variety of presentations which keep our technical contact clients involved and informed about technology at Mason. The group has been meeting since July 2000. All of the meetings have a set agenda with open discussion time available in order to discuss concerns and questions. Notes are available online (http://docstore.gmu.edu/dscgi/ds.py/View/Collection-578) for most meetings held. Technology coordinators were involved in training on the new Corporate Time Calendar as well as the continuing project to ensure that all clients are using the managed version of Norton AntiVirus. Some of the subjects that were addressed during the year were:

Windows XP Task Force

ITU Reorganization

Overview of University Publications Services

Overview of viewfinder.gmu.edu (a database of images available for Mason)

Cannon copiers/printer

ETF status

DocuShare

MEMO Email Project

Changes in Dialup Connections

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan

The ITU Support Center wrote a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan in the event the ITU Support Center and/or George Mason University suffers a disaster which requires a plan of action for going forward with our mission to provide IT support to the University community.

First Call Resolution Rates Become Available

The team goal of ensuring that 100% of calls are entered into the Magic database provided the opportunity for the Support Center to show more definitively what the first call resolution rates are. The Support Center now successfully closes approximately 80% of all calls (includes walk-in and phone). The industry average is 50%, and the world class standard is 85%. The ITU Support Center will continue to work on its’ goal to become a world-class help desk by increasing its’ first call resolution rate this coming year. Statistics on first call resolution rates are available in the Appendix.

Reliable and Meaningful Statistics

The Support Center has worked very hard this year to ensure that its statistics are reliable and meaningful. We have also worked toward, and achieved, the goal of entering 100% of all calls into the Magic database. Entering all calls is one way we can provide meaningful statistics for our group as well as other IT groups which use the database. Statistics are now available on the ITU Support Center’s web page and are also included in the Appendix.

Areas for Improvement

Pursue Health Check Improvement Suggestions

The STI Knowledge Health Check afforded us an opportunity to look at what we do and how we do it. The consultant was on campus for five days and provided a written report that outlined what he saw as areas needing improvement. The specific points, which are in the Appendix, are included in a project plan. The majority of these points will be addressed within the next year. The two major goals are to develop Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with other support areas and possibly with clients, and to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that will be incorporated into our training program. SLAs and SOPs are the building blocks for an integrated and robust help desk.

Continue Magic Database Training and Increase the Practical Use of the Database

In addition to the database administrator, Jan He, this year we have assigned Ejaz Abbasi as backup database administrator. At this point, Ejaz has not had the opportunities we would like for him to become a viable database administrator in the event of Jan’s absence. This year, Ejaz will be trained through Magic Solutions on basic database administration, as well as continue his training with Jan He. Jan will continue work on streamlining Magic and encouraging use of all of its features. The Desktop Support Services area is interested in pursuing inventory control through Magic. In addition, there are several add-ons that will be researched as far as their practical use at Mason. (An example is the Magic Management Center, a dynamic analysis tool, which allows you to track virtually anything in the system, graphically and in real time.) Jan He will also continue cooperative work with the Server Support group to ensure that Magic is always available and has quick response time.

Continue Development of Knowledge Bases

We will continue our pursuit of use of knowledge bases for use by both internal support and clients. The development of Online Help is almost complete, and our knowledge engineer, Cheng Cheu, is responsible for keeping it up-to-date as well as making suggestions for other types of knowledge engineering. World-class help desks push knowledge to their clients in a proactive way, thus decreasing call volume and enabling clients self-service. We need to make this a priority.

Strengthen Communication between Support Center and other Support Areas

The Support Center is the central point of contact for most IT issues at the University. We need to better inform other support areas of changes and procedures, and other support areas need to inform the Support Center of the same. In addition, since the Support Center receives the bulk of status calls from clients, we would like to coordinate more effectively with other support groups to ensure that the calls forwarded to them are responded to in a reasonable length of time. This will be done by developing Service Level Agreements with the groups (which will detail expected resolution times), and also by meeting regularly with groups that use Magic to ensure that their calls are closed within those agreed-upon times. The Support Center also needs to do root cause analysis on problem areas in order to better support our clients.

3-Year Goals

Increase Use of Students in the Organization and Streamline Hiring/Training for Student Assistants

On July 25, 2002, the call processing application for the ITU Support Center will change so that students will press 1 and faculty/staff will press 2 to be connected to an analyst. Student support analysts will primarily answer student calls, and full-time staff will primarily answer faculty/staff calls. This is the first step in attempting to increase the use of student assistants in our organization. We will develop a training program for student assistants (in cooperation with other IT Units) that will assist students in not only providing quality client care but will also afford them some opportunities for supervision and training of others.

Increase Integration of Second-Level Support Analysts into Other IT Units

After the successful integration of Patrick Hitapot into a second-level position in the Support Center and Email Group, we would like to work towards the goal of increasing the number and extent of integration with other IT Units. We would like to initially incorporate second-level help into the Server Support and Network Engineering groups. These groups were chosen as initial prospects due to the amount of calls forwarded to these groups and the need for cross-training and cooperation to provide the best service to our clients.

Increase Usage of Knowledge Bases through Magic and Online Help

The ITU Support Center would like to increase the availability for internal staff as well as client-oriented knowledge bases within the next three years. The Magic database has grown at an exponential rate, and we feel that the knowledge from this may be able to assist our internal staff with information that would ultimately assist our clients more efficiently. Our Magic database administrator and knowledge engineer will need to work cooperatively on this endeavor, and we expect that a project plan will be forthcoming within the next 6 months. We would also like to explore whether our Online Help (on the web page) is the best way to provide knowledge to the University community. We will explore other options throughout the next year in the hopes that we will be able to develop a more robust knowledge base for clients in the next three years.

Client Comments and Awards

These are just a few of the client comments and awards that were received throughout the year.

Kudos from Joy Hughes in regards to the new Student Technology Guide

Kathy Gillette – Individual Impact Award for Get Wired Project (November 01)

Kathy Gillette – Outstanding Achievement Award (August 2001)

Shai Kowitt- Individual Impact Award for Get Wired Project (November 01)

Mark A Spikell wrote:

I have also gotten good help from support@gmu.edu, whether by email or phone. Today I had some great assistance from an apparent newcomer – Jimmy [Dotson]. Just thought I would let you know he was extra helpful in guiding me through some "tricky" maters, well tricky at least for me.

M. Carolla wrote:

Hello, I wanted to inform you of the fantastic assistance I received from Ejaz [Abbasi].  I am a graduate student who is graduating next week.  I had a final assignment due that was web related and had no idea how to execute it.  Ejaz was exceptional in assisting me to finalize the project. He went way above and beyond what is required of his position and should be commended.  He is definitely a perfect representation of great customer service!  Please tell him THANK YOU again!!! Sincerely, M. Carolla, MAIS Student

Mary McCutcheon wrote:

I called your helpdesk today and got the most professional help and solved (I hope) my virus problem.  I wanted to let you know that Debbie [Penny] is terrific.  When she had to go, she turned me over to Earl [Allen] who was also terrific.  But it was really Debby who spent so much time and was so patient and reassuring.

Sharon Littley verbal kudo for Beth Trimmer (sent as an email from manager):

Sharon Littley complimented the service she got from you today when she called the Support Center. She said you were very professional and extremely helpful. Thanks for the great work you do for the Support Center, Beth!

Paula A Johnson wrote:

I just wanted you to know that I spent considerable time on the phone with one of your "folks"..Shai [Kowitt]. He was incredible, patient, and professional...especially with someone who is a "techno-peasant".  Thanks, PAJ

Mary Lee Vance wrote:

Just want to say Earl [Allen] was so helpful to me a couple weeks ago. I had a hard time opening a file and he was excellent in walking me through.

From Doug Lewis, Virginia Beach, parent of a resident student:

I want to express my appreciation for the service you provided last Friday on Freshman move in day. One of your representatives, Jimmy Le, did a fantastic job of hooking my daughter's computer to the network. He took care of her roommate's computer too in a very short time period.  That was a big, big help. I was trying to follow the directions provided on the web page, but every computer is unique and I wasn't having any success. Putting UCIS representatives in the dorms to accomplish that task was a great idea.  Parents and students were relieved of one potentially stressful hurdle. Thanks again to Mr. [Jimmy] Lee and the other staff members that performed admirably.

ITU Support Center Appendix

First Call Resolution Rates Chart

Call Center Statistics Charts (Avg. Wait Time in Sec, % Calls Answered in < 60 sec, # Phone Calls Answered)

Health Check Results

 Areas in Which the ITU Support Center Excelled

Areas Needing Improvement During the Next Year

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