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Teaching old dogs new tricksThe evolution of the OUCS Help Centre
Lou Burnard, OUCS
Making IT work for the University?
I’m trying to
2
Organizational change: the pattern
Computing laboratory– Research facility for some specific academic departments
Computing Service– Nationally-funded mainframe for the whole university
Computing Services– Machine-defined services (ICL, VAX, ermine…) – Functionally defined services (micros, archival storage,
humanities, typesetting… ) clustering around these– Research oriented services and facilities
Strategic push towards distribution of services
Good news: wider range of expertise and a richer variety of services
Bad news: duplication of effort , risk of contradiction, drowning in data…
3
Duplication of effort: for example
Where do I go to ask for help about OUCS ?– Local Support Staff– Advisory Service– Registration Desk– PC Consultancy– Learning and Resource Centre– Centre for Humanities Computing
Aren’t these all doing much the same thing?– Well, yes and no…
Will these all give me the same advice?– errr, probably
4
A reminder
University policy is to devolve support to colleges, departments, divisions
As a centrally funded department, OUCS has to consider the needs of the whole University
This means we urgently need– to respond to changes in the pattern of use– to simplify access to our services
By end-users By support staff
5
Access facilities
Modes– Walk-in face-to-face consultation– Telephone– Email– Web
Finding the right person Asking the right question
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Wouldn’t it be nice if there was…
An integrated knowledge-base of expertise Single point of contact for front-line walk-in
support, coupled to learning access-points Single automated point of contact for
telephone enquiry Single method of sharing, tracking, resolving
email queries
7
The Advisory Services Review Process
October 2001: Helpdesk software procurement abandoned: implementation of low cost alternative begins
November 2001: Internal “stake-holder” discussions (with ITSS representation)
– Staffing, telephone service, training, facilities, email Timetable
– January: Detailed proposals for a unified Front office endorsed at OUCS SMG
– February: implementation begins– April: Help Centre opens
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At the same time…
Internal reorganization of OUCS Four major groups
– Infrastructure Services– Technical Services Group– Information and Support Group– Learning Technologies Group
Repositioning and reprioritization of all services
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OUCS Help Centre
New walk-in service at Banbury Road 0830 -2030 support for
– all OUCS front-end services basic computing queries basic registration queries administrative enquiries
– direct access to self-help materials, books, videos…– specialist equipment (scanners, multimedia…)
Cybercafe-style access to facilities
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Telephone access
Automated attendant installed by University Telecomms
Help centre calls are routed to four pickup points
Seems to be functioning well But email is the new telephone:
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/feedback/
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Email Services
The preferred route for advice and support Hoorah for request tracker!
– Substantial R&D investment is now paying off– Integration with registration data via LDAP – Logging and monitoring of all services
Involves all staff at some level
http://www.bestpractical.com/rt
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OUCS Help Centre
Who does it?– Two fulltime managers– Two rotas
Registration staff, operators, demonstrators Expert advisors from all parts of OUCS
– Volunteers welcome! What’s in it for ITSS?
– Single point of contact– All queries are monitored and tracked– Complements distributed services
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Consultancy Services
The OUCS virtual “back office”– Services all queries from RT– Buck-stops-here queries– Directly accessible for ITSS– Gives specialist advice by appointment
Who does it?– All OUCS staff, potentially– An extension to itss-discuss
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Desktop systems consultancy
Hardware and software By appointment only May become chargeable (Fixed quota for Undergraduates) Need for university-wide agreement on
systems supported
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Who can use it?
Anyone with a valid University card What, even undergraduates?
– OUCS withdrew eligibility for support from all undergraduates in 1995
– This led to a marked improvement in provision of IT support by colleges and departments…
– …and a decline in demand for support from OUCS to the point where it is uneconomic to make the distinction!
It is the OUCS front window
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Where does it fit?
Information and Support Group components– Research Technologies Service– Information Services– ITS3– Registration and Databases
Gateway to complementary OUCS group activities
– Desktop Services and NSMS– Infrastructure Group– Learning Technologies Group
http://staff.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ISG
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Research Technologies Service
Services– Oxford eScience Centre,– Humbul Humanities Hub, Oxford Text Archive– British National Corpus, Text Encoding Initiative
Technologies– Corpus Linguistics– Computational analysis– Database technologies– Grid computing– Interoperability– Text encoding
Keeping in touch with the leading edge…
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Information Services Section
Integration of web sites Single XML source driving
– Web site – (with customizable styles)– Print documentation
RSS feed / alerting service
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ITS3
Promotes professional interests of IT support staff (training, awareness, lobbying…)
Informal communications channel and clearing house
OUCS has now allocated 2.5 staff full time to this activity, and will expand as demand and funding permit
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Database and Registration Sections
Development and maintenance of in-house database systems
Special expertise in University administrative structure
Work closely with Infrastructure in developing new technical solutions
Provide extensive “back-office” support to Help Centre
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How are we doing?
Steady flow of RT tickets over the week
Over 80% of all queries are resolved within a day
Majority of clients are University staff, senior members or postgrads (under 10% are undergraduates)
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Advisory (email) tickets by day of week
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Weds
Thurs
FriSat
Resolved
Created
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Tickets raised in last 6 weeks, by queue
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
w1 w2 w3 w4 w5 w6
Micros
Helpcentre
Registration
Advisory
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All tickets by enquirer (%)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Advisory
Micros
Helpcentre
Non-Oxford
Unknown
Visitor
Undergrad
Retired
College
Student
SeniorMem
Staff
Postgrad
25
Password changes in May, by enquirer
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
HeraldErmine Tivoli Other
Non-Oxford
Unknown
Visitor
Undergrad
Retired
College
Student
SeniorMem
Staff
Postgrad
26
What’s next?
New equipment to be installed over summer Training and recruitment exercise in the
autumn Work with ITSS to develop common university
policies– On support levels– On software and hardware– On building up the knowledgebase
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