Custom Technical Help and Staff Support Desk

   

As with many organizations, large and small, a national enterprise had individuals across its many locations that were informally identified and regarded as “experts” in certain areas of policies, procedures and other tacit knowledge. As a result, these employees were often interrupted to answer questions for their colleagues company-wide. Obviously, this impacted those experts’ productivity, but there were other issues and concerns with this style of informal support and advice. Those main issues were: inconsistency of information, expiration of old policies & procedures unknown by the experts, timeliness of response and even worse, completely wrong answers.

Initially, Piercetech completed a study that could easily justify adding non-technical agents to an existing help desk, replacing the informal network of experts with a formalized, tracked and measured support unit. The former experts could remain expert at their positions, regain lost productivity by eliminating continual interruptions, information would be up-to-date and delivered with accuracy & consistency in a timely manner.

The study uncovered that the corporation’s technically-oriented help desk’s off-the-shelf application would have great difficulty servicing those requests for process, procedure and referrals and other non-technical requests.

During the proof of concept, the technology the client thought would enable the new support unit caused the following roadblocks:


  • The helpdesk software's front-end was difficult to use, inflexible in terms of customization and did not conform to the new, blended requirements.
  • The interface was causing extended handle times.
  • Reports did not meet management's needs and the ability to expand and customize them was lacking
  • Automated searches were limited, again increasing AHT and user frustration
  • Lack of flexibility and customization impacted major incentives – ease, accuracy and consistency.
  • Opening non-technical helpdesk tickets was cumbersome and time consuming
  • Access to other required applications and databases was indirect and inefficient                                                      
  • Additional helpdesk software licenses were costly

To overcome these roadblocks and execute the centralized vision, Piercetech designed, developed, and implemented a simplified helpdesk solution that exceeded requirement for both technical and non-technical issue resolutions. It incorporated the existing off-the-shelf help desk software into an intuitive browser based user interface, enabling the support personnel to process either type of call from a single, user-friendly desktop. The Piercetech solution provided its own database to capture transaction details for tracking and reporting requirements. Further, Piercetech integrated the software with multiple back-end systems for completeness of functionality and cradle to grave tracking.

Piercetech's solution provides:


  • Time-saving automated ticket opening and setup                                                                                                                                                      
  • Simplified information tracking and functionality
  • Quick searches of database information by all required methods (employee number, location, name/state, ticket search, etc.)
  • Management insight into both technical and non-technical support functions (i.e.: top 20 callers, top 20 issues, all issues by category, calls handled by agent, average times, discrete transaction times, etc.)
  • Supervision and real-time management tools to address current performance:
      
  • Calls in Queue                                                  
  • Average Speed of Answer                                                  
  • Current Service Level                                                  
  • Current Call Duration                                                  
  • Agent Name                                                                                                    
  • Start/Stop time of the call
  • Agent views of their individual performance, e.g., calls taken, open issues, and more
  • Simplified transfers of calls, with data, between non-technical and technical agents
  • Negated need for expensive third-party helpdesk licenses

As a result of the Piercetech designed solution, the customer's ROI was just over eight months with dramatic yearly savings for the following years.