Getting the RightAnswers

1
Getting the RightAnswers

• Cheryl ODell
• Emporia State University
• Technology Computing Services

2
ESU HelpDesk

• Offers customer service to students, faculty and
  staff
• Contact the HelpDesk by coming to their office,
  calling (local numbers and toll free number) or
  email to helpdesk_at_emporia.edu
• Provides 1st level support for all ESU software
  systems, campus owned computers, networking,
  printers and the occasional where is the best
  laundry in town.

3
Resource Issues

• Have 2 full time HelpDesk technicians working 7
  am-5 pm
• Volume of calls taken weekly during the HelpDesk
  regular hours
• High 547
• Low 138
• Average 274

4
Goals

• Extend HelpDesk services
• Offer students capabilities to help themselves
• Offer a solution to better serve our distance
  education students

5
Issues Discovered Extending Hours

• Volume of calls during extended hours (5 pm 9
  pm weekdays Sunday afternoons)
• High 14
• Low 2
• Average 6
• Most calls from overnight are after 10 pm and
  before 7 am
• Distance Learning students timezones
• On campus students personal schedules

6
Solutions Considered

• Hire student employees to man the HelpDesk for
  extended hoursconcerns included safety and
  productivity (i.e. how do we keep them somewhat
  busy?)
• Outsource HelpDesk calls after regular office
  hoursconcerns surrounding knowledge transfer and
  cost. Looked at simple solutions as an answering
  service to hosted solutions with a suite of
  services.

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Solution

• Provide a web site of solutions that is
  searchable
• Why RightAnswers?
• We can customize content per role (e.g.,
  faculty/staff, student)
• We can use existing viewlets and documentation
• RightAnswers could help author technical
  documentation for a nominal fee
• We can add RSS feeds, announcements and links
• There already exists a vast library of solutions
  for many of ESUs software applications/systems
  namely Banner and Blackboard

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OK, great, so how do we pay for it?

• Good question.
• One of our goals was to help distance education
  students so, we went to the Lifelong Learning
  group to help fund the purchase
• Annual maintenance will be paid by the TCS annual
  budget

9
RightAnswers Team

• RightAnswers provided a team of their experts
  that helped with installation, client success and
  ongoing support
• Project Manager assigned held weekly calls to
  keep on top of the installation and technical
  issues
• Monthly meeting with the client success manager
  throughout the life of the product at ESU

10
RightAnswers Measuring Success

• Is the service a success?
• We integrated with our call ticket system and
  faculty/staff have already started using the
  system to search for a solution and open a ticket
• As solutions are searched and user clicks YES the
  solution helped them a call ticket is
  automatically logged
• 38 tickets logged in March May 16 were test
• 501 logins/searches 63 unique logins since March
  26
• Client Success team told us to expect 10 of our
  client base to start to use the system and
  continual marketing will need to happen
• Another benefit from this service? HelpDesk
  technicians use the service to help find answers
  for callers to improve calls handled on first
  contact. This will become a necessary tool for
  new employees expected to hire this summer/fall.

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RightAnswers components

• Windows 2003 Server with Apache TomCat and
  Microsoft SQL to house our custom content with
  LDAP connector, HEAT integration and Luminus
  portal connector
• Solution Manager for custom solution creation and
  submitting content for RightAnswers to author
• RA Admin portal to control libraries published
  for view, administer FAQs, links, announcements
  and custom taxonomy
• Server managed by operations server team 1
  person to manage (will be involving 2 people for
  knowledge sharing) Have 10 people setup to
  create custom content3 people to approve content

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RightAnswers Demo

• http//buzzin.emporia.edu

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Questions?

• Cheryl ODell
• codell_at_emporia.edu
• 620-341-5969