Session 16 - Creating a support system

Read the article on Help Desk Standard Operations

http://www.ehow.com/list_6345581_desk-standard-operating-procedures.html

This article summarises the procedure as:

• Initial Contact
• Assign Priority
• Create Tickets
• Documentation
• Problem Solving
• Customer communication
• Problem escalation

This is a general run down on what happens with any type of helpdesk.

It would be great if all this just happened and we didn't need to document or follow up on anything, but unfortunately, that is not the case and as well as having procedures in place, we also have to make sure that we document and keep track of all calls.

Class Activity 1

Asset Register

As a class, discuss what information would be required to create an asset register for all IT items that are provided and supported within the library.

Class Activity 2

Maintenance and feedback

What information would you put on a maintenance "ticket"?

What would you need to close the "ticket"?

N.B Information discussed here may be useful for your assessment task below.

Helpdesk Documentation

Many help desk systems are automated, where information is entered onto a database and a ticket  generated automatically. End of month reports such as number of calls, outstanding jobs, categories of problems etc., can be generated and analysed instantly.

Assessment Task (Final Yay!!)

Mysty River Regional Library Service has 3 branches located in rural Victoria. It has a small IT support team that provides basic software and hardware support to the branches, including the 30 staff computers and 120 other computers that are used by library patrons at the various branches. The IT support team's role is to provide basic support and to determine which third party organisation, if any, a job needs to be escalated to if they cannot resolve it in house.

The IT Support team provides the following services:

• Basic instruction on hardware and standard software, including the library's LMS, to staff and patrons
• Basic hardware and software support including remote desktop
• Replacement of small items - keyboard/mouse/cables

As well as the in house service, Mysty River also has Service Agreements with some outside organisations.

1. Printers - All printers are under a service agreement with the manufacturer, who provides all consumables, maintenance and repairs for an agreed fee plus an amount based on print quantities. They guarantee a 48 hour turnaround on calls outside of their weekly maintenance visit.

2. Hardware - All computers and monitors are covered under the Manufacturer's warranty. The Manufacturer's warranty is a guaranteed replacement for 12 months from purchase. Computers that are outside of the standard warranty are covered under an extended Manufacturer's warranty that guarantees repair and/or replacement at their discretion. Turnaround is 5 working days.

3. Other Hardware and Equipment - covered by Manufacturer's warranty only and any replacement is at MRRLS's discretion and must be justified to the IT support manager.

4. Software LMS - covered under a SLA with software provider. 24 hour maximum turnaround.

5. Other Software - MS Office 2013, Adobe Creative Suite 6, Microsoft Windows 8. Covered under Manufacturer warranty only.

6. Phones and Internet services provided by Telstra.

Activity 1

Calls to the helpdesk are recorded manually, although the IT Support team has requested that an automated system be considered in the next budget.

1. Create a form that can be used to manually record any call to the helpdesk, The form is to be completed electronically and then printed for the technician or whoever resolves the issue. Calls are summarised into a spreadsheet at the end of each week.

2. What information would we put into our spreadsheet? Outline each column heading that you think would be required.

3. What reports would be produced at the end of each week? Monthly? Describe each report and what it would be used for as well as who would get copies.

Session 15 - Service Level Agreements and third party support

What is a Service Level Agreement?

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider. SLAs are output-based in that their purpose is specifically to define what the customer will receive. SLAs do not define how the service itself is provided or delivered.

The level of service definitions should be specific and measureable in each area. This allows the quality of service to be benchmarked and, if stipulated by the agreement, rewarded or penalized accordingly. An SLA will commonly use technical definitions that quantify the level of service such as mean time between failures (MTBF) or mean time to recovery, response, or resolution (MTTR), which specifies a “target” (average) or “minimum” value for service level performance.
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/learning-center/what-is-a-service-level-agreement-sla.html

Read the article Service-Level Agreements 101: An Executive Guide to Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)

http://www.cio.com.au/article/268177/service-level_agreements_101_an_executive_guide_service-level_agreements_slas_/

ASSESSMENT TASK 2

Activity 1

Find an example of a Service Level Agreement within the IT industry

• What are the terms?
• What level of support does it provide for?
• Is there a specific process?

Activity 2

Mysty River Regional Library Service has 3 branches located in rural Victoria. It has a small IT support team that provides basic software and hardware support to the branches, including the 30 staff computers and 120 other computers that are used by library patrons at the various branches. The IT support team's role is to provide basic support and to determine which third party organisation, if any, a job needs to be escalated to if they cannot resolve it in house.

The IT Support team provides the following services:

• Basic instruction on hardware and standard software, including the library's LMS, to staff and patrons
• Basic hardware and software support including remote desktop
• Replacement of small items - keyboard/mouse/cables

As well as the in house service, Mysty River also has Service Agreements with some outside organisations.

1. Printers - All printers are under a service agreement with the manufacturer, who provides all consumables, maintenance and repairs for an agreed fee plus an amount based on print quantities. They guarantee a 48 hour turnaround on calls outside of their weekly maintenance visit.

2. Hardware - All computers and monitors are covered under the Manufacturer's warranty. The Manufacturer's warranty is a guaranteed replacement for 12 months from purchase. Computers that are outside of the standard warranty are covered under an extended Manufacturer's warranty that guarantees repair and/or replacement at their discretion. Turnaround is 5 working days.

3. Other Hardware and Equipment - covered by Manufacturer's warranty only and any replacement is at MRRLS's discretion and must be justified to the IT support manager.

4. Software LMS - covered under a SLA with software provider. 24 hour maximum turnaround.

5. Other Software - MS Office 2013, Adobe Creative Suite 6, Microsoft Windows 8. Covered under Manufacturer warranty only.

6. Phones and Internet services provided by Telstra.

Your Task:
You are to design a procedures or flowcharts that can be used to deal with each of the following issues:

• A staff member reports that their monitor is blank
• A staff member reports that some keys on the keyboard are missing. 
• A staff member reports that the printer is broken as it won't print

Activity 3

MRRLS is located in the shires of South Gippsland, Baw Baw and LaTrobe City. Find out the details of the e-waste disposal/recycling programs in one of these shires.

You may work in pairs or small groups of up to 4 members.

Role Play 

To get in the mood for doing the assessment task, I thought we could do a couple of Role Play activities.

I might not work a help desk any more, but I do provide all levels of support to students working on assessment tasks, often while I am cooking dinner or some other activity that means that I am not near a computer. I try and visualise the screen and what the student may be doing, then take a logical process that often involves eliminating the obvious.

Use what you know about the equipment and/or software. Sometimes a "hardware" problem is just that the person doesn't know what they are doing or they've missed a step, or just not looking properly. You need to be able to determine whether it is a hardware problem, software problem or user problem to decide whether you can direct the person on the phone and fix it on the spot or where it needs to be referred on to.

Role Play Scenario

• A patron tells you that they just created their resume and saved it, but went to load it again and it is missing. They are adamant that they saved it, and desperately need it for a job closing tomorrow.

Session 14 - Basic Helpdesk communication

Clients and the Helpdesk

You work for the Helpdesk at a large TAFE operating in the South eastern suburbs of Melbourne. South East TAFE has a number of campuses, but all IT problems are dealt with centrally at the Cranbourne Campus.

Who are the clients that the Helpdesk could be assisting?

Are they internal or external clients?

Personal Experience - Help Desk Operator

Has anyone worked on a Helpdesk (doesn't have to be IT)? What things did you learn about communication?

Is it different communicating with people over the phone?

Personal Experience - Help Desk Client

Have you had to call a help desk at any time?

How was the experience? What were the good points (if any)? What were the bad points?

Watch the following videos on Help Desk communication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaxNnrXWab8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z99HZ8KyYYc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8DriPCX2o

Read the following articles

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/five-easy-steps-to-boost-help-desk-communication/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/use-effective-questioning-to-deal-with-confused-chatty-users/

Assessment Task 1

The following activities will form part of your assessment for this unit. You will need to complete these activities and either hand in to your teacher or submit via Moodle link.

Modules/Elements Assessed	Marks Allocated
1. Determine details of the hardware in allocated room	2
2. Determine details of the operating system and version in allocated room	3
3. Determine details of all software installed on each computer in allocated room	3
4. What other equipment is in the room that may require help desk support	2
5. Write a basic script for SE Tafe’s Helpdesk to: Get their name, location, department Find out what equipment they are using and get Barcode ID Determine what the problem is Inform them of the next step	10
6. Provide URL of 5 different websites that you might use to find a solution (based on what you know about the hardware and software)	5

You may do this individually or as pairs.
Allocated rooms could be fishbowl (A128), Computer Lab (A153) or Library



 

Session 13 - Finishing up with Word

This will be our final class on Word. You should now be pretty much experts in all things Microsoft Office.

Signature Line

A signature line can be placed in a document that needs to be printed and signed by someone. It places a line, an X, and a description of the person to sign.

You can add a Signature line from the Insert Ribbon.

 Complete the dialog box with the details that you want to appear with the signature line.

and Voila!!!

Save the document.

When the document is opened, you will be prompted for a signature.

To use this and have the signature as verifiable, you need to register and pay for a digital signature.

 

Another way to sign

If you don't want to register and pay for a compatible digital signature, you can create your own by using an image of your signature.

I created mine using a touchscreen (actually my iPad), but you can create one simply by signing a white piece of paper and using our scanner to create an electronic image. Crop it as required and resave it as a JPG or PNG file. PNG files can have transparent backgrounds.

Using paint, for example, I can crop it down to get rid of some of the whitespace.

Once you have an image, you can just add it at the bottom of documents or any place you need to sign. You can also create it as a reusable part (see instructions below).

Making background transparent

If you want to have a transparent background on your signature rather than white, you can use Excel or Word. The advantage of this is that your signature can sit "In Front Of Text" and it can overlap your text without restricting the view.

To make the background transparent, use the Remove Background tool.

And you can now see that the image has a transparent background.

The extra feature that you have in Word is that you can save it out as an image - use PNG file type as it supports transparency.
Right Click on the image to save it as a PNG file.

Activity 1

Using the sample signature available from Moodle or create your own signature (use your phone or the copier/scanner), insert it into Word to create a signature line and remove the background to make it more usable.

Reusable Parts or Building Blocks

Once you have your signature image, you can create a building block that can be used over and over again!!

Start with a blank document and create your signature block.

From the Home ribbon, use Select all.

Once you have it selected, you can add it as a Quick Part using the button on the Insert Ribbon.

Complete the information dialog box by giving it a name and a description.

And then you will have a signature block that you can add to any document. Close your document and when prompted, Save the styles/template so that it will be there permanently.

Activity 2

Using the signature that you created earlier, create a signature building block that can be reused.

Creating a Macro

Recording a Macro is a simple way of being able to automate things in your document. It could be as simple as adding a table or even adding a logo and address details. It could also be adding a building block....

Start by adding the Developer tab.

In the developer tab, start the record.

Assign a name, decide whether you want all new documents to access this, and click OK

Perform the tasks that you want to record.

When complete, click on the stop record button at the bottom of the screen.

You can then run your Macro.

You can also assign Macros to your toolbars. To do this, select Button under Assign To.

This Macro will appear on the Quick Access Toolbar.

And of course you can also use keyboard shortcuts. Be careful when assigning keyboard shortcuts in case you try and use something that Word already has defined.

Activity 3

Create a Macro to add your Signature building block onto your document.

Fields

Fields can be used to place some standard information into your document. If things change, they can be easily updated. It includes things like page numbers, date, author and filename.

Formulas

You can even use formulas!! yep - Formulas!! Don't get too excited, Excel does formulas much better.

Let's say I want to make the price to be 5% on top of cost. I can put in a formula to multiply the value in column B by 1.05 (5%).

and at the bottom, I can include a SUM to add up the numbers in the column.

OR you could just insert a spreadsheet instead of creating a table!!

Pretty Text Boxes

In the Insert Ribbon, you can also add different types of text boxes. The standard text box is a square that is placed where you draw it on the screen.

If you use the Text Box button with the text section of the insert ribbon, you get lots of different text box styles that you can select from.

Find and Replace

Find and Replace is a standard tool that will allow you to find a word in a document and change it for another word. You can automatically replace all occurrences, or you can select which ones you wish to update.

As well as replacing words, did you know that you can also find and replace formatting?

The above example will find all the occurrence of any text that is Bold and replace the formatting with underlines. You can also find words that have particular formatting and replace with another word and different formatting or no formatting.

Watermarks

You can access Watermarks from the Page Layout Ribbon in Word 2010 or the Design Ribbon in Word 2013

You can use one of the template watermarks or you can create your own.

Watermarks can be used for placing "Draft" or "Copy" onto your document, or a corporate logo or image. They are toned down in transparency so that text can be easily seen over the top.

If you want to delete a watermark, use the Remove option.

Session 12 - More Word Wonders

More of the easy stuff!!

This week we will continue to look at some of the Word features that are not as obvious or that we missed first time around, for those that were here last year.

Sorting in Word

One might think - "why do I need to know how to sort in Word, we have Access for that?" Well yes, but if you have a small list of items that you are writing as you think of them, you can use the sort feature to organise the items.

If your information is in a table it is very simple, just click on the sort button in the table layout.

The sort table dialog box will appear and you can select the sort column - simple.

But what about sorting text that is not in a table. This is easy as well.

This is the same document, but it has been converted to text paragraphs using the Convert To Text feature.

To sort paragraphs, use the sort button on the Home ribbon paragraph section.

Moving Paragraphs

As well as sorting paragraphs, you can very quickly move paragraphs up and down within a document. Using the same example, rather than sorting the paragraphs, you can move them up or down untilk they are in the correct spot. To do this, click in the paragraph that you want to move, use the keyboard shortcut of Shift+Alt+Up or Shift+Alt+Down key.

Status Bar

The Word 2013 Status bar is actually very useful and quite customisable. The Status Bar is located at the bottom of the screen (just in case you didn't know what it is called).


The left side of the status bar has:

• Page Number/Go To
• Word Count/Word count dialog box
• Proofing errors/Correction
• Language / Change Language
• Macros

The Right hand side of the status bar has:

• Document View options – Print, Full screen, Web, Outline and Draft
• Document Zoom.

Viewing Windows

One useful feature is the ability to view 2 documents side by side to compare their contents.

To do this, you need to have 2 documents open.

Click on View Side by Side

Review

You should already be aware of the basic review tools, but there are quite a few things that you can do with this ribbon.

Spelling and Grammar

Most people, me included, keep the Spell Check as you type option on. This will highlight any errors by underlining with red squiggly lines. You can right-click on the word to see alternate correct spelling.

You can also click on the Spelling & Grammar button to check your whole document.


This will allow you to correct mistakes that are consistent through your document - select Change All - or just do one word at a time. If you check the correct grammar option, it will also give you alternative grammar options as well as highlighting areas of your document that break the selected grammar rules. I must admit that I don't use this as I already know that my documents are informal and "conversational" without Microsoft telling me.

Research and Thesaurus

The Research and Thesaurus are useful tools that you can use when creating documents. I do sometimes use the Thesaurus, when you are sick of using the same word to describe something and need a different word or at least some inspiration.

Translate

As I am not a linguist, I am really not sure how good this tool works, but can only assume that it does a reasonable job! You can translate the whole document, or use the mini translator to translate words.

 

Comments

Comments are used during a review when there are multiple people who will collaborate on a document. One person may create the document and then allow a few other people to review the document and suggest changes.



You can add comments using the New Comment button. You can also use Ink Comments, which allow you to write a comment freehand using the mouse or a stylus if you have one.

When you load the document, you can view all of the comments and make any changes that were suggested,

Tracking

Tracking is very similar to comments - when multiple people are needed to collaborate on a document - such as an editor for a book publisher - the main person can review the document and decide which changes they may want to keep and discard those that they don't want to keep.

You need to turn tracking on before you start to make changes or review the document.

Once tracking has been turned on, any changes are tracked and the main user can review the changes and decide whether they want to keep them or not.

Text inserted and text deleted - note the markup

Adding inked comments - comments, whether inked or types, can help explain why  the changes were made

Inking Tools

Inking tools include highlighter pens and hand drawn doodles

Use the Review panel to see who made the changes and then the buttons to accept or reject the changes.

Compare

This is useful if you wish to compare two versions of the same document - this will highlight any differences there may be. A new document will be created highlighting the differences. Great if you have different versions stored and you lose track of what changes have been made along the way.

I have made some changes to version 2 of the Moodle document. I can use this to find out what those changes are.

The compare document is opened up in Review mode - you can review the changes in the document and decide whether you want to accept or reject the changes.

Insert Links

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are mainly used to link to web pages, but you can also link to an email address as well as a program.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are used to link to a particular spot in a document. To create a bookmark, you need to go to where you want the bookmark and highlight the text or spot to mark it. You create the bookmark by giving the area a name.

Once you have created your bookmark, you can easily navigate to it by opening up the Bookmarks dialog, select the bookmark name and click on Go To or you can double-click the bookmark name.

Cross-reference

Cross-referencing allows you to refer to tables or figures that may be in your document. Cross references will look like Hyperlinks when inserted into a document.

Table of Contents

While we are looking at linking, this is an opportune time to point out that you can use a table of contents as hyperlinks to navigate through your document.

You will find Table of Contents under the References TAB.

Other References

Footnotes

Writers use footnotes and endnotes in documents to explain, comment on, or provide references to something they’ve mentioned in a document. Usually, footnotes appear at the bottom of the page and endnotes come at the end of the document or section.

Citations & Bibliography

You can add Citations to your document or create a placeholder and fill in the information later.

From Word Help:
Create a bibliography
Before you can create a bibliography you need to have at least one citation and source in your document that will appear in your bibliography. If you don't have all of the information that you need about a source to create a complete citation, you can use a placeholder citation, and then complete the source information later.

Note   Placeholder citations do not appear in the bibliography.

Click on the Citations drop down to add a Citation to your document. Complete the details in the Dialog Box.

Your citation will appear at the spot where you placed it.

Once you have all of your citations, you can Insert the Bibliography

Index

You can mark items that you want to appear in an index. All of the items you mark, will be included in the index when it is created.

Class Activity 1

Load a document that you may have on your USB.

Save it with a new name and make some changes.

Use Compare to compare the one you made changes to with the original.

Word Options

Word has many annoying things that it does by default. If they annoy you also, you may need to go into the Word Options and turn some things on or off. Here are a few of the things that annoy me!!

Generally, I am happy with most of the Autocorrect things, but a few of them annoy me. These things can be easily switched off. If there are some annoying items that aren't in the exceptions, you can add them.

AutoFormat and Autoformat as you type

Some of the Autoformatting can also be annoying, I particularly hate that Word will try and change a row of dashes into a solid line.
The difference between the AutoFormat options and AutoFormat as you type is when the autoformatting is applied - at the end of creating your document or as you are creating it.

Save - Advanced Options

The really annoying stuff is at the top!!!

File Locations

On the last page of Advanced options you can access the default file locations and change them if you need to.

Integrating Applications

Mailing Labels with Access

We can create mailing labels using Access – this is a good thing, really!! Access is a database that will allow you to store and manipulate of your data – clients, customers, friends – whatever. You know it and know what it is capable of doing.

When you buy sticky labels from the stationery shop, Officeworks or Kmart or wherever, there are a couple of major brands that are available. Microsoft Office applications have the templates for pretty much all of the major brands and styles of labels. If you can’t find the particular labels that you want to print on, then you can customise the labels to suit what you have.

Follow the prompts to lay out your labels and print if required.

Class Activity 2

Use the Customers table from the Access VideoVidiots database to create some labels in Access.

Mailing labels with Word

Labels are located within the Mailings TAB….BUT

With mail merge, it is always best to choose the Step By Step Mail Merge Wizard.

Follow the steps to create the labels.

You can print all kinds of labels using Mailings – not just address labels. They could be product labels for boxes or shelves, DVD labels, with complements cards, etc.

Class Activity 3

Use the same file to create the same labels in Word

Paste and Paste Link

You have to produce a report for your management on library visits over the past week. A counter was installed and the data taken off and collated into a spreadsheet.



To create a simple Chart, highlight the spreadsheet and choose a column chart from the Insert Chart ribbon.
Delete any blank series, pretty it up, add a title etc.

Here is the spreadsheet and the chart.

In Word, create your report.

The aim is to now insert the data and chart from the spreadsheet. There are a number of ways to do this, but to ensure that our data is up to date at all times, the best way is to create a link between the document and the spreadsheet. This is called OLE or Object Linking and Embedding.

In the spreadsheet, select the range of cells that make up your data.

Copy the information to the clipboard (Ctrl – C) or Copy.

In your document, click on the paste button arrow.

This gives you lots of different options about how you will paste and link this data. I chose to link and use destination styles.

You can resize the table to make it fit within your page width.

Save and Close your document and your spreadsheet

Go into the spreadsheet and change the data for Friday afternoon to be 720. Save and close the spreadsheet.

Reopen your document. What happened?

Class Activity 4

Try adding the chart underneath the spreadsheet.

You can pretty much do the same thing between any of the Microsoft Office Applications, and in fact, any Windows application - not just Microsoft.

Class Activity 5

PDF Files in Word 2013

Just for fun!!

Open a PDF document in Word 2013.