Support Services and User Expectations

In 2007, ECAR conducted a study of help desk management tools and practices in higher education information technology. This session looks at the study's findings as they reflect the help desk's role in addressing the emergence of new IT environments and the changing expectations of the client base.

Technology changes fast and often; it is our responsibility to communicate change, but frequently we inundate the in-boxes of our constituencies. There are many problems, and even more potential solutions. This session will engage in a discussion of possible solutions to flooding user inboxes with a constant stream of change.

It is often difficult for IT organizations to acquire, evaluate, and support new technologies before users bring them to campus. This session will discuss how MIT created and implemented a support plan for Mac OS X 10.5 that supported early adopters, without having had access to the final version of the software.

This presentation will introduce several basic usability and user-centered design concepts and techniques. We will explain how they are being introduced at UC Berkeley to create Web sites and IT services that are easier and more satisfying to use, reducing the burden on support desks and enhancing productivity and customer satisfaction.

Compartmentalization no longer works, and focusing on customers no longer suffices. Satisfying customer expectations through compartmentalized services and activities must give way to engaging customers through convergent services and activities.