By: Rad Petkov, IT Help Desk Lead
By: Rad Petkov, IT Help Desk LeadThe main day-to-day operations of our IT systems are automated. Servers tick away in our data center and the cloud, the firewall routes traffic to and fro, and reports are generated and sent out on a set schedule. What is not automated is how our IT team responds to our employees’ problems, requests, and questions. A lot of time and energy is invested in solving the dozens of support tickets we receive each day, but what does that process actually look like?
Almost all IT support tickets start as an email to support@ruppertcompanies.com. When an email is received, our issue management system, KACE, creates a ticket and sends a follow up email acknowledging the issue and prompting the submitter to include the best time to contact them. From there, tickets appear in a queue monitored by the IT team. Initial triage of the ticket is usually done by myself and Melanie, performing a quick assessment of the ticket and assigning it to the best IT member to respond. This might be myself, such as for an account change or a phone issue, or it might be escalated to another member of the team. Server problem? Send it to Casey. Email? Tim is the expert. Obtuse M-Files problem? Assign it to Jamison with a note to make sure he sees the notes.
Once a ticket is assigned, it’s up to that IT member to make sure the issue is resolved and the user is satisfied with the outcome. The first step is reaching out for more details if needed, then scheduling a call or remote session. Some issues can be solved with a quick Teams call, such as configuring a browser or helping find a lost email. Others require a little more hands-on intervention via our remote support tool, Bomgar. With Bomgar, an analyst can remote into your laptop and chat about the issue while you watch them fix the problem. They can also remote in unattended, so you need only leave your laptop plugged in and awake (and locked!) for the IT member to fix the issue.
When an issue is more complex than a single IT member can fix in a few minutes, they’ll bring in some backup. This might be another IT member to ask for advice, a message in the Teams chat about an error, or an email to a product’s support for guidance. Depending on the issue, we may also outsource the ticket to a specific vendor. For example, most printers are supported by our printing partner, Meridian, who frequently dispatch a tech same day for repairs, tweaks, and tuning. If you can’t print, we can fix this. If no one can print, Meridian is our go to, with the special tools and expertise to fix almost any printer problem or replace a machine.
Once a solution is found, applied, and the submitter confirms everything is working, the ticket is closed. We add notes for the next person who might need to fix the same issue, log our hours, and move on to the next issue.
The helpdesk receives an average of 130 tickets a week. Most are addressed within an hour and closed the same day. Every member of our IT team has their specialty and is poised to respond promptly to resolve any issues so that our team can continue to operate at maximum efficiency and service our customers. We want to thank you for using KACE or emailing support@ruppertcompanies.com to request support for any and all issues so that we can best serve you and properly track our efforts. We are here to help, so if you have a question, don’t hesitate to submit a ticket!