24x7 Help Desk Services
NIC Partners’ Lifecycle Services are built to the standards of ITIL®, one of the industry’s leading frameworks for helping businesses
Level I Help Desk Service begins with information gathering as well as basic troubleshooting/triage and basic-question answers. A thorough attempt will be made to resolve the issue using knowledge, experience and the use of readily available industry-standard tools and resources; these tools will include reference guides, FAQ sheets and online knowledge bases.
Level II Help Desk Services can be generally defined as an escalation of a service call from the Level I analyst to a Level II analyst for more advanced troubleshooting and diagnostics, initiation of remote control (if the customer has broadband internet access and authorizes remote remediation), and/or shut-down and reboot/restart procedures, and, possibly, product enhancements.
The Technologies Help Desk will provide support for the items listed on the Supported Products List. While the service does not guarantee resolution of technical issues, NIC Partners will escalate all issues to higher level support to work towards resolution. The Help Desk analysts’ services are not intended to be a substitute for consulting, design, reconfiguration, software installation, patch management, virus or spyware removal, debugging or implementation.
A transfer of knowledge base and FAQ information to the Technologies Help Desk may be required to provide support services for applications or hardware not on the Supported Products List. If this information is not available, an on-site engagement may be required for collection.
Incident Management
NIC Partners’ Technologies Help Desk follows the Help Desk Institute’s industry best-practices for the incident-management lifecycle of the call/problem process.
NIC Partners Technologies Level I Help Desk Support
Call-answering service and first-level troubleshooting service is provided. The analysts follow a structured script while using a populated knowledge base to attempt resolution at the initial contact. If the analyst can’t fix the problem during this first contact, the escalation process starts. During the initial call, the analyst will need to spend about 10 minutes to log the pertinent information and troubleshoot before escalating. The process can be customized for specialty applications.
NIC Partners Technologies Level II Help Desk Support
Once a call is escalated to Level II, the analysts follow additional call-logging and troubleshooting scripts. It’s similar to the first level of support, but with the addition of remote-control capabilities. The Level II analyst will dedicate approximately 10 minutes to the problem.
What happens if there’s no resolution?
NIC Partners’ Technologies Help Desk will work with the customer prior to commencement and engagement of the contract to predetermine the call escalation process beyond Level I and Level II support. This further escalation may require involving other NIC Partners Associates, the hardware manufacturer or software vendor, or a service center within the caller’s company.
Typical second-level escalation causes:
- Software/application-related incidents on Microsoft, Novell, Citrix from the desktop level
- Printer-related problems such as mapping, drivers and connectivity
- Incidents related to a network such as log in and response issues
- Core competency product set incidents for Microsoft, Novell, Citrix and Cisco
NIC Partners’ Help Desk has defined specific service level agreements (SLAs) to meet individual support requirements. Support requests are reviewed and randomly monitored by a quality assurance team as well as by account managers to ensure compliance with SLAs and service improvement.
Expectations:
- Average speed of answer - 45 seconds; 80 percent answered in less than 40 seconds
- Abandoned call rate - The minimal expectation is that 94 percent of the calls will be answered; calls abandoned by the customer after less than 30 seconds will be excluded from the percentage.
- First-call resolution rate - 70 percent of first-calls will be resolved at initial contact point. This will be measured by the number of calls coming into the NIC Partners Technologies Help Desk support line divided by number of problems logged. The first-call resolution percentage report is only available with second-level service with remote control capabilities.
- Reports Delivered through the eSupport Portal:
- Customers use the portal to view daily, weekly and monthly reports, including:
- Call center statistics, total number of calls, calls answered, average speed of answer, calls answered per interval and the abandoned-call percentage.
- Incident reports (calls taken) per day, week and month, sorted by problem, cause and repair codes.
- Problem reports per day, week and month, sorted by severity, location, problem, cause and repair
The portal allows 24-hour access to this database. Customers can run reports, track problems and view technician notes ― all online.
Call Process:
- The call comes into a toll-free number, specifically dedicated to the customer.
- A Help Desk analyst answers and follows a defined call-answering/call-logging script.
- The call will be logged into our incident-management database.
- The troubleshooting process begins.
- If an incident is not resolved at the first point of contact, the customer will receive a problem number after receiving a clear explanation of what to expect.
Performance Service Levels
NIC Partners’ Help Desk will strive to perform services at the following levels:
- Average speed of answer: 45 seconds; 80 percent of the calls answered in less than 40 seconds.
- Abandonment percentage: 94 percent of the calls answered; calls abandoned under 30 seconds will be excluded from the matrix.
- First call resolution: 70 percent of the initial calls will be resolved at first point of contact. This will be measured by the number of calls coming into the support line divided by number of problems logged.
