IT Support for End Users Assignment
Qualification - BTEC Higher National Diploma in Computing and System Development
Unit number and title - Unit 28 IT Support for End Users
QFC Level - Level 4
Unit Code - F/601/0458
Case Scenario
Sugar Rush Ltd. is a distribution company that specializes in the sale and distribution of imported candy and sweets to businesses throughout Trinidad and Tobago. Popular product brands that the company distributes are Lindt Chocolate, Ghirardelli Chocolate and Godiva Chocolate. The company has been in existence for over 10 years and has grown immensely since its inception. The company boasts over 100 employees across five strategically located warehouses throughout Trinidad with one stationed in Tobago as well.
Within recent times the company's outsourced IT and IT Support Services have been terminated by senior management as the quality of service received was unsatisfactory. A drop in the efficiency of day to day actions has served as a major driving force behind senior management's actions. Senior Management has taken the decision to create a dedicated, internal, IT Unit that will serve all of its 100 plus end user pool across all of its divisions, and will also incorporate an IT Support Services sub-unit.
The company has trained eight selected employees over the last eight months to man the newly formed unit and has hired both a general IT Manager and an IT Support Services Manager (who works just under the IT Manager). The IT Unit will be responsible for managing and maintaining (Composition of Service Level Agreement) all company:
Computing Hardware Infrastructure (Servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, phones and associated peripherals etc.)Printing Hardware Infrastructure (Printers, photocopiers, scanners, label printers and associated peripherals etc.)Network Infrastructure (Routers, Switches, Cabling, Internet Access etc.)Software Used By Employees (Operating Systems, Email Applications, Accounting applications, MS Office Applications, Database Software, General Applications etc.)Policies and Recovery Services (IT Policies, Backups, Storage, IT Disaster Planning and Recovery etc.)The IT Support Services Sub-Unitprovides advice and assistance to end-users within other departments. These end-users are assigned generally to PC Workstations connected within the Company's Network by an Ethernet LAN connection. Electronic mail and FTP are used between sites, with some key personnel in different departments having Internet Access. In addition, the IT Support Services Sub-Unitis responsible for implementing policies in support of the Company's hardware, software and network resources.
Over time, there has been an increasing number of complaints from the Company's internal end-user populace due to the poor level of service received from the outsourced supplier. You have been assigned as the Manager of the IT Support Services Sub-Unitand have held a Committee Meeting to air departmental grievances. Subsequent to the meeting, a request was made for the departmental heads to collate and email a list of concerns they wished to highlight within their department. Email correspondence were required to be sent directly to you and copied to the Manager if the IT Department.
Task 1
Subsequent to analyzing the grievance correspondences, and your own internal investigations, you have determined that previous approach to delivering IT Support adopted by the outsourced company lacked structure and was quite ad hoc. As the manager of the IT Support Services Sub-Unit you have decided to prepare a briefing document that will outline the approach to be taken when addressing end-user problems to senior management.
Produce a thorough discussion of an analytical approach that will be employed to solve the range of issues highlighted. Be sure to incorporatethe following into your discussion:
A suitable diagrammatic representation of the approach An incorporated example utilized throughout the stages of the approach
Task 2
You are to design suitable methods for monitoring and documenting technical support activities as part of the briefing document. With respect to Call Logging and Fault Logging processing, you are required to:
Formulate either a Sample Call Logging Form OR Sample Fault Log Form that can be used for incident recording (Be sure to cater for escalation in the case of non-resolution, and for follow-up verification contact).Prepare a script / checklist to demonstrate how the routine end-user problem of "no network connection" will be handled by a help desk agent (Be sure to utilize proper notation where applicable).
Task 3
Using the matrix template provided in Appendix Bpresent an assessment of the impact on user productivity for each of the user groups identified within the memos. Be sure to indicate the final efficiency percentages (CDP) for each department at the end.
Learning Outcomes
LO 1.1
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Understand User Problems:
Discuss an analytical approach to solving different types of user problems
(Task 1)
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LO 1.2
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Understand User Problems:
Evaluate the impact of problems on user productivity (Task 2)
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LO 2.1
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Be Able To Provide User Support:
Design suitable methods to monitor and document technical support activities.
(Task 1)
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