OATdb Archive

2013 - 2014

IT Client Services

Goal
Provide High-Quality Support Services To Campus
Client Services will utilize work order surveys to evaluate clients' perception of the work performed by IT@Sam staff to complete the service request.

Objective
Service Delivery Will Be Perceived As A Good Experience For The Client
Client Services will utilize work order surveys to evaluate clients' overall perceptions of working with IT@Sam to resolve their request.

KPI
Client Overall Perception Of Experience Resolving Service Request
A work order survey will be delivered to the client upon completion of the request. The client will be permitted to rank their perception of overall service request experience. Available responses are "Very Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Very Satisfied." A 95% or better satisfaction rating is targeted.  Results will be reported both for Client Services Department-specific survey items and for the Division of Information Technology as a whole.

Result
Client Satisfaction Survey Results - Overall
Client Services achieved a rating of 95% satisfaction from 2,434 responses regarding perception of overall service as satisfactory or very satisfactory.  This met the goal of 95%. 


Action
Client Satisfaction Survey - Overall
Ongoing.  Client Services will continue to provide Client Satisfaction Surveys through Cherwell as part of the ticketing process, will continue to monitor results for potential process and efficiency improvements, and will continue to use results of the surveys as training opportunities for staff as well as outreach opportunities to clients – both satisfied and not.  This fiscal year, we have made a few of client-requested changes to the survey to make it more “user-friendly,” such as adding verbiage to indicate the particular work order, where previously only the ticket number was included.


Objective
Service Delivery Will Be Perceived To Have Kept The Client Informed
Client Services will utilize work order surveys to evaluate clients' perceptions of how well they were kept informed of the status of their request.

KPI
Client Perception Of Adequate Communication With IT@Sam
A work order survey will be delivered to the client upon completion of the request. The client will be asked to rank their perception of how well they were kept informed of status during the interaction. Available responses are "Very Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Very Satisfied." A 95% or better satisfaction rating is targeted.  Results will be reported both for Client Services Department-specific survey items and for the Division of Information Technology as a whole.

Result
Client Satisfaction Survey Results - Communication
Client Services achieved a rating of 95% satisfaction from 2,422 responses regarding perception of overall service as satisfactory or very satisfactory.  This met the goal of 95%.

Action
Client Satisfaction Survey - Communication
Ongoing.  Client Services will continue to provide Client Satisfaction Surveys through Cherwell as part of the ticketing process, will continue to monitor results for potential process and efficiency improvements, and will continue to use results of the surveys as training opportunities for staff as well as outreach opportunities to clients – both satisfied and not.  The Client Services Department director and managers also review weekly a "stale" report denoting any tickets that have not been updated in the previous week, and then take appropriate action(s).


Objective
Service Delivery Will Be Perceived To Be Timely And Efficient
Client Services will utilize work order surveys to evaluate clients' perceptions of the duration to complete the service request. 

KPI
Client Perception Of Time To Complete Service Request
A work order survey will be delivered to the client upon completion of the request. The client will be asked to rank their perception of the completion of the work order within a reasonable time. Available responses are "Very Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Very Satisfied." A 95% or better satisfaction rating is targeted.  Results will be reported both for Client Services Department-specific survey items and for the Division of Information Technology as a whole.

Result
Client Satisfaction Survey Results - Timeliness
Client Services achieved a rating of 94% satisfaction from 2,416 responses regarding perception of overall service as satisfactory or very satisfactory.  Although very close, this did not meet the goal of 95%.


Action
Client Satisfaction Survey - Timeliness
Ongoing/Needs Improvement.  Client Services will continue to provide Client Satisfaction Surveys through Cherwell as part of the ticketing process, will continue to monitor results for potential process and efficiency improvements, and will continue to use results of the surveys as training opportunities for staff as well as outreach opportunities to clients – both satisfied and not.   To address not meeting this goal, Client Services will also establish service level agreements (SLAs) appropriate to the type of service request or incident to be better able to track timeliness of service, identify bottlenecks, and  implement improvements.  This will be done in conjunction with the Cherwell self-service portal service catalog improvements, scheduled for implementation over the fall 2014 semester.


Objective
Service Delivery Will Be Perceived To Be Provided By Qualified Staff
Client Services will utilize work order surveys to evaluate clients' perceptions of the technical qualifications of the staff member assisting with their requests.

KPI
Client Perception Of Technical Qualifications Of IT@Sam Staff
A work order survey will be delivered to the client upon completion of the request. The client will be asked to rank their perception of the technical competency of the IT@Sam representative. Available responses are "Very Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Very Satisfied." A 95% or better satisfaction rating is targeted.  Results will be reported both for Client Services Department-specific survey items and for the Division of Information Technology as a whole. 

Result
Client Satisfaction Survey Results - Technical Qualifications
Client Services achieved a rating of 95% satisfaction from 2,407 responses regarding perception of overall service as satisfactory or very satisfactory.  This met the goal of 95%.


Action
Client Satisfaction Survey - Qualified Staff
Ongoing.  Client Services will continue to provide Client Satisfaction Surveys through Cherwell as part of the ticketing process, will continue to monitor results for potential process and efficiency improvements, and will continue to use results of the surveys as training opportunities for staff as well as outreach opportunities to clients – both satisfied and not.  Client Services will also continue to provide professional development and training opportunities that meet or exceed the University requirements, as recently implemented by SHSU Human Resources.


Goal
Provide Quality Information Technology Resources
Client Services will provide resources that meet resource type needs, be reliable and be available when and where needed by the University.

Objective
Provide Reliable Core Customer Services To Campus
Client Services will provide reliable core services to faculty, staff, and students, to include: 10-Minute Promise services to support faculty and classroom technology; service desk support hours for faculty, staff, and students; open lab time for students; IT Training courses for all eligible constituents; mass email services; and website services.

KPI
Provide Reliable 10-Minute Promise Service To Faculty
Client Services will track 10-Minute Promise services to support faculty and classroom technology for both availability and first-time resolution.

Result
10-Minute Promise Service Results
Availability reports for the last year, as compared by semester, are down.  However, first-time resolution reports for the same comparison are up. 

Availability reports (where we met the promise to have a technician onsite to resolve the issue within ten minutes) have decreased over the previous year: from 98.8% in fall 2012 to 87.3% in fall 2013; from 98.2% in spring 2014 to 87.2% in spring 2013, and from 100.0% in summer 2013 to 93.2% in summer 2014).  We attribute lower than actual numbers for the 10-minute promise being met to a new ticketing system and new process workflow.  With retraining, we are more confident that reporting is more accurate at this time and the “numbers” for summer 2014 show improvement.

Percentages for first call resolution have increased over last year by more than 20% (from 78.4% resolved on first call in fall 2012 to 94.2% in fall 2013; from 78.2% in spring 2014 to 97.1% in spring 2013, and from 71.0% in summer 2013 to 98.3% in summer 2014). 


KPI
Provide Reliable Service Desk Support Availability
Client Services will track service desk support hours and availability to evaluate and improve dropped/missed calls. 

Result
Service Desk Support Results
In spring 2014 the Service Desk increased hours of operation by adding twelve additional hours of phone support per week for faculty, staff, and students. 


KPI
Provide Open Lab Support For Students
Client Services will track open lab hours for student use and availability.

Result
Open Lab Support Results
Client Services conducted an open lab utilization study including both fall 2013 and spring 2013 semesters.  This analysis led to a number of changes.  We modified lab assistants’ duties to include proactively sharing alternate resources with clients during peak hours (notifying lab visitors when the lab is full of other open labs).  We have increased training for the lab assistants to include assisting clients with profile or password issues.  We have changed print service maintenance vendors to provide pro-active maintenance services on the printers in the open labs.  Modified open student lab hours have been implemented for fall 2014 based on the low visits logged during the hours of 2:00am – 6:00am. 


KPI
Provide IT Training Beneficial Faculty & Staff In Their Work
Client Services’ trainers will provide each attendee of an IT@Sam Training Session with a post-training survey and encourage completion of the survey at all instructor-led sessions. The attendee will be asked to rate their perception of how well the training delivered will benefit their work. Available responses are “Excellent, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Poor.” We will strive for a 90% or better rating. Results will be gathered via Talent Management.


Result
IT Training Survey Results - Beneficial To Work
The IT Training group achieved a satisfaction rating of 90% from 60 responses regarding perception of training delivered as beneficial to their work as excellent or above average.  This met the goal of 90%.  Of note, three other measures in the survey include satisfaction with trainer's professionalism (98%, 60 responses); trainer's knowledge (98%, 60 responses); and overall training session (93%, 57 responses).

KPI
Provide "Mass Email" Services To Campus
Client Services will provide "mass email" services to campus that include: template creation; content delivery; target audience delivery; and state and federal guideline compliance (CAN/SPAM Act) for faculty and staff.

Result
Mass Email Statistics
Client Services has provided mass email service to the University for delivery to internal campus constituents as well as external audiences, and a mix.  During the reporting time period, the Web Services Team processed over 733 requests (schedluning approximately 14 per week). 

KPI
Provide Stable Website Platform For The University
Client Services will provide a stable platform for websites to be created, updated, and viewed. 


Result
Website Stability Results
Client Services has provided a stable website for the past year, with a 99.82% uptime during FY14.  This uptime includes all scheduled maintenance, emergency maintenance and system support for WebCMS (our website content management system).  

Two side notes: (1) During the reporting time period, we have had over three million unique visitors to the University’s website, with over 32 million page views; and (2) Over 360 content editors use our WebCMS system to create, update and manage over 61,000 pieces of content.


Action
10-Minute Promise Service Improvements
We have increased our training for both staff and student workers to better process 10-minute promise service requests, and will continue to monitor the process in general for other possible efficiency improvements. 


Action
Service Desk Support Evaluations
We will continue to monitor and evaluate needs as the next year progresses.  We are currently researching and evaluating lab usage (for staffing), staffing ratios and alternate staffing schedules, as well as the possibility of moving to a full-time staff in the Service Desk. 

Action
Open Lab Support Evaluations
 We will continue to monitor and evaluate needs as the next year progresses.  We are currently evaluating software for signage and website real-time reports on the number of seats available in a lab. 


Action
IT Training Updates
e conducted a needs analysis of the IT training needs across campus in late spring 2014.  We have taken those results and created a more formal approach to providing IT training to our campus clients.  We will use the next fiscal year to measure our success at delivering training beneficial to faculty and staff in their work. 

Action
Mass Email Services
We are actively seeking better ways to automate the process to provide a hands-on service that our approved clients can use to send their own mails.

Action
Website Stability
As the previous year was the first to report on this measure, we will establish a baseline goal to measure uptime against in future years.  We will also explore other measurement types to report. 

Goal
Analyze Opportunities To Increase Campus Efficiency
Client Services will continuously analyze processes to increase campus efficiency in one or more of the following areas: costs, operations, and communications.

Objective
Evaluate Processes To Increase Campus Efficiency
Client Services will evaluate at least one process within the department to increase campus efficiency.

KPI
Development Of Division Communication Plan
Client Services will lead the division in efforts to develop and implement a division-level communications plan outlining communication efforts both internal (within the division) as well as external (to the campus community).


Result
IT Division Communication Plan Status
Client Services reorganized the training group responsibilities over the course of the spring 2014 semester due to attrition in one of the positions.  One of the IT Trainer positions was reclassified into an IT Communications Specialist position, which was subsequently marketed and eventually filled in mid-July.  The incumbent has provided a draft communications plan for review by the Client Services Director. 


KPI
Evaluation Of New Software Implementation Process
Client Services will jointly work with Infrastructure and Support Services to evaluate and improve the workflow regarding new software implementations to improve internal and external communications and optimize operational efficiency.  ISS will take the lead on preparing the final documentation for this KPI.

Result
Software Implementation Process Improvements
ISS and CS have jointly made some changes to the software deployment process.  We jointly drafted and implemented a workflow within our Cherwell system so that teams would be assigned tasks when work needs to be completed.   This process in the past has taken up to 180 days to complete all tasks.  With these improvements we have reduced the time to deploy software to approximately 90 days,  depending on the size and difficulty of the packaging needed for the software.  Workflow between internal and external areas has improved and the fall 2014 semester denotes the first time that all software requested for fall 2014 was deployed before the semester started.

On the external side, communication with clients regarding software request deadlines has been improved as well.  Direct communication with the deans and department chairs prior to deadlines has been sent regularly over the last year.  Department meetings have been established to talk about the software needs of each academic department. 


Action
IT Division Communication Plan - Actions Needed
The draft communications plan will be reviewed by the Client Services Director; provided to the other IT department leads for review, discussion, and any changes; submitted to the Vice President for Information Technology for approval; and implemented division-wide by the end of calendar year 2014.   


Action
Software Implementation Process Improvement Plan
More work is needed to turn this process out much more smoothly and in a faster time frame; ongoing meetings with the appropriate managers have been scheduled and progress will be reported regularly. 

Goal
Provide Quality Professional Development Opportunities For Staff
IT Client Services will provide time and funding for staff to attend professional development through training and/or conferences.

Objective
Provide Professional Development Opportunities To Client Services Staff
IT Client Services will allocate funding and time for staff to participate in professional development activities which will enhance staff value to  students, faculty, staff and alumni.


Indicator
Provide Professional Development
Client Services staff will meet or exceed the SHSU Human Resources Staff Professional Development requirements (based on classification as staff or managers, as well as hire date in relation to evaluation requirements). 

Criterion
Staff Professional Development Reporting
While reporting in Talent Management is not reflective of the actual training achieved, 100% of the Client Services Department employees have met or exceeded their annual training requirement to date.  Please see the attached report for details.  Some employees have lower requirements, as the amount of training required is prorated against their hire dates. 


Finding
Professional Development Reporting Findings
We found that Client Services employees met or exceeded the SHSU-instituted requirements for training.  Multiple opportunities exist between on-campus professional development as well as required technical training. 

Indicator
Provide Opportunity For High Quality Professional Development That Enhances Value
Client Services will provide high quality professional development opportunities to enhance staff value to students, faculty, staff, and alumni.  90% of all Professional Development activities attended will improve or enhance operational effectiveness related to CS functions.

Criterion
Value-Enhancing Professional Development
All training opportunities for employees in Client Services were evaluated by their immediate supervisor, and sometimes discussed at the managers' level, as to bringing value to individual employee's work.  The department opted to use a per-capita model for appropriating funding allotted in conjunction with providing online resources with paid certification testing. 

Finding
Value-Added Professional Development Findings
We found that the materials were not accessed as much as anticipated without direct intervention.  A different model will be developed for the next year, with more attention paid to individual training "plans."

Action
Evaluating Value-Enhancing Training
Client Services will take the lead to develop a form for use by the division to evaluate training opportunities for benefits realized and application to assigned, regular work and special projects. 


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

As part of the continued evaluation of the department's organization, IT Client Services continues to align our strategic objectives with our internal motto and external goal to be “client-centric.” 

Client Services continues to use our work-order system to document the work as well as provide enhanced communication to requestors.  We have made a number of improvements and updates to the system driven by both internal (IT) and external (campus clients).  

We have continued to see a turnover; however, with a high number of entry-level positions, this is a known issue.  We are addressing employee training and professional development on a more tailored, personal level.  We have also implemented a full-time staff in the Tech Shop and are exploring ways to make the same shift in the Service Desk. 

One important change to the department has been in the area of training and communications.  We reclassified one IT Trainer position to IT Communications Specialist to assist with both internal and external communication efforts.  In conjunction with this, we have been able to shift our IT Trainer to train rather than accommodate a number of other ad hoc responsibilities.  

Client Services will continue to focus on enhancing the services and communication provided by our department and division to support the campus community for improved collaboration and communication.


Plan for continuous improvement Client Services has a number of areas in which we would like to improve services to our campus clients.  Most of these are detailed in several of the action items listed throughout the Client Services section, and include:

Addressing staffing and other resource allocation issues
Implementing best practices with staff, such as training and professional development
Improving our IT "ticketing" tool for a more positive customer experience
Creating more meaningful metrics for our key services
Improving documentation of our processes in general and our specific work in particular