UC: Establish and Maintain Client User Liaison

LO 1: Determine support areas

Lo2: Develop support procedures

LO3: Assign support personnel

LO 1: Determine support areas

Identify information technology

There are many definitions of Information Technology which include processing, storing and
acquiring information using technological systems. Information Technology uses computers,
network devices such as switches, routers, and servers, user-administered operating system and
software applications installed to perform the various tasks carried out by the business.
All of this technology requires support for the following reasons:
1. Technology does not always work as it should. Hardware can fail and software can have
bugs.
2. The users of technology do not always know how to perform tasks using the available
technology.
3. The needs of the business may change, and need for new of technology/requirement
specification.
Typically, the technology used by business falls into two groups:
 Hardware: desktop computers, laptop computers, mainframe computers, printers,
scanners, digital photography devices, routers, switches, hubs, external drives, storage
media (eg. CDs, USB Flash Memory Sticks, etc.)
 Software: application softwares, operating systems, servers and firmware contained
in small devices such as cameras.
Identify stakeholders

What is a stakeholder?
A stakeholder is a person or organisation that has an interest in the system or is impacted by the
system.
How do you identify stakeholders?
As support is often negotiated towards the end of a project, you will have been working and
communicating with important stakeholders throughout the project. The most common
stakeholder is called the sponsor. The sponsor is the person or organisation which
 Provides the funds for the project
 Provide consultation
  Has the authority to make decisions on support issues.
The last point is the most important one. You must find out who has the authority to sign
contracts or agreements and make decisions that will apply to the organisation. This may be a
person (usually a manager or director) or might be a committee (eg. executive management
committee or council).
The following are some simple methods for finding stake holders:
 Meet with the project sponsor(s) and brainstorm; during a brainstorming session,
everybody puts in their ideas without evaluating them. This could help you find important
stakeholders quickly and easily.
 Talk to people in the organisation. Find out who has an interest in the system and who is
affected by it. Who are the main users? Who will be receiving the support? Who will be
providing the support?

Determine level of support required

Why is support important?

The visible part of customer service (the ‘front line’ delivery) is only the tip of the iceberg. It is
supported by many things such as standards, systems, quality issues, management support, etc.
This is an important concept to grasp when approaching the set up of a client support agreement.
You should understand that by supporting IT systems that run in the background, you are, in fact,
helping make the business more efficient and competitive. Efficient support of those parts of the
iceberg that nobody sees results in better front line service to customers.

Levels of support
There are a number of ways to view levels of support. When discussing level of support, you
may mean the type of support that is to be provided. For example, we could offer the following
levels (or types) of support:
 1. Informal peer support – workers help their co-workers with problems. The organisation
can provide training to key workers so that they are able to be called upon for informal
support.
2. User support combined with other responsibilities – a dual role of IT support and
other responsibilities.
3. User support as a separate position or group – setting up a dedicated position such as
‘IT Systems support officer’ or a unit such as ‘Technology Services Group’.
4. Help desk support – an internal or external support function that provides a broad range
of support for business IT systems.
5. Totally outsourced user support – an external provider provides all necessary support.

Example: help desk support levels

If your support is to include a help desk that is staffed, the following structure is common:
 Level 1 help desk – takes the calls, logs details, may solve simple problems or give
general advice for common problems (eg. advising on network availability)
 Level 2 help desk – technicians fix the problem or provide advice on how to fix the
problem
 Level 3 help desk – highly qualified people provide customisation or bug fixes or
software or web-based systems
The following is a list of possible support functions:
1. Help desk
2. Technical troubleshooting
3. Training in the use of software
4. Preparation and maintenance of documentation
5. Installation and configuration of hardware and/or software
6. Maintenance of hardware, data, etc. (eg. backups, recovery)
7. Customisation of software
8. Preparation of new web content (eg. text, graphics)
Lo2: Develop support procedures

Verify support needs

In order to verify support needs, you should contact the organisation and check that you have all
the relevant documentation. This would include a list of all the hardware and software that needs
support, as well as input from key stakeholders.
Verification is a quality assurance technique. You will not only do it before you draft the
agreement, but after as well. If you are thorough with your consultation, you will be less likely to
miss things.
A support agreement that has missing key elements would be generally considered unworkable
in today’s presented IT environment.

Customer expectations

When providing IT services, customer expectations can be a major challenge and often difficult
to define - particularly in the IT industry where change is constant.
Perceptions of performance can differ from customer to service provider. Customer satisfaction
levels can fluctuate, often depending on customer expectations or your performance in providing
service. It is important that you, as an IT service provider, monitor both satisfaction and
performance carefully.

Establish procedures

What sort of procedures need to be established?

Incident management (for help desk) is actually one of the best ways of answering questions
and providing a professional support service.
Typical incident management involves the following steps:

Procedures – questions to be answered

Developing procedures for each of the incident management functions involves answering the
following questions:
 What will be done? (the scope of the procedure)
 Who will do it?
  How will it be done? (eg onsite, over the telephone, etc.)
 How long will it take?
In addition, we need to know the answers to the following in order to establish the overall
support procedures:
1. What is the primary method of contact? (eg phone, email, fax, web)
2. When - and by whom - will the procedures be reviewed?
3. What performance targets are set by the procedures? (eg respond to priority one requests
within one hour)
4. What reports should be generated by the support function?
5. How will the support function be reviewed and improved?
When you have answered all of these questions, you have basically written your procedures.
The following is suggested standard procedures format.
 Title of procedure:
 Scope of procedure:
 Procedure details:
 Performance indicators and targets:
 Review of procedure:

Write the service level agreement

A service level agreement (SLA) is essentially a contract that binds a service provider to giving
a certain level of service. An SLA has the same legal standing as a contract, in that it legally
binds two parties.
Why use a written SLA?
 To clarify expectations
 To incorporate indicators of quality
 To assist communication and prevent disputes:
What does an SLA contain?
The broad structure of an SLA contains
 The name of the service provider, customers, etc.
 The objectives of the service
 The process of requesting service
 The service provider’s responsibilities
 The customer’s responsibilities
 Service measurements and targets (discussed earlier)
  maintenance and review of the agreement
 Signatures of the customer and service provider and the date on which the agreement was
signed.
In general, an SLA should consist of the following:
 a brief general statement summarizing the services to be provided
 definitions of the two parties to the agreement – who is providing the services to whom
 the duration of the agreement
 the arrangements for monitoring and review
 a procedure for settling disputes
 what resources, information or other help the user may have to provide
 contact points for both parties
 The basis of any charges – what has to be paid and how this is to be paid.
LO3: Assign support personnel

Identify IT skills

The skills that may be required will vary greatly depending on the technology to be supported.
However, we can classify skills into two categories:
 Technical skills – knowledge of particular hardware. This could include other technical
skills such as the ability to write technical documentation, do programming and analyse
databases.
 ‘Soft’ skills – communication skills time management skills; problem solving skills; and
the ability to learn new procedures quickly and ability to work in teams.
In order to determine the skills you require, you should examine the service level agreement (or
contract). The SLA will tell you which particular hardware and software needs to be supported.

Find the right person

Having listed the technical and ‘soft’ skills required delivering the support, you must now find
the person or people who have these skills.
There are several alternatives:
1. The person you need already works in the organisation either in an IT role or a non IT role.
2. The person you need does not yet work in your organisation.
 advertise for a new employee and go through the interview and selection process
 Engage an employment agency to find the right person for you.
3. The skills you require are too diverse, and it is therefore unlikely that any one person has all
of the required skills. If you have this situation you could
 Employ more than one person
 Outsource part or all of the support function.
Technical skills
In the IT industry most staff specialise in particular fields:
 Security  Business analysis
 Web design  Software development/programming.
 Desktops
 Operating systems
 Networks
 Databases
 Project management
Verify availability
The person or people you decide you want on your support team may or may not be available.
Normally, when you offer somebody a position of employment, they must tell you if they accept
that offer or if they decline the offer.
The person you want may be available but there may be complications, such as the following:
 They may not be available full-time
 They may not be available to work at the times your customer needs support
 They may not be available to start immediately
 They may be in the process of attending numerous interviews and they could play one
employee against each other.
In these cases, you may decide to offer the position to somebody else or negotiate with the
person you have chosen.
Also, as many services are now available twenty four hours a day and technology is changing to
make telecommuting easier, it may be worthwhile discussing other possibilities such as part-
time, late or early starts, telecommuting, etc.
Remember: a satisfied worker often proves to be a productive worker, and if your objectives are
being met, sometimes some flexibility is a useful strategy. This may not work in all industries,
but it certainly has merit in the information technology industry.

Provide support

Now that you have the support agreement and suitably skilled staff, you are ready to start
providing the support. The support will be provided in accordance with the service level
agreement.
The most common problem is a lack of clarity regarding what is supported and what is not or the
customer’s expectations regarding the support.
If your customers are asking for support that is beyond the scope of the agreement, you could
suggest where they could find that help and even help them navigate to an alternate source of
support instead of just saying: ‘It’s beyond our SLA, sorry I can’t help you.’
Obtain feedback
Feedback is a necessary part of the delivery of the support function. It is information that you
receive from the following people regarding the delivery of the support service:
 your support team
 your customer
 Any other appropriate person (eg. hardware or software vendors).
Why?
Why do we need feedback on delivery of support?
 To learn of problems occurring in the delivery of the service.
 To improve your service to the client by finding out where the problems are occurring
and fixing them.

How?
Feedback may take the following forms:
 Reports – as detailed in the SLA. These may include the number of support issues dealt
with over a fixed period of time, the time taken to resolve problems and any outstanding
support issues.
 Meetings – may be detailed in the SLA, but in any case, it is a good idea to meet with
your support team and your customer to discuss the support service you are providing.
This can be an informal meeting over coffee or a formal meeting with an agenda.
 Impromptu feedback – you should always be open to receive feedback from any source
at any time, especially if it means that – ultimately - you can improve the service you
deliver.
Many professionals believe that comments received back in forms or evaluation sheets are not
always completely honest, as many do not like criticising via writing. Speaking to a cross-section
of users in an open and frank way is a much better way of obtaining accurate, substantive
feedback.
This feedback may come
 by phone call
 by email
 by text message
 by fax
 verbally
 by web form