HelpSU is Stanford's effort to simplify the provision of quality technical support to the campus community. It includes a Web-based way of making requests for technical assistance, as well as pointers to documentation and training opportunities which can increase the self-sufficiency of the community.

The HelpSU application is designed to provide "one-start shopping" for support requests on campus. Individual faculty, student or staff member needing assistance will not need to know which of the many support groups on campus handle a specific topic. Working from a list of basic support categories, each help request or problem report will be automatically routed to the correct support group. The HelpSU application will also provide the support organizations with much needed metrics on their activities.

Use of HelpSU is not intended to supplant local computing support resources available through Expert Partners, Local Network Administrators, or School- or Department-based support groups. Such local resources almost always provide more timely and convenient support.

But if such local resources are not available or not appropriate for the nature of your request, or if you simply don't know where to start with a request for assistance, HelpSU is the way to get started.

The HelpSU application has been designed to support Stanford University's computer and network support staff in tracking service requests. In the industry, this is commonly known as a "trouble-ticketing" system. The HelpSU application was written using Remedy Corporation's "Action Request System" software.

For Stanford community members needing help:

• "One-Start Shopping" for technical support
• Easy-to-use Web input form for users to submit their requests

• Cross-platform (PC, Mac, Unix)
• Full Web access for remote or "in-field" access
• Lookup into the campus WHOIS database to pull current phone number and email addresses of requestors
• Ability to transfer and track trouble-tickets from one support group to another
• Ability to send email answers to customers from within HelpSU, while recording the response in the ticket
• Ability to forward HelpSU requests via email to support staff not using HelpSU
• Ability to track time devoted to each trouble-ticket
• Ability to track detailed "work performed" in a work log field
• Ability to send predefined "We received your request" acknowledgments
• Ability for each support group to define their "Problem Categories" for tracking and metrics generation
• Ability for each support group to define ticket "escalations" so that notifications of tickets not resolved by each support group's defined service parameters can be sent to designated individuals
• Paging and/or email notification of urgent tickets (or other ticket parameters)
• Ability to send predefined "Let us know how we did" post-assistance, quality/satisfaction surveys.
• Ability to generate reports:
  • to understand trends
  • to identify which support areas are the most time-intensive
  • to understand workload balances over the work group
• Underway:  Remedy/Palm Pilot link so that "trouble-tickets" can be downloaded to a Palm Pilot; work done, time taken, and request status can be updated at the time the service is performed.

For information or assistance with HelpSU please contact Information Technology Systems and Services by using the HelpSU request form, or by phoning (650) 725-HELP (725-4357). We welcome your comments.

Any support groups interested in adopting HelpSU as part of their support process should contact Chris Lundin at clundin@stanford.edu or (650) 725-8315.