West Point's help desks are all in step

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

A help desk application generally does handyman duty, finding lost passwords or summoning assistance to fix what's broken. Users at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., however, converted their help app into more of a virtual butler.

A help desk application generally does handyman duty, finding lost passwords or summoning assistance to fix what's broken.Users at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., however, converted their help app into more of a virtual butler.'We call it 'creating an issue,' ' Lt. Col. Paul Scullion of the Directorate of Information Management said about filling out the various kinds of work orders.'When the users went to other individual users for tech support, there was no visibility' for tracking the requests, Scullion said. 'There were so many help phone numbers and e-mail addresses that it just wasn't working.'We looked for a way to consolidate the various phone and e-mail help requests into one point of entry. It's so important to have that one entry point,' he said.It turned out to be FootPrints multiplatform service-desk software from Unipress Software Inc. of Edison, N.J.What Scullion called 'tier one' support for the academy's 8,000 cadets and faculty members comes from branches of the Computer Systems Division or Computer Information Center. They are the main users of FootPrints.'They're the ones on the ground, maybe doing support as a collateral duty,' he said. 'We look to them to enter the help requests. If they can fix it, we don't need a work order.'When the tier-one helpers can't fulfill a request, they fire up a browser and complete a work order in FootPrints, which runs under Microsoft Windows, Unix or Linux.'We have a mixture of servers, upwards of 90 percent of them running Windows,' Scullion said. A requester opens one of several project boxes to ask for a service, depending on which branch provides that service. Academy staff members designed the project boxes to mimic the paper forms previously used for handling requests.If a requester sends a form to the wrong place, FootPrints routing rules will notify the requester by e-mail or phone, reroute the order or, sometimes, share it out between branches for fulfillment.The rules were set to 'prioritize and schedule the work orders,' Scullion said.For example, toward the end of May, graduation exercises occupy everyone's time, and 'we have to sort out which orders are unrelated to graduation and notify the requesters,' he said.'There's still the overhead of somebody having to keep an eye on the open requests,' print out reports and generally oversee operations.But the prioritization seems to work. The help desk itself, he said, 'is the No. 1 user' and has filled 1,600 work orders since it began using FootPrints last year.The cost, including the Unipress software and various knowledge bases that came with it, was about $30,000. 'We're now in a maintenance phase and looking at ways to improve the e-mail flow for greater visibility,' Scullion said.Those improvements might include red-flag tracking and advance scheduling by superiors to balance workloads.So far, the academy does not use the Defense Department's digital certificates stored on the Common Access Card to encrypt its documents. 'That's not a West Point policy yet,' Scullion said, 'but I think we're going to get there.'

What FootPrints can do

With an Internet browser, a user ID and a password, West Point users now can:

  • Order a computer, phone or network drop installed

  • Arrange photography or videotaping of an event

  • Burn CD-ROMs for classroom use

  • Borrow a camera or public address system

  • Schedule a videoconference

  • Specify an engineering model, with attached drawings, to be fabricated in the academy's shop.

West Point consolidated its help desk and other administrative activities across a 16,000-acre campus. The military academy, founded in 1802, currently has about 8,000 users.




































X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.