Internet Software Sciences Newsletter #116 – July 2014
Tech-Talk from Internet Software Sciences President Scott Vanderlip
Notes on optimizing your Web+Center Help desk operations
Supporting your IT customers is first, but coordinating those summer vacations for your IT staff is important too.
Web+Center has an integrated calendar function that can be used for detailed, daily scheduling of techs and support issues or it can be used for more general employee vacation bulletin board functions that we will describe here.
Web+Center Calendar – Your company vacation Bulletin Board!
To effectively manage support coverage for our products and services, we use the Web+Center calendar integrated with our Web+Center support system. Support staff are asked to list their planned vacations or time off weeks or months ahead into the calendar. This allows all support staff to review what vacations on already on the calendar to aid in their own planning decisions as when to schedule their vacations so they don’t all overlap at the same time.
Steps to enabling and running your Web+Center Vacation Calendar Bulletin Board.
Step 1) Enable the Web+Center calednar if it is not already enabled. Only “configurator level” technicians can enable this feature by logging into the Tech+Center and clicking on Administration.. System Configuration Menu… System Configuration Options.
Check the Enable Web+Center Calender option on the right hand column of options and press the Submit button.
Step 2:) Refresh the Tech+Center button panel to show the “Schedule” button by toggling the Busy/Available button.
Step 3) Click on the Schedule Button in the button panel. The current month calendar will first appear.
Step 4) Add Vacation Event Categories – To add an calendar event type category, click on current day of the month and click on Add New event for today.
Step 5) On the Add New Event page, click on the Add New Event Type link. From this menu, you can create new Calendar event types. Create a new event category called Vacation.
Step 6) Press continue and return back to the Create an Event page, and now enter a test vacation event. The calendar allows you to enter the start Time/Date and a End Date/Time that can be days later with a single calendar entry.
Step 7) There are two ways to search/find events in your calendar. The easiest method is to click on the Show Schedule Summary For and select all Tech Staff.
The second more detailed search can be run by clicking on the FIND button in the upper right hand corner. This page allows one to search for events based on a date range, tech, event category, case number and other fields.
Effectively using Web+Center Vacation Calendar Bulletin Board
In addition to coordinating vacations, daily dispatching operations can do a quick search of the calendar to avoid assigning a ticket to a staff member who is on vacation. If you have a mostly a virtual office where workers do not report to a particular location where a vacation planner board can be present, this Web+Center calendar can be useful tool for all techs to view company wide vacation calendars and edit their events as needed.
We hope this vacation calendar planning tool provides your IT support operations with yet another way to use Web+Center to increase your productivity and efficiency. Feel free to contact us directly if you have any other questions.
Sincerely,
Scott Vanderlip
President, Internet Software Sciences