EITS Help Desk "By The Numbers"--Thousands assisted with technology issues each month

Enterprise Information Technology Services Press Release
The University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia

Friday, January 16 , 2009

WRITER: Bert DeSimone,706-338-9849, bert@uga.edu
CONTACT: EITS Help Desk,706-542-3106, helpdesk@uga.edu

EITS Help Desk "By The Numbers"—Thousands assisted with technology issues each month

Justin Williams (foreground), an IT professional assistant at the Help Desk, and co-workers help thousands of computer users a year at UGA

ATHENS, Ga.— Each year the EITS Help Desk helps thousands of UGA faculty, staff, and students with their technology questions and problems. And even with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, over 5,000 contacts via email, phone calls, the EITS problem reporting system, and Web site visits were logged during the month of December.

"We received 1,954 phone calls, emails, and problem tickets," said Justin Williams, an IT professional assistant at the Help Desk," and our Web site registered 3,194 hits. Of these contacts that involved a direct question, a problem, or otherwise required a specific response, 99% were resolved within 24 hours."

Mark Zimmer, manager of the EITS Help Desk, has seen continued utilization of online assistance at the Help Desk. "We have very few walk-in visitors these days," said Zimmer. "We have seen a continued pattern of online assistance over the years, and do not anticipate that changing anytime soon."

Zimmer went on to say that the Help Desk is experimenting with an online chat service to provide a higher level of technical support for the students, faculty, and staff at the University.

"We are currently testing the chat service and will make a decision sometime this semester to continue its use," said Zimmer.

The Help Desk consists of 3 full-time employees and 11 part-time student employees. All employees are housed in the Computer Services Annex, on the corner of East Campus Road and Cedar Street.

Hours of operation and a map to the Help Desk is located on the Help Desk Web site. To access the Web site, visit the EITS Web site and follow the "Help Desk" link.

The EITS Help Desk strives to provide professional first-tier technical support to the UGA community. Its goal is to empower clients by making IT knowledge accessible. This is accomplished by providing a focused knowledge base and an efficient call center that acts as a single point of contact for UGA IT services.

About the Office of the CIO and EITS
The Office of the Chief Information Officer and Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) are committed to the mission of UGA as a land-and-sea-grant institution where academics come first and the research extensive university community encourages research efforts at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To that end, under the direction of the University´s Chief Information Officer, EITS endeavors to provide a robust, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure, maintain essential production services, and offer world-class support.

Search EITS