FBLA help desk terms

Service desk services that are provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The percentage of abandoned calls compared to the total number of calls received.

A call where the caller hangs up before an analyst answers.

The process responsible for granting authorized users the right to use a service in accordance with the company's security policies, while preventing access to non-authorized users.

How easily the service desk can be reached by service desk staff, other employees of the company, and customers.

A system that works with ACD systems and enables supervisors to monitor call volumes and the performance of individual service desk analysts or groups of analysts.

The term used to describe the symptoms such as discomfort and pain that a person may experience after hearing a loud, unexpected sound via a telephone or headset

When the listener participates in a conversation and gives the speaker a sense of confidence that he or she is being heard.

Technology that greets callers when all service desk analysts are busy and can provide valuable information as customers wait on hold.

A comparison of an analyst's resolution percent before and after attending training.

Anything that contributes to the delivery of an IT service such as financial capital, people, hardware, software, network and communication components, and information.

The process responsible for tracking and reporting on the value and ownership of assets throughout their life cycle.

An ACD feature that routes calls based on input provided by the caller through a touch-tone telephone.

Technology that answers a call and routes, or distributes, it to the next available analyst. If all analysts are busy, the ACD places the call in a queue and plays a recorded message.

A service provided by a long distance service provider that delivers the telephone number of the person calling.

An ACD state that occurs when an analyst is ready to take calls.

The length of time an analyst was signed on to the ACD compared to the length of time the analyst was scheduled to be signed on.

The average length of time required to handle a call

The average time it takes an analyst to pick up an incoming call

The average number of minutes a caller waits for an analyst after being placed in the queue by an ACD; also known as average queue time.

A computer user's representation of himself or herself.

A company that is the finest in its relative industry peer group.

A proven way of completing a task to produce a near optimum result.

A call center that receives incoming calls and makes outgoing calls.

The process of comparing the service desk's services, standardized metrics, and practices to those of a rival or world class company in an effort to identify ways it can improve

The skills people need to work successfully in the business world,

A technique performed by a group of people and designed to generate a large number of ideas for solving a problem.

A systematic approach to improving an organization's business processes.

The process responsible for maintaining a good relationship between a service provider and its customers.

A metric used to show a starting point.

A list of tasks an analyst performs at the start of each workday.

Measurements of a person's physical characteristics such as a finger or palm print, facial features, or features of a person's eye such as the retina or iris.

place where telephone calls are made or received in high volume for one or more customers.

Routes of communication to and from the help desk, such as the telephone, voice mail, e-mail, and the Web.

The difference between how a customer perceives he or she was treated and how the customer expects to be treated.

Services that ensure customers receive maximum value for the products or services they purchase.

Services that help a customer understand and benefit from a product's capabilities by answering questions, solving problems, and providing training.

A single service desk that supports all of the technologies used by its customers.

Computer software packages used to train and test people on a wide range of subjects.

A call center that uses technologies such as e-mail and the Web in addition to the telephone.

service desk in which the budget items required to run the service desk are considered a cost (expense) to the company.

A program that involves using customer contact and relationship information to generate additional sales and increase levels of customer service and retention.

A software program that can "infect" a computer by storing itself in the computer's memory or attaching itself to program or data files.

A business calculation that compares the costs and benefits of two or more potential solutions in order to determine an optimum solution.

Recording the type of incident being reported.

A technique used to generate the possible problem causes and their effect

A separate group or a committee that is responsible for assessing the readiness of nonstandard changes to the production environment.

The process responsible for controlling changes to the production environment while minimizing service disruptions.

The person who coordinates all change management activities and ensures approved changes represent an acceptable level of possible and probable risk and impact.

The individual records that are stored in an organization's configuration management system, such as IT assets, buildings, and documents such as SLAs, processes, and procedures.

A database that is used to store configuration records throughout their lifecycle.

A set of tools and databases for managing IT asset information and linking that information to related incidents, problems, known errors, changes, and releases.

The determination of whether the customer is authorized to receive support and, if so, the level of support the customer should receive.

A service provided by a local telephone company that delivers the telephone number of the person calling and when available the name associated with the calling telephone number.

A unit of information, such as an online document, a database record, or the solution to a common incident, which is indexed so an analyst can easily locate it when needed.

A searching technique that uses everyday language to ask users questions and interpret their answers.

A system made up of (1) cases and (2) a set of question and answer pairs that can be used to confirm the solution to the incident.

The linking of computing technology with telephone technology to exchange information and increase productivity.

A system that is used to create and distribute questionnaires to customers and to collect and tabulate the results of their feedback.

A document awarded to a person who has demonstrated that he or she has certain skills and knowledge about a particular topic or area.

A certification that measures a technician's knowledge of hardware and operating system technologies and concepts, along with topics such as security, safety and environmental issues, and communication and professionalism.

Historically called cost per call; the total cost of operating a service desk for a given period (including salaries, benefits, facilities, and equipment) divided by the total number of contacts (calls, e-mails, faxes, Web requests, and so on) received during that period.

The total cost of operating a service desk for a given period (including salaries, benefits, facilities, and equipment) divided by the total number of units (such as devices and systems) supported during that period.

A measurable characteristic that must exist for something - such as a process, project or team - to be viewed as successful.

Identifying details about a customer, including the customer's name, telephone number, email address, department or company name, physical address or location, customer number, and employee number or user ID.

All of the fields that describe a single customer.

A series of questions that ask customers to provide their perception of the support services being offered.

A common repetitive stress injury that affects the hands and wrists and is linked to repetitious hand movements, such as typing on a computer keyboard, pinching a mouse, or repeatedly clicking a mouse.

A variety of ailments such as headaches and eyestrain that occur as a result of staring at a computer monitor for a prolonged period of time.

The construction of new systems.

To send or route.

Multiple service desks, each of which supports specific products or customer communities.

person who initially handles customer problems, requests, or inquiries; also called a service desk agent, customer care agent, customer service representative, or call screener.

A bright display that sends out visual and, in some cases, audible messages to service desk staff and to customer sites that have dashboards installed; also known as electronic reader board.

Raw facts that are not organized in a meaningful way.

A branching structure of questions and possible answers designed to lead an analyst to a solution.

A service that provides the number the person called when they call using a toll-free number or a 1-900 service.

Conduct that conforms to generally accepted or stated principles of right and wrong

The rules and standards that govern the conduct of a person or group of people.

A person or company that buys another company's products and services

To raise an incident from one level to another, such as from level one to level two, to dedicate new or additional resources to the incident.

A service desk that supports customers who buy its company's products and services (external customers).

A change that must be introduced as soon as possible to repair an error in an IT service that has a high impact on the business.

A system that enables service desks to manage high volume chat, e-mail, and Web form messages.

A measure of how completely and accurately services are delivered.

A measure of the time and effort required to deliver services in relation to their cost.

A document that clearly describes an analyst's performance requirements and individual improvement objectives.

A customer satisfaction survey that asks customers for feedback on a single, recent service event.

A measurement technique that, on the Internet, combines questions such as "Was this information helpful to you?" with Yes and No buttons that customers can use to provide feedback.

The science of people-machine relationships that intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort.

A service desk approach that enables an organization to provide 24-hour coverage by having regional service desks working only during the usual business hours for their location.

Service desk staff who interacts directly with customers.

A technique that involves repeatedly asking the question "Why?" until the root cause of a problem is determined.

A diagram that shows the sequence of tasks that occur in a process

A structure designed to enclose something

Escalation that transfers and incident from one line of support to the next; occurs when greater knowledge or authority is required to resolve an incident or a target timescale has been exceeded.

An electronic device that sends or receives printed matter or computer images

The specifics of how the selected tool must perform in order to support its associated business processes.

A predefined document that contains text or graphics users cannot change and areas in which users enter information.

A searching technique that presents all possible solutions that are similar to the search criteria, even when conflicting information exists or no exact match is present.

The percentage of calls resolved during a customer's initial telephone call compared to the total number of calls received at the service desk for a given period of time.

Support services that charge the customer on a per-use basis

A type of bar chart that is often used to illustrate a project schedule

Support for customers anywhere in the world; may be caused by the need to support a large company that has foreign divisions and subsidiaries or by the need to support customers who are doing business with the company through the Web.

A forerunner of the service desk.

Escalation that occurs when management is involved in the incident management process, even if only for information purposes; occurs when steps are taking too long, there is contention about assignments, or additional resources are needed to resolve a incident.

The broad needs for a system

Technology that tends to support only the incident management process and offers basic trouble ticketing and reporting capability

Text or graphics in a hypertext or hypermedia document that allow readers to "jump" to a related idea, regardless of where that idea occurs in the document

A storage method that stores information in a graphical form so users can access the information in a nonlinear fashion using hyperlinks

A storage method that stores information in a nongraphical form so users can access the information in a nonlinear fashion using hyperlinks

Data that are organized in a meaningful way

A forerunner of the help desk; a place within a company where employees could receive training and help using personal computers

set of best practices for IT service management

A person who works at a company and at times relies on other employees at that company to perform his or her job

A global collection of computer networks that are linked to provide worldwide access to information

discipline for managing IT services that focuses on the quality of those services and the relationship that the IT organization has with its customers

call center that receives telephone calls from customers and may answer questions, take orders, respond to billing inquiries, and provide customer support

Activities that include moving equipment, installing and configuring new systems, and upgrading existing systems; also known as moves, adds, and changes (MACs).

A service desk that responds to questions, distributes information, and handles problems and service requests for its company's employees (internal customers)

A department or a person within a company that supplies information, products, or services to another department or person within the same company

A secured, privately maintained Web site that serves employees and that can be accessed only by authorized personnel

The function within IT that monitors the entire IT Infrastructure from a central console or set of consoles

The effect an incident is having on the business

The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of incidents

An employee of the support organization who acts as a customer advocate and proactively ensures that a incident is resolved to the customer's satisfaction

A practice that ensures that when the service desk analyst cannot resolve a incident during the first call or escalates the incident to a person or group outside of the service desk, an incident owner is designated; also known as total contact ownership

task of following one incident from recognition to resolution

Technology used to enhanced trouble ticketing and management reporting capability

The details of a incident or request, including incident type (such as an incident or request), channel used to submit (such as telephone, e-mail, or Web request), category (such as hardware or software), affected component or system (such as a printer or monitor), symptom, date and time incident occurred, date and time incident was logged, analyst who logged the incident, incident owner, description, and priority.

All of the fields that describe a single incident

The percentage of incidents resolved within a target resolution time

A customer request for information, such as "When will the new release of software arrive?"

A network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries; also known as ISO

A process that focuses only on collecting and maintaining information about IT assets, not the relationships that exist among those assets. See configuration management.

set of international standards for a quality management

An international standard for IT service management

An ACD state that occurs when an analyst is logged on to the ACD but is not accepting calls

A service that identifies the origin of a call from the type or location of the telephone being used to place the call, such as a pay phone, cellular phone, or hotel phone

system that enables two or more people to communicate in real time (text or chat) over the Internet by typing on a keyboard

suite of systems that companies use to manage their incident, problem, knowledge, change, service asset and configuration management and request fulfillment processes; also called enterprise solutions

Measurable objectives for analysts that support the service desk mission

A training system that people can access from any personal computer that has an Internet connection and a browser.

Another name for a knowledge engineer.

The person who develops and oversees the knowledge management process and ensures that the information contained in the knowledge management system is accurate, complete, and current; also called a knowledge base administrator (KBA).

A set of tools and databases that are used to store, manage, and present information sources such as customer information, documents, policies and procedures, incident resolutions, and known errors.

a problem that has a documented root cause and a workaround.

A Japanese term that when applied to the workplace means continuing improvement involving everyone - managers and workers alike.

A proprietary problem analysis technique developed by Charles Kepner and Ben Tregoe that involves defining and describing the problem, establishing possible causes, testing the most probable cause, and verifying the true cause.

The process responsible for gathering, storing, and sharing information and knowledge within an organization.

The technique of finding indexed information by specifying a descriptive word or phrase, called a keyword.

The application of information along with people's experiences, ideas, and judgments.

A key metric used to manage a process.

An internal service desk that has more than 25 people on staff, or an external service desk that has as many as several hundred people on staff.

A service desk that is physically located close to its customers.

A person who receives and logs contacts, answers questions, and resolves incidents and service requests when possible; also called service desk analyst, customer support analyst, or service desk technician.

A person who researches complex incidents and handles service requests that require more skill or authority - or, in some cases, more time - than a level one analyst typically can devote to a single contact; also called service desk specialist, technical support specialist, or customer support specialist.

The initial point of contact for customers when they have an incident.

The person or group that resolves incidents that are beyond the scope or authority (such as system access rights or permissions) of level one.

The person or group that resolves complex incidents that are beyond the scope of level two.

The percentage of incidents resolved at level one, but not necessarily during the customer's initial telephone call.

The physical site of the service desk in the building.

A service desk that has between 10 and 25 people on staff; can take on the characteristics of both small and large service desks.

Performance measures.

A written statement that describes the customers the service desk serves, the types of services the service desk provides, and how the service desk delivers those services.

Activities that include moving equipment, installing and configuring new systems, and upgrading existing systems; also known as installations, moves, adds, and changes (IMACs).

A common structure of service desks, where the service desk refers problems it cannot resolve to the appropriate internal group, external vendor, or subject matter expert.

A collection of best practices, principles, and models that offers guidance to IT organizations for managing their IT services.

An incident that is causing significant business impact.

When a supervisor or team leader monitors an analyst's interactions with customers or watches an analyst interact with a customer in order to measure the quality of an analyst's performance.

A key or important event in the life of a project.

A part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related illnesses and injuries; located on the Web at www.cdc.gov/niash/homepage.html.

Activities that use tools to observe network performance in an effort to minimize the impact of incidents.

The activities that inform all of the stakeholders in the incident management process (including management, the customer, and service desk analysts) about the status of outstanding incidents.

An agency of the U.S. Department of Labor that is dedicated to reducing hazards in the workplace and enforcing mandatory job-safety standards; also implements and improves health programs for workers; located on the Web at www.osha.gov.

Personal computer software products that are developed and distributed commercially

To have services provided by an outside supplier instead of providing them in-house.

A service desk that is fully responsible for resolving all problems and service requests, even if the solution requires extensive research or even coding changes.

A call center that makes telephone calls to customers, primarily for telemarketing.

A request that is beyond the capabilities of the service desk.

Tracking an incident to ensure that the customer is kept informed about the status of the incident, that the incident is resolved within the expected time frame, and that the customer is satisfied with the final resolution.

A customer satisfaction survey that asks customers for feedback about all contacts with the service desk during a certain time period.

A practice in which users bypass the formal support structure and seek assistance from their coworkers or someone in another department

service desk component that consists of the staff and structure put in place within a company or department to support its customers by performing business processes

step-by-step, detailed set of instructions that describes how to perform the tasks in a process.

collection of interrelated work activities that take a set of specific inputs and produce a set of specific outputs that are of value to a customer

A small mobile hand-held device that provides computing and information-storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use.

method of distributing digital media files over the Internet to personal computers and portable media players.

Helping people who have purchased a company's product or service.

Answering questions for people who have not yet purchased a company's products or services

A service desk that must cover its expenses and, perhaps, make a profit by charging a fee for support services

technique for determining the most significant causes from a list of many possible causes of a problem.

category that defines the relative importance of an incident and is based on the event's impact and urgency.

process responsible for managing the lifecycle of problems

employee of the support organization who coordinates all problem management activities and ensures problems are resolved within SLA targets.

An efficiency measure that relates output (goods and services produced) to input (the number of hours worked)

temporary endeavor undertaken to complete a unique product, service, or result

Web "supersite" that provides a variety of services such as a site search to locate pertinent articles and white papers, a product and services buyer's guide, a discussion or message board, event calendars, and publications

A way to deliver information to Web-enabled PCs. The information is delivered in one of two ways: In the push method, the server contacts the client when there is new information to send. In the pull method, the client contacts the server to determine whether new information is available.

Web page visit

service desk that uses information to anticipate and prevent incidents and prepare for the future

process of planning and managing a project

summary document that describes a project, its objectives, and how the objectives are to be achieved

description of the work to be done

characteristic that measures how well products or services meet customer requirements. A measure of how well services meet customer expectations

customer request for instruction on how to use a product, such as "How do I...?"

searching technique that uses queries, or questions, to find records that match the specified search criteria. Queries can include search operators

line; can be used to refer to a list of calls, tickets, or e-mail messages waiting to be processed

Systems that allow the service desk to take remote control of the keyboard, screen, or mouse of connected devices and then troubleshoot problems, transfer files, and even provide informal training by viewing or operating the customer's screen

Technology that enables an analyst to take over a caller's keyboard, screen, mouse, or other connected devices to troubleshoot incidents, transfer files, provide informal training, and even collaborate on documents

Technology that tracks and collects alerts generated by network, system, or application monitoring systems and passes them to a central server where they can be automatically picked up, evaluated, and, when appropriate, logged as an incident

business calculation that measures the total financial benefit derived from an investment - such as a new technology project - and then compares it with the total cost of the project.

request to change the production environment

process responsible for handling service requests from IT users

Something that is necessary or essential

most basic reason for an undesirable condition or problem, which, if eliminated or corrected, would prevent the problem from existing or occurring

methodical way of determining why problems occur and identifying ways to prevent them

Technology that records and plays back telephone calls

form or letter that asks for specific product information relative to the company's requirements

form or letter that requests financial information as well as product information

system made up of (1) rules, (2) facts, and (3) a knowledge base or engine that combines rules and facts to reach a conclusion

A service desk that simply responds to events that occur each day

collection of related fields

percentage of incidents an analyst opens back up compared to the total number of incidents that analyst closed during a given period of time

Details that describe how an incident was resolved

percentage of incidents an analyst resolves compared to the total number of incidents that analyst handled during a given period of time

length of time a customer waits for a reply to a fax, e-mail, or Web-based request

Physical symptoms caused by excessive and repeated use of the hands, wrist, arms, and thumbs; these symptoms occur when people perform tasks using force, repeated strenuous actions, awkward postures, and poorly designed equipment

single point of contact within a company for managing customer incidents and service requests

Services that enable the continued use of a system once it is released for distribution

the context of a multi-level support model, customers solving incidents on their own is known

written document that spells out the services the service desk will provide to the customer, the customer's responsibilities, and how service performance is measured

As defined by ITIL, a request for information or advice, access to an IT service, or a standard change

service desk that has anywhere from one to 10 people on staff

preapproved change that is low risk and follows a procedure

person who has a high level of experience or knowledge about a particular subject

The skills, such as stress and time management, that people need to complete their work effectively, feel job satisfaction, and avoid frustration or burnout

person who typically establishes the service desk mission and focuses on the service desk's strategic or long-term goals; also called a service desk director

Another name for the senior service desk manager

The person who works closely with the senior service desk manager to prepare the service desk's budget and plan its activities for the coming year

person who oversees the day-to-day operation of the service desk, which includes making sure the service desk is meeting its SLA commitments, monitoring and evaluating the performance of service desk staff, and ensuring that the staff is properly trained; also called team leader

qualities that people need to deliver great service, such as active listening skills, verbal skills, customer service skills, problem-solving skills, temperament, teamwork skills, and writing skills

unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented software

process responsible for collecting and maintaining information about IT assets and showing the relationships that exist among those assets

A set of tools and databases that are used to manage knowledge and information about IT services

The impact an incident is having on the business

disciplined, data-driven approach for eliminating defects in any process

document that contains an agreed, repeatable way of doing something

CTI function that enables information about the caller to appear, or "pop" up, on the analyst's monitor, and is based on caller information captured by the telephone system and passed to a computer system

questions or incident symptoms entered by a user

Connecting words such as AND, OR, and NOT sometimes used in queries; also called Boolean operators

Hardware devices and software applications that have the ability to detect and correct incidents on their own

function that transfers the call as well as all the information collected in the ticket up to that point

An ACD feature that matches the requirements of an incoming call to the skill sets of available analysts or analyst groups. The ACD then distributes the call to the next available, most qualified analyst

Technology that allows an analyst to automatically distribute software to clients and servers on the same network

Systems that work with ACD systems to collect, report, and forecast call volumes

Linking together different computer systems and applications physically or functionally

Measurable objectives that support the service desk's mission

grid that rates each analyst's level of skill on every product, system, and service supported by the service desk

Details about an incident that are used to track the incident throughout its lifecycle, including incident status (such as assigned, awaiting parts, resolved, closed), the person or group assigned, date and time assigned, and priority

A wide range of services that enable people and companies to continuously use the computing technology they acquired or developed

tools and systems people use to do their work

total amount that a company or person spends on computer technology over its lifetime. A considerable portion of the TCO is technical support

selling of products and services over the telephone

process of determining a customer's need and routing him or her to the appropriate support group

Another name for the service desk supervisor

skills people need to use and support the specific products and technologies the service desk supports

time constraint placed on each level that ensures that incident resolution activities are proceeding at an appropriate pace

time frame within which the support organization is expected to resolve an incident

The time frame within which the service desk or level two acknowledges the incident, diagnoses the incident, and estimates the target resolution time

system that Japan developed to implement Kaizen or continuing improvement

management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction

methodical way of determining and, when possible, forecasting service trends

Enable the creation and enhancement of tools

predefined item that can be used to quickly create a standard document or e-mail message

product or device that automates or facilitates a person's work

average length of time an analyst was idle during a given period of time

Activities that take up time and do not add value to the work that analysts perform, and in fact usually decrease productivity and increase stress levels

environment where people have access to their information and computing systems from public shared access points, such as airports, automated teller machines (ATMs), hotel rooms and lobbies, libraries, retail stores, and supermarkets

measure of how long it will be until an incident has a significant impact on the business

perceived worth, usefulness, or importance of a product or service to the customer

service desk that gives the impression of a centralized service desk by using sophisticated telephone systems and the Internet. In reality, the service desk analysts may be located in any number of locations, including their homes

An automated form of taking messages from callers

A technology that translates voice communications into data and then transmits that data across an Internet connection or network

A technology that integrates with another technology, such as a database or a network management system, to obtain information or to perform a function; also called an interactive voice response unit (IVRU)

company that has achieved and is able to sustain high levels of customer satisfaction. For example, a world class manufacturing company is considered excellent by its customers when compared to other service companies, regardless of what industry they are in

A collection of documents on the Internet with point-and-click access to information that is posted by government agencies, businesses, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and individuals around the world.

A method used to deliver presentations, lectures, workshops or seminars over the Web; short for Web-based seminar.

Temporarily circumventing or minimizing the impact of an incident.

A smooth, erasable white panel on which analysts write notes and communicate current and future events.

Technology that allows two or more users on a network to view one or more user's drawing, or a document or application being projected on an onscreen whiteboard.

The judicious application of knowledge.

A feature that prevents the ACD from routing a new inbound call to an analyst's extension.

The average length of time an analyst was in wrap-up mode during a given period of time.

The condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits.

An area outfitted with equipment and furnishings for one worker.

A term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and Web design that aim to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration, and functionality of the Web.

A task-oriented breakdown of the work to be done in a project.