Serve assists with technological issues

The Serve Help Desk has seen an increase in work requests this semester. Serve is the technology help center for Georgia College students, faculty and staff. The service assists campus members with a variety of tasks from computer repairs to  technology purchases and workshops.

“There’s 71 open tickets (as of March 16),” said Director of Technology Support Services, James Carlisle. “Those are tickets that haven’t been assigned to technicians. Some are myCATS, student Google passwords, repairs…just different stuff.”

Bobbi Otis | gcsunade.com

Junior management information systems major Tony Deleza works on computers for students, faculty and staff at Serve Help Desk. There are 71 open tickets that have yet to be assigned to technicians for work this semester.

“Add a couple hundred on top of (this semester’s total) for the things we take care of when students come in,” said Technology Support Technician Joe Kelley. “A lot of the student stuff doesn’t get in our information system.”

The help desk has six student workers, two temporary employees and two full-time employees—one currently on medical leave.

Those 10 employees serve both faculty and staff and students equally.

“It’s split evenly (between faculty and students),” Carlisle said. “I feel bad for both sides when they’re having to stand in line behind one another. It seems like there should be separation.”

For students, Serve can help with computer recommendations, device registration, email set up and computer repairs. Almost 90 percent of the computers problems Serve sees are from viruses and malware, Carlisle said. Students can bring their computers to Serve to have them repaired when problems arise.

“We get roughly 60 to 80 (computer repairs) in the beginning of the semester. The first of the semester is really busy, the middle is so-so and then in the end it picks up,” Carlisle said. “(Serve employees) have about 10 (repairs) that they’re working on at any time.”

Due to the high number, the turnaround time on repairs is not always as fast as Carlisle would hope.

“The biggest challenge I would say is…(to) provide a timely service,” Carlisle said. “In a dream world I would love it to be an hour. It’s generally three to five days, which is not bad. It’s sometimes longer and that gets frustrating for students.”

If Serve cannot fix a computer, it sends the machine off to an outside service provider, which can take even longer.

Serve provides technology quotes, purchases and set up for faculty and staff. The help desk also aids in any technological problems on campus. In addition, Serve is responsible for making email accounts and passwords for new faculty and staff members.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Apr 2 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.