I started to use computers in 1990 as a hobby but in October 1992 started officially working as an Information Technology professional which I continue to do to this day. I have extensive experience working in a high volume IT Help/Service Desk/Customer Service Centre environments providing technical information, guidance and support via Phone, Email and in Person. My experience of providing first point of contact support comes from working for the federal department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) and NSW state department of education and training (DET). In the past 3 years I have moved into service delivery, improvement and management roles.
My journey into computers and everything IT started in 1990 while I was completing an office administration traineeship within the federal government department of employment, education and training (DEET for short). During 1990 I used computers all the time. The computer system being used at the time was all text based, there was a simple menu system that you would use the keyboard to launch programs. The spark of interest for me which would soon turn into a fully fledged fire was lit for me when my first supervisor sat down with me to show me the computer and how to use it. He showed me the basics but he was eager to show me his greatest achievement. This was the fact that he’d figured out to break out of the menu system and get to what’s called the command prompt. When at the prompt you could type in commands and the computer would do things. After seeing him doing this I was totally hooked.
As quickly as I could afford to I bought my first computer, an Arrow 286. I wanted to experiment and learn everything there was to know, it quickly became my full time hobby, I would spend all my free time trying this or that and seeing what would happen. I learnt through trial and error. I read computer magazines and would go onto buy so many books that I could have opened my own computer book store. My knowledge of how to use computers increased to a point that I found during most of 1991 and the first half of 1992 I was spending an increasing amount of time assisting people at work with their computer questions and problems. People found that they could come to me and ask their questions and I’d be able to answer them quickly. I found that I liked… loved helping people and so when the chance came to work for the IT unit for three months I jumped at it and ended up staying within the IT unit for years.
My primary duty in DEET between 1992 to June 1998 was to work on the Help Desk and provide phone support for DEET staff located at 120+ Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) offices, the State Office and Area/Regional offices. As my experience and expertise grew, I became responsible for training new staff and was often called on by other Help Desk staff to assist them in the resolution of reported problems and carrying out of requests. I eventually became one of the senior staff and was responsible for its day to day operations when the manager was unavailable. I would also officially act in the manager’s position.
From June 1998 to March 2009 After leaving DEET (due to a government restructure of IT), I commenced working for NSW Department of Education - TAFE Sydney Institute/Region. I was hired as the ‘Help Desk Coordinator’ responsible for the day to day operations of the Help Desk, bringing consistency and continuity to its operation. I had 3 primary duties; define and maintain the various Operational Tasks of the Help Desk, answer incoming phone calls and emails and to be the Team Leader and provide assistance to the staff assigned to work on the Help Desk. I defined, maintained and documented the Operational Tasks (use of phone system, process service desk emails, process hardware faults and account management requests. I’ve written internal documents/emails etc that explain to staff assigned to the Help Desk how to resolve certain types of technical problems and requests. Much of this documentation has been compiled into a Procedures Manual. I had also written over 30 ‘user documents’ that explain how to solve many of the most frequently asked questions the Help Desk receives. These documents are published on the Sydney Institute intranet site (SydNet) and allow Institute Staff to help/support themselves. For staff assigned to work on the Help Desk, I acted as the Team Leader providing each staff member with assistance, support, training, information and guidance so that they can provide effective and consistent service and support to Institute staff contacting the Help Desk. Where possible I try to mentor staff assigned to work on the Help Desk and develop their skills and abilities. Doing this benefits not only the individual but also improves the quality of service we can provide to Institute staff. my duties also included completing projects assigned to me by my managers and also to produce and deliver various oral, written and statistical reports related to the Help Desk and ICT unit’s operations.
In March 2009 I accepted a promotion to grade 5/6 Support Analyst within the Information Technology Directorate Service Desk. The ITD Service Desk provides services and support to the staff in over 2,400 locations throughout the state which includes primary/high schools, regional and state offices. I now work within a much larger team spread over 4 physical locations. I carried out many of the same duties as I did while working for Sydney Institute/Region.
In January 2010 applied for and gained a promotion to become ‘Senior Service Improvement Analyst’ in this role I have done the following
- Negotiated with Product and Service owners to introduce and maintain operational service level agreements, processes, procedures, work instructions, fact sheets etc that support analysts dealing incoming phone calls and responding to the emails use to their jobs.
- Negotiated with Product and Service owners to introduce new tools and applications to the Service Desk so that they can resolve more incidents/requests during first point of contact with the Customer.
- Helped design and setup a document management and publishing system (using SharePoint)
- Introduced Customer Surveys to the Service Desk
- Created SharePoint based solutions to allow better collaboration between the Service Desk and various other teams
- Assisting to introduce industry standard frameworks like the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
- Am the project coordinator involved in the introduction of Knowledge Management for the Service Desk and various regional support groups using the KCS Framework.