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orange sky posted:Guys, I need an opinion on something. I'm implementing stuff in a company and I need to write manuals for Helpdesk use. Is there any template that you guys found particularly easy to use? Any general guidelines? It's the first one I'm doing ever and I wanna do something good. I've got screenshots for every. drat. step. So what I'm looking for is a general structure (should I use tables with steps? something to differentiate what users must do and what helpdesk must do?). Thing is, what I'm doing might look comprehensible to me but I know every step by heart by now, so I'm not 100% sure someone else will understand what I mean. I've always been of the opinion that if they can see the screen, screenshots are generally unnecessary. A feel-good checkpoint screenshot is OK. Otherwise if this is a call center, and the screen is on the other end of the phone, or the UI is so incomprehensible that it can't be described in words, then go nuts with screenshots. Use a numbered list for steps and use sub-procedures. (Example: 1. Open an elevated command prompt. 1a. Select [Start]. 1b. Type etc. This way an experienced user can skip to the meat while no alienating novices.) Experience is hard to fight. Go through your procedures and make sure everything you do is written down. If you're really trying hard, try to think of a way of doing it wrong that still fits in your instructions. If there is more than one way to do things, pick one for the instructions, or explain how the user should choose if it matters. If you were writing instructions for the assembly of a chair, don't say "Attach either arm, and then the other", say "Attach the left arm, and then the right arm". Even though it probably doesn't matter, you will save your user a decision.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:31
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orange sky posted:Guys, I need an opinion on something. I'm implementing stuff in a company and I need to write manuals for Helpdesk use. Is there any template that you guys found particularly easy to use? Any general guidelines? It's the first one I'm doing ever and I wanna do something good. I've got screenshots for every. drat. step. So what I'm looking for is a general structure (should I use tables with steps? something to differentiate what users must do and what helpdesk must do?). Thing is, what I'm doing might look comprehensible to me but I know every step by heart by now, so I'm not 100% sure someone else will understand what I mean. I love screenshots for multi-step processes. I don't know of any templates off the top of my head, but I recommend laying on the screenshots pretty heavily. I think this even more true since you already have the screenshots. The person above me mentioned screenshots not being that important if the user can have the actual page/screen open in front of him. I disagree, because "Open the 'Tools' menu" is enough to throw off a significant portion of users. When writing an opinion essay, I've heard that you're supposed to close with a reiteration of your opening statement, so: I love screenshots for multi-step processes.
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Dec 1, 2014 22:26
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Also, perhaps this will make things much easier for you http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows7/how-do-i-use-problem-steps-recorder
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Dec 1, 2014 22:30
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Guy Axlerod posted:If there is more than one way to do things, pick one for the instructions, or explain how the user should choose if it matters. If you were writing instructions for the assembly of a chair, don't say "Attach either arm, and then the other", say "Attach the left arm, and then the right arm". Even though it probably doesn't matter, you will save your user a decision. I like this  I've got to write some docs for our customers on how to change their voicemail messages to show they are in holiday mode, so I'll bear this in mind, as though bitter experience, some of them can find the most arcane ways to screw stuff up, even with (what I would consider) clear instructions ...
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Dec 1, 2014 23:53
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m.hache posted:Also, perhaps this will make things much easier for you I swear this is the number one thing that gets me the "Are you a wizard?" look from colleagues. I've no idea why it isn't more widely known.
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Dec 2, 2014 00:14
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Confluence is pretty great for writing how to documents, combined with the windows snipping tool I have been punching out howtos all week as part of my handover plan. It's only :tenbux: for ten users and we just use one of those licenses for a generic read-only account as there's only about 5 of us who actually need to add to it. For the price I can't recommend it enough for structured technical documentation. And it exports nice to word/PDF if you need.
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Dec 2, 2014 00:36
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skooky posted:I swear this is the number one thing that gets me the "Are you a wizard?" look from colleagues. I've no idea why it isn't more widely known. I have never heard of it before today. While I mostly work on a Mac, when I'm in the office I do use my Windows box and I can totally see using this when presenting mock-ups for new procedures for some of the projects I do. There are also some people who create staging and setup documentation that I know who will think I'm the second coming of Jesus when I show them this.
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Dec 2, 2014 00:38
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We deployed a shortcut to psr.exe onto the desktop at my old job, and the helpdesk pretty much bribed people to use it by very visibly resolving tickets first if they had a recording attached.
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Dec 2, 2014 00:46
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BurgerQuest posted:Confluence is pretty great for writing how to documents, combined with the windows snipping tool I have been punching out howtos all week as part of my handover plan. Yup I got the license for my org so I can hop in and vomit brain matter into a document.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:12
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orange sky posted:Guys, I need an opinion on something. I'm implementing stuff in a company and I need to write manuals for Helpdesk use. Is there any template that you guys found particularly easy to use? Any general guidelines? It's the first one I'm doing ever and I wanna do something good. I've got screenshots for every. drat. step. So what I'm looking for is a general structure (should I use tables with steps? something to differentiate what users must do and what helpdesk must do?). Thing is, what I'm doing might look comprehensible to me but I know every step by heart by now, so I'm not 100% sure someone else will understand what I mean. Something that always served me well was to have someone not intimately involved in the process (I usually hit up one of the admin assistants) to review the document to make sure that it makes sense and that you didn't accidentally skip a step.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:18
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Thanks Ants posted:We deployed a shortcut to psr.exe onto the desktop at my old job, and the helpdesk pretty much bribed people to use it by very visibly resolving tickets first if they had a recording attached. I think the word is "extorted," but they're users, so they probably had it coming.
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Dec 2, 2014 07:19
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m.hache posted:Also, perhaps this will make things much easier for you Holy. poo poo. Ahahahah
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Dec 2, 2014 11:06
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Oh hey a new Lync woe: Lync is now, randomly, preventing me from seeing new messages. People are sending them, and the client is receiving them, but it will not show in the Lync windows at all. Affects all Lync tabs. Only way to fix this is to restart Lync. God loving drat this is a horribly coded program.
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Dec 2, 2014 11:41
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Lync is awful. I'm also annoyed there's no option that I can see to remove the timestamps from the chat window.
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Dec 2, 2014 11:43
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That all sounds _exactly_ like the issues I had with the previous versions of skype for linux. Coincidence?
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Dec 2, 2014 11:45
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Truga posted:That all sounds _exactly_ like the issues I had with the previous versions of skype for linux. Coincidence? Probably not, I've had absolutely no problems with Skype for Windows, especially nothing like that. Besides, Skype code is completely different than Lync code (and Skype was (mostly) coded by non-Microsoft people before the buyout so)
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Dec 2, 2014 13:14
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m.hache posted:Also, perhaps this will make things much easier for you If you don't move the whole thing over to a Word document, don't forget to attach a PDF on how to unzip and double click a file. I've blasted out a .mht or two in my time and it confuses the poo poo out of people 
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Dec 2, 2014 15:06
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"I know we put the me getting a new laptop on hold but I will need it sooner than later." That is a real sentence written by the holder of a J.D. and an M.P.A. Also, I don't supply laptops, and the reason she wants a new one is that she somehow managed to hurt herself carrying a laptop through an airport because "It is entirely too heavy." I don't even dislike this user, or most of my users. She's very nice. I just find them... puzzling.
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Dec 2, 2014 17:16
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guppy posted:"I know we put the me getting a new laptop on hold but I will need it sooner than later." It's a lot more clear with more punctuation. "I know we put the 'me getting a new laptop' on hold, but I will need it sooner than later."
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Dec 2, 2014 18:40
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I know what she meant, it's just embarrassing writing from a ten year old, much less a holder of multiple postgraduate degrees.
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Dec 2, 2014 19:50
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No tickets came in... because my new employer doesn't have a ticketing system  I'd love to get some recommendations for a small shop. We'd be starting with 5 agents. There's no infrastructure here, so it probably needs to be a cloud solution. Ideally I'd get ITIL-style incident/problem/change/asset management out of one tool, but that seems to really narrow down the field. I came from a Service Now shop and would love to get Service Now Express in the door, but they have a $10k/year minimum, or 17 agents at $50/user/month. Ouch. I've also found FreshService, but so far they aren't answering their phones. Anyone have recommendations for me, or experiences with FreshService to share? Budget's probably $5k/year at most, unless the added features justify the cost.
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Dec 2, 2014 23:29
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KS posted:No tickets came in... Spiceworks is free. I don't know if there are other free solutions but that might be a good option if your budget is tight.
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Dec 2, 2014 23:32
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KS posted:No tickets came in... The main recommendation your likely to get is Spiceworks which works well enough for a small shop and is free. You may also have access to Service Manager through your Microsoft Licensing agreement although that would be like killing a fly with a bazooka at that companies size.
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Dec 2, 2014 23:34
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KS posted:No tickets came in... Zendesk is what you want.
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Dec 2, 2014 23:36
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Sickening posted:Zendesk is what you want. Seconded. I have 12 agents for under 5k/year and it's all in the cloud! Been using it for 3+ years with no real complaints.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:06
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Anyone have any opinion on BMC Track-It? We have local infrastructure so hosting it isn't an issue. We have a trial setup right now and it looks like it ticks all the boxes of having ticket management, asset management, and change management (all 3 of which we are sorely lacking in.)
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Dec 3, 2014 00:24
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bull3964 posted:BMC Track-It Good for IT, bad if you want to customize it, really bad if other departments want a piece. BMC Footprints is what happens when other departments want a piece, but won't tell you which piece. You can cross-departmentalize tickets and heavily customize/create automated workflows, but only if the departments use similar fields/keys. "But my department is special!" and then it all falls to poo poo.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:39
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Worked here 12 years. No ticketing system. Pretty nice.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:44
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Lord Dudeguy posted:Good for IT, bad if you want to customize it, really bad if other departments want a piece. I am in the middle of deploying a new install of FootPrints 12 as a 'clean slate' with no legacy crap from the old special snowflake workspaces. We've boiled it down to 4 main workgroups in alignment with ITIL, but there are a bunch of ticket types in some of them. The ability to have a single pane of glass is great, and the different forms in the same workspace is awesome. I really like the level of customization, but the having to create everything, and I mean everything is a little tedious.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:57
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Lord Dudeguy posted:Good for IT, bad if you want to customize it, really bad if other departments want a piece. It'll just be for IT. It will only be used by 4 techs (including myself.) We have an office of about 120ish users/computers and so far have just been using an email group for end user request. It would just be better if they could submit them to a system instead for better visibility. That workload is honestly pretty light. However, on the production end of things, we are the ones managing our SaaS platform and need a bit more organization with things like change management. Right now our bug tracking system is doing double duty tracking setup and maintenance tasks and it really isn't suited for it. Our end user client support is already through Kayako, so there's no intention at all for this system to be used cross departments.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:58
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As said, Zendesk. Kayako and JIRA Service Desk get honourable mentions.
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Dec 3, 2014 01:00
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Thanks Ants posted:As said, Zendesk. Kayako and JIRA Service Desk get honourable mentions. I really like Jira, but it's going to be too expensive if they want users to have accounts and be able to comment on/track issues. If they use it just for IT internally and have less than 10 users it'll be $10/month hosted though.
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Dec 3, 2014 01:04
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So if I go with Zendesk, is there a recommended product to integrate with it to do asset management? Anyone used Panorama9 or SAManage?
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Dec 3, 2014 01:25
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KS posted:So if I go with Zendesk, is there a recommended product to integrate with it to do asset management? Anyone used Panorama9 or SAManage? Be wary, all the ones I think that have integration are expensive as gently caress. As important as asset tracking is, the prices I saw weren't even reasonable for any small business.
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Dec 3, 2014 02:35
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Deskpro is way cheaper and (imo) better than zendesk, and the deskpro guys are all super awesome.
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Dec 3, 2014 03:21
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Rawrbomb posted:Deskpro is way cheaper and (imo) better than zendesk, and the deskpro guys are all super awesome. Way cheaper than zendesk? Is it free or something? I can't imagine any reputable software being cheaper than zendesk for 5 agents.
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Dec 3, 2014 04:00
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Sickening posted:Way cheaper than zendesk? Is it free or something? I can't imagine any reputable software being cheaper than zendesk for 5 agents. No, not cheaper at the entry level, but I was doing cost comparison about 2 years ago now for it, though we needed the enterprise/plus area. I didn't realize they were offering cheaper plans. I still have major issues with zendesk otherwise.
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Dec 3, 2014 04:19
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bull3964 posted:It'll just be for IT. It will only be used by 4 techs (including myself.) We have an office of about 120ish users/computers and so far have just been using an email group for end user request. That sounds like a lot of techs for only 120 people. Are the 5 of you in charge of the entire infrastructure or just the end user support? Either way sounds like an awful lot of man power.
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Dec 3, 2014 07:18
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:I really like Jira, but it's going to be too expensive if they want users to have accounts and be able to comment on/track issues. If they use it just for IT internally and have less than 10 users it'll be $10/month hosted though. Isn't that what Jira Service Desk fixes? Pay per agent with unlimited customers.
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Dec 3, 2014 11:05
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bull3964 posted:BMC Track-It? I've never personally used it, but I sat next to a team of 6 first line guys who used it. They hated it with a passion and were so much happier about ticketing when I replaced it with Hornbill's Supportworks.
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Dec 3, 2014 14:04
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