Maintain a System Support Log

Reading: Create a system support log Create a system support log

Inside this reading:

What is a system support log? 2 What should it include? 2 Examples of support logs 4

Organisational standards and requirements 7 In-house developed standard 7 International and national standards 7 Industry de-facto standards 7

Maintaining support logs 9

Summary 11

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 1 - Reading: Create a system support log What is a system support log?

A system support log refers to paper-based or electronic documentation which is maintained by help desk and support personnel and technicians that might have responsibility for the fault finding process.

The reasons for maintaining and developing such logs are varied and very important to any successful support and help desk operation. These reasons can be summarised as follows:  Provide historical data This data allows a manager to access historical data, which can be analysed for trends, and to help develop preventative measures.  Identify preventative measures Support logs provide an IT manager with data that can help identify faults and how to prevent these. If faults can be prevented, the efficiency and effectiveness of an IT operation will be greatly enhanced.  Build knowledge bases/support databases These data/knowledge bases allows support personnel to have access to historical data and possibly construct procedures for dealing with these faults in the future. Technicians may use these records as future reference.  Simplify the troubleshooting process If someone else encountered the same or similar problem before, technicians will benefit by having rapid access to the solution or the strategies which may lead to the solution.  Provide Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Many support operations are often outsourced; hence, historical data will help develop contracts and Service Level Agreement (SLA). If SLAs are in place, these KPI may be used to assess and review performance against criteria within SLAs.

What should it include? Generally, system support logs will vary from organisation to organisation. Depending on the requirements, organisations will develop system support logs, by following internally developed standards or by following industry standard guidelines.

Nowadays system support logs are kept electronically in databases. Some organisations might still have requirements for some amount of paper-based

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 2 - Reading: Create a system support log documentation and logs, but increasingly, support teams are implementing electronic systems.

Electronic system support logs can be internally developed, by in-house software/application developers, or they can be purchased off-the-shelf as a ready made solution for support/help desk operation.

In house electronic system support logs Many organisations develop their own systems for system support logs. The reasons for this may include:  Lower costs Internally developed system support logs might work out cheaper than purchasing expensive commercial solutions.  In-house software development expertise If a business is lucky enough to have software and application developers in their team, they might be engaged in developing an in-house support solution  Better caters for business needs In-house developed systems might better cater for the needs of a business. Particularly, if there are specific technical requirements (ie compatibility issues)

Commercial system support solutions Generally, these products are purpose built to assist support and help desk operations. Commonly, commercial product’s features include:  Specialist software Purpose- built for the task  Flexibility Suitable for more situations, one solution fits all  Support Producers provide ongoing support and continued development of the product  Implements best practice Generally, product follow industry trends and guidelines of what constitutes best-of-breed practice  Support for standards Software is fully compatibility with most platforms  Products adheres to quality standards and guidelines Many commercial products already implement functions which are compliant with standards such ISO 9000 and ITIL  Can be expensive Many commercial products might have prohibitive costs for SMEs.

In terms of what type of information is actually maintained in system support logs, it is difficult to predict, given differing requirements from business to business. However, generally, the following items are common in most support logs and incident management systems for tracking incidents and faults.  Issue #  Initiator (who logged the call)  Initiator Extension or Phone #

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 3 - Reading: Create a system support log  Date/Time Opened  Summary Description  Impact/Importance  Type (of fault)  Owner (of system)  Current Status (open, in process, closed)  Next Step  Next Step Date  Completion Date  Resolution, development request # or link to vendor support request

The above list is not exhaustive and does not include all possible items that the business might need to include. Again, businesses will assess their needs and choose what information is required and build and maintain logs accordingly.

Examples of support logs System support logs can be developed in house, or purchased as an off-the- shelf commercial solution.

Many businesses that choose to develop their system support log solution in-house, can take several approaches to developing these:

An electronic data base system – in this case, databases can be large systems running on dedicated database servers, and have special front-end applications to interface with the database; web-based interfaces, where technicians use an Internet browser to use the system; or, more simple database solutions using a product such as MS Access or FileMaker Pro. The following is an example of a simple system support log developed in Microsoft Access:

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 4 - Reading: Create a system support log Figure: example of a simple system support log

An electronic purposely built application – these are developed as fully fledged systems, using an object oriented development environment such as JAVA, Visual Basic.NET or C++.

Simple spreadsheet applications – Small businesses particularly resort to less sophisticated solutions such as customised spreadsheet applications using a product such as MS Excel. An example is shown below:

Figure: Simple spreadsheet application

Commercial applications are varied and examples are abundant. A simple search on an Internet search engine on Help Desk software will return thousands of hits with reference to dozens of applications. With system support logs being critical in the support role, all help desk software applications will provide some form of logging, or fault tracking. A common term to define fault-tracking is ‘ticketing’. Whenever, someone logs a call with the help desk, an electronic ‘ticket’ is issued, becoming a reference number. Any subsequent calls will need to refer to this ticket number/incident number.

Among the providers of help desk software is the BMC Remedy IT Service Management software suite (www.bmc.com/remedy). Remedy provides a whole range of software applications that addresses help desk support, change management, knowledge management and all aspects of the IT lifecycle. Go to the BMC website above and look under "Product Families. Choose the "IT Service Management" link and take a look at the product sheets for screenshots and details.

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 5 - Reading: Create a system support log The company Altiris also supplies enterprise-grade help desk software. The Altiris software offers similar features to Remedy, becoming a large enterprise-grade solution. For more information about Altiris products, visit their website at www.altiris.com.

A smaller application that is becoming well known is Intuit’s (http://www.itsolutions.intuit.com/) Track-It! You were already introduced to the Track-It! in an earlier Learning pack. Track-It! offers full help-desk capabilities and call/incident logging. Go to the Track-IT! website (http://www.itsolutions.intuit.com/) and select "Tour Track-It!" for an excellent short overview of this software. You may also download an evaluation version of Track-It!. Note that free registration is required.

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 6 - Reading: Create a system support log Organisational standards and requirements

There are several approaches to determining what standards are required. The following will explore what are the options on which businesses may base their decisions.

In-house developed standard In this case, the business will actually work out in-house what the standard should be in terms of documentation and maintaining system support logs. The benefit of this approach is that a business may achieve maximum flexibility, developing a system which is carefully tailored to the needs of the business. On the other hand, businesses can fall into the trap of maintaining inadequate records and maintenance, if a proper development process does not take place – this will result in slack record maintenance rendering support ineffective.

International and national standards National standard bodies (Standards Australia – www.standards.com.au) and international bodies (such as the International Standard Organisation – ISO, www.iso.org) have developed and promulgated standards for the keeping of system documentation and covering support logs. The actual standard that is applicable to the development and management of systems documentation is AS 3876—1991 (based on ISO 6592-1985). Clearly, businesses that choose to maintain support logs and follow these standards will benefit by implementing best practice, maximising effectiveness and efficiency.

Industry de-facto standards De facto standards are standards that haven’t been ratified or endorsed by national or international bodies, but have been accepted by industry as valuable. De facto standards do not become standards overnight, but they gain their recognition by having numerous businesses that choose to

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 7 - Reading: Create a system support log implement the system. As far as documentation, and managing the IT lifecycle, a UK based organisation has become prominent around the world due to their highly respected work. This organisation is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library – ITIL (www.itil.co.uk), which originated nestled in the UK government and public service system. Many vendors such as Microsoft embrace ITIL, and even help desk software developers include support for ITIL guidelines – one such product is Remedy.

It is important to stress the criticality of implementing system support logs that follow a well developed and sound standard, which will underpin the effectiveness and efficiency of a help desk operation.

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 8 - Reading: Create a system support log Maintaining support logs

System support log maintenance is generally the responsibility of technicians, engineers, help desk operators and anyone involved in the fault finding process. The way in which the log is maintained will fundamentally depend on the system being used.

Manual and paper based systems – personnel are fully responsible for filling out and completing paper based documentation. Generally, businesses that use paper based or manual system would have developed standard forms which are widely available to all involved in the fault finding process. Due to the nature of paper based systems, careful records must be maintained to make the system an efficient one. Inadequate filing and keeping of paper based support logs will result in an inefficient system. Consequently technicians might have difficulty finding historical data, which might be relevant to current faults. Clearly, electronic systems are simpler to maintain and provide a wider range of functions, such as data analysis, fast retrieval of data, trending, reporting etc.

Electronic systems – As with paper based systems, the maintenance of logs is the responsibility of technicians, engineers, help desk operators and anyone involved in the fault finding process. Electronic systems, whether developed in-house or commercially developed, are far more efficient and easier to maintain. Electronic systems are software based and generally widely available to anyone who requires access to it. The methods for maintaining and updating these logs will depend directly on the system, and what sorts of interfaces are available. Generally, the following methods might be used to update and maintain system support logs:  Simple systems developed in-house, such as customised spreadsheet applications are generally updated directly. The data entry is performed directly on the spreadsheet. Sometimes an interface might be developed to streamline the data entry process, and perhaps to provide additional functions such as reports, graphics and charts. These spreadsheet applications are generally only available to a small number of computers. Generally only suited to small operations.  Small database systems such as those developed using products such as Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro might be developed as applications. For instance, people that develop Access databases, generally provide an interface in the form of a switchboard, with links to data entry forms, reports, charts etc. These systems are

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 9 - Reading: Create a system support log generally only available to a small number of computers. Generally only suited to small operations.  Medium and large database systems, such in-house or commercially developed products, generally provide more sophisticated interfaces for data entry. These are widely available to network users throughout an entire enterprise over a LAN and possibly a WAN. These products might also make use of Internet technologies, such as web servers and browsers. Generally, the database system is regarded as a ‘back end’ system, set-up on a dedicated database network server. The client accesses the system via purpose-built interfaces developed as client applications. Increasingly, help desk support systems rely on web browser technology to provide a ‘web- like’ interface which users can access anywhere without the need for a special interface or client application. Remedy is an example of a product that allows the user to interact with the system via a web browser.

Regardless of the system being used, maintenance of system support logs is critical to the effectiveness and efficiency of a support operation. Ultimately, it is up to support personnel to update the records and ensure that all data entry is performed accurately and timely – without disciplined and accurate maintenance even the most sophisticated electronic systems will not be effective.

03f0fca9e7a46237e8a0b398848ffd4c.doc © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 - 10 - Reading: Create a system support log Summary

This reading has covered a series of topics relating to maintaining and developing system support logs. You have learnt about developing documentation, recording maintenance and fault data, identifying and reporting instances where preventative measures are needed, and reviewing and updating maintenance and fault data periodically.