Self Service Portal and Knowledge Base–A Gateway to Tech Solutions
Looking for help with a technological problem? Well, thanks to the recent introduction of a brand-new UMass Boston IT Self Service portal, the solution is near! The IT Self Service portal and Knowledge Base (https://umassboston.service-now.com/sp) allows you, the client, to find the assistance you need to address commonly occurring information technology issues with a few simple clicks.
With the IT Self Service portal, email, chat, or phone calls are no longer the only ways to get IT assistance. Beginning in March 2021, individuals at UMass Boston have been able to leverage the knowledge base, enter their own issues to create a ticket, track the status of their ticket while it’s open, and then again after it’s been closed, all through the new IT Self Service portal. The portal acts as a central hub in which clients can see all the correspondence that has been done regarding their issue(s).
“People like to see everything that’s been done on their ticket,” said Michael Lyons, Assistant Vice Chancellor of IT Client Services and lead on this project. “This provides a way to monitor open items and review previous tickets, which was much more difficult before.”
“The IT Self Service portal and Knowledge Base will improve IT service delivery, and it’s something we are excited to build off of as we go forward.”
Michael Lyons, Assistant Vice Chancellor of IT Client Services
The IT Self Service portal is not only a vessel for transparency among clients and the staff who work on their tickets, it also comes with an extensive knowledge base which attempts to aid clients in solving their issue before they even need to enter a ticket. The knowledge base allows clients to type their question into a search bar and directs them to recommendations for helpful articles related to the issue they’re looking to solve. The service also enables internal agents to communicate with a client regarding how their issue was solved. The internal agents can send links to knowledge base articles previously used to solve known issues so that those experiencing similar issues can quickly, through selfservice, address their own issue in a timely manner.
“The best ticket for us is the ticket that doesn’t get entered, because people find the answer that they need to solve their problem,” said Lyons.
Now that the IT Self Service portal has been launched, expansion of the ServiceNow IT service management platform (ITSM) to areas outside of IT is underway. Such areas include the IT Support Team for Student Affairs, Athletics, and the Academic Affairs Central Business Unit. Tom Miller, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Financial Services and head of the Central Business Unit for Academic Affairs, has found great success in utilizing the ServiceNow ITSM platform to track support issues, workloads, and performance metrics. At the time of writing, Miller is excited to integrate the IT Self Service portal piece of ServiceNow into his team’s technological structure.
The creation of the IT Self Service portal was a collaborative effort between the IT Service Desk team and other departments within IT Services. Lyons spoke to the contributions of Peter Adams, Supervisor of the IT Service Desk, Jeeva Arthur, the lead database developer for Service- Now, Linda Modiste, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Application Services, Tom McClennan, a Business Systems Analyst, Jim Wyse, Director of IT Web Services, and John Mazzarella, interim Assistant Vice Chancellor of IT Client Services.
“The IT Self Service portal and Knowledge Base will improve IT service delivery, and it’s something we are excited to build off of as we go forward,” said Lyons.