Texas Wesleyan’s Help Desk is now the Service Desk.
The difference is not just a name change. The reorganization means that “the Service Desk is now like a secretary for Facilities,” said Maria Dominique Brown-Spence, a Wesleyan graduate and Service Desk employee.
“We send the tickets out and it gives Facilities a schedule with an estimated time to have requests solved,” Spence said.
Spence spoke highly of the new approach to organizing the school’s maintenance requests.
The reorganization helps Wesleyan hold people accountable instead of running simply on a word of mouth request for help or services, she said.
This has eliminated the complaints for the turn around on job completions, said Spence.
Spence said that the change has made her job easier with the help of the four student workers and the three analysts also working for the Service Desk.
“The student workers really help to free up the technicians for the major things, and the students can handle the smaller things,” Spence said.
Sallie Trotter, Wesleyan’s Service Desk director, said everyone is using the new system. Students are the biggest users, she said, then faculty and staff.
“There is not so much a transition, but more of a rebranding,” Trotter said, “to say we will try and help with anything.”
Trotter said that the Service Desk is still doing business as usual, but they want to let people know they are still out there.
“We are using the same system, but using it more regularly,” Trotter said.
The Service Desk is also working on a mobile component that will raise awarness that it is more than just an IT Desk, she said.
“One of our key strengths is our student workers and their involvement with other students,” Trotter said. “We have a diverse department to service our diverse community.”
Trotter also said that this change has not necessarily made her job easier, but it is better for the university.
“The Facilities adoption of the Service Desk tool has truly been a game changer for the department,” Michael J. Poole, director of Facilities, wrote in an e-mail. “We are now able to track and prioritize our work orders and ensure we complete them in a timely manner.”
Poole said that the partnership with the Service Desk has also helped out Facilities by handling the first call and guaranteeing that campus emergencies are pushed straight through to the department.