Desktop Management Services (DMS) FAQ

How does the Desktop Management Services (DMS) team escalate calls?

Every workstation we support has a yellow sticker on it. On this yellow sticker is a workstation ID. When calling the help desk or using employee self-service (ESS), please be ready to provide this ID to the helpdesk representative or on the ESS website when entering an incident. The workstation ID helps to escalate the incident to the appropriate workgroup support team. We also use the Configuration Management process to identify some workstation IDs as critical devices. If you happen to contact the help desk from one of these critical devices, the incident will be escalated even quicker and prioritized higher.

We also have an automated paging system called AlarmPoint thatnotifies our teams about Critical and High priority incidents during normal business hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and during our on-call hours. We have several tiers of support that start with Tier 1 and eventually escalate to our management team for resolution.

If I report an incident outside of normal business hours, how quickly should I get a response from a support team member?

Our support team members have 15 minutes to respond during on-call hours for critical- and high-priority incidents. If they fail to respond, the incident is escalated to our next support tier and, again, to our management team if necessary. If staff are required to come onsite to resolve a problem, it may take up to three hours.

What does the ID on the yellow label mean?

The ID on the label is the workstation name. Each workstation could be a desktop, laptop, tablet or any other miscellaneous device. Our team follows a predefined naming convention for this label.

If I have lost access to a file or accidentally deleted a file from my department share, how to I get it back?

Our staff has tools that can allow them to restore files very quickly from hourly based snapshots for the past 72 hours or snapshots from the last 30 days. If the problem is related to file access, our team can help resolve the issues, as well. To ask for this service, please place an incident for our help desk support team.

How are incidents prioritized for the field support teams?

Incidents for our field support team are prioritized based upon the impact and the urgency of the issue. The following table outlines some default urgency examples that we have worked on with our help desk team as guidelines for placing incidents. The goal is to make sure we prioritize incidents properly in order to achieve a high level of service for our customers.

Urgency	Examples
Critical	Unscheduled downtime of department server or central server Problem affecting entire department or multiple users Security compromise of workstation Customer under deadline for critical department operation or task
High	Customer is unable to send or receive email Problem with application that is critical to customer Workstation does not boot up Loss of critical network printer Loss of critical network drive mappings
Medium	Non-critical resource unavailable Application problem that does not interfere with critical functions Remote access is unavailable Printer not printing in single application Request is specified non-urgent by customer
Low	Hardware or software installations and/or recommendations Computer setups and installations New user account creations Request for other services Hardware installations or upgrades Computer moves Requests for information

The following table offers guidelines for issues not included in the table above and is the standard method of placing incidents on the employee self-service page.

Description
Something is broken. I have a workaround, but I still need it fixed. Or This is a standard service request.
Something is broken. I need this fixed in a timely manner. Or This is a service request, and I have an urgent need.
Something is broken. I need this fixed as soon as possible in order to delivery patient care or a business function.
Something is broken. I need this fixed immediately in order to deliver critical patient care or a critical business function.

We are also able to tailor these urgencies for customers based upon clinical and business needs in a department. We often find that some departments have very unique needs, and we customize these guidelines to improve our incident call escalation, prioritization and resolution.

What questions should I be prepared to answer when calling the help desk for support or placing an incident through employee self-service?

Our team and the help desk utilize the following questions when trying to prioritize our work or when establishing incident impact and urgency.

Is the device labeled critical in CMDB?
Do you have another computer or printer to use?
Is this affecting multiple users or an entire department?
Is this affecting patient care, or is this mission critical?
Is this affecting your workflow? Some? Most? All?
If after hours, can this wait until the next business day?

Can I escalate an incident to the management team?

Yes, any incident can be escalated to Support Management. When calling the help desk, ask for your incident to be escalated or send an email to dell.escalation@vanderbilt.edu.

Are incidents ever escalated automatically?

Yes, if a customer contacts the help desk regarding an open incident and there is no information is in a journal regarding status or on the work currently in progress, the incident is escalated to the management team. If a customer contacts the help desk regarding an incident and wishes to change the urgency, the incident is escalated to management. We do these two particular steps to make sure the incidents are handled properly and staff have sufficient resources assigned to them in order to complete tasks on time.