If you’ve been at Simmons for even a short time, you probably recognize that our campus is home to some of the best and brightest in many academic and administrative areas. While it is fortunate to have so much skill and knowledge in one location, it can also be challenging to preserve and share that information so it serves the needs of the entire College.

In Technology, we are striving to solve this challenge by creating a database of information that can be used by everyone to improve service and support. This specialized database, called TechKnow, allows us to collect and organize information and then share it internally and with our customers.

Within Technology, we use TechKnow for gathering solutions to common issues and documenting standardized processes for guiding customers through these solutions when you contact the Service Desk. TechKnow is also the guiding force behind the searchable self-service FAQs available on the Service Desk website.

Doug Anderson, Senior Director of Technology Services, spearheaded the creation of TechKnow in early 2011 with the goals of, “strengthening the group culture, documenting most of our repeat issues, and creating self-service.” Throughout the spring semester, TechKnow was installed, tested, and populated with a base of information. During the summer, many solutions for frequent issues were gathered and incorporated into the Service Desk website. We are aware that the majority of students prefer self-service when dealing with technology questions and we are striving to provide as much information as possible in this way.

To date, TechKnow has been a significant factor in improving service and support and changing the way we share knowledge in Technology. The knowledge base that we use internally has more than 1,300 articles and there are more than 120 self-service FAQs available to the Simmons Community, which have been viewed more than 130,000 times. In addition, using TechKnow has allowed us to improve the rate of resolution on service requests and to more quickly train new employees.

Going forward, Technology will continue adding more FAQs for our customers, creating specialized solutions for providing information to partners, and sharing the experiences we have had with other departments at Simmons that might want to organize and share their knowledge.