Websites or Creative ideas

[NYR]

Hi everyone,
I supervise a small helpdesk and was wondering if anyone knows of any good websites out there that can help me bring some creative ideas to the table on enhancing our performance, streamlining procedures, new cool software or improving customer service.
I have incorporated a few changes and things have gotten much better, but I am running out of stuff and I know there is always stuff to do and new things to try.
Thanks!

 

[CorruptedLogic]

What have you tried thus far?

 

[NYR]

I have not found any good websites except for this. I am just looking for a good site that offers good suggestions on how to get more from Windows2003 server, what it can do to better serve the desktops, any motivational stuff and desktop control software..etc

 

[damber]

Somewhat of a related tangent:

http://www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/

There are some useful methods in there for promoting creative thinking - which if applied within your team could help generate ideas from the troops - a) these will usually be more practical and solve real life issues they face and b) it will help them to buy into the idea, thus supporting it when it becomes a project.

If you want to improve the quality of your service then I would recommend (if you havent already) looking at ITIL:

http://www.itil.org/itil_e/index_e.html

which is an industry standard framework for service delivery and management - you can also find out more in the IT Service Management Forum:

http://www.itsmf.com/

Further to that you can look to get yourself certified with standards like BS15000 (if you're in the UK - however this is in the process of becoming an ISO standard, so a good point of reference in any case).

To give you any further advice it would be useful to know what you have got/done so far... a few things that are always important for service desks and related functions:
- good call management software for tier 1 call logging
- online web access for tier 0 call logging
- knowledge management systems
- good tier 2/3 access to the main system for updates etc
- automated SNMP traps/alerts for key systems
- a very good configuration management database
- standard images and imaging solutions
- automated stats analysis report for KPI/performance etc
- Centralised Audit Logging and Regular Analysis for key servers and services
- Performance Monitoring


As for improving your use of windows 2003, you should start by asking what the requirement is - do you want to reduce latency of networked apps, or centralise security or directory services - do you run Active Directory, if so is the domain architecture appropriate. Do you want to centralise / simplify desktop management - something like citrix or other thin client technologies may be right for you. The list is almost endless, but as always is narrowed considerably by your needs as a business - understand those and it'll make the improvement process that much easier to achieve.

Hope that helps

A smile is worth a thousand kind words. So smile, it's easy!

 

[NYR]

damber,
Thanks for the reply. Just at a quick glance, the links you providied look very helpful. I will certainly look into them furthur.
As for improving our use of Windows 2003 server, I have been out of that game for a few years now and I am little rusty. I have built a few Windows 2000 servers, but did not have the time to really get into the meat of it.
We have our own server group that maintains the servers as well as AD, but they offer no support or ideas on how AD can help in the desktop arena. We support approx. 3000 users and all data is stored on the network. I have been trying to have them look into roaming profiles, with no luck. I know there is also application deployment, I think MOM or something, similiar to Citrix, but again, no input from other groups.
Again, thanks for the reply, I will keep the links and keep on looking!