Tag Archives: support

Proactive Health Checks

The Economics Computer Lab

UPDATE (July 2022): In 2021-2022, SJSU IT Customer Support performed proactive technology health checks on 322+ supported classrooms and fixed 137 issues before they became problems.

To prepare campus’ repopulation, the SJSU IT customer support team performed proactive support on hundreds of technology-enabled spaces across campus. Some of the rooms had not been used since March 2020, and we wanted to be sure that the technology our campus needed was ready to go from day one of Fall 2021. For our Proactive Health Checks, SJSU IT technicians went to each SJSU IT-support room to test technology solutions and resolve issues before they became problems. We also performed proactive checks to verify the function of our campus network. 

Classrooms

Before the start of the semester, SJSU IT support staff proactively identified and resolved 76 classroom-related items in SJSU IT-supported classrooms, including replacing missing cables and addressing audio/visual challenges.  We are now performing Proactive Health Checks on a weekly basis for technology setups in all SJSU IT-supported classrooms. 

Thanks go to the entire Instructional & Meeting Spaces (IMS) Team: Daniela Zopiyatle, Cameron Myers, Fred Asuncion, Rod Maciel, Andy Yeung, Frank De Fanti, Phil Braverman, Danny Vo, Bruce Kelbert, Devona Williams, and Darlene Bargas.

Conference Rooms

We also checked each SJSU IT-supported conference room to ensure that physical hardware and virtual technology are working properly. We found minimal issues during the health checks performed before the start of the semester, all of which were fixed. This proactive support will be done monthly going forward. 

Many in our Customer Service unit, including Lor Vang, Lucas Chung, Belinda Nguyen, Chris Bradford, Matt Loo, Raymond Koc, Kirk Nguyen, April Lee, Bruce Gardner, and Jason Ferguson, flawlessly came together to support this important initiative. 

Network, WiFi, Printers, & Telephones 

Our network infrastructure and phone teams performed thorough reviews of university hardware and fixed issues before they became problems, ensuring reliable and prompt connectivity. Before the start of Fall 2021, these teams have:

  • Ensured critical components like WiFi, phones, and printers work properly by validating the connectivity of over 22,000 network ports.
  • Performed health checks on 323 network connectors to ensure all ports in classrooms and conference rooms are operational.
  • Eliminated potential WiFi dead spots by validating the indoor coverage of over 3,100 access points.
  • Validated that 3,700 phones are operational and ready.
  • Helped eliminate potential login problems for faculty and staff by setting the authentication servers. 

System checks require a lot of work, so I want to thank Sean Davis, Tristian Anthony, Toby Shaw, Brent Jones, Tino Cruz, Trevor Florez, Mark Trann, Shai Silberman, and Atul Pala.

Best regards,
Bob Lim

Better Live Chat and Chatbot for SJSU

A sample chatbot interactionUPDATE (September 2022): There are now 23 departments across the university utilizing Enterprise Chat to provide a better help experience, including the SJSU IT Service Desk. 

We’ve rolled out a new, enterprise-grade live chat and 24/7 chatbot solution for SJSU. With Enterprise Chat, conversations transfer between departments without losing information. Folks using online chat no longer need to re-explain their problem or retell their story every time a new department needs to be brought in. This is a huge win for customer service and completely eliminates one of the most frustrating things about trying to get help online. We started with an early rollout to 8 of the university’s busiest departments, with 7 more ready by the end of October 2021. The 24/7 chatbot gathers information, provides solutions for many common problems, and requests live help when it can’t. By handling the little stuff, the chatbot frees up departments to work on the big stuff. It comes with AI capabilities, using machine learning to identify commonly-asked questions from historical chats and proposes adding questions and answers for inquiries that come up often.  You can find our support page for the Enterprise Chat on the SJSU IT website.

Providing good support and excelling at customer service is a foundation of SJSU IT’s long-term strategy. In IT, we have to continually build trust, not only that the new tools and new resources we implement work, but that we’re there to help you when they don’t. That trust builds and extends into our relationships as we work across campus to digitize and automate processes, find more efficient ways to use technology, and partner with other departments on new initiatives. 

I want to thank Ravi Pisupati and Sree Gandikota for their help getting this ready for campus.

Best regards,
Bob Lim