my SW support 2

[ctopher]

I finally convinced my mngmt to purchase SW for me. My plan is to create an internal support group corp wide. I will create a intranet web site and help-line for other sites. I have experience in this for past few years at my last employer, but not this size. I don't know the quantity of users, maybe 50, and growing. Each site has their own network licenses. I eventually plan on connecting them together.
Does anyone here have experience with your own internal support? How did you go about implementing it from the start? I want to make sure I cover all bases.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[kcarpenter]

Hey Chris,
I guess we're lucky in the fact that we have a HD (Help Desk) support team in our IT dept. Of course we had run solo for years as far as CAD/PDM support. Just recently we've begun turning over control of the "ritualistic" stuff to them, i.e. adding users to PDM, resetting user passwords, answering general questions, etc. They are our first line of defense. If they can't answer it, the call is then routed to CAD Support (they use a software called Magic to log and route HD calls).

We also have an intranet web page that has all of our CAD and description standards, a little chat area, and so on. It's quite helpful in the fact that your other sites can access the web page and get everything they need.

It has always been tough to support all of the users (50+ SW and 100's of PDM). Having a couple of power users on tap is helpful as they can help out others when you come up empty or are busy on projects. We've had our standards done for some time so we had a programmer on staff create our website. We gathered input from the groups whom were going to use the website and created it around them.

I'd treat this as an other project, identify the groups effected, gather requirements, prepare a plan, create a website given the requirements, get group feedback on website, make any changes needed, and make it live. The key is making it easy and simple for the users. Like anything else if they hate it they won't use it.

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Specialist
Invacare Corp.

 

[dezignstuff]

The key to any support is really the quality of the information that gets passed on. As a CAD admin for a large group of users, one of the best things you can do to ensure this is to write good policies, make sure people know what they are and that they are able to follow them.

Having a way to answer general tech support questions is also necessary. Maybe all questions will come to you and then to the VAR if necessary, or possibly the users contact the VAR directly. If you have someone internal taking the place of the VAR, make sure they're good. Disseminating incorrect information

The intranet site is a great idea and can keep most of the researchable information such as:

- list of best practice policies
- reg file for recommended settings
- locations of shared libraries
- locations of template files
- FAQs
- tips and tricks
- sample models / drawings
- links to external sites with useful information

Best of luck

 

[ctopher]

Thank you both.
dezignstuff, thanks for the list. Much help!

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[ctopher]

update,
I finally recieved and installed SolidWorks 2006 Pro here at work yesterday. Time to get up to date.
I'm also going to start on an internal website for support.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716