Portland Community College Selects Nefsis Web and Video Conferencing for Helpdesk Operations

Portland Community College (PCC) is a vibrant educational system with over 2,800 employees and 80,000 enrolled students that sought a video conferencing and communications system to bolster its Helpdesk operations.

Mr. Stephen Cook works in the Technology Solution Services Helpdesk that provides support for its call center in the fast-paced environment at PCC. The HelpDesk works in a "fishbowl," a large, centralized facility similar to a trading floor allowing staff to share information almost instantaneously and respond immediately to an ever-changing environment. When the HelpDesk decided to virtualize its operations, they needed a method to allow remote staff to participate in the fishbowl just as if they were physically present in the room.

Problem: Growth meets limited office space Desire to continue centralized operations for teamwork and fast problem solving

Solution: Select employees work from home Nefsis web and video conferencing enables remote staff to be virtually present at centralized facilities

Business and IT Benefits: Nefsis online meetings help streamline the problem solving process Online meetings allow select Helpdesk staff to work from home, eliminating commute time and freeing office space for other call center functions Nefsis Share Application feature allows remote access to real-time status board improving coordination Nefsis flexibility helps in a pinch when remote staff man the counter for 'walk-in' customers

"Nefsis video conferencing turned out to be an excellent solution. Nefsis allows both remote and centralized workers to share information immediately and respond to crisis situations early," said Mr. Cook.

With so much information disseminated on a daily basis, the HelpDesk at Portland Community College is the central hub connecting all internal employees as well as those working remotely. Nefsis audio and video features allow all participants — centralized and remote — to connect and quickly engage, solving problems in an efficient manner. Nefsis collaborative features such as group chat allow individual and team inputs during live sessions that help streamline the solution process.

According to Mr. Cook, Nefsis enabled remote workers to staff the counter at the HelpDesk just as if they were in the room and successfully provide solutions to 'walk-in' customers during times when HelpDesk coverage consisted entirely of virtual workers.

Retaining the centralized vibe

Another use of Nefsis was disseminating real-time status among dispersed employees. The Nefsis Share Application tool allows the HelpDesk Call Center to share its status board showing real-time statistics that detail their agent's activity and availability. Each employee can connect and see "who is on a call or occupied with follow-up, and how many workers are currently available for customers." This was a useful addition in retaining the pulse of earlier, completely centralized operations.

Value for employees and management

Mr. Cook is able to work remotely saving significant time for himself and value for Portland Community College. For him, his commute has been nearly eliminated, while continuing to achieve the productivity and high quality standards maintained by TSS. From staffing emergencies to daily operations, coverage of calls has been maintained through video conferencing. In addition, the increased mix of remote staff freed up office space for other call center functions as their team continues to increase.

Growing with video conferencing

The challenges of growth are addressed in part with the use of video conferencing. Online meetings can provide long-term, continual access to help and remote staff in real-time. Mr. Cook sums up the long-term values in this way: "We on the HelpDesk are extremely pleased with how Nefsis video conferencing has been able to assist us in meeting our organizational goals and we look forward to using it in the future as we continue to expand our ability to assist our customers. In addition, other departments in the college have noted our success and are currently in the process of creating their own Nefsis conferences to allow them to work together more closely in today's virtual workplace when workers are more and more often physically separated."

Continuous virtual support in education

Video conferencing is typically used within a daily or scheduled meeting event, but the TSS team has been able to create a virtual support conference that runs continually with Nefsis. "We have been able to create both date- and time-specific conferences and have created an ongoing 'HelpDesk Live' conference which has been running (and active) for over 6 months." The educational system at Portland Community College provides its staff and students effective, reliable support via their HelpDesk, achieving quality real-time assistance and information exchange with web and video conferencing.

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