Designing a Useful IT Service Portal - Help End-Users Help Themselves

IT (Information Technology) Services at Ferris State University (FSU) is on a quest to improve IT services using self-help technology. Making it attractive for end-users to use self-help resources is difficult, especially if the resources make it difficult to find help on a specific issue. We explore how FSU IT Services assessed existing self-help resources and gathered data that helped us make strategic decisions to improve the usability of a new IT service portal. We will explore technologies such as knowledge management systems, chatbots, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and how these technologies can be utilized to encourage users to try to help themselves using these tools and utilize the service desk to address more complex issues.