Due: Friday, October 24th at midnight

Instructions:

Use the “ICT helpdesk” process description below to complete the following tasks.

1. Model the “ICT Helpdesk” process in Signavio. You do not need to model the process as a collaboration diagram (e. only use one pool).
2. Use the simulation tool to create two scenarios:
   a. Scenario 1 “normal day”
   b. Scenario 2 “semester start”.
3. Run the simulation as multiple cases with the 1-day duration.
4. Export the Excel reports from Signavio.
5. Observe and interpret the differences between cycle times, costs, resource consumption, and the bottleneck between the two scenarios.
6. Based on the simulation results, write a short paragraph to compare the results of the two scenarios on cycle times, costs, bottlenecks and resource consumption. Please state if the values are decreasing or increasing for cycle times, costs, and resource consumption and why! For the bottlenecks, please compare the two scenarios and explain the difference.

Submission:

Submit the following as three separate files (submitted in one attempt) to Canvas.

1. The report (PDF file)
   • Filename “Report_LastName_FirstName.pdf”
2. The ICT helpdesk Process Diagram (PDF File)
   • Filename “Diagram_LastName_FirstName.pdf”
3. Raw simulation results (.xlsx Excel file)
   • Filename “Simulation_LastName_FirstName.xlsx” 

Scenario Overview

The University Aotearoa’s ICT helpdesk team assists students when they face any technical issues, such as not being able to connect to the University’s Wi-Fi, installing software, issues related to OneDrive, etc. The ICT helpdesk team consists of ICT helpdesk assistants who can answer simple questions and solve common, uncomplicated issues, as well as technicians who can solve more complex inquiries.

Process description

The process starts when the ICT helpdesk assistant receives a phone call from a student. The ICT helpdesk assistant checks if they can resolve the student’s issue  (e.g., resolving conflicting documents on OneDrive). This takes 3 mins. If the issue can be resolved by the  ICT helpdesk assistant, the assistant provides them with the instructions, and the call is complete. This task takes 1 min. However, if the student’s issue cannot be resolved by following instructions, the ICT helpdesk assistant asks the student to provide their username and describe their issue in order to redirect them to the technicians to solve the issue. This is one activity (asking for username and asking the student to describe the issue) and takes on average 9 mins with a standard deviation of 2 mins.

A technician then confirms the username and the issue, which takes 2 mins. Then the technician decides if the student needs to be referred to a third-party IT specialist, which takes 2 mins. If the technician decides that the student should see the third-party IT specialist, the technician provides the student with the contact details of the third-party IT specialist and completes the call. This task takes 1 minute.

If the technician  can help the student, they then assess the severity of the technical issue, which takes on average 25 minutes with a standard deviation of 3 minutes.

If the technician thinks the student’s technical problem is not severe, the student is provided with a solution which takes 5 minutes. However, if the technician believes it is a severe technical problem that requires further analysis, they convey that information to the student (5 minutes). While the technician conveys this information to the student, the scheduling system identifies available dates and times for the student to come to the ICT helpdesk, where the issue can be solved in person (4 minutes to identify available timeslots). Next, the technician provides the date and time of the drop-in to the student, which takes 5 mins. This is how the process ends.

Further Process Details

The ICT helpdesk receives 180 calls per day in a normal situation. At the start of the semester, the number of calls increases to 300 per day. There are 5 ICT helpdesk assistants with $30 per hour pay and 30 technicians with $50 per hour pay working 9:00 – 17:00, 5 days a week.

• 15% of all calls are those that the helpdesk assistant can resolve.
• Typically, 10% of students who are referred to a technician need to see the third-party IT specialist.
• 30% of the students who do not need to see the third-party specialist do not have severe technical issues.