107th IOC Session - LA84 Foundation

Great care was taken
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data.
214
User Support & Help Desks
For the period from just before to just after
the Games, user support & help desks staffed by
a total of 362 volunteers were set up at all the
competition venues, as well as at the IBC, MPC,
and Olympic Village. The staff were responsible
for routine checking of all Info’98 and CIS terminals
installed at the venues, providing guidance
with Info’98 usage, answering user
questions, and general troubleshooting.
The number of user support staff varied according
to the size and the service period of the
venues. On average, there were three to five
staff members on duty at all times at each competition
venue, and five to ten people at the IBC,
MPC, and Olympic Village. A mobile user support
crew paid regular visits to smaller venues
where no user support staff were stationed full
time.
Between November 1997 and January 1998,
user support volunteers attended a half-day or
full-day training course on the information systems.
During the Games, the volunteers were
supported by other staff, including a number of
overseas personnel from IBM and SOCOG who
gave language assistance, Info’98 staff and developers
who had detailed knowledge of software
applications, and hardware support
engineers from IBM. These additional support
personnel were dispatched to venues on days
when competitions were held.
User support staff mainly conducted on-site
systems checks, but also provided active support
to users calling in with problems. Questions that
could be solved at the venue were dealt with by
the user support staff under the direction of the
venue information technology manager.
Problems that could not be solved at the venue
were referred to SOC for further instruction.
In cases where SOC assistance was required,
a problem management database was accessible
by remote and was used to enter and keep track
of questions and problems. A user support bulletin
board was also available on Info’98 to
share information common to all venues. Any
notices SOC sent to the venue information systems
help desk were relayed by fax.
Complaints and inquiries regarding the contents
of Info’98 were sent using an electronic
form available on Info’98. By filling out the
form, necessary information was sent automatically
to both NAONA and the SOC Help Desk,
enabling quick action to be taken.
The SOC Help Desk responded to a total of
1,055 inquiries between January 21 and
February 25, including 397 calls concerning
Info’98 (37.6%), 270 calls related to e-mail
passwords (25.6%), 33 calls about CIS (3.1%),
92 calls concerning the Games Management
system, (8.7%), and 263 calls about miscellaneous
matters (24.9%). The busiest time for user
support staff was before and during the first part
of the Games. During this time, both users and
user support staff became fully acquainted with
the system, so that by the latter part of the
Games, most problems were solvable at the
venue without assistance from SOC, and the
number of calls for assistance decreased. The
peak was on February 3 when SOC responded
to 70 calls. 863 calls representing 80% of all
calls to the SOC Help Desk were made by
February 10, the third day into the Games.