• The HSE-MIS partnership is a key component of Technical Support. HSE personnel who are designated to help support the application should understand critical procedures that are relevant to ensuring the ongoing usefulness of the application. This includes:

  • Understanding escalation procedures
  • Knowing and participating in backup and disaster recovery plans
  • Working with the HSE function to keep informed of upcoming changes or upgrades to existing platforms and participating in planning for upgrades or moves to new platforms
• Consider tracking problems and resolutions as they occur. This information can be used for:
  • Prioritizing upgrades
  • Fixing recurring problems
  • Building training tools
• HSE personnel should work with information technology contacts to participate in any changes concerning how support will be managed—handled in-house, contracted out, or a combination of both.

Document and understand support, hot line, or help desk procedures. Support levels will vary depending on critical needs and cost to maintain the help desk. Questions to ask should include:

• Is support outsourced, internal, or a combination?
• Who should users contact for help with problems or to submit enhancement requests? How can support be accessed? Phone? E-mail?
• What level of support can users expect? A high level of support is 24 hours a day/7 days a week. A practical level of support is 8 hours a day/5 days a week, with a 3- or 4- hour response time.

Work with Technical Support personnel at appropriate milestones in the project. These should include:

• At the beginning to give a high level overview of expectations and the project plan and schedule
• Before system implementation so that support personnel can plan for their involvement once the system is rolled out to the users
• Following system implementation to identify and resolve any issues that were not initially considered
• On an ongoing basis to identify any Technical Support issues requiring attention

Assign a responsible person from the project team to track and manage enhancements, as well as feedback from users that comes through the support process.