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Amelia is able to interact with users through natural language. Each interaction enables Amelia to continuously learn, increasing the information captured and subsequently enhancing the user experience with the service desk. “We have a newer generation of Sailors coming in who are looking to find a quick resolution to their problems without experiencing wait times on the phone. NESD’s self-service portal and virtual agent, Amelia, empowers users and gives them the ability to do that frontline troubleshooting in 15 minutes saving them time,” said NESD’s Product Service Owner (PSO), Melissa Gatti.
NESD delivered Release 1 in September 2022. This release consolidated Tier 1 information technology (IT) help desk support for 69 Navy IT programs and systems. The programs included Program Executive Office (PEO) Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) programs (e.g., Satellite Communications (SATCOM), Tactical and Shore Networks (TACNET/SHORENET)); Navy business systems (e.g., Department of Navy (DON) Applications and Database Management System (DADMS), System Commands (SYSCOM) PEO Integrated Data Environment and Repository (SPIDER)); and Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education (MPT&E) programs (e.g., Navy eLearning, Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System (NSIPS)).
Service desks across industry continue to use state-of-the-art technologies to better serve their users. According to Gatti, NESD seeks to mirror this standard by leveraging improved technologies to deliver this modern solution. NESD provides users with the ability to seek support via phone, chat, email and self-service from anywhere – ashore and afloat – while ensuring faster, higher quality and more effective resolution of user issues. The delivery of a consistent and standardized tool suite and consolidation approach yields a better user experience.
Release 1 focused on shifting Tier 1 support from a Subject Matter Expert (SME)-based solution to a knowledge-based solution and enhancing self-service (Tier 0) to guide users to resolve issues on their own without having to engage a live agent saving a user’s time waiting in queue and interacting with an agent. This focus also supports the Navy’s initiative to promote user self-sufficiency, which ultimately reduces the cost-of-service desk support.
The capabilities of the first release included a single point of entry by calling 1-833-NESDNOW or using the self-service portal, BMC Helix Digital Workplace (DWP), enabling users to access knowledge articles, submit a support request, check the status of their support request and contact support via email or chat. The release also included the implementation of BMC Helix’s cloud-based IT Service Management (ITSM), knowledge management (KM) automation and other enhanced service desk management tools and technology. The solution is hosted in a secure Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud Impact Level 4 (IL4) commercial cloud environment.
The NESD, under Program Executive Office Digital and Enterprise Services (PEO Digital), acquired and is collaborating with a Managed Service Provider (MSP), General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), to develop and deliver this Service Desk as a Service (SDaaS) solution including all tools, processes and execution staff. This efficiency effort requires the consolidation of disparate Tier 1 IT help desks for programs and systems across the Navy into a central service desk. The intent of the effort is to reduce the cost of support for program office and system owners; enhance the user experience for Sailors and Marines both afloat and ashore 24/7/365; improve the timeliness and quality of issue resolution; and improve the cybersecurity posture for service desk support as a result of reducing the infrastructure footprint across the Navy.
To learn more about the NESD effort, check out our previous CHIPS article, or visit the NESD website.
Originally published by CHIPS Magazine: https://www.doncio.navy.mil/CHIPS/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=16346