Training your help desk personnel to support Lync is critical to a successful rollout. However, it’s equally important to plan for any potential support issues before the rollout. This primer provides guidance for implementing a support plan for Lync, links to resources for quickly training first-level (front-line) help desk agents, and a case study about how the help desk at Microsoft supported the rollout of Lync.

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Getting Started
Best Practices
Microsoft Case Study

The following are a few quick steps for getting started.

Secure Help Desk Representation on the Lync Rollout and Adoption Team
The help desk representative on the Lync rollout and adoption team manages all aspects of the Lync rollout support effort. Responsibilities include planning, support staff training, and the creation of new resources and procedures, as appropriate. The help desk representative also provides the team with whatever data is required as part of your measurement and reporting plan. For details, see Assembling the Lync Rollout and Adoption Team.

Develop the Help Desk Training Plan
The IT department, training team, and support team, including help desk, should work together to develop a help desk training plan. Typically, the training plan includes the same resources that are used to train end users and additional training resources about processes for coding service requests, troubleshooting issues, and escalating service requests. For details, see Find a Training Plan and Troubleshooting Clients.

Identify Required Changes to Intranet Resources and Internal Processes
With the introduction of new products and product versions, updated content will be required on the Help and training intranet site. In addition, new taxonomies should be developed for coding service requests. Also, a new forum entry might be needed for new products or product versions so that the support team has a place for discussing issues and resolutions. Common issues are provided as a resource (see Troubleshooting Clients at the Lync Server TechNet Library), but you can supplement this information with issues identified during the pilot or rollout.

Schedule and Conduct Help Desk Training
The level and amount of help desk training will vary depending on the milestone, the technologies being rolled out, and the allocated budget. For details, see Find a Training Plan and Troubleshooting Clients.

Others have found the following best practices useful:

• Use the pilot rollout phase to collect issues early and prepare for them. After issues are identified, develop mitigations and policies and add them to your Lync intranet site as frequently asked questions (FAQ). The FAQ might include information about 32-bit and 64-bit installations; supported platforms, such as Windows and the Mac operating systems; supported devices, such as mobile phones; and device selection, installation, and audio troubleshooting. Also, for issues such as scheduling large meetings and changing pictures, ensure that policies are clearly communicated in advance of the rollout. Have a launch event to communicate issues, policies, and locations for getting more information about known issues. A solid awareness plan and clearly communicated policies about known issues can save time, money, and ensure higher user satisfaction during the rollout. For details, see the Pilot Phase Primer and the Lync FAQ. Also see Troubleshooting Clients at the Lync Server TechNet Library.
• Train first-level help desk agents on known issues and procedures. It's a good idea to train your help desk before major milestones, including the pilot. Help desk agents often are the first to learn about end user issues that can arise during the rollout and training phase. Ensure that your help desk is trained in or has access to resolution information. For details, see the Pilot Phase Primer and the Lync FAQ. Also see Troubleshooting Clients at the Lync Server TechNet Library.
• Clearly define and implement the help desk processes. With the introduction of new products and product versions, updated content will be required on the Help and training intranet site. In addition to new taxonomies for coding service requests and a new forum entry that provides a place for discussing support issues and resolutions, processes for escalating issues for first-level, second-level, and third-level help desk agents should be documented. The levels are loosely defined as follows:
  • First-level agents are tasked with quickly solving a problem. If the issue can’t be solved in less than five minutes or requires deeper investigation, the agent escalates the issue to a second-level agent.
  • Second-level agents are typically technical help desk engineers who can use Monitoring Server Reports, Lync user logs, or both to troubleshoot issues such as dropped calls or connection failures.
  • Third-level agents are typically system administrators or IT pros with deep technical knowledge. Third-level agents deal with issues between systems, such as load balancing, Edge Server configuration, and network outages.
• Include help desk incidents and trends in your success metrics. The volume of support incidents during a specific period provides a good indicator of the overall health of Lync. In general, success can be declared during a large-scale rollout if the number of support incidents remains flat. The volume of Lync help desk incidents and the overall trend of incidents over time should be included with the user satisfaction, usage and adoption, and system reliability reports presented to executives.

As part of the rollout of Lync, Microsoft provided early releases of the product to users. These pilots releases were rolled out to select groups, included the Microsoft IT department, members of the Lync support team, early adopters, and the Lync product group. Issues were captured during the pilot and rolled into a FAQ, which was published to the Lync intranet site on the Microsoft IT website. In addition, common help desk incidents were captured and published in a troubleshooting topic, and the Lync Street Team trained the Microsoft support team several weeks prior to the rollout of Lync.