Knowledge Based System Support for Help Desk Operations: a Reference Model

This paper contains results from a project sponsored by BT (British Telecom Plc), which has investigated the application of knowledge-based systems (KBS) technology to support the operations of Help Desks. The project is now well-advanced, and is currently investigating case-based reasoning methods. Results from this latter part of the project will be published in due course. However, here we report the results of our initial analysis of Help Desk operations. This can be viewed as a rst-pass attempt to deene a Reference Model for Help Desks. On the basis of the Reference Model, we go on to identify the main requirements that KBS technology must meet if it is to support Help Desk operations. While the conclusion of this paper (that KBS technology is suitable for supporting Help Desks) is not new, we believe that our Reference Model has led us to give a more reasoned account of this conclusion and a more reasoned account of what is required of the technology: our arguments and our list of requirements which such a KBS must fulll are thus a contribution to work in this area.