Knowledge engineering for an intelligent case-based system for help desk operations

Help desks are computer-aided environments in customer support centers that provide frontline support to external and internal customers. The paper reports on an automated help desk system developed at an information technology company. With the proliferation of diverse software and hardware, the center provides support to a large variety of client systems. The number of calls increases while the turnover rate of employees is high, which means the cost of training escalates. The objective of this project is to develop an automated case-based help desk system to support both call center personnel and customers. The system would contribute to shortening the response time on incoming calls and reduce training time for new employees. The focus of the paper is on the knowledge engineering process of the system. We discuss in detail the knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, system implementation and verification processes, and we emphasize the structured and automated development methods adopted. q 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.