Intranet & Helpdesk

California Business Technology, Inc.
Huda Mutwakil

6 April 2018

 
 
 
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The goals of this project are to provide an easy to use intranet page for employees to be able to
have quick access to all the resources and documentation they need to complete their jobs. The
objective is to create a system that does not require the normal user to login, but allows them to
click on hyperlinks that will take them to other pages that are most commonly used by the
company. The main objective is to standardize the materials that employees access and provide a
central location for tools and resources that are used on a daily basis. This includes a page that
will lead to a helpdesk submission form, where the user can submit help desk tickets on behalf of
the company. On this help desk submission form we will allow the user to identify the urgency
and the importance of the ticket they are submitting. The purpose of this project is to streamline
the onboarding process and the general day to day activities for the employees of clients’ of
California Business Technology, Inc. This project will affect the technicians at California
Business Technology, reducing the number of phone calls they receive for simple help desk
tasks, it will affect the clients of California Business Technology, Inc. allowing them to have a
more standardized platform of tools and resources that the company uses as a whole to provide
for better management of all of these systems. This project will also affect the end users at the
client sites, allowing them to create a ticket without having to escalate the ticket to higher
management and take time from higher paid employees to call California Business Technology,
Inc. and submit a ticket on behalf of the end user. The anticipated outcome is to have a system
that allows anyone who is on the local area network to access it without having to log in with a
username and password. This system, will be the intranet page, where it will have links to
how-to documentation and standard operating procedures that the company has, as well as links
to their primary form of internal communications, whether that be Google Hangouts, Slack,
Pigeon, etc. or their timekeeping system, where employees can log in and input the number of
hours they worked for the day. This system will house a range of resources, making finding them
a lot easier, instead of requiring each user to favorite each of these links in their preferred web
browser. Because this intranet page will be only accessible on the local area network, this page
can and will also have links to shared folders and files, such as Human Resources information
which can usually only be found on the local area network, which is an important piece of
information for all employees to have easy access to. An important function of this intranet page
will be the ability to submit a helpdesk ticket through a helpdesk submission form, where the
user can specify their name, email, nature of the issue and importance and urgency of the ticket
they are submitting. The outcome of this helpdesk submission portal will be ease of use to
contact the Information Technology support team that the company contracts with, definition of
the urgency and importance of the ticket will allow the support team to better analyze what
tickets need to be addressed before others, and it will reduce the number of phone calls that need
to be made for one help desk submission ticket. Once the form is submitted it will email
helpdesk@calbusinesstech.com to submit a ticket in their ticketing system automatically, without
anyone having to pick up a phone and explain what the issue is.
 
 
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Table of Contents

A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

B. INTRODUCTION 3

C. PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 5

D. POSSIBLE FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS 6

E. ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN/LITERATURE REVIEW 6

F. STAKEHOLDERS AND COMMUNITY 7

G. APPROACH/METHODOLOGY 8

H. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 9

I. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS 10

J. PROJECT SCOPE 11

K. RESOURCES 11

L. MILESTONES 12

M. RISKS AND DEPENDENCIES 12

N. FINAL DELIVERABLES 12

O. USABILITY TESTING/EVALUATION 12

P. REFERENCES 13

Q. APPENDIX 13

 
 
 
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INTRODUCTION

This project is called Intranet & Helpdesk Submission and is going to be created for the use of

California Business Technology, Inc. California Business Technology, Inc. has under 100 clients

whom they provide technology related services. It is common for their clients to onboard new

employees and the new employees ask technicians how to submit helpdesk tickets and where

they can find standard operating procedures for the company. It is not uncommon for California

Business Technology, Inc. to receive a vague email about a problem that the end user has not

properly identified. This causes a time wasting effort, requiring the technicians to call the client

back and request more detailed information. Another issue is that there are users who on

occasion define something as an emergency, when the issue is actually just affecting their work

ability and not the entire business. Since California Business Technology, Inc.’s client base is

small to medium sized businesses, their clients generally do not have the resources prepped and

ready for their new hires. This makes the on boarding process not only unstandardized, but it also

causes some frustration between the new employee and the client in the preliminary phases of

the on boarding process. The product I intend to produce, named Intranet & Helpdesk

Submission, is a template intranet page that contains a link to a helpdesk ticket submission page.

The template intranet page and form will use HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL for the database.

We will be using the WAMP stack on a dedicated Hyper V instance to deploy this product to the

clients of California Business Technology, Inc. The template intranet page will not be tailored to

any one client, but instead it will encapsule example resources that a small to medium business

might be using for their day to day production and activities. The ticket submission form will
 
 
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contain information about California Business Technology, Inc. and provide details on how to

contact them in the event of a network emergency. For all other non urgent tasks, the ticket

submission template page will be available and will require users to fill in detailed information to

help the technicians get a better understanding of the nature of the ticket and allow them to better

prioritize and assign these tickets, as this is currently an issue that California Business

Technology, Inc. faces. The ticket submission form will take input from the user and send an

email to California Business Technology, Inc.’s helpdesk ticketing system and create a ticket on

behalf of the end user. The intranet page will only be accessible to users who are on the LAN,

allowing for added security so that a company’s resources are not made available to the public.

The intranet page will provide hyperlinks to external web pages that the company uses. For

example, there will be columns on the intranet page describing what kind of content will fall

underneath it, whether it be timekeeping, paychecks, sick time submission forms, employee

schedules, company holidays, etc. The community and stakeholders impacted by this project are

the employees of the clients, the clients, and California Business Technology, Inc. The

employees of the clients and the clients of California Business Technology, Inc. will benefit from

the intranet page, cutting down their confusion and mayhem during the onboarding process,

while the helpdesk submission form will benefit California Business Technology, Inc. more

directly, allowing them to focus more on the ticket resolution than the ticket creation, thanks to

the decrease in the number of phone calls they will be receiving for ticket submissions. Due to

the form field requirements, it will allow for the technicians to get a better understanding of the

ticket which will then in turn allow them to reach exceptional Service Level Agreement

timeframes. There are similarities to this product, but nothing exactly like it. There is the ability
 
 
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to create a site with Google Sites, to create the intranet page, which would not work in this case

because that would either be open to the public, or would require users to sign in with a

username and password to access it. The helpdesk submission form could actually be opened up

from the ticketing system itself, but this would require that a user account be created for each end

user, and would be time consuming and hard to clean up. Due to the fact that the intranet will be

exclusive to the local area network, the end user will be required to be on the network at the

company they work for to be able to submit a ticket. That way, if there is any turn over, there is

no management of usernames and passwords required for the system, just their inability to access

the LAN.

PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

1. Administrator will be able to log into the intranet page

2. All hyperlinks and resources will be stored in a database

3. Administrator will have the ability to edit hyperlinks using the interface

4. Administrator will have the ability to edit resources using the interface

5. User will be able to click on hyperlink and be taken to external page

6. User will be able to click on “Ticket Submission Portal”

7. User will be able to fill out Ticket Submission Form

8. User will be able to select drop downs with ticket priority

9. User will be able to select drop downs with ticket urgency

10. User will be able to submit Ticket Submission Form

 
 
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POSSIBLE FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

1. When User submits a ticket, instead of sending an email, it will use the Kaseya BMS API

to create a ticket directly into the portal.

2. Intranet page can have the ability to allow the Administrator to create a new Intranet page

for another client.

a. Administrator would enter the client Name, Hyperlinks, Resources, etc. using the

interface.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN/LITERATURE REVIEW

This type of project may have already been done by a company called Axero Solutions. Their

solution is a customizable intranet page that does not require the assistance of an IT support

team. The intranet page has access to extensive customization but the truth is no one has time to

sit and put together something like that or the patience to continue to update it. This software

starts at $10/user/month with a minimum of 15 users, placing it at $150/month on minimum. The

product I will be developing will be owned by the company and will not cost them anything a

month. The technicians at California Business Technology, Inc. will maintain and manage the

intranet page for their customers so that they can continue to work seamlessly. All they need to

do is use the intranet page to go to the helpdesk submission form and submit a request for an

update. The technician on the other end will not need to know HTML, because they will be able

to log into the intranet page with administrative credentials and update the contents of the

intranet page using a graphic user interface, cutting the backend plumbing out of the picture. The
 
 
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Axero software solution also has many spaces and departments, where people can post forms and

comments and what not, and require users to confirm they’ve read the document. This is an

extensive version of an intranet page that most small and medium businesses do not want or

need.

There is also another product out there that is similar to Axero Software’s and it is called Intranet

Connections, that provides collaboration and communications through the intranet page. This

software has a one time fee and does not have any recurring monthly charges. It allows the user

to customize the design of the site as well as embed videos. This product seems interesting but

again, I think it has too many components that a lot of people do not have requirements for, they

are just “nice to haves” that the staff probably won’t even use. The product I will be creating is

different because it will only house information that is a hard requirement for the customer

without overwhelming them with options.

STAKEHOLDERS AND COMMUNITY

Essentially, the client of this product will be California Business Technology, Inc. utilizing this

template software to create customized intranet pages and helpdesk submission forms based off

of this template version for their clients. The client will then take the product and complete

customization of their own, using the web user interface to provide this product to the ultimate

end user, who are in turn their clients. The client will extensively test this product to confirm that

it has met functionality requirements. The owners of the companies that California Business

Technology, Inc. will be releasing this product to will benefit from this because their resources

will be able to focus more of their time on their role and position instead of assisting new hires
 
 
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with where to find what and how to perform standard operating procedures. It will also speed up

the onboarding process because the new employee will have access to everything they need all

on one splash screen. This product will also become very helpful for the technicians at California

Business Technology, Inc. because when they set up a computer for a new hire, they can set a

link on the desktop to the intranet page that comes with the helpdesk submission form and send a

welcome email to them letting them know they can submit tickets by going through the intranet

and filling out the form. This way, techs can spend more of their time on working on existing

tickets instead of answering phone calls from users who are wishing to submit a new ticket.

APPROACH/METHODOLOGY

The approach I intend on using to complete this project is I will gather a list of resources from

my point of contact at California Business Technology, Inc. that will be helpful for them to use

as fillers until they come to assign an intranet page to a particular client. After I have a list of

resources I will go ahead and create the schema and tables and enter the filler information into

the database. I will then design an HTML page that will be used as an intranet page with a page

to a helpdesk submission form, which I will also be creating. I will use the data in the database to

display the websites and the hyperlinks on the web page. I will then design a login page that the

administrator will be able to log into and edit links/resources or add or remove them. Once the

page has reached the minimum viable product, I will present it to my contact at California

Business Technology, Inc. for review. If everything looks good and the customer is happy with

the product, I will continue to work on the system, using the Kaseya BMS API to allow the ticket

submission form to feed directly into the ticketing system, without having to send an email. I will
 
 
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then present that finished product to the customer and if everything looks good I will continue to

work on the project but I will convert it into a content management system, where the

administrator will be able to create multiple intranet pages by logging into one page and

customizing it using an interface for each client. This would be the most desirable outcome for

the project, but I will need to make sure we can reach certain milestones successfully before

jumping into that, which will be a whole other project by itself.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The major ethical concerns during and after my capstone would be the security of the system.

Due to the fact that security is important, I have decided to only make this intranet and helpdesk

submission form only be accessible while on the network of the company that you are using it

for. This way it is not public and we can reduce the amount of security concerns that are in play.

The people that may be negatively impacted by my capstone would be the employees at the

client sites that are not as technologically literate, because this would provide almost every

resource needed to complete their tasks in a central location, so that would be dependent on their

internet skills. This would also allow people to be held accountable sooner rather than later,

because there would be no excuse for their work not be complete if they have the information

they need in front of them. The potential short term danger would be the negative feedback a

company would receive for implementing a “change”, as we all know not everyone reacts to

change equally. A potential long term danger would be that employees become upset about this

new implementation and the client’s experience high turnover because of this product that will

make management’s life easier but put more responsibility on the end user. I plan to mitigate
 
 
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these concerns by working closely with California Business Technology, Inc. to strategically

implement this product to clients where there is reason to believe that the product would not

cause an uproar in the business, then we can work together to implement this to more difficult

environments.

LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

There is a legal consideration that I think can easily be addressed and that would be if California

Business Technology, Inc. does not consult with the client before creating this intranet page

especially if it were to contain any intellectual property that the company may have. There would

need to be discussion with the company before the creation of this intranet page on their local

area network and they would have to approve it before it can be deployed. Once deployed there

would have to be some kind of quality control in place by the company to make sure that this is

something they want their employees to have access to, especially at the click of a button. A

reason why a company may not want something like this is because it might cause some issues,

where they showcase all of the software they use whether or not it is relevant to an individual’s

job title and they can use that information against the company in some way to harm them.

PROJECT SCOPE

Week 1 Set up database, choose framework, set up

environment.

Week 2 Set up page for Intranet and add resources to

the database.

Week 3 Set up page for Helpdesk and create the

submission form. Use smtp to send email.
 
 
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Week 4 Set up Helpdesk as a page on Intranet. Create

user login page.

Week 5 Show product to Michael Alber, Cloud

Systems Admin at CBT. Talk about which
client we will use for testing. Gather all
information.

Week 6 Create copy of intranet and helpdesk on

Windows 10 Hyper V machine at the client
site and configure it with the relevant
information they use.

Week 7 Allow client to test with new/existing

employees.

Week 8 Confirm functionality, and if all is well, try to

implement integration with Kaseya API to
talk to Kaseya BMS through Helpdesk
submission form.

RESOURCES

- MySQL Workbench
- PHP Laravel Framework
- Hyper V Server
- Windows 10 Instance on Hyper V

MILESTONES

- Setting up the database

- Creating Intranet page using the resources in the database
- Creating Help Desk submission form page using smtp
- Creating administrative login with an interface to change records in the database
- Implementing this for 1 actual client at California Business Technology, Inc.
- Confirming functionality with the end users

RISKS AND DEPENDENCIES

 
 
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Risks:

- If the client requests a very complex Intranet page and requires that we create pages for
Standard Operating Procedures this may cause the project to be delayed.

Dependencies:

- The database needs to be set up properly before the resources and links can be added to
the Intranet page.
- The client will need to provide a list of resources before it can be deployed into their
environment.
- HR will have to authorize this intranet page before it can go live and be used.

FINAL DELIVERABLES

The final product will be an intranet page that will be running on a Windows 10 Hyper V
machine at the client site. It will require the client approval before it can be deployed into their
environment as production. It will contain links to websites of resources and/or portals that the
company uses on a regular basis. It may also contain links to a UNC path on the servers that
contain Human Resources documentation, etc.

USABILITY TESTING/EVALUATION

Once approval has been obtained from the Human Resources department at the chosen client
site, the intranet page will be deployed and tracked for one week, to ensure that the end users are
able to access and use the intranet and helpdesk page efficiently. We will be able to tell if users
are using the helpdesk page, because they will be submitting tickets through that form. If tickets
are submitted through the form, it will create a ticket in the ticketing system at California
Business Technology, Inc., confirming that users are indeed using this product. If approved, we
will also use group policy to set a shortcut to the intranet page on each individual’s desktop.

REFERENCES

Use the Help Desk Ticketing to Manage IT Workload. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.intranetconnections.com/intranet-software/corporate-intranet/employee-com
munications/help-desk-ticketing/
 
 
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Eisenhauer, T. (n.d.). How to Improve Customer Support with an Intranet Helpdesk. Retrieved
from
https://axerosolutions.com/blogs/timeisenhauer/pulse/360/how-to-improve-customer-sup
port-with-an-intranet-helpdesk

APPENDIX

Slim framework will be used: ​https://www.slimframework.com

Kaseya BMS API may be considered if time allots: ​https://bmsemea.kaseya.com/api