NAS Student Administration first to participate in Enterprise Service Management system (online helpdesk project)

Posted on September 30, 2022

The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) is improving service delivery by being the first faculty at UP to participate in the student administration call centre and service portal project.

As the NAS student administration office handles large volumes of enquiries from students and parents, this system significantly reduced the turnaround time for resolving queries.

According to Information Technology Services, Service Management Automation (SMAX) is becoming a key enabler of digital transformation and modernisation efforts.

Some of the benefits of SMAX include a customised service portal to the NAS environment, with service and support offerings designed to help students and staff alike. Knowledge articles are used extensively to assist staff and students with self-help information that is always available. The system also can recognise recurring enquiries and then attempts to provide a context-relevant solution.

“With the return to campus, the NAS Student Administration Department had to deal with the usual walk-in enquiries and an increased number of online enquiries. SMAX dramatically improves our ability to provide good service and timely feedback to our students”, says the Dean of the Faculty, Prof Barend Erasmus.

A chatbot functionality is also available with access to all the information across the system to guide students to up-to-date information and help.

The system also provides staff and students with the functionality to track enquiries and interact with agents.

Since March 2022, over 5 000 enquiries have been received and resolved through the online system.

To access this NAS online enquiry system, go to https://nas.up.ac.za/ and log in with your UP-Portal credentials.

- Author Martie Meyer

Copyright © University of Pretoria 2024. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal

To contact the University during the COVID-19 lockdown, please send an email to [email protected]

FAQ's Email Us Virtual Campus Share Cookie Preferences