I recently completed my third coop term as a Technical Support Analyst at The Co-operators Group Limited
About
The Co-operators Group Limited was founded in 1945 by farmers in Saskatchewan. It is a leading Canadian financial service co-operative that offers multi-line insurance and investment products, services, and advice to build financial strength and security and has over $56 million in assets under management. With over 600 locations across Canada and more than 6000 employees, the IT department plays a vital role in maintaining the company. The IT department is spread across 8 cities across the country with IT Support, Web Developers, Software Developers, and IT Analysts among others.
The company headquarters is in Guelph.
Job Description
As a Technical Support Analyst, my responsibilities were to troubleshoot and support business partners and agencies all across Canada. Being bilingual, I was able to play an important part in supporting English and French users. I was part of the Technical Platform Support (TPS) team within Cooperators consisting of 25 members across 5 provinces. I was working in the Guelph office on a hybrid schedule.
Responsibilities
My daily duties were mainly based on a ticketing system using ServiceFirst and on my project work on reviewing Knowledge Articles. Tickets were taken on a First In First Out (FIFO) order based on the incident's priority. My team was the point of escalation for the first level which was the IT Support HelpDesk Team.
My responsibilities were to:
​
-
Diagnose, Analyze, and troubleshoot technical issues of low to medium complexity
-
Find the root cause of the incident
-
Identify complete solutions to the incident
-
Find the correct escalation team if the third level is required
-
Implement required changes for end-users
-
Issue new hardware and help with the installation
-
Provide the user with Administrator access as our team had admin rights
-
Recover deleted files from hard drives
-
Solve networking issues related to Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and VPN
-
Provide support for corporate iPhones (passcode reset, VPN, Outlook, Network)
-
Create and maintain support knowledge articles for new or existing technical errors using ServiceFirst to facilitate future incidents
-
Provide support for Xerox printers
-
Add missing software to the user's laptop
-
Analyze recurring incidents and see if a problem record should be created
-
Provide on-site support
-
Create banners and IVR to make users aware of any outages
Goals
CRITICAL & CREATIVE THINKING
With the evolving change in technology, I wanted to improve my critical and creative thinking.
At the end of my Co-op term, I can say that my problem-solving and troubleshooting skills have greatly improved. For the whole 4 months, I was able to exceed the average number of tickets per team member for incidents which shows that I am more confident in troubleshooting issues that the clients are facing and I already what to expect as I was returning to the same company. I was taking these tickets using the FIFO method. Work notes are also important when working on tickets as you can know the steps the IT HelpDesk took to try to solve the issue. These work notes are also important when you find a workaround or fix to the problem as they can be used by your co-workers or in documenting a Knowledge Articles which the first level can use to try to fix the issue before escalating it to the second level which is TPS. I was also given the opportunity to review knowledge articles that were assigned to me as they were missing information or they needed to be retired. They are used to improve the IT department's workflow. This has also allowed me to improve my troubleshooting skills as I come across new knowledge that I never worked on. During my term, I got to document and modify knowledge articles both in French and English.
ORAL COMMUNICATION
Going into my third co-op term, one of my goals was to improve my oral communication skills with clients and my team members.
I can now say that my communication skills have greatly improved both in my work and as a person. At the end of my Co-op term, I can reflect on this goal that I set at the start of my term. I am more confident talking to people across different platforms including Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Jabber as well as face-to-face. I was able to develop my customer service skills since this job heavily involved solving and troubleshooting issues that clients were facing. Given that the job is hybrid, I was also able to provide onsite support where my communication skills played an important role in helping the users. I am more confident participating in our weekly team meeting by asking questions and discussing issues that I noticed were recurrently happening to many clients. During my job, I was exposed to Canadian French which is different from the French I know. There are so many new words that I have come across and this has improved my communication skills with French Canadian clients. During this co-op term, I was given the opportunity to go on a work trip to Quebec for a week and this has also helped me improve my communication skills.
TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY
My third goal for this work term was to increase my technological skills through courses on LinkedIn Learning, AWS, and my team's SharePoint site.
I achieved this goal through my summer co-op term.I was able to learn more about Microsoft apps (Office 365) and Networking courses. I also learnt how to use WASH which is SCCM tool to deploy software to someone’s laptop. EDICT is another tool that my team uses when there is a significant event to inform other technical teams that an investigation is going on for the affected application. During my last month, I was provided with the AWS Skill Builder subscription. This has allowed me to learn the jobs associated with Cloud computing and learn introductory courses to AWS Cloud. There are practice exercises that are provided in the subscription that have prepared me to take the AWS Certifications. Moreover, I had the chance to improve my technological literacy by talking with seniors on the team. I was able to learn PowerShell scripts, Chrome extensions to facilitate searching, and other tools that have greatly improved my workflow.
TEAMWORK
My last goal for this term was to build my teamwork skills. I'm currently working with 24 other team members, and I want to be able to collaborate with them.
​
An improvement in my communication skills has helped me work with my team members. As our team is dispersed around Canada, I got to work mainly with colleagues who are in the Guelph office. Being in the office has helped me to collaborate with them more confidently and easily as I got to talk to them face to face and they are the first ones I can ask for help. Moreover, our Teams channel has also helped me collaborate with my colleagues as I was able to explain the issue I was experiencing and get their advice as a team. I was also able to learn about the projects they are working on and know their interests. Moreover, as my project was broken between different teammates, I got to communicate with them to get their opinions on specific knowledge articles where the layout of a specific app has changed.
Relation to my Academic Studies
This co-op term has enhanced my academic knowledge by significantly improving my problem-solving skills and troubleshooting skills and also boosting my technological literacy by learning new skills. Being a Computer Science student, these skills play a major role in my degree. This job has provided me with a good foundation on how to analyze issues and find their root causes and solutions. I am more confident in tackling challenging issues as this job has changed my perspective on different types of problems. This job has also exposed me to different programming languages and software such as PowerShell commands, SCCM, Active Directory, ServiceFirst, Microsoft Intune, Windows 10, MS Office 365, SharePoint, AWS Cloud and others which will surely help me throughout my degree.
Focus of the report
The main focus of this report is the system used by Technical Support teams to maintain the functionality of a company. As Technical Support Analysts, we maintain and help users with the software they need. This job uses a ticketing system through ServiceFirst along with Knowledge Articles which help in resolving incidents. I also highlighted the importance of work notes to maintain our workflow. I had a unique experience working as a bilingual Technical Support Analyst where I had to prioritize French tickets over English ones and this work term has offered me the opportunity to be on a work trip to Quebec. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to document and review company-accessible Knowledge Articles that are used to help employees fix easy technical issues. These articles help to decrease the number of tickets received by the IT Support team.
Conclusion
Coming to The Co-operators for my third term is an opportunity that I'm grateful for as it has boosted my personal growth. I now feel more confident communicating with people and gained experience with problem-solving and troubleshooting. I was able to work with various software Microsoft 365, Windows 10, Active Directory, SCCM, ServiceFirst, Microsoft Intune, OneDrive, ISE, Xerox Printers as well as Microsoft Console Management. Moreover, the company has also promoted self-learning training so that we can develop and build our career paths.This job has shown me the importance of an IT Support team within a company that employs more than 10,000 employees across Canada. I really enjoyed my time working at The Co-operators!!
Acknowledgments
I would personally like to thank my Co-op coordinators, Laura Gatto & Kate McRoberts, at the University of Guelph for supporting me during my summer co-op term.
I would also like to thank my Senior Manager Eric Gillis and my Manager Jesse Brown for always supporting me. Their feedback and support were key to my work performance.
They also offered me the opportunity to be on my first work trip to Quebec.
They also allowed me to participate in the different company events that were organized during my time at The Co-operators.
In addition, I want to thank all my co-workers for a successful time at The Co-operators.
Some memories from my time with TPS at The Co-operators
