The challenge: Expansive documentation and service desk escalations

Schools frequently encounter a common administrative challenge: Compass documentation is expansive, making it time-consuming for staff to find process-based solutions for routine tasks. This often leads to routine enquiries being unnecessarily escalated to the Service Desk, creating inefficiencies and increasing the workload for support staff. The problem extends to Compass administrators and teachers who need quick, reliable answers for various operational processes.

The cechat solution: An adaptive Compass Education AI agent

To streamline these processes and create greater efficiencies in managing routine tasks, Nyree Buchanan, Manager ITS in the Diocese of Townsville investigated whether a cechat agent could correctly return logical process-based answers for routine tasks in Compass. This investigation led to the development of a dedicated Compass AI agent, initially trialled by service desk analysts with a view to wider release to Compass administrators and teachers. The goal of this agent is to transform expansive documentation into accessible guidance for routine school operations.

The development process for this cechat agent was rigorous and iterative:

• Problem articulation: Clearly defining the challenge of inefficient routine task guidance within Compass.

• Resource collection: Gathering extensive documentation, including a local user guide and over 400MB of Compass documentation to form the foundation of the AI agent's responses. This included the Compass Knowledge Base and specific documents like the Edval Handbook and Compass User Manual.

• Agent development and beta testing: Writing the AI agent and conducting beta tests to evaluate its performance.

• Rigorous checking and rework: Responses were rigorously checked and the agent was reworked approximately six to seven times to improve accuracy and clarity.

• Release: Finally, the refined agent was released to Service Desk Analysts for live trial.

The Compass AI agent provides precise and detailed instructions for tasks, ensuring users receive comprehensive guidance. For example, it can provide step-by-step instructions on "how to mark my roll" or "changing a teacher for specialist lessons". It leverages explicit numbering in its instructions to avoid confusion and ensure users can easily follow the steps.

Impact and benefits

The implementation of cechat as a Compass AI agent offers several key benefits:

• Reduced Service Desk escalations: By providing quick, reliable, and process-based answers, cechat reduces unnecessary escalations to the Service Desk. This frees up support staff to focus on more complex issues.

• Improved efficiency and user empowerment: Users can find answers to routine enquiries themselves, empowering them to complete tasks quickly and efficiently.

• Enhanced consistency and accuracy: The agent helps to ensure that instructions are accurate and consistent across all users, as it draws from a comprehensive and verified resource base.

• Clear, sequential guidance: The agent's ability to provide numbered, step-by-step instructions significantly can improve the user experience and task completion rates.

This application of cechat demonstrates its capacity to solve significant administrative pain points by transforming expansive documentation into accessible, intelligent guidance for routine school operations.