PDIS Help Desk Operations

The Need 

With the switch to the new Colorado Shines Professional Development Information System (PDIS) in 2021, CDEC needed a way to support its 150,000 users. Stimulus funds were used to establish and build up a PDIS help desk to serve and support these users as they navigate the PDIS. 

The Strategy

This stimulus strategy has been used to support our early childhood workforce through the Colorado Shines PDIS, including increased help desk support and improving customer service. The PDIS is a free, web-based workforce registry and professional development tool that is available to anyone who cares for children, regardless of their location, education level, experience, setting or license type. All professional development is free and most is available in Spanish. 

One service improvement was implementation of a chatbot (Petey), which has improved customer response time by answering common questions from the field and providing navigation of our site without having to contact the Help Desk. 

This activity also enabled the review of Early Childhood Professional Credentials (ECPC). Additionally, this strategy provided the guidance and support to improve state employee performance through project management resources. 

Key Outcomes and Learnings 

Impact

This strategy has provided technical, training and professional credential assistance to approximately 76,300 early childhood professionals in Colorado, as of fall 2023. Additionally, the PDIS Help Desk was able to address a 6-month backlog of tickets and is now responding to help desk tickets within a day of when they are submitted. 

17,538 Help Desk tickets were answered between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The Petey chatbot has helped early childhood professionals submit over 1,300 tickets in 10,500 user interactions.

The ECPC review process reached a maximum of a 58-day turnaround and are now consistently being reviewed within 14 days. 

Learning

The PDIS and the ECPC are increasingly seen as essential resources for the early childhood community. To continue to support a system of this size and scope, the following supports are necessary: 

1. Trained individuals need to be in place to respond to the needs of professionals. 
2. The ability to work with contract vendors allows the flexibility to respond to help desk and credential workload surges. 
3. Sustainable internal systems are being developed to provide consistent procedures and processes.