Tech Support: Where Do I Find Answers To A Question About AKHMIS?

As the Alaska HMIS Lead Organization, Institute for Community Alliances (ICA) maintains a variety of resources to help organizations and users effectively utilize AKHMIS. The resources listed below are available to help meet organization and user needs.

Check the AKHMIS Knowledge Base

The AKHMIS Knowledge Base is a collection of frequently asked questions with answers from the ICA team. Everything is sorted into topics and is searchable using the built-in search. It is easily accessible on smartphones and tablets!

If you do not know exactly what you are looking for, or simply want to gain more insight into AKHMIS, feel free to explore the content of the AKHMIS Knowledge Base any time.

Contact the AKHMIS Help Desk

What is the Help Desk?

Sometimes users just need someone to support them when they have an AKHMIS question or problem. Never fear - the Help Desk is here!

ICA staff are available on our Help Desk every Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am 5:00 pm Alaska Time (Monday through Thursday, 9:00 am 5:00 pm and 9:00 am 2:00 pm in the summer).. The Help Desk is closed for holidays. Users will be notified in advance of these closures through the newsletter and on the Alaska ICA website.

Contact us using the Help Desk or e-mail AKHMIS@icalliances.org. Help Desk requests are routed to the appropriate team member who will respond within two (2) hours. Emails and forms are used to efficiently prioritize requests received and to organize and prepare the actions needed to serve the user best.

Why don't you have a phone number that I can call?

ICA staff are available to assist users over the phone if a question cannot be satisfactorily answered via email. However, the first contact users have with the Help Desk is typically made over email. Some reasons for this are:

The volume and complexity of Help Desk requests received makes it difficult for ICA to field a high number of phone calls.
Email enables us to route requests to the appropriate subject matter expert, ensuring users get the best response.
Creating written documentation enables users and Help Desk staff to revisit resolved cases when needed.
At least one person staffs the Help Desk every day (Monday thru Friday), with additional coverage during busy reporting seasons.

What types of questions does the Help Desk respond to?

The Help Desk is available to respond to a variety of cases, including those related to Coordinated Entry, funder reporting requirements, user and organization management, and password resets. If the Help Desk is unable to answer a question, ICA staff will do their best to route you to a person that can.

How can I get the most out of my Help Desk experience?

While ICAs system administrators love answering questions, contacting the AKHMIS Help Desk will ensure that the user will get the fastest possible response. To further improve the speed and quality of the answer received, please include the following:

Client ID
- Only refer to a clients AKHMIS ID number when referencing a specific client record in AKHMIS.
- Please note, client identifying information should not be shared via email. Exclude any client names, social security numbers, and other personally identifiable information. Sending screenshots can be extremely helpful, but you must obscure any identifying information that may be included.
Provider ID Number (the number associated with an AKHMIS EDA option).
Report Information, including report name and the parameters used to run it.
- Please provide the name of the report and where and when it was run.
- Is it a BusinessObjects report or a canned report that was run in Community Services?
  - This information will help us locate the report more quickly and ensure we are helping to resolve the correct issue.
  - If it is a BusinessObjects report: Schedule the report to your BI inbox. This will allow us to see the report exactly as you do. If you View the report, we are unable to see the report you have run.
  - Schedule the report in Excel format. We can troubleshoot reporting issues more quickly when a report is run in Excel as opposed to a PDF.

Visit ICA Alaska's Website

The ICA website is the place to go to find helpful resources, including data collection forms, AKHMIS governance documents, and data visualization tools. We recommend checking out these bookmark-worthy pages: