The service desk is the ideal point for ensuring best business practices, says Allen Lewis, Peregrine Systems Inc general manager at CCH Enterprise Solutions.
Organisations today are introducing complexity into their IT infrastructures at a rapid, even unprecedented pace. This trend is driven by advanced communication such as the Internet, the move to enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and specific business unit requirements. These applications are typically deployed on complex, distributed systems. Industry analysts assert that support of these systems and applications represents at least 70% of the total cost of ownership (TCO).
While complexity and costs are rising, end-user satisfaction with IT support and responsiveness is decreasing. The reason for this downward trend is the same reason IT costs are increasing: complexity. The IT organisation is being asked to support an increasingly complex environment and is also asked to reduce costs.
What can an IT organisation do to respond to these issues? Clearly, it must move from a purely reactive response mode to a proactive programme that anticipates problems, responds to them quickly and actively plans for system-wide changes. Leading market analysts assert that the formation of a consolidated service desk (CSD) is the first step in lowering TCO. The CSD itself evolves through four distinct phases during the practice maturation process: fire-fighting, reactive, proactive and business policy.
Fire-fighting service desk
This service desk is characterised as loosely organised groups of "help desks", each supporting a specific technology. Often there is a group supporting legacy applications and another group supporting a distributed application. The main focus of these groups is problem tracking. The technicians that work on the desk (the Level 1 staff) are challenged to identify the group that end-user problems "belong" to. Very often end-users are told to contact another group for support. Each support group usually uses its own problem tracking application that can vary from legacy-based applications to simple spreadsheets.
A fire-fighting desk`s first goal is to consolidate the Level 1 functions into one group. Clearly, problems must still be assigned to others for resolution, but the first goal is to create a single point of contact (SPOC) for the end-user community to report problems. Once established, the service desk can begin positioning for the next phase of the CSD.
Reactive service desk
This type of service desk is characterised by a single group that is answering calls and acting as a SPOC for the end-users. The reactive desk begins to add value and lower TCO by adopting a problem resolution practice. This practice attempts to resolve problems on the first call, reducing the need to escalate to more skilled (and expensive) technicians. Another benefit of this practice is increased end-user satisfaction as the service desk strives to move beyond "the helpless desk" and solve 60-80% of the problems on the first call (a world-class desk solves 80% of the problems on the first call).
The reactive desk also begins looking for ways to be notified of problems before the end-users notice and call. An accurate and detailed inventory of the infrastructure that they are supporting is essential for the desk to make this transition. To make this step, the service desk and their problem tracking application must be able to integrate with network and systems management (NSM) products.
These products allow the service desk to be notified of basic problem types such as node outages and job ABENDs before being reported by end-users. These products also provide the desk with an inventory of the infrastructure they are supporting. Both event and inventory discovery have profound effects on lowering TCO.
Proactive service desk
Here staff have moved beyond mastery of the reactive processes and distinguish themselves as proactive by adopting a change management methodology. Somewhere between reactive and proactive, the service desk also begins acting as a SPOC for other types of calls (beyond problems) such as service requests for upgrades, training, or new equipment.
While servicing calls other than those associated with problems is usually a characteristic of a proactive service desk, without the adoption of a change management methodology, the desk will never move beyond reactive. The proactive desk is also continuing to focus on TCO through more advanced practices such as end-user self help, remote control of end-user desktops and the continued exploitation of more advanced NSM products.
The change management methodology involves the management of all moves, adds, and changes (MACs) to production systems. The service desk must control or "own" the process of coordinating and managing changes to become proactive. Otherwise the desk is in constant react mode because it is not aware of what is happening to the infrastructure. Change management is a standard practice in the legacy environment but newer in the distributed systems world.
Business policy service desk
This is an organisation that is aligned with business units. A service desk in this phase is creating service level agreements (SLAs) with the business units and is managing to meet them. This service desk is usually also responsible for end-to-end IT asset management as well.
Each phase is distinct although some practices may be introduced in slightly different order. Clearly though, advanced practices such as creating and managing SLAs or implementing a change management practice cannot begin to evolve until the service desk has gained the skills necessary, and the respect of the organisation, to move forward.
Share
