Many organisations are making a strategic error in attempting to extend the functionality and coverage of their service desk management tool far beyond its intended uses. This is partly a result of the growth of the service desk concept from a fairly simple IT help-desk into a much more inclusive organisation, covering both immediate problems and requests for development of new IT functionality in business application packages such as enterprise resource planning as well as IT infrastructure.
We estimate that 60% of IT staff members are currently involved in service-desk-related activities for at least part of their work week, and that within two to three years this percentage will grow to 70%-80%. Most of these employees never actually answer incoming service desk calls, and most do not have "service desk" as part of their job description. However, they are on call to help solve problems or extend functionality of applications to cover requests that business users make through the service desk. And these activities are tracked by the service desk.
The service desk tool problem has developed as the service desk concept has extended gradually to involve more IT staff. IT organisations are attempting to use service desk management tools designed to log and track specific, short-term, trouble-ticket projects for coverage of a much larger range of projects. This approach has two disadvantages.
First, due to the shakeout that has overtaken the service desk management tool market, many tools have disappeared. Clearly, the more extended a tool`s use is, the more vulnerable the IT organisation is to disruption if the company must replace that tool.
Second, service desk tools are not designed for use by IT staff members who are involved only occasionally with service desk requests. Because they are not accustomed to using these tools, and because the tools are being stretched beyond their capabilities in an attempt to track these larger projects, these IT staff members often minimise usage of the tool or avoid using it altogether. This results in the IT firm losing important data that it needs for managing these projects.
Therefore, companies are now looking at new tools to cover these more extended uses. Changing behaviour is always the hardest part of process change, particularly when already busy people are being asked to take on new tasks that were not previously part of their job descriptions. Providing easy-to-use technical support systems can be an important part of gaining cooperation from employees.
Many organisations are going beyond simply reviewing their support technology to analysing their service desk processes. They are focusing on identifying known errors, calculating the cost of fixing those errors, and then deciding whether it is cost-effective to implement the fix, or if not, developing a workaround that service desk employees can access when users call with that problem. The emphasis is on increasing the productivity of service desk employees and the technical staffs that back them up.
This process review is being driven in part by the increased workload that many service desks are taking on as they extend their area of support to cover applications as well as infrastructure. Typically, companies do not increase service desk headcount or provide service desk personnel with in-depth training on these applications. As a result, service desk staff are being asked to handle more calls - and in many cases, log and track those calls - and then turn the inquiries over to application development or line-of-business application support staff, along with supporting documentation.
User action
IT organisations must review and formalise their service desk procedures, focusing on defining common processes and coordinating service-oriented activities across the company. They should also review, and in many cases increase, the level of automation deployed to support service desk activities. This review should focus on how the tools are being used and on whether all key data elements are being captured. In addition, these data elements should be translated into business language to provide management with a window into how the service desk activities impact the organisation.
META Group analysts Dan Vogel, Michele Hudnall, Val Sribar and David Cearley contributed to this article.
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