JAMES GANDER

The Service Desk Is Dead – Again!

The Service Desk is dead – again!

Or why we need Service Desks

James Gander, ITSM Consultant Gander Service Management Limited M: 021 777 457 james@gander.co.nz

www.gander.co.nz

Are you sitting comfortably?

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FUD

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Danger

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Stop

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Who said I can’t use my tablet?

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Governance of IT

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Service Desk is key

• The Service Desk is key to:

– Delivery & Support of services

– Non-IT perception of the IT department

• Everyone in your / your customer’s organisation will at some point interact with the Service Desk

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Service Desk is key

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Numbers completely made up by Gander Service Management research team (me) to prove my point.

BYOD

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SD call rates are increasing

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Personal contact

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So is the Service Desk dead?

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So is the Service Desk dead?

• Service Desks are an easy target

• Is it the Service Desk at fault?

• Is it the wider IT department?

• Is it higher?

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Perception or Reality

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What can we do?

Simple!

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Beware

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Understand

• Understand what you are supposed to be doing

• Understand what you are actually doing

• Understand what you need to do

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Non-Service Desk people only

• Go and spend time on the Service Desk

• Take calls

• Become scared

– by the amount of systems you need to know about and understand

– by the amount of calls and type of callers

• Feedback

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Understand- Survey

• Understand what your customers / users expect from and think about you

• Make it short but meaningful

• Understand what your teams think

• Share the results

• Work through the key points

• Come up with a plan

• Share the plan

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Prioritise

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Improve

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Improve

• Improve the way your customers / users perceive the service desk

• Improve the way the team works

• Improve the way that the whole department operates

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Improve - Team work

• Lead

• Encourage

• Knowledge share

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Improve - Department

• Often not the Service Desk that causes perception

• Are all teams prioritising calls in their

workload?

• Are all teams working to the same goal?

• Knowledge

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Check

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Knowledge

• Service desks need: – to receive Knowledge

– They need to be involved in projects

– They need more than a document (although that is a start)

– They need to be aware of changes

– They need to have sign-off of projects and changes

– They need to be aware of issues

– Training BEFORE you release new services / hardware / software

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Roles & Responsibilities

• Service Desk need to know:

– Which teams do what

– Who owns a service / system

– Who can approve requests

– What tools are available

– How users do their jobs

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Communicate

• Listen to what people think

– Good and bad

– Share that feedback

• Tell users what you are doing

– Share the fact that you take 600 calls a week and resolve 530.

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What am I trying to say?

• Service Desks are the key to a good IT department

• Service Desks are central to successful delivery of new projects / services / changes

• Get a good Service Desk and the rest of IT looks good.

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Takeaways

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Managers – spend time on the Service Desk

Review and refresh processes for handling calls and knowledge

Survey your users. Share the results with the wider business.

Produce an improvement plan with realistic deliverables and timeframes. Share the plan

Talk to your users

Ensure you have a list of services you provide (Service Catalogue)

Document / review roles & responsibilities

Talk to your staff! They often have some of the best ideas to improve things.

Schmooze P.A.s and Receptionists – trust me

Governance to review and agree list

The Service Desk is dead …

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