topdesk magazine 2008 issue 1

7/29/2019 TOPdesk Magazine 2008 Issue 1

1/16

March 2008, Issue 1, Volume 10

azM looks back on an exciting project / Customer seminar days in the UK /

Getting acquainted with a new service desk /

It takes more than software

to set up a service desk


2/162

Putting People First

Studies show that three in four IT projects in the United

Kingdom fail. What is going on? Is it due to bad software?

Software is created by programmers, so it must be incom-

prehensible, right? Or is something being overlooked at the

implementation stage? In other words, are the needs of the

end users and, ultimately, the customers taken into account

effectively in the implementation process?

Thankfully, attention is increasingly being paid to the role

of the individual in service management processes. For

example, software is becoming more user-friendly. Above

all, service management professionals are realising that theimplementation of a new application necessitates a new

way of working, and that it needs to revolve around the

people. Because in the end, software is meant to support the

end users, and ultimately, the customers. Simply installing

a CD with software does not mean that you will magically

acquire the perfect service desk.

In this edition of TOPdesk Magazine, you will nd articles

and actual accounts of companies that have managed to

make the people a pivotal part in the implementation ofsoftware and new work procedures. The largest and most

important factor of an implementation is, after all, the

people.

TOPdesk is created by people for people. We wish you much

pleasure in reading this edition of TOPdesk Magazine.

Gerben Bloemendal

TOPdesk Magazine, service managementplatform, discusses subjects that are topicalin the world of professional service desksin IT, facilities and other service providingorganizations. TOPdesk Magazine is intendedfor managers, service desks employees, facilitiesorganizations and electronic city councils- anyone who is involved with supporting

customers on a daily basis. This concerns boththe processes and the technology behind theseservices.

COLOPHON

TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk publication

tel: +31 15 270 09 00

email: [email protected].

Editorial board Gerben Bloemendal, Amanda

Dirkse

EditorsNiek Steenhuis, Henrieke Korten, Clare

Donald

Translators Carrie Brandt, Clare Donald, Niek

Steenhuis

Lay-outDebora Reis, Joost Knuit

Website Erik Pols, Glen Young

This magazine is printed on FSC-certifed paper,

using an eco press with cadmium-free ink for all co-

lours and distilled water instead of alcohol.

Editorial

Visit us at

www.topdesk.com


3/16

8

10

4 News

6 Looking back on an exciting project Almostayearaftertheofcialkick-offofthisUpgradeproject we look back on the implementation ofTOPdesk Enterprise at Maastricht hospital.

8 Customer seminar days in the UKFollowing the success of the Customer seminar heldin London in 2007, TOPdesk UK organized seminars inLondon and Birmingham at the beginning of this year.

10 It takes more than software to set up a

Research shows that a large number of IT projects fail.What is the reason for this?

14 Trends: Getting acquainted with a new

16 Tips + Tricks

6

Contents March 08

14

service desk

service desk


4/16

New module: Visitor registration

TOPdesk has just introduced a new module Visitor

registration for Facilities management. The registration of

visitors is a vital process for many organizations. Who has

entered the building and who is still expected to arrive? Th

module enables the user to register the arrival and depar-

tureofvisitorsquicklyandefciently.Asaresult,thesecu-

rity of the building and employees can easily be monitored

The Visitor registration module is a perfect addition to the

increasing number of facilities modules and functionalities

that are available for TOPdesk Enterprise. When developing

new modules, TOPdesk listens carefully to the wishes of

their clients. This module is a good example of how TOPdes

incorporates feedback from customers in their new soft-

ware.

TOPdesk Belgium

On1Februarythisyear,TOPdeskopenedanewofcein

Belgium.TheofceinAntwerpisthefourthTOPdeskofce

after Delft, London and Kaiserslautern. The establishment

ofaBelgianofcemeansthatTOPdeskcannowsupportits

Belgian clients better and more personally.

For more information, or for a demonstration on location,

please contact TOPdesk Belgium by telephone or email:

TOPdesk Belgium BVBA

Heilig Hartstraat 142600 Antwerp (Berchem)

tel: +32 (0) 487 529 321

email: [email protected]

TOPdesk version 3.8

Version 3.8 of TOPdesk lite andProfessional is now available. This new

version offers a number of new func-

tionalities to further improve the daily

use and user-friendliness TOPdesk. The

TOPdesk Web interface is also available in

version 3.8.

We are continually working on the impro-

vement of our software new modules,

more features, enhancing the user-friend-

liness and broadening our horizons.

Do you wish to upgrade to version 3.8 or

would you like to receive more informa-tion? Contact us on:

+44 20 8846 8516 /

[email protected].

4

News


5/16

TOPdesk in French

In a bid to venture even deeper into the international mar-

ket, TOPdesk has added another language to its already mul-

tilingual series. The range of TOPdesk products - Enterprise,

Professional and lite - is now available in French.

This is an important development regarding TOPdesks

international presence; a TOPdesk branch recently opened

in Antwerp, Belgium and the organization has been active

at shows and fairs in Canada over the last few months. But

mostimportantly,theramicationsofaFrenchversionof

TOPdesk are great for the potential service management

market in France. Check out the website at www.topdesk.fr.

NEWS 5

KOMCOM Sd, Germany

On Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 May, TOPdesk Deutschland

GmbH will be exhibiting at the KOMCOM Sd fair in

Karlsruhe. If you would like to attend this trade fair for

the public sector, please contact our sales department in

Kaiserlautern to purchase tickets: +49 631 624 00-0, or

[email protected]. For more information on the fair itself, go

to www.komcom.de.

Customer symposium inFrankfurt/Main

TOPdesk wants its clients to get the most out oftheirTOPdesksoftware.Wouldyouliketond

out more about recent and future developments

of TOPdesk software? You are invited to join the

TOPdesk customer symposium on Thursday, 24

April at the Intercity Hotel at Frankfurt Airport.

On the day, you will be given the opportunity

to attend presentations and join in discussion

groups. We hope to be able to support you in

exploringallpossibleeldsandapplicationsof

TOPdesk software. Not yet signed up? Register

online at www.topdesk.com/de/campaigns/

anmeldung-symposium.

Service desk show, London

This year, TOPdesk will be present at the Service Desk and

IT Support Show the UKs leading event for IT service

management & support desk professionals (formerly

known as the HITSS). The show will be held on Tuesday 22

and Wednesday 23 April from 09:30 to 17:00 at Olympia,

London.Visitusatstand420tondoutthelateston

TOPdesk developments. For more information on the show

or to register, go to www.servicedeskshow.com


6/166

A well-planned jump into thedeep endIt was quite exciting for the hospi-

tal to make the transition from HP

Openview to TOPdesk. It all began

on 6 July 2007 that was whentherstTOPdeskmoduleswent

live at the service desk. When the

telephonesbegantoring,therst

few incidents were awkwardly

recorded. To optimise the transition

for the 80 IT employees, a number

of preparations were touched upon.

Ben Sollet: Each employee was

trained on how to use Incident and

Precision, discipline andcommunicationThe discussions with Ben Sollet in

March 2007 and in early 2008 were

focused on the meticulous imple-

mentation of TOPdesk. Besides the

steps that preceded the implemen-

tation, processes were also written,

established and then posted for

everyone to read on the network.Ben Sollet: We adapt the proce-

dures to what we have learnt and

make sure that we can guarantee

quality. I think that it is important

for people to feel that the pro-

gress of the implementation is a

collective effort. Therefore, clear

and open communication plays

an important role. The IT Service

Centre sends a newsletter in which

the various Process managers and

their teams report on the progressof their projects. These projects

concern the entire upgrade project

that we began a year ago. I report

primarily on the progress of the

TOPdesk implementation.

Congurationmanagement.We

also had a test phase. We intention-

ally planned to start using TOPdesk

on a Friday because Fridays are

usually the least busy day for the

service desk. Despite our prepara-tions, it still felt a little like being

thrown into the deep end. We used

the off-peak hours to log the inci-

dents that we were unable to log

during the busier times because of

our unfamiliarity with TOPdesk.

Looking backon an excitingproject

In April 2007, TOPdesk Magazine reported on the ambiti-

ous plan to restructure the IT department of the Academic

Hospital in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The entire IT depart-

ment was reorganized and its infrastructure was updated;

this included the implementation of a new service manage-

mentapplication.Now,almostayearaftertheofcialkick-off

of the Upgrade Project, we take a look back on the implemen-tation of TOPdesk Enterprise with project leader Ben Sollet.

TEXT:AMANDA DIRKSE


7/16

A Self Service Desk for keyusers

The hospital is also planning on

making use of the TOPdesk Self

Service Desk. Right now it is being

testedbytheso-calledkeyusers.

Key users are people that work with

a certain application and for which

they can report incidents themsel-ves in the Self Service Desk. In most

cases they are immediately escala-

tedtothesecondline.Theregular

end users report their incidents by

telephone to the IT Service Centre.

The to-do list on a big screenIn order to clearly present the tasks

that need to be completed, each

team has received a large monitor

on which the to-do list is visible to

everyone. Ben Sollet: We are stillbusy with a pilot, but the intention

of these centralized screens is to

keep the teams up-to-date on the

progress of their incidents. In this

way, the employees do not have to

continually log into TOPdesk to stay

updated. And because everyone

knows exactly what needs to be

taken care of, the incidents are

handledmoreefciently.Thatpro-

motes teamworkwhich was one

of our goals.

Collaborating with TOPdeskThe hospital is an excellent

example of a very ambitious

TOPdesk customer with a rigorous

project plan and high expectations.

The fact that the implementationof TOPdesk Enterprise is a small

part of a much bigger transfor-

mation within the IT department

gives this project an extra dimen-

sion. Dennis Roozemond (TOPdesk

project leader) and Jordi Recasens

(consultant) regard this exten-

sive project as quite challenging.

Dennis: We are pleased that our

approach of phased implemen-

tations has been successful. By

implementing one module andits accompanying ITIL process at

a time, we were able to anticipate

the changes and adapt the plan-

ning as needed. Working within the

constantly changing environment

of the hospital was an aspect that

needed to be considered in order

to achieve desirable results. Jordi:

There are many things changing

simultaneously within the hospital.

And many variables automatically

mean more uncertainty. But we are

very pleased with the progress!

Proud?The step-by-step implementation

of the new application resulted in

the new procedures spreading very

quickly across the IT department.Ben Sollet: In the meantime, we

have reached quite a few milesto-

nes. Some colleagues needed to be

convinced that the changes would

bring about a win-win situation.

The sharing of responsibilities has

made that possible. I am rather

proud of that.

The introduction of the Problem

management module will follow

shortly. After that, the hospital willbegin with an evaluation phase

inordertofurtherne-tunethe

processes. We wish Ben Sollet and

his team at the hospital much suc-

cess with the continuation of the

project.


8/168 TOPDESK

TEXT: CLARE DONALD

On board HMS Belfast inLondonTherstTOPdeskCustomerSeminar

Day of 2008 was held on 30 January

on board HMS Belfast, situated in the

impressive location between London

Bridge and Tower Bridge. In addition

to receiving a tour of this grand

museum boat, the forty participantsformed small groups to discuss their

individual experiences of working

with TOPdesk.

Exploring the gardens ofBirminghamIn order to cater to customers in the

north of England, the TOPdesk UK

team decided on Birmingham as

the location of the second seminar

in February. The event was held

in the serene environment of the

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, in

Edgbaston. The seminar kicked off

with two presentations; customers

then split up into intensive work-

groups, according to the TOPdesk

product they use.

Putting names to facesThe main aim of the seminars is to

give customers the unique opportu-

nity to meet others who use TOPdesk

in similar ways. Customers also have

the chance to meet the TOPdesk UK

team and put names to faces. Darren

Heaton, one of the representatives

fromSmurtKappaGroupintheUK,

thoroughly enjoyed the Birmingham

seminar and was particularly pleased

with both the venue and the hospi-

tality of the TOPdesk team. He took

some time out to answer a couple of

questions on his experiences of the

day.

What did you think of the TOPdesk

Birmingham Customer Seminar

Day?

For the seminar to be held in the

Botanical Gardens at Edgbaston

was a great idea; its easy to get to

by car or train, a very serene and

conducive environment with ample

facilities and wonderful gardens

Customer seminar days in the UK

TOPdesks client base continues to grow, both in numbers and geographically. TOPdesk UK

aims to not only have more frequent and closer contact with customers, but also bring cus-

tomers from different organizations together to share knowledge and exchange ideas on the

use of TOPdesk. Following the success of the Customer seminar held in London in January

2007, TOPdesk UK organized seminars in London and Birmingham at the beginning of this

year. Both clients and TOPdesk staff have since expressed their enjoyment of the days, and

wish to attend similar ones in the future.


9/16TOPDESK

for example can be used to publish

and track a simple project lifecycle

withdependencies,notications,

authorization and full-blown chartsand reporting, all published via one

central database.

What did you like most about the

seminar?

I really liked the venue and the

hospitality. In particular, there was a

real sense on camaraderie with other

TOPdesk customers who had similar

business needs and goals.

Do you nd that your use of TOPdeskhas improved since the seminar?

As a relatively new user of TOPdesk,

Ifeltthatitwasreassuringtond

that I was using or planning to

use the software as was intended. I

got my head around news items and

the methodology of the Knowledge

base.Iamnowverycondentabout

the imminent rollout of the software

throughout the UK and am certain

that it will be as successful as imple-

mentations by my counterparts in

the Netherlands at SK Group IT.

Future seminarsSeveral customers have since respon-

ded with a number of suggestions

for improvement, while others have

shown interest for other applicati-

ons of TOPdesk such as for Facilities

management. TOPdesk UK is keen

to organize similar seminars in the

future. Not only can users of TOPdesk

learn a lot from each other, but

TOPdesk can also get a lot out of it.

Would you like more information on

these seminars? Perhaps you would

like to attend something similar in

the future? Then feel free to contact

us on +44 20 8846 8516 or by email

at [email protected]. Your suggesti-

ons and comments are more than

welcome.

to walk around at break times. All

TOPdesk staff were very pleasant.

A comprehensive introduction to

the company and product was arealbenettounderstandwhere

the company had come from and it

was interesting to hear about the

roadmap for the future of TOPdesk.

What aspects of the day were most

useful to you and why?

Firstly, I found familiarization with

theUKstaffintheLondonofce

really useful. Secondly, it was helpful

to get a good understanding of the

biggerpicturewithregardstothesoftware in relation to ITIL and facili-

ties management. It was also nice to

hear how other customers are using

the different modules of TOPdesk to

accommodate their requirements.

It helped me understand just how

exiblethesoftwareisandhowit

can be adopted to the needs of our

business. Change Management

What was the main reason for attending the TOPdesk Customer seminar?

Product Developments

Learn More

Answer Queries

Meet Other Users

Upgrade Information

Other Functions i.e. Facilities

Learn How TOPdesk Fits with ITIL

How Best to Implement

Extranet Buddy System

Meet the TOPdesk Team

Interested in Company History

26%

22%

17%

13%

4%

4%

4%

4%

2%2%2%


10/1610 THEME


11/16THEME 1

IT service management is based on

three pillars: processes, technology and

people. Reorganizing service manage-mentprocessescanincreaseefciency,

while technological improvements

can help to process calls more quickly,

thereby reducing the costs. Experience

shows,however,thatthesehardfac -

torshavelesseffectonthenalresult

of the implementation than so-called

softfactors.Whethertheservicedesk

employees have insight into the proces-

ses within your organization proves to

be more important than how extensi-

velyyourworkowhasbeendescribed.The human factor determines the suc-

cess of an implementation. Processes

can be reorganized, advanced applicati-

ons can be installed, but in the end it is

the people who provide the service. The

rest is simply support.

SupportAn important condition for a successful

TEXT: NIEK STEENHUIS

It takes more than software

to set up a service desk

Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that 75%

of all IT projects in the UK fail. The main reason for this

appears not so much to be a failure of the technology or

theinefciencyofworkprocesses,butbecauseofinsuf-

cient attention for the people within an organization. Due

to tight deadlines, the implementation process is dealt with

as quickly as possible, and there is not always time to trainthe service desk employees properly. More often than not,

the employees are not even involved in the implementa-

tion.

implementation is gaining the support

of the people involved. A lack of support

is the main reason that certain projectsfail, says Ivo Kristelijn, Managing

Director of TOPdesk Consultancy: An

organization has its own goals, values

and ideas, but those of the people

within the organization are too often

overlooked. They have their own

interests, opinions and motivations,

and these should not be ignored. When

the ideas of the organization do not

correspond to the personal interests of

the employees, they will be met with

resistance. In reaction, the employeesare sometimes put under more pres-

sure, which in turn gives rise to more

resistance.Systemscanbecongured,

models can de adjusted, but the human

factor is more complex.

ObstacleOne of the dangers of change proces-

ses within an organization is regarding


12/1612 THEME

provided to the customer is fore-

most. The interests of the people

who provide the service are madesubordinate. This is less than ideal,

because in optimal service delivery,

notonlyisthecustomersatised,

but also the service desk employee.

InvestmentsInvestments in employees are

therefore necessary, and should

balance the investments in new

technology and extensive process

reorganization. When a service

management application is pur-

chased, service desk employees

need to be trained in operating

it; when company processes are

reorganized, it is useful when

everyone knows which procedures

now apply. Investing in people is

the only way to ensure that the

changes that have been implemen-

ted within an organization will be

successful and sustainable.

In practice however, these invest-

ments are hardly ever made. That

is remarkable, especially when you

take into account that an organi-

zations staff represents its mostsubstantial overhead cost and

therefore requires large invest-

ments. So why is it more attractive

to invest in technology rather than

in people?

MeasurableThe problem with investing in

people is that it is hard to measure

the results it yields. When an

organization for example decides

to train its employees, a problemarises. How much knowledge do

the service desk employees need to

have in order to function properly

in the new organizational struc-

ture? How much time and money

has to be spent on training them?

In other instances, such a question

canbeansweredbyacost-benet

analysis;aslongasthebenets

exceed the costs, investments

arejustied.Buthowdoesone

measure whether the services have

improved? There is no objective

way to measure the quality of such

services, which makes it hard to

account for such investments.

Investing in knowledgeIn determining to what extent

training service desk employees is

of additional value for your services,

hardguresdonotsufce.Butin

order to make such a decision, you

donotneedhardgures,argues

Kristelijn: The decision whether

to hire external expertise, for

example, does not have to be based

on an extensive Excel spreadsheet

ofcostsandbenets.Someroughestimationworksnejustmake

some notes on a napkin. In most

cases that will be enough. Beware

of going to extremes though;

organizations often call in either

not enough external expertise (the

service desk employees study the

theory themselves), or too much

external expertise (they follow an

In optimal service delivery, not only is

the customer satisfed, but also the

service desk employee.

the people as an obstacle that

should be overcome. One example

of such a negative approach isgiven by Brian Johnson, one of the

originalauthorsoftherstITIL

books. In a column on the service

management website SearchCIO.

com, Johnson states that people,

as well as processes and tech-

nology, are an important factor

in ITIL. If an employee has had a

negative past experience with an

ITIL implementation, it is likely that

he or she will be sceptical towards

another implementation. That is

why, Johnson argues, the employ-

ees need to understand the use of

ITIL. However, the way that Johnson

approaches the people within

an organization could be ques-

tioned. He regards the service desk

employees as passive factors that

need to be convinced of the need

for a new process model and if

they will not accept it, they must be

forced to do so: Ultimately, each

team member has three choices:

lead, follow, or get out of the way.

When an organization wishes to

foster support for a new initiative,such an imperative approach may

not be the best way to accomplish

this. Providing insight into the

processes (within the organiza-

tion) can indeed help employees

to warm towards the model that is

to be introduced, but in Johnsons

case the goal of the organization

improving the services that are


13/16THEME 1

extensive training programme).

Bothapproachesareinefcient

intheend;therstapproachcanlead to incapable employees, the

latter to unnecessary expenses.

The solution lies somewhere in

between. Try to organize the trai-

ning programme on a step by step

basis. The service desk employees

study some theory, follow a course

for a few days, and then evalu-

atewhethertheyhavesufcient

knowledge to get started with the

new tasks. If not, they participate

in a few more training days. It is

important to deal with the need

for training in a pragmatic manner.

This way you invest in knowledge

more conscientiously.

PragmaticAlthough the quality of a service is

hard to measure, an organization

stillhastondawaytoensurethe

quality of the service. Dont they

have anything to go by, then? They

do.Whenhardguresandtightly

denedtargetsnolongersufce,a pragmatic approach might bring

relief. Peter Wheatcroft, author

of World Class IT Service Delivery,

suggests that organizations should

focus more on guidelines, instead

ofgures.Asabenchmarkfor

good service delivery, Wheatcroft

mentions the IT Supplier Code of

Best Practice. This is a document

containing practical guidelines that

has been composed by Intellect,

the trade organization for, amongstothers, IT organizations in the UK.

The aim of this document is to rea-

lize a more successful and mature

service delivery. It deals with the

soft factors of service delivery; an

open and forthright relationship

with the customers, understanding

their wishes, a transparent process

and constructive contribution to

the process are all factors that they

feel contribute to an improved

service.

TransparencyTransparency in all activities can

not only ensure a better relation-

ship with the customer, but can

also help to improve a change pro-

cess within an organization. When

service desk employees are actively

involved in a change process, the

feeling that they are forced into

something is taken away. When a

tool is purchased, argues Adrian

Palmer-Geaves, have the service

desk employees try out the applica-

tionrst,beforeitisimplemented.

This way they experience what the

new system can and cannot do,

which might take away any con-

cerns that they may have.

Kristelijn also thinks that transpa-

rency can generate more support

within an organization: Both

management and the employees

benetfromtransparencyincom-munication. It is important that

both the goals of the organization

and of the individual employees are

made known. In a change process,

these goals can be attuned to each

other. An example: the system

manager opposes the service

management application that is

being introduced, because he does

not see the use of registration. He

or she can then be retrained to

learn something he does not like todo, but it is also possible to adjust

his job responsibilities so that he

can spend less time on registration.

Such a solution can only come

about when the goals of both the

system manager and management

are made known.

PeopleAstheeldofservicemanagement

grows more complex, a pragmaticapproach seems to offer an ideal

outcome. Extensively described

processes and advanced software

can certainly help to improve the

service delivery, as long as these

serve to support the people that

have to use them. The more the

service desk employees are involved

in the introduction of a new appli-

cation or process organization, the

more likely it is that the implemen-

tation will be a success. After all, as

Wheatcroft states, these are only a

prerequisite for building a service

proposition but they do not of

themselves deliver the goods this

is what we employ people for.

SOURCESBRIANJOHNSON,ITILPROCESSSUCCESS:

GET PEOPLE ON YOUR SIDE, SEARCHCIO.

COM, APRIL 2007

PETERWHEATCROFT,GOODSERVICE

REQUIRES MORE THAN ITIL VERSION 3, BSC

AUGUST 2007

PERSONALFOCUS,SERVICETALK,JULY200


14/1614 TRENDS

A positive twistService desk employees of the

Benelux Bureau for IntellectualProperty in The Hague were used

to simply picking up the phone and

noting down what the caller had to

report. Henritte Soonius, head of

the department, admits that not all

of the 22 employees were thrilled

about following the new telephone

script that was introduced along

with the new service desk. Soonius:

Some of them were concerned

thatitwouldbedifculttolisten

to the caller, follow the script onthe computer screen and carefully

register the incident all at the same

time. With these concerns in mind,

she organized an Information Day

on 6 December 2007, in collabo-

ration with her colleague Rudolf

Wiersinga and TOPdesk consultant

Jolanda Simonis. Since this was the

dayaftertheDutchSinterklaas

holiday, not only did she treat

the service desk employees to

extensive information, but alsoto a chocolate letter (a traditional

Sinterklaas treat). You can get rid

of a lot of concerns by providing

the right information. The choco-

late letter was a nice extrasome-

thing to give a positive twist to the

new situation.

A clean slateThe IT department of the Terneuzen

municipality in the Netherlands

A new service desk can be a source of stress for both the service desk employees and their

other colleagues. Procedures change: service desk employees have to change the way they

process incoming reports, colleagues must report problems via an internet portal, and so forth.

This article presents four examples of TOPdesk customers who have introduced new service

desks to their organizations in a playful manner.

Getting acquainted with a new

service desk

also paid close attention when a

new system was introduced one

year ago. Pepijn de Smet, theirnetwork engineer, understood

the need for change. Before the

transition, things did not run very

smoothly and there was little

condenceinagoodoutcome.

TOPdesk was already in use, but

last year the system was set up

differentlyandthebackofce

was reorganized. We started

over with a clean slate. In order

to introduce the new system

You can get rid of a lot of concerns by

providing the right information.

TEXT: HENRIEKE KORTEN


15/16TRENDS1

to service desk employees and

other users in an interesting way,

Pepijn and the Communicationsdepartment designed a bag with

the imprint fanTASticfast and

clear help (TAS stands for TOPdesk

ApplicationServerandtasisalso

the Dutch word for bag). These

bags contained information pac-

kages. The bag and the accom-

panying information were a big

hit. It made the transition more

attractive.

From memos to registrationThe Hilverzorg Foundation, anorganization concerned with care

for the elderly, had been working

with TOPdesks IT help desk soft-

ware for a few months when their

nursing home started using the

facilities management software

in October 2006. Employees in

the technical department were

recording incidents on notepads,

or even on their arms. They were

extremelybusy,butnotveryef-cient, according to Piet Groeneveld

from Hilverzorg. On 16 October,

Hilverzorg organized a campaign

aimed at acquainting all employees

with TOPdesk. The reception area

was decorated and project employ-

ees handed out business cards with

the telephone number of the new

frontofce.Itturnedoutvery

well. People came to ask questions

about what was going on and we

could immediately inform them.

Cultural changeConsulting agency Eiffel in Arnhem,

the Netherlands has seen substan-

tial growth in their 15 year exi-

stence. And as the company grew,

so did the number of questions

about automation. Since there

was no service desk, the questions

were directed to the IT department.

This was costing the employees so

much time that they often did nothave time to take care of their own

tasks. It was time for a change

and that change was TOPdesk. To

let everyone know that they should

begin reporting incidents to the

new service desk, the service desk

employees wore special T-shirts

and hung up posters. According to

Marlies Bruggink-Smeding, the pro-

ject leader of the implementation,

this really helped to alert everyone

to the new procedure. It requireda cultural change; the IT employees

hadtoconsistentlygivearmno

to the people who continued to

come to them to report incidents.

Sometimes a reminder was sent via

mail. But the T-shirts and posters

left a good impression.


16/16

London House, 271-273 King StreetLondon W6 9LZ

t +44 20 88468516

e [email protected] www.topdesk.n

Copyright 2008 TOP Informatie Systemen bv. Hoewel dit tijdschrift met de grootst mogelijke zorg is samengesteld, aanvaarden schrijver(s) noch uit-gever enige aansprakelijkheid voor schade ontstaan door eventuele fouten en/of onvolkomenheden in deze uitgave.

tips +tricksRSS feed with the latest TOPdesknewsWant to stay updated on all the latest TOPdesk news?

Use the following URLs to subscribe to the latest

TOPdesk news from the TOPdesk extranet:

http://extranet.topdesk.com/rssnews.jsp

You need to be logged in to the extranet in order to beable to read the RSS feed. Using an RSS reader such asGoogle reader you can then read the news.

ALT+F11 and ALT+F12Applies in: TOPdesk Professional 3.8

By using the familiar F11 and F12 functions in TOPdesk,you can place a date and login name stamp in a memoeld(forexample,intheeldsRequestandAction).It

is now also possible to use ALT+F11 or ALT+F12 to placea stamp on the line after the present position of the cur-sor. However, this does not work in the TOPdesk 3.8 Webinterface.

ID photos in the Person andOperator cardsApplies in: TOPdesk Professional 3.8 and Enterprise 4.0

ID photos can now be displayed in the Person andOperator cards. This can be activated in the SystemSettings > People. The location and the name con-gurationof the photoles can beindicatedhere, forexample:JohnSmith.Firstname+therstletterofthe

surname, extension .jpg = johns.jpg.In the Web interface 3.8 and Enterprise 4.0 versions, the-se functions can be activated in the ApplicationServerconsole under Modules > Photo Module.

London House, 271-273 King StreetLondon W6 9LZ, United Kingdom

t +44 20 8846 85168516f +44 20 8846 8586

e [email protected] www.topdesk.com

Copyright 2008 TOPdesk UK Limited. Although this magazine has been produced with the utmost care and attention, the writers cannot be heldresponsibleinanywayforanydamagesthatmayoccurduetoerrorsand/ordecienciesinthispublication.

topdesk magazine 2008 issue 1

Documents