HBH Technology Blog: March 2008

In a previous post, I discussed the value of the ITIL framework for small and midsized businesses. In this post, I'd like to focus on one of the framework's components — the service desk. Although aimed at large enterprises, SMBs can leverage the benefits of a properly implemented service desk to improve service levels and efficiency.

Your Analysis, Mr. SPOC?

The service desk is defined by ITIL as the single point of contact (SPOC) between the service provider and the users. Defined as a function rather than a process, the service desk is without doubt the most important component in the ITIL framework.

So what does a service desk do exactly, and why is it so important?

The ITIL Gateway

The service desk typically manages incidents, events, service requests (password resets, new users, etc.), and requests for change (RFCs). It also serves as the primary channel of communication with the users providing feedback regarding the status of incidents and requests, plus access to a knowledge base, catalog of services, and other information such as service availability and outages.

In addition, the service desk also provides an interface for other ITIL processes including:

Change Management (RFCs)
Configuration Management
Problem Management
Release Management
Security Management

The above benefits of an ITIL-based service desk are invaluable for improving service management processes. But, perhaps the most important function a service desk provides for a small and midsized business is the ability to gather and report on metrics.

Measure, Measure, Measure

It's said that the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, and location. For IT service management, it can be argued that the three most important factors are measure, measure, and measure. By gathering accurate metrics, an organization can identify problem areas and improve the efficiency of both their IT service management and business processes.

It is especially important for SMBs to be as efficient as possible since they often have a limited number of staff members that fulfill all support level roles. Because most SMBs do not have the dedicated call centers or help desks found in large enterprises, the support staff must log, respond to, and complete all support calls. Doing this with a manual process is time-consuming and prone to errors. This leads to inaccurate metrics, which may be worse than no metrics at all.

The Right Tool

To reduce errors and improve the accuracy of your metrics, a good automated process is required. Selecting the right tool to handle the specific situation is critical to a successful service desk. The tool must support ITIL processes and be simple enough for users to initiate service requests and to report incidents.

There are several tools on the market that claim to be ITIL-compatible. They may well be. But, since all IT organizations are not the same, a tool that works well for one IT organization may not work for another.

Organizations should not be so quick to just buy a service desk product and try to make the organization work with it. Regardless of how well you evaluate the products, the risk of a failed service desk implementation is greater without a well-defined service management process in place.

The best approach is to first plan and define the service management process that fits the organization's culture, resources and maturity model, and then select the necessary tools to support that process. Implementing a service desk in this manner reduces unnecessary complexity from a poorly matched service desk tool.

Key Performance Indicators

After implementing a well-defined service management process and a proper service desk tool, you can begin collecting information on specific key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs provide insight into how well the IT support process is working and highlights areas that need to be improved.

Some of the most critical KPIs for small and midsized business include:

First contact resolution (FCR) rate — This KPI defines how many issues were resolved during the first response compared to how many times a user had to report the same or related issue again. The FCR rate reflects the quality of service and indicates how effectively the support staff resolves, understands and manages problems. Increasing the FCR rate reduces support costs and boosts user satisfaction.
Percentage of urgent or emergency changes — This KPI reveals how often urgent or emergency changes are performed or requested compared to the total number of changes. A high percentage indicates poor planning and lead-time policies. Urgent and emergency changes bypass the formal change management process and can lead to increased failures.
Number of failed urgent, emergency and unauthorized changes — This KPI is perhaps the most telling of an IT organization's performance. Failed changes lead to service delays and outages. The number of failed changes, in particular those that bypass the formal change process, defines the IT organization's service management competency. A high failure rate here coupled with a high percentage of urgent and emergency changes indicates the need for more stringent IT governance polices.

The above KPIs are only a few of the many that can be tracked and measured. As you improve your service management processes, defining additional KPIs can help you identify opportunities for improving business processes and to better align IT with business objectives.

Goals For Success

To be successful, a service desk implementation needs a dedicated service desk owner who is responsible for all aspects of the service desk function. For SMBs, this is typically the infrastructure manager responsible for service delivery.

The service desk owner defines the service desk objectives and ensures that they are achieved. These objectives include:

Manage events, incidents and changes
Provide advice and guidance to users
Provide management information on service desk quality and operations
Assist in the identification of business opportunities
Reduce support costs by the efficient use of resources and technology

To be truly successful, a service desk must not merely add formality to the service management process. Using a service desk tool is of little value if it doesn't help you improve service management efficiency and increase user satisfaction. These benefits are only realized if the service desk collects and reports accurate and complete service management metrics.

Final Thoughts

As I hopefully pointed out, a properly implemented service desk is essential for SMBs to maintain and grow their IT operations. Implementing an ITIL compliant service desk may seem like a daunting task, but the value it offers the organization is well worth the effort.

You can begin this journey by using an incremental implementation approach:

Define your service management objectives
Understand which KPIs are important to measure
Develop simplified service management procedures
Select the right tools to automate the service desk

Seek outside resources to help your already overburdened IT staff start this effort. In the end you'll discover how important a well-defined service desk function is to improving your ability to support your business processes.

In future posts, I'll examine some of the ITIL processes supported by the service desk such as change management, configuration management and the service portfolio. Until then, please feel free to send your questions and thoughts to me regarding the ITIL service desk or any other ITIL issues.

References:

ITIL Open Guide (www.itlibrary.org).
Continual Service Improvement, OGC - Office of Government Commerce (ISBN 0113310498).
An Introductory Overview of ITIL® V3, The IT Service Management Forum and Best Management Practice Partnership (ISBN 0-9551245-8-1).

ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark, of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and is registered in the US Patent and Trade Mark Office.

By Harry Hiles, HBH Technology LLC — 29 Mar 2008