Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk

Keys to Lowering TCO

Brenda Iniguez
Americas ITSM Consulting Director

FrontRange Solutions
Agenda

What are todays Business Drivers?

ITIL and the clout it gives to the Service Desk

Service Desk Transformation Concepts

What is a Service Desk?

Why a Service Desk?

Automation as an enabler

Service Desk TCO highlights

Service Desk / Service Management KPIs

Service Desk Transformation Supplementary Reference Material
What is Driving IT Today?

Aligning IT with the business

Improved Efficiency of service delivery

Corporate Governance, IT Best Practices, SOX, COBIT

ITIL: what is it and how can it help me?

Sustained Revenue Growth for the business

Improved Corporate Information Systems

Improved Customer Loyalty

Based on survey of over 100 IT executives

 Business Drivers: Cost Containment, Efficiency
and Customer Satisfaction

Average fully-burdened Types of Questions

cost per incident and Call Volume

Walk Up $29.30
How to 27-43%

Phone $27.60
Password Security 20-35%

Email $21.67
Outage 12-25%

Fax $18.90
Break/Fix 10-20%

Chat/IM $17.90
Service Request 5-22%

Self Service $13.50
IMAC 5-18%

Help Desk Institute, Gartner, Understanding Service and

Practices and Salary Survey Support Mix
 Top Pressures Driving Need for
Increased IT Productivity
Customer demand for
more personalized 40%
products & services

Serving customer needs 25%

Growing competition 14%

Globalization to serve new

11%
customers and markets

Finding and retaining

7%
quality talent

Source: Aberdeen Group

Hottest Priorities
Organizations Maintaining Staff Headcounts
Outsourcing of IT Work Continuing
 1%
IT Management Process 12% LEVEL 4
Maturity Model Value
44% LEVEL 3
IT as a strategic
business partner
Service
IT and business
40% LEVEL 2
IT as a service metric linkage
provider
IT/business
Proactive
Define services, collaboration
3% LEVEL 1 classes, pricing improves business

Analyze trends process

Understand costs

Set thresholds
Reactive
Guarantee SLAs
Real-time
infrastructure
LEVEL 0
Fight fires

Predict problems

Measure and report

Measure application service availability
Business planning

Inventory availability
Chaotic
Desktop software
Integrate processes

Automate

Ad hoc distribution
Capacity

Mature problem, management

Undocumented
Initiate problem configuration,
management process change, asset and Manage IT as a Business

Unpredictable

Alert and event performance mgmt.

Multiple help desks processes
management

Minimal IT operations Service and Account Management

Measure component

User call notification availability (up/down)

Service Delivery Process Engineering

Operational Process Engineering

Tool Leverage
 The Service Support Process Model Pink Elephant
The Business, Customers & Users
Management
Tools
Difficulties Communication
Queries, Enquiries Updates
Incidents Incidents
Work-arounds

Incident
Incident Service
Service Desk
Desk Changes

Service Reports Problem

Problem Releases
Incident statistics
Audit Reports
Problem Statistics Change
Change
Trend Analysis
Problem Reports
Problem Reviews Change Schedule
CAB Minutes Release
Release
Diagnostic Aids
Audit Reports Change Statistics
Change Reviews Release Schedule
Audit Reports Release Statistics Configuration
Configuration
Release Reviews
Secure Library CMDB Reports
Testing standards CMDB Statistics
Audit Reports Policy/Standards
Audit Reports

CMDB
Incidents CIs
Problems Relationships
Changes Releases
Known Errors
 ITIL V3 Library

Service Service Design Service Service Operation Continual

Strategy Transition Service
Improvement

The 5 CORE V3 BOOKS

The Official
Introduction To The
ITIL Service Lifecycle
+ Complementary Guidance

11
 The V3 Lifecycle

CORE
 Lifecycle Processes
SERVICE STRATEGY SERVICE DESIGN
Service Strategy Service Catalog Management
Service Portfolio Service Level Management
Management Supplier Management
Financial Management Capacity Management
Demand Management Availability Management
IT Service Continuity
Management
Information Security
Management

SERVICE TRANSITION
Transition Planning and
Support
SERVICE OPERATION Change Management
Event Management Service Asset & Configuration
Incident Management Management
Request Fulfillment Release & Deployment
Problem Management Management
Access Management CONTINUAL SERVICE Service Validation
IMPROVEMENT Evaluation
Seven Step Improvement Knowledge Management

13
 The Support Challenge

Meet the current, often tactical needs of IT

Accelerate the evolution of IT

Step up to new strategic initiatives

Create a model for future business success

Turn tactical Help Desk Processes into value-add Service Desk Offerings

Keys to Lowering the TCO

Overcome the traditional silos of service and systems management in IT
Unlock the value potential in IT by working more closely with the business to
deliver integrated and accelerated business process support
Perception is everything !
young girl
or old woman ?
Its all in the Perception
Service Desk Transformation Concepts
 What is a Service Desk?

Single Point of Contact

Provides advice, guidance, and is focused on restoring service in
the shortest possible time
Routes non technical issues to appropriate organization
Retains ownership of all requests, and is the eyes, ears, and
voice of Customer

Common Functions of a Service Desk

Receives Calls, First Line Support
Initial Assessment of All Reported Issues
Monitor Escalation Procedures Relative to Agreed Upon SLAs
Manages Request Life-cycle of Request from Report to Closure
Communicates Status Updates to Customers
Assists in Problem Identification
 Help Desk vs. Service Desk

Help Desk
Service Desk

Reactive Incident Proactive Incident and Problem
Management Management
Only Address IT Single Point of Contact SPOC
Technical Issues
HR Service Requests
Focus is on Resolving
Facilities Requests
Issues (not finding the
IT Procurement
root cause)
Focus is on providing Service
Key Performance Management
Indicators are:
Customer Service is Key Metric

Call Times in addition to standard SDesk

First Call Resolution metrics

Times Spent on Issues
 Why Service Desk?

Higher Customer Satisfaction

Costs are Reduced

Assists In Identification of Business Opportunities

Optimizes Investments toward Business Support Services

Becomes a Strategic Function in Lowering TCO for
supporting the IT Infrastructure

Key Piece in Managing Change Across the Business

Centralized Data
 The Service Desk Workflow

Multiple Avenues to Requests Are

Request Service Routed to
Proper Teams

To a Single
Point of
Contact Service Desk Owns Communication with
Customer until Service Request is Fulfilled
 Moving from Help Desk to Service Desk

Centralize Your Services

Implement more Proactive Processes (Problem Management)

Automate Processes

Make the Right Knowledge Available to the Right People

Formulate your Service Desk Service Catalog Offerings

Determine Target Resolution Times & SLAs

Focus on the Right Metrics; Service Desk KPIs
 Metrics are your Friend
Look Closely !

Be aware of what you cant SEE !

Read between the lines

in PEOPLE & PROCESSES
 Service Support KPIs
Process Core Objective Example Core KPIs Category

Restore service degradations to # of Incident by category, priority and resolution type Quality
Incident expected level ASAP by LOB
# of Incidents restored within SLA Targets
Performance

Identify systemic Infrastructure
Problem Errors and eliminate them to
minimize impact and improve
availability
# of problems identified & root cause determined with Quality
solution or workaround.
# of Repeat incidents by category trending downwards
Value

Handle changes efficiently while # of changes by type / category / Group / Customer. Quality
Change minimizing impact to service (emergency changes trending down)
delivery
# of changes that have resulting incidents, or fail and
Value
have to be backed out

Identify / control / manage IT % of CMDB data population and accuracy vs actual, Quality
Config. resources within a Configuration according to scope
Management Database
% Growth or Change by CI type over an elapsed time
Value
period

Ensure production readiness,
Release quality and authorization of new or
modified CIs and their planned
deployment
# of releases by type that satisfy release management Quality
criteria when submitted to Change
# of releases that bypass the process
Compliance
 Service Delivery KPIs
Process Core Objective
Define services
SLM
Agree on level, scope, quality,
performance
Monitor & Manage
Define and plan for service
Avail. availability to meet or exceed
stated business requirements
through process, technology and
people resource planning and
implementation
Current and future resources are
Capacity greater than or equal to demand,
but excess is planned
Recover IT systems to normal state
ITSCM in an alternate way after a disaster
within an expected timeframe
Plan for and deliver IT Services
Finance within a forecasted budget against
actual cost
Example Core KPI Category
% Score of customer satisfaction survey trends up Value
over time
i.e. Customer Satisfaction Survey
% of service availability within SLA negotiated Quality
requirements.
% of components the breach tolerance thresholds in Quality
correspondence to planned capacity levels for
components and complete IT systems.
% of systems that fail recovery test Quality
Time to execute test of plan and recover IT services in
a contingency state against expected targets.
Performance
% deviation of forecasted versus actual cost of IT Compliance
services within defined tolerance limits
(% of Deviation $ of Deviation)
 Transforming the Help Desk Deadly Sins

Help Desk Deadly Sins Improvement Areas:

Reduce Call Volume
Decrease Learning Curve
Decrease Customer Escalations
Ensure Consistent Responses
End-to-End Ownership of the Customer Incident to Resolution
Shorten Resolution Times
Reduce the Impact of Employee Turn-Over

Using Knowledge Management to address Deadly Sins and:

Lower Costs
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Increase Efficiencies
 Automation a key transformation element

Automation is Key to transforming to a Service Desk

Reactive to Proactive
Enables Service Level Monitoring
Automate Repetitive Tasks
Automate Ticket Creation (Auto-ticket Creation)
Automatic Routing for Consolidated Services
Automate Escalation
Ensures Quick Customer Response / Acknowledgement
Ability to do More with Less = Lower Cost
 Service Desk - Self-Service Offering: Tips

Consistent Look & Feel

Keep it Simple

Training Users when to Use Self Service

Leverage the Phone System

Knowledge Integration

Make it Easy for Customers to Use

Resulting in:
Lower Cost per call ($13.50 Self Service vs. $27.60 phone)
Reduced the Load on the Service Desk

Allows the Service Desk to Focus on Providing Real Value

Reduced Stress on Team
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Increased Usage by Customers
 ITIL and Escalation Process - Prioritizing Issues
Urgency + Impact = Priority

Impact

High Medium Low

High

1 2 3
Urgency

Medium

2 3 4
Low

3 4 5
 dont forget the Perception Factor
 TCO Costs Associated with a Service Desk Tool

Direct Costs
Yearly Maintenance Fees
Labor Fees

Indirect Costs
Time it Takes To Upgrade
Configuration Capability
System Up-time
Controlling the Direct Costs

Yearly Maintenance
Do you have too many licenses?
Can you negotiate your maintenance contract?
Are there tiered levels of Support?
If so, are you subscribing to the best one for your organization
(not necessarily the most expensive)

Labor
How Many Administrators Are Required to Support the System
 Controlling the Indirect Costs

Upgrading
What does is Take to Begin Utilizing New Features?
What is the Reputation in the Market Place for Upgrading?
Is it Rip & Replace?
Are Configurations and Customizations Preserved?
Is there a Need to Re-program Business Rules after Upgrade?
Does the UI of a New Version Require New Training?
 Controlling the Indirect Costs

Ease of Administration
All Service Desk Implementations Will Have to Be Tweaked to
Meet an Organizations Unique Needs

What does it Take to Tweak

Does it Require a Programmer?

How Long Does it Take?

If it cant be done quickly, will it ever get done?

Controlling Administrative Costs will not only lower total cost, but
will make the Service Desk More Adaptive to Changes
 Controlling the Indirect Costs

Ongoing Administration
Why do some Tools only require a Part-time Administrator, while
others require one or more Full-time Administrators?
Was the Tool built with Ease of Administration in mind?
Are there GUIs / Wizards available to help configure?
Are users enabled to automate the simple tasks (i.e.
Reassignment of a work order)?
Is the System stable, and have a reputation for Stability?
 TCO Conclusions

Direct Costs Are Easier to Measure,

But the Indirect Costs Can be Better Controlled

When choosing a new Tool, keep the TCO in mind when making a
decision
Upgrade History
Stability History
Configurability / Customize Ability

Keeping the TCO in check is a value add by your Service Desk
 Sneak Peak:

Whats New in Service Management?

What is a SAM anyway ?

Its 4:30pm Do You Know Where Your Assets Are?

Service Management Lifecycle

 Software Asset Management

Software Asset Management (SAM) is all of the infrastructure

and processes necessary for the effective management, control
and protection of the software assets within an organisation,
throughout all stages of their lifecycle.

ITIL Best Practice guide Software Asset Management

SAM is NOT
Just about licenses or compliance
Just a tool or piece of software
Just a simple process or policy Every organization can realize
between 5% and 35% cost savings
A silver bullet through the implementation of
A quick fix focused software asset practices
 Its 2:30pm Do you know where your assets are?

How does your organization stack up in SAM?

Business Driver Question

How do you currently keep track of your software licenses?
If you were to be audited today, would you pass? How would you prove it?
How do you know if users are downloading or bringing in unauthorized software?
Software Asset How do you find it?

Management How do you track software usage? Would your company like to know if its buying
or renewing software packages that arent being used?
How much time do you spend managing your software licenses? Would one
solution that allows you to input your proof of entitlements and reconcile against the
deployed software in your environment be helpful?
 Software Asset Management Drivers

Market Interest in SAM is growing rapidly
Vendor led: Compliance

Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, Symantec pouring resources into educating the market

87% of s/w vendors claim loss of revenue due to non-compliance*
Vendors estimate 35% of software is illegally installed,
resulting in loss of $35 billion worldwide

Industry groups (BSA, FAST, SIIA) increasing publicity/rewards around piracy

Audits expected to affect 35% of all customers yearly

Customer led: Improved controls/reduced costs

Real, tangible benefits for implementing SAM practices
Reduction in costs, risk mitigation, more efficient IT
operations & planning

93% of our customers believe license compliance is a priority
44% overall believe it is a High priority (49% of UK customers)

* KPMG Software License Compliance Study

 Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk

IT as a Strategic Enabler to the Business

The new model for the Service Desk is here

The right tools and processes bring efficiencies and enable

your Service Desk Analysts to tangibly contribute towards
improving your business
Start Your Service Desk Transformation Today!

Brenda Iniguez
Brendai@frontrange.com
510-262-9925
www.frontrange.com
Service Desk Transformation Concepts
~ Supplementary Details ~
 Help Desk to Service Desk Webinar Series

Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk Introduction

15 November 2007

Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk Beware of

the 7 Deadly Sins of the Help Desk
24 January 2008

Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk Essential

Process Automation Capabilities
21 February 2008

Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk Getting Self-

Service Right with Six Simple Steps
17 April 2008

Transforming from Help Desk to Service Desk Three Keys
to Lowering Your Total Cost of Ownership
22 May 2008
 Reactive vs. Proactive

Fighting Fires

Focused on one incident at a
time

Inefficient

No Knowledge Capturing

Solving the Same Issues
again and again

Numerous Systems
Capturing Incident Data

Analyze Trends

Identify Potential Areas for
Improvement

Recognizing and Solving
issues before they happen

Document Workarounds for
known problems

Centralized Database assists
in Problem Identification
 Why Automation?

Get the most out of your investment
Most Users are only using 60% of the Functionality of Current
Tool

Make Your Tool Work For You
Let your staff focus on the important things
Ensure Items Dont Fall Through the Cracks
Enforce Your Processes

Efficiencies, Efficiencies, Efficiencies
Repetitive, Repetitive, Repetitive
Do More With Less

Can Automation Be Done Without A Programmer?
How Fast, and How Easy Can the Tool Change if Your Process
Changes?
Begin By Automating Escalation Process

1. Develop a Prioritization System

2. Set Target Times to Priorities
3. Develop Service Catalogue
4. Negotiate Service Level Agreements with Users

Focus on Incident and Problem Management

 Centralized SPOC Service Desk Service - Benefits

Higher Customer Satisfaction

One Number to Know
Better Communication

Better Accountability
Customer has one place to go to for an update
Service Desk Pushes Other Internal Organizations to Deliver
IT Organization Focuses on Business
A New IT Model for Proactive Service Management

Leverage Voice Communication Mgmt for improved service

Unlock the Value of Remote Control

Proactive Application Repair and Installation

IT Workplace Provisioning

Integrated Change Management for Compliance and Audit
 Determine Target Resolution Times

Determine Target Resolution Times Based on the Priority of the

Service Request
Begins to Set Expectation with Customer
Sets Goals for Service Desk to Resolve
Places Rules in Place for When Issue is Escalated to Escalation Teams
Provides Indicators for Reporting
Assists with Developing Services and Service Level Agreement
Helps in Problem Identification / Training Opportunities
 Develop Service Catalogue Offerings

Service Catalogue
Defines the Services available to the customer from the IT
Organization

What is a Service and How Do I Define Services?

Depends on the Organization
Ask Your Customers What They Perceive as the Services You Provide
Possible to Define Services by:

Business Process (What Customers Perceive)
-Or-

Infrastructure Services

Network Services Usually Invisible to Customer but

Application Services Essential to Deliver Services to
Customer
 Negotiate SLAs

Important Points when Developing SLAs
Ensure Operational Level Agreements and Underpinning
Contracts are Taken into Account

Dont Dictate What The Service Levels are Going to Be

Talk to Your Users, Talk to Your Users, Talk to Your Users

Be Prepared

Consider all Feedback

Seek Agreement (Service Level AGREEMENTS)

Start with a Pilot (Be Careful to Not Pilot a Problem Area)

Document Review Dates

 Escalations

Combination of Incident, Problem, Change, and SLM Process provides

Framework for Escalation Process

Major Outages, by Nature of the Problem Management Process,

are Escalated Faster

Escalation Times are Built into SLAs

 Measuring the Right KPIs

Moving to A Service Desk Changes the Key Performance

Indicators being Monitored

Help Desk Metrics Do Not Become Irrelevant

Hold Times (Contributes to Customer Satisfaction)
Number of Calls Received (Used for Trend Analysis, and
Problem Identificaiton)
Call Duration (Identifies Knowledge Deficiencies)

Metric Focus is On the Customer

Customer Satisfaction is KEY
Meeting Service Level Targets
 Growing Call Volumes a concern

Why are Growing Call Volumes A Concern?

Average Cost per Incident for Phone Support is costly -
Estimated at approximately $25.

The Service Desk is First Place Hit with Budget Cuts

Rapid Increases in Call Volumes Stretch already Thin

Resources, Impacting Customer Satisfaction
 Automating Repetitive Tasks

The Tool Should Allow for Automation of a Series of Steps in

a Repetitive Task
Reassigning a Task
Quick Incidents (Password Resets)
Standardized Processes

Simplicity
Provide Functionality to Easily Create Automation
Incorporate Into Workflow to Make Tool Easier to Use
Enable Technicians to Automate Tasks
 Auto Ticket Generation

The Ability to Update or Create Service Requests by
Monitoring Email or Using Text Files
Makes the System More Effective
Automates Email Monitoring

Provides Another Path for Integrations

Key Part of Automating Processes

Ensures Your Call Records Are Up To Date With Customer

Communication