The flexible service desk

Being flexible enough to meet the ever changing needs of your customers should be a minimum requirement of service desk software. VitAL editor Matt Bailey talks to Tony Probert of Cherwell Software about how the service desk is developing to meet today’s challenges.

With more than 30 years in the IT industry, Tony Probert has spent more than 18 years helping to build, develop and manage start-up operations for software companies within the UK and EMEA region.

Having been involved with the help desk and service management industry within the UK and Europe since the late 1980s, Probert has acquired a wealth of knowledge, relationships and practical operational experience relative to the service management industry. So his perspectives on this crucial part of the IT service management picture are compelling.

 “A state of the art service desk would have two primary focuses,” states Probert. “Firstly, it needs to offer the ability to enable users to resolve issues themselves or for the service desk to fix issues on the first call. Eighty percent of issues should be capable of self-resolution with a good system and if this were the case the support desk could focus on harder, more complex issues.”

And it bears reiterating that in the current economic climate any method of driving cost out of the picture is a welcome addition to the skills set of the service desk. “To effectively reach for better first call resolve rates the service desk needs the ability to collate the right data and then tailor it appropriately and make it accessible to users. Clearly, increasing self-resolve and ‘fixed on first call’ rates will drive the cost of a service desk down hugely,” says Probert.

Tony Probert has a long history in IT. He spent eight years as european managing director for GoldMine Software Corporation (formerly Bendata, Inc. and currently FrontRange Solutions—the makers of HEAT Help Desk software), growing the European business from a two-person start-up to more than 100 people, with revenues in excess of $15m.

He subsequently held a variety of senior management positions with responsibility for sales, channel management, marketing and international business development for a number of software companies including DataCore, Centennial and his own VAR start-up, representing DKSystems based out of Chicago, USA.

 “The second focus of the service desk should be the ability to leverage data in the system effectively so that it can create alerts, reports and management dashboards that are specific and tailored to the business,” explains Probert. “All too often customers engage with service desk software that puts huge barriers in the way of access, analysis and data collection. The service desk is there to serve the business and it must flex and adapt as much as possible to achieve the highest level of this.”

And it has to be remembered that the service desk is the public face of the whole IT operation, so it needs to act in an efficient and professional manner. “Of course, the end-users view of IT is hugely influenced by the service desk; it is their prime interface with the IT team and quick resolution of problems at point of call is a key factor in driving up user satisfaction and support for the service desk. Simultaneously, costs would then be driven down and business performance up,” says Probert.

Much of the software currently installed consists of legacy solutions that have been around for a long time and may not – moving into the era of virtualisation and cloud computing – be fit for purpose for much longer. “Many legacy solutions have been around for a long time,” agrees Probert. “Of course they can be enhanced and updated, but it is the old architecture that constrains them, they’re not built on current technology. Very few are three tier client architecture products. Many have no real web interface. The legacy tools hold them back.”

People naturally want the best. “They want rich functionality and web capabilities,” says Probert, “and many legacy systems don’t allow this.”

Another issue according to Tony Probert is that many software vendors offer a stark choice of either client-based, on premises solutions or only offering software as a service (SaaS). “Companies want the best of both worlds,” he claims, “They need the architecture to deliver client, web and browser capabilities. They want the options to chose their preferred route.”

Clearly into the medium and longer terms, cost is going to be a key factor on the service desk. “Driving cost down is important,” says Probert, “and support is a people-based service. Often the more people you have the better the service you can offer. But, in order to meet tightening budget constraints there has to be an overall increase in self-service.”

If self-service is to become much more widespread, the sel-service systems have to become more user-friendly. “The legacy systems are all what has been there forever, and the users don’t always understand them,” Probert explains. “Systems have to become more customisable and user friendly to meet the needs of self service. They need to lead the user through knowledge to resolution in easy to understand steps which can then be converted back into technical language for the service desk. If you can address 60-80 percent of enquiries by self service, your skilled personnel can concentrate on the remaining challenges.”

Chiming with this issue’s cover feature Tony Probert sees a more PC-literate generation coming of age in the next five to 15 years which may well make life easier for the service desk. “It must be focussed on the end user though,” states Probert. “If you can’t get resolution at first call the cost goes up, so quality of service will continue to be all important.

“The four key issues will be: self-service; resolution at first call; reduced cost; and improved service,” argues Probert. “The service desk has to be able to put content in place to make all this possible and without the service desk building it well, it won’t work. If current service desk solutions are not offering this level of functionality, the users will look for ones that do.”

 “Most organisations are massively constrained by the solutions they are currently using,” states Probert. “Usually software is purchased to meet an immediate need with a degree of scalability. However, after a few years, the product is too inflexible to modify cost-effectively and allow users to meet their new needs. If they want to customise screens or build new applications they face consultancy fees and delays. Consequently the systems become less and less able to meet the needs of the service desk.

“It isn’t unreasonable to expect that service desk software should be flexible and adaptable enough to flex sufficiently to accommodate unexpected future demands,” concludes Tony Probert.

www.cherwellsoftware.com