Deploying the IT service desk
As the global economy begins its recovery and with costs being more analysed and managed than ever before, every organisation is being asked to deliver more, with less resources and for lower costs. A real differentiator is the quality of service and support and if these can be more automated and efficient, the business benefits can make the difference between success and failure as Cherwell managing director Tony Probert explains.
Whatever the service currently being delivered, the provision of a helpdesk/support desk is now an established and crucial element of any organisation’s day-to-day operational management, be it internally and/or externally focused. Customers can be served more proactively and employees can be more productive, if the quality of support they receive is faster and more effective. It is also a huge influencer on the user community’s perception of the IT services delivered within an organisation.
Gartner surveys have shown that 50 percent of an end user’s perception of the IT services they receive is directly influenced by the quality of the support they experience. Therefore, provision of a quality service desk operation is no longer an option, it is essential. So defining and delivering the appropriate service offering, selecting and implementing the best software solution is something every organisation needs to get right, especially in today’s financial environment. Which as of today, I believe is leading to many organisations reassessing their current support services and the software tools being used.
Switching to service desk
For those organisations operating a traditional helpdesk, the move to a Service Desk environment can be a daunting transition, as the requirements have become significantly more involved than offering a simple ticketing/call logging service. Alternatively, there are those early adopters of the ITIL-based service desk and with the introduction of ITIL v3 the requirements for delivering ITIL-based services has changed considerably.
In principle the requirements and issues involved with the deployment of an IT Service Desk are well documented by the ITIL, given that it has been developed over many years to provide best practice guidelines based on the experience of many organisations that have gone before. That old saying of ‘Not reinventing the wheel’, should be the mantra for anyone involved with or considering such a project. However, my experience over the past 18 years clearly shows that the ‘wheel’ is being constantly reinvented for a variety of reasons. Therefore, it is evidently clear that one size does not fit all and the project to deploy or upgrade an organisation’s Service Desk, albeit helped by the ITIL framework, is different for everyone.
Does size matter? Irrespective of the size of an organisation the principles of deploying an IT Service Desk should be basically the same. What is different will be a) the level of sophistication required, b) whether ITIL is a driving force, c) specific business drivers that are deemed important for such a project and finally d) The need to drive financial cost savings.
So, what dictates the sophistication, it is not an organisation’s size. Over the years I have seen many small service desk implementations that have had very intricate and detailed customisation and integration requirements, whilst many larger systems have been quite basic in their solution needs. It just depends on what is important to the operational requirements of an organisation. ITIL is not a focus for everyone, it might be deemed to be too costly and bureaucratic for many companies. However, to have the benefits of best practice should still be very beneficial, so why not take advantage if you can?
Every organisation is different and although there may be similar business drivers within market verticals, the individual needs of any organisation will be different to those of their peers and competitors. Finally, many legacy service desk solutions are very expensive to maintain and manage, whereas new technology will be less expensive, easier to manage and more flexible. So it might not be a case of ‘reinventing the wheel’ per say, more a creative utilisation of the ‘wheel’ based on specific needs.
What is driving the need to change?
When planning a project to implement or upgrade an IT Service Desk, a key criterion is to review and identify the primary business processes that already exist and what new innovation the project could/should deliver. What is driving the need to change, what if any are the constraints and limitations of an existing solution? It is highly possible that any existing solution is based on legacy technology; is limited in its functional capabilities; has little or no capacity for customisation or scalability, all of which severely constrain the ability of the service desk personnel to deliver timely, efficient and effective support services to their organisation.
Having identified the critical business processes that need to be developed and initiated via the Service Desk team, it is then necessary to re-evaluate any incumbent software solution(s) being used as to their suitability for the new requirements. It is no good having scoped and designed the greatest processes in world, if the means by which they are to be delivered is not just capable of delivering the end result, but more importantly adding significant value, the flexibility to meet changing business needs and future scalability.
In either deploying or upgrading a service desk the de facto standard is now for organisations of all size and type to adopt the best practice framework and recommendations offered by ITIL v3. To what extent an organisation is prepared to undertake the considerable investment required to fully adopt ITIL is a commercial decision they need to make for themselves. However, the benefits of the best practice framework cannot be denied but it is not necessarily right for everyone.
Some organisations may want to have the recommended best practice embedded in whatever solution they may purchase but not invest in the professional training and certification. At least this way they are able demonstrate best practice by having the required management processes inherent in the software they use.
But let’s not beat around the bush here, for any organisation to fully invest in ITIL and especially the v3 release, can be a very daunting and costly undertaking for any organisation. Which is why industry experts such as Malcolm Fry, recognise the issues and concerns. Malcolm says “Many organisations will start the ITIL journey but not complete it, while others undertake the journey knowing they won’t ever complete the implementation. Therefore, organisations need to make sure they have the right basics for implementation at the beginning to ensure they maximise ITIL v3 at implementation and that it is fit for purpose.” To this end, levering his experience and many years of practical experience Malcolm has launched a new initiative, he says “ITIL Lite is an approach to implementing key components of ITIL v3 to ensure a sound basis for IT Service Management either as a starting point for full implementation or as a deliverable for those not wishing to fully implement ITILv3.”
Entering a mine field
An obvious crucial consideration has to be the service desk software deployed and its capabilities of helping to deliver ITIL best practices in an efficient, coordinated and effective manner. There are many solutions available with numerous vendors extolling the virtues of the products and their credentials for being ITIL compliant. This is where it can become a mine field, as all service management solutions are far from being equal. Therefore, careful consideration and evaluation is required to determine the type of solution will best suit an organisation.
There are low cost solutions that can provide breadth of ITIL capability but offer little depth of functionality and require bespoke services for future customisation. At the other end of the scale are the ‘enterprise’ solutions which can offer everything an organisation might need but at a cost, both from an initial purchase perspective, ongoing management overheads and specialist development resources. However, recent years have seen the emergence of new players offering new technology that is able to readily deliver ITIL best practice, allied to ‘enterprise’ functionality that is easy to deploy and no longer requires expensive ongoing management overheads.
So it really is a case of ‘caveat emptor’ (buyer beware), as the solution choice you make could severely affect the success or otherwise of a project and once deployed it is almost impossible to reverse that decision and start again. So work hard to get it right first time and remember it is not just about features and functionality, or the initial project cost, the cost to your organisation over a three to five year time frame has to become a prime consideration.
People, processes & technology
So back to the original topic ‘deploying the IT service desk’. Having made a decision about to what extent, if any you are going to adopt ITIL best practice and then selecting the best software solution to meet the requirements of your organisation, the project focus should be around ‘people, processes and technology’. It is not the intention to this article to provide detailed chapter and verse about project management and deployment but here are some tips for consideration.
Project Initiation Document (PID): The Project Initiation Document brings together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis. It should be conveyed to all stakeholders and agreed and signed off by the business sponsors. In short, this is the, “who, why, what, when and how”, part of the project. It defines all major aspects of a project and forms the basis for its management and the assessment of overall success.
Methodology: For any Service Management project to be successful, the supplier should have a proven track-record of delivering successful projects on-time and to budget. To do this, they should have a clear, documented, methodology encompassing all phases of solution deployment including scoping, installation, customisation, data migration, training (both for administrators and users), provision of documentation, user acceptance testing, project sign-off and go-live support.
Statement of Work (SOW): As with any complex project, effective scoping followed by a detailed Statement of Work is key to ensuring that projects are delivered on-time and to budget. All stakeholders/business sponsors should have visibility of the Statement of Work document before signing it off.
Phase Sign-Off: Each phase of the deployment should be signed-off by both the supplier and the customer representatives (stakeholders and business sponsors) based on the scope of work. Any issues would be escalated to the project manager and addressed before the given phase is signed off.
Risks
Then there are the risks that accompany any project. In many instances, not enough focus is applied to risks that may affect the project. This should be a key consideration when developing the Project Initiation Document. Any potential risks identified will need to be mitigated to ensure that the project can progress smoothly. Risks can fall into a number of categories including:
Project Risks: Estimates that are excessively inaccurate, too aggressive a schedule, poor management, scope creep (poor change management), large projects not staffed appropriately.
Schedule Risks: Project dependencies, parts delays, estimation errors, decision delay, hardware delay.
Resource Risks: Outsourcing delays, lack of funds, attrition of resources, people joining the team late, scarcity of skills.
Failure to identify and mitigate risks is likely to be a major factor in any failures or delays that occur.
Scope creep
Finally, the hidden curse of any well planned project, ‘Scope Creep’. Although a well executed Statement of Work is designed to provide focus on the core deliverables for a project, project managers/project executors must be disciplined enough to refer customer contacts back to the Statement of Work, negotiating project extensions and additional funding, if required.
The ultimate objective of deploying an IT service desk has to be to enhance business value, through the delivery of competitive advantage from improved customer service and/or increased productivity of an organisation’s employees, while reducing overall business costs. Although this might seem a high ideal, it is possible with the right planning and choice of software partner.
