High-Performance IT - Service Desk - the IT CIA
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
The Service Desk is usually underrated as an IT function, however under High-Performance IT its profile is substantially raised making it the centre of the IT department where it controls Workload Management, measures performance, and keeps tabs on managed services. The Service Desk has the capability to see every activity across IT (excluding projects.) When properly established with a Workload Management system it becomes the IT departmental CIA. A well-managed Service Desk greatly improves an IT department’s productivity and is a substantial aid to the IT executive. It also needs to be remembered that 90% of end-user IT contact is via the Service Desk, its efficiency therefore strongly influences how the business rates IT.
On the other side of the IT/Business coin, the Service Desk is ITs window into the end-user experience. The Service Desk knows the number and nature of end-user problems and user behaviours. A well-managed Service Desk should be able to tell you what the current top 10 customer issues are and what the top 10 current recurring problems are, yet 90% of Service Desks cannot provide either of these - which is an indicator that the Service Desk is being administrated as against being managed. I only ever gave my Service Desk managers one KPI, which was to work towards making the Service Desk redundant, clearly, an unachievable goal but a good Service Desk should be managed with that in mind. A good Service Desk can identify where each IT team is failing to meet performance objectives and where IT problems are occurring, the Service Desk Manager can then work with IT managers to improve their delivery, quality, and efficiency and lower both their own and business costs.
A well-managed Service Desk should be involved with critical Service Management processes and should centrally manage the actual configuration of the IT Service environment, (i.e., hardware and software components, support contracts and SLAs. High-Performance IT introduces the best practice IT standard of an ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) compliant Service Desk application. There is a range of ITIL compliant applications available, overall, they dramatically improve and speed up the process of complaint to resolution, especially important when you have SLAs and performance metrics in place.
The ITIL solution provides an optional ITSM Service Management framework made up of processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists. ITSM focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of the business and meets High-Performance IT service management standards. By usual definition, the Service Desk is Level 1, Production Support is Level 2 and Maintenance is Level 3. A good Service Desk enforces the policing of Level 2 and 3 problem ticket resolution providing a view of service management performance and integration across the whole of IT.
A Help Desk by way of comparison is tactical and reactive, using a basic call/issue logging application that creates a problem ticket and then passes the ticket to Level 2 support. Notification of completion of the problem closes the ticket. Focus is on short-term, immediate issues with problems being solved on a case-by-case basis. It operates on a break-fix model, is user-oriented and requires fewer resources to manage the relatively simple Help Desk application. Policing that a ticket has been resolved however is not always enforced. It is not based on a Service Management Framework and does not integrate with other IT management processes like Change or Problem Management. The Work Classification set-up (critically important to every Service and Help Desk) often suffers from poor definition and enforcement. The key performance measure for a help desk is the closure of completed tickets with descriptive cause and fix information, to assist should the problem reoccur.
Usual Service Desk Problems.
1. Lack of an end-to-end Workload Management process.
2. Incorrect job allocation to cost centres.
3. Gating rule is unenforced.
4. Poor inter-team integration.
5. Build-up of installation, production support and maintenance backlogs. (Desktop, Server, Network).
6. Service Delivery times are adversely affected.
7. Customer satisfaction and staff morale are lower.
High-Performance IT Outcomes.
1. End-to-end Workload Management process put in place.
2. Service Desk integration with each IT team’s own work management processes.
3. Reduced hardware/software installation times, reduced production support and maintenance backlogs.
4. Faster service delivery and technical support turnaround times.
5. Higher customer and staff satisfaction levels.
6. Better inter-team integration.
7. All work is made visible and is accounted for.
Workload Management
The Service Desk owns the Workload Management process that controls all IT work (excluding projects) which in turn feeds directly into each IT team’s own Work Management processes. The Service Desk Workload Management process makes all work visible, accounted for, prioritised, costed, and reported on, work cannot be hidden or lost. The Service Desk Workload Management process consists of.
1. Gating (work approval.)
2. Work Classifications (job type, priority setting and allocation of work to Level 2 and 3 Support.)
3. Performance Reporting (tracking of work across IT Teams.)
Gating
The first step in the Workload Management process is Gating - the process of registering and accepting work into IT. An essential element of the Gating process is the mandatory rule that ‘all work is registered with the Service Desk before work can commence. The benefits of this are it stops work coming in through the back door network, it stops the business from bypassing priority setting rules, work is not lost, all work is trackable, and all work is charged to the correct cost centres. Gating helps to identify resource savings; facilitates accurate management reporting, provides the Resource Management function with a sound information base, making it more accurate, it significantly improves staff morale by helping to bring order to areas that are usually chaotic, and it actively reduces the amount of rework and size of backlogs.
Problems that occur without proper Gating.
1. The Gating rule that all work must be registered is not enforced.
2. All work is not visible or accounted for.
3. Incorrect cost centre allocation.
4. Use of redundant and overlapping Work Classifications.
5. Poor Resource Management.
High-Performance IT Outcomes.
1. All work is registered.
2. Essential information like a cost centre, work classification and priority are captured.
3. Standardised work classifications are in use.
4. Overlapping work classifications are removed.
5. Accurate performance reporting is now available.
Work Classifications
Work classifications are used by the Service Desk to classify work by job type, prioritise all work and allocate it to Level 2 and 3 Support work queues. The work queues are used by the Level 2 and 3 Support teams to manage incoming work according to its job type and priority. High-Performance IT aims to standardize work classifications across all IT teams as the preferred standard, however, given that the resolution times for Infrastructure and Applications Development work requests can vary significantly, different classifications may exist.
Problems with Work Classifications.
1. Work classifications are not standardized, there exist many redundant and overlapping classifications.
2. Too many work queues are in use, making them and the work they contain difficult to manage.
High-Performance IT Outcomes.
1. One work classification scheme.
2. No overlapping and redundant work classifications in use.
3. A minimal number of work queues in use.
Performance Reporting
High-Performance IT defines performance reporting as the measure of workload efficiency, using predefined metrics (measures) that use job type and job work queue data to track departmental, individual team and managed services providers’ work completion. Metrics include such things as Completion times (Actual), Turnaround times (Duration), Queue sizes (Backlogs) and Inter- team transfers (Hold-ups).
Under High-Performance IT the IT Executive team has a view of each IT teams’ performance. The degree of inter-team integration is also measured, consisting of workflows and touchpoints as these are the single most important things that make IT work. The objective here is to achieve the highest integration level possible. That is, as most jobs in IT need the input of multiple teams, having a seamless workflow, with no hold-ups between the teams, maximizes productivity across the board. This allows SLAs to be achieved with happier customers and staff, it is also a first step to reducing IT spending because it reduces rework and resource needs.
Problems with poor or no Performance Reporting.
1. No IT team performance reporting.
2. Meaningless metrics.
3. Reporting is not used as a management tool.
High-Performance IT Outcomes.
1. Meaningful metrics.
2. Reporting is used as a management tool.
3. Better resource allocation.
4. Reduced costs and reduced resource requirements.
IT Teams Work Management
The Service Desk Workload Management process directly feeds into each IT team’s own Work Management process - the way each IT team assigns work to resources, completes the work and tracks it through to completion when it then advises the Service Desk that work is complete. Under High-Performance IT the IT team's Work Management objectives are to ensure there are no work request backlogs, that desired work turnaround times are being met and that customer satisfaction levels are not compromised. Having enough skilled resources available helps achieve work completion times whereas resource shortfalls cause work queues to become backed up with old, dead, and outstanding work requests that then result in poor service delivery. Work request priority 1 and 2’s tends to get resolved fairly quickly, but priority 3’s do not - they make up most of the backlogs. Priority 3 work requests are often made up of work that affects business functionality - requiring longer timeframes to complete and scarce IT resources to complete it. Unresolved priority 3’s has a significant effect on the businesses’ ability to be cost-effective, efficient and to provide high levels of customer service, it is for these reasons that High-Performance IT addresses priority 3’s as a matter of urgency.
Problems with IT team Work Management processes.
1. Priority 3 work request queues often contain hundreds or even thousands of requests (the largest I have seen is 8000) which are impossible to manage and are demoralising for the staff. Failing to address priority 3 work requests has a flow-on effect on maintenance and production support where unaddressed priority 3 problems increase resource usage in these functions due to quick fixes, use of scripts and other band-aids being applied.
2. Work management is also concerned with the identification and resolution of recurring problems (band-aides that just keep falling off) which on their own can account for up to 30% of total technical resource usage and are a major irritation to customers.
High-Performance IT Outcomes.
1. Reduction of backlogs, resolution of priority 3’s.
2. Resolution of recurring problems.
3. Increased automation.
4. SLAs and other metrics are met.
5. Reduced incidence of technical rework.
6. Lower technical resource needs.
7. Technical teams are more proactive than reactive.
8. Fewer unplanned outage windows.
High-Performance IT Service Desk Health Check Outcomes:
1. Putting in place an end-to-end workload management process.
2. Enforcing the Gating rule of ‘All work must be registered before it is undertaken’.
3. Reducing the number of work queues.
4. Enforcing the capture of cost centres.
5. Rationalising work classifications.
6. Analysing with a view to deleting work requests older than 6 months.
7. Batching backlogged work requests and creating projects.
8. Batching backlogged priority 3’s until cleared.
9. Put in place either ITSM or equivalent in-house processes.
Service Desk Model
As can be seen in the model below, the Service Desk is a central feature of High-Performance IT. A well-managed Service Desk with an appropriately structured database is all that is needed to manage performance and productivity across all of IT (excluding projects). Even a basic ITIL compliant Service Desk setup is sufficient to satisfy High-Performance IT requirements. (ITIL improves management capability, but it is not essential). Most Service Desk applications can satisfy the Management Reporting needs (metrics), those that cannot only need to add a simple program to interrogate the database. In around 25% of cases, the database will require restructuring or replacement, this is due to poor design at original implementation due to the database being designed around the information needs of the job ticket as against Management Reporting. In other words, the databases fail because they are back to front.
Benefits
1. The performance and productivity focus are on customers first, IT staff second and technology third. It frees up the CIO to concentrate on business and strategic needs. This model is designed to produce performance excellence.
2. It provides the IT executive with a macro view of IT performance and productivity forcing all IT managers to share in the responsibility for delivering departmental outcomes.
3. Under this model, each IT manager is responsible for all IT functions, that is, management responsibility is equally shared. (Mutual Accountability).
4. New communication lines are opened at inter-team touchpoints which improves integration. (The single most important thing that makes IT work.)
5. The value and quality of information exchanged at these touchpoints is dramatically improved and silos are broken down.
6. IT teams are highly organized under this model and performance is measured.
7. This model can produce operational (day to day activities excluding projects) human resource savings of up to 30%.
8. Displaced operational human resources are redirected to business projects as dedicated resources paid for by the business with associated IT cost savings.
9. Staff and customer satisfaction levels are considerably higher under this model.
Extending the Service Desk operation (ITSM)
The Servicer Desk operation can be extended beyond Workload Management with the addition of Information Technology Service Management (ITIL/ITSM). Service Management forms part of the Service Desk best practice IT standards, it integrates the Service Desk with a range of external IT services. ITIL and ITSM are UK government standards, now accepted as global IT standards, that are manifested in a library of books (ITSM is a set of processes, not software) describing 'best practices' for delivering and managing IT service functions. The aim of ITSM is to facilitate improvements in efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of quality IT services within any IT department. High-Performance IT does not implement all the ITSM external process links, only those that the IT department needs.
ITSM Implementation.
ITSM within the Service Desk
ITSM external process links
1. Incident Management: Resolves symptoms in the short term by providing a temporary workaround so that service availability is restored with minimal interruption. Incident Management and Service Request Management.
2. Problem Management: Problem management solves the underlying root cause of an incident. Problem management will reduce the number of incidents by addressing the root causes of failure and minimising the impact of incidents.
3. Availability Management: Focuses on achieving and measuring the agreed availability levels for the services environment, including coordination of planned downtimes.
4. Change Management: Coordinates, prioritizes, authorizes, schedules resources for, and assesses the risk of changes. Change requests come in primarily via the Incident Management or Problem Management processes. Changes are typically required to effect required alterations to the existing environment to introduce a new component, modify or remove a component.
5. Capacity Management: Predicts capacity needs that ensure that the business requirements for capacity and performance are being met. It provides control over how resources are being used and provides a consistent view of capacity utilisation of the available production potential.
6. Service Level Management. The goal of ITIL Service Level Management is to ensure that agreed levels of current IT services are provided, (SLAs) and future services can be delivered within agreed targets.
7. Supplier Management. Ensures that the organisation obtains value for money from suppliers and contracts.
8. Configuration Management System. A set of tools and data that is used for collecting, storing, managing, updating, analysing, and presenting data about all configuration items and their relationships.
9. Escalation Management. Focuses on ensuring incidents or problems encountered within the services environment have the appropriate levels of visibility. Requires an escalation and communications plan and escalation closure criteria.