A Presentation by Keith Wilkins for SDI

Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:00 – 3:00PM

The Evolving Role of the

Service Desk Analyst

Keith Wilkins (FIRP)

Managing Consultant

at Avocet Strategic Resourcing

“Great people deliver great service

and WE deliver great people”

Hi! Thanks for joining me today for Avocet’s first webinar with SDI!

The Background

The traditional Helpdesk:

Originally manned by non-technical staff

Supported the pre-selected technology

Primarily call logging – no systems used

Escalate issues to technical staff

Low expectations from users

Sat solely within the IT function

The Rise of the Service Desk

The introduction of ITIL saw the emergence of the Service Desk – a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) between Users and IT Service Management.

Activities:

Provide business support

Incident management

Manage service requests

Manage user relationship

Two way communication

Maintain information quality

Produce management information

Evolution of the SDA?

SDA Skills Sets

1. Communication skills – bridging the gap between

users and technical teams

2. Customer service skills - telephone, email, in

person

3. Knowledge of current / relevant / emerging

technologies

4. Professional manner – understanding the

corporate business

Evolution of Skill Sets

Evolution of Skill Sets

1. Soft skills

2. Wide range of technologies and operating systems – much broader than previously.

3. Industry specific applications

4. Globalisation is rapidly bringing about a greater need for multilingual SDAs

SDA Core Competencies

1. Empathy and patience

2. Proven analytical and problem solving skills

3. Able to prioritise effectively and execute tasks in a

high-pressure environment

4. Proven ability in supporting a broad range of

technologies

5. Good personality

6. Maturity

7. Flexibility

8. Team Player

Evolution of Core Competencies

1. Commitment to continual development – personal and technical

2. Working to ‘Best Practice’ standards

3. Experience of using ITIL / working in an ITIL environment

4. ‘Big picture’ thinker + attention to detail

5. Ability to adapt to new and emerging technologies

SDA Job Profiles

Provide 1st and 2nd line support

Incident Management and Service Request experience

Excellent communication skills

Deliver a high level of customer service

Use of Service Management tools

Provide ‘How do I?’ support for end-users

Contribute to the continual improvement of the environment

Preparation and support of hand-held and mobile devices

Involvement in a variety of ad-hoc projects – often leading

Willing to constantly enhance own knowledge and actively share that knowledge with others

Evolution of Job Profiles

1. The bar is now set higher than ever 2. Opportunities are attracting a higher calibre of

candidates due to the skills required and the career path that it can offer

3. Focus on continual development and potential - experience gained on a service desk can lead to a variety of directions, such as infrastructure support, application development, project management, business analysis etc.

4. Emphasis on understanding the business activities, information security and quality control

1. Expectations are increasing in respect of the ‘right’

balance of interpersonal skills, technical knowledge

and adaptability.

2. More emphasis on monitoring and measuring KPIs,

SLAs etc

3. Increased awareness of System Security

4. Project involvement with the implementation of new

technologies

5. Decentralisation of the service desk, which is no longer

only part of IT

6. Employers deciding if the service desk should lie

within the business

What do employers expect in 2016?

1. Technically competent users mean more complex demands

on Service Desks

2. The increase of BYOD means that SDAs technical

knowledge will be wider than before

3. CYOD is more popular than ever so SDAs must develop a

working knowledge of all the commercially available

operating systems

4. Seamless integration

5. Increase in Social Media accessibility

6. Remote workers require continuous support

7. BRM role – working closely with business units

8. Instant and continuous feedback

What do users expect in 2016?

Service offerings

What will the fully evolved

SDA look like?

The Future

1. The user base is going to continue to become more

technically capable

2. SDAs need to evolve their skills and services

3. Introducing on-line chat, tutorials and self-service to

handle repetitive service requests that can easily be handled

by the customer

4. ‘Innovation Centres’ – beyond the Genius Bar

5. Continued customer focus

6. To outsource or not to outsource the service desk?

About Avocet

Avocet provides a bespoke recruitment function for Service Desk, Service Delivery,

Technical Support & IT infrastructure areas.

We firmly believe that people are at the heart of technology; developing systems, defining processes

and supporting the technology and users alike.

Our aim is to successfully match people with the roles, the teams and the companies we work with.

People - the Heart of Technology

Any

Questions ?

www.avocetrecruiting.com

TEL: 01634 816058

EMAIL: KW@AVOCETRECRUITING.COM