SM “Please Don’t Call Us”: Building a Customer-friendly Call … › ~ › media › HDICorp › Files › Support... · 2019-07-24 · Support at Your Fingertips Service Level

SM

Leading IT Service & Support Nov./Dec. 2007

Strategy

Developing Service Level Agreements that Work Service Level Management

Evaluating Help Desk Staffi ng Tradeoff s Metrics & Measurements

Reduce Support Costs and Improve Productivitythrough Knowledge Management

Technology

“Please Don’t Call Us”:Building a Customer-friendly

Call Avoidance Strategyfor the Support Center

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How Fast Did You Say You Needed to Hire?When it comes to finding experienced IT pros to meet your hiring needs, no one moves faster than Robert Half Technology.

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Copyright © 2007 HDI®

HDI SupportWorld, ISSN 1559-3975

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HDI® publishes SupportWorldSM professional journal six times per year.We welcome your input.

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Editor-in-ChiefJulie Neider

Art DirectorScott Hanson

Senior Graphic DesignerMaggie Adams

Don R. CrawleyTom Drain

Robert LastJim McKennanJenny Rains

Penny ReynoldsJohn Sundberg

Mike Yudkin

Contributing Writers

Research 6 Electronic Media: Support at Your Fingertips

Service Level Mgmt. 8 Developing Service Level Agreements that Work

Strategy 18 “Please Don’t Call Us”: Building a Customer-friendly Call Avoidance Strategy for the Support Center

Customer Service 22 Delighting Your User: Providing Responsive End User Support

Metrics & Measurements 24 Evaluating Help Desk Staffi ng Tradeoff s

The Service Dr. 30

ITIL® 34“Easy” ITIL: Getting to Done

Help Desk Humor 39

Vertical Market 40A New Support Model

for a New Century

Technology Trends 44Mobilizing Your Service Desk

Technology 46Reduce Support Costs and

Improve Productivity through Knowledge Management

Community News 50

SupportWorldSM is published by HDI®

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Please send your comments and questions regarding SupportWorld.Letters to the editor should be sent to [email protected] or by mail to: 102 South Tejon Street, Suite 1200 • Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903

We reserve the right to edit all letters.

SupportWorld Readers,

Today’s IT organization is about people. And processes. And technology. Our service desks are too.

Among the many interesting contributions featured in this issue of SupportWorld, I was particularly struck by Mike Yudkin’s article on service level agreements: “Developing Service Level Agreements that Work.” His article offers some very useful guidelines for developing functional SLAs—functional SLAs support corporate goals and help make the partnership between IT and corporate management productive. Because today’s enterprise is focused on cutting costs, growing revenues, developing new products, etc., managers are being required to proactively support these goals. Mike shows you how to accomplish this through your SLAs.

In this month’s cover story, “Please Don’t Call Us: Building a Customer-friendly Call Avoidance Strategy for the Support Center,” Robert Last presents a call reduction and avoidance plan to effectively lower the calls coming into your support center, while raising both the image and the customer satisfaction the service desk delivers. It’s an article about self-service, knowledge management, business IT alignment—and, above all, customer satisfaction, something we all strive for.

Save the date! Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the next HDI® Annual Conference and Expo taking place March 9 – 12, 2008, in Dallas, Texas, at the Gaylord Texan Resort.

We continue to look for ways to serve you better and bring you the most informative, engaging content in the industry. I would like to hear your story. If you’ve gone through any type of reorganization, upgrade, or new system implementation, please e-mail me at [email protected].

I wish you a safe and happy holiday season!

Best Regards,

Julie Neider

6 www. Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007

Electronic Media:Support at Your Fingertips

by Jenny Rains, Research Analyst for HDI®

I clearly remember my amazement with the conceptof electronic mail when it became mainstream.I could exchange as many, or as few, electronic messages with friends and family around the globe

with the aid of my little, blue online mailbox. It did not matter how many replies, forwards, or CCs I sent, thecost was simply the price of the Internet connection.

The more I used the computer for communication purposes, the more familiar I became with another tool, instant messenger or IM. It had the same benefi ts of e-mail with the added perk of an exchange that was more like a conversation than an electronic letter. At the time, this tool had limited functionality and few regular users; but, the concept was fantastic. However, over the years, the online conversation, such as online chat and IM, has improved in both functionality and utilization.

These tools, while still being defi ned and improved, can be a convenient means of corresponding with someonein another country, or in another department. These are

more than just tools for communication; they are partof a phenomenon. By way of the online conversationand its cell phone counterpart (the text message), an entire new dialect has emerged. And in recent yearsthe phenomenon of chatting has spilled over fromthe personal realm to the professional one as well.

Not to be left out, the IT support industry has seen an increase in the use of online chat for incident resolution. HDI’s Practices Survey results show that the percent of incidents received via online chat has been increasing over the last few years. It is still one of the lesser used channels, but its use is increasing. In addition to the convenience of chatting and its increase in general acceptance, other factors such as increase in incidentsand cost might be contributing to the rise in its use.

Data indicates that the number of incidents is on the rise. Results of the HDI Practices Surveys have shown that for the last fi ve years, the majority of organizations haveseen an increase in the number of incidents they receive.

r e S e a r C h

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This growing number of incidents might be prompting support centers to explore new channels of communication such as chat and instant messenger.

Another possible reason for the increase in utilization of online chat is the cost. While data is limited for this channel, due to limited use and lack of tracking, it is perceived to be less expensive than some of the other alternatives. HDI’s Practices Survey results show that next to the self-help option, online chat has continually been one of the less expensive channels for incident resolution.

Whatever the reasoning behind the increase, support centers are beginning to view chat as an important tool. While it is not considered as crucial to a support center as incident management software or an ACD, its popularity is rising. In 2006, 33 percent of Practices Survey respondents ranked “Online Chat/IM” as a very important tool for a support center to have. In 2007, 40 percent of the Practices Survey respondents reported that “Online Chat” is a must have for an effi cient support center.

The tools for electronic conversations are constantly evolving. It is still a fairly new, and for many, untapped channel for professional use. According to the currentdata its popularity has and will continue to grow. As people are becoming more comfortable with this type of communication personally, they will begin pushing forthe convenience of it in their professional domain as well.

While data does not suggest that the use of the inbox will be declining in the near future, it does suggest that some communication is and will be done via chat. With tools that are similar to the instant messenger I was enamored with years ago, one can have an entire professional support system at their fi nger tips.

How’m I doing? That was the trademark question

longtime New York City mayor Ed Koch used to

ask everyone he met. The mayor had the right idea.

He really wanted to know what was important to

his constituents and what they needed from him.

New Yorkers being New Yorkers, they told him a

few things he wasn’t happy to hear—but he listened

well enough to get re-elected several times.

We should be asking our own constituents the same question as we set the levels of service we’re going to commit to and deliver. Service level agreements won’t work unless they address the customer’s needs.

This article offers guidelines for developing service level agreements that work—agreements that support strategic corporate goals and help make the partnership betweenIT and corporate management a productive one. SinceI’ve been working in distributed infrastructure support, I’ve given examples that are typical for that area, but the


his constituents and what they needed from him.

New Yorkers being New Yorkers, they told him a

few things he wasn’t happy to hear—but he listened

well enough to get re-elected several times.

agreements that work—agreements that support strategic corporate goals and help make the partnership betweenIT and corporate management a productive one. SinceI’ve been working in distributed infrastructure support, I’ve given examples that are typical for that area, but the


Developing Service Level Agreements that Work

9

S e r v i C e L e v e L m a n a g e m e n t

principles I describe apply to many other kinds of support. Any manager whose job involves enablingother people to do their jobs faces similar issues.

WHAT IS A SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT?SLA:�A written agreement between service providers and service customers that defi nes the services to be provided,how and when they are to be measured, the acceptable levelsof service, and the actions to be taken if acceptable levels are not met. SLAs are used in both outsourcing and in-house service relationships.

What Can SLAs Do for You?More and more, IT managers are being asked tothink strategically. Supporting IT infrastructure isn’t simply about fi xing broken equipment or solving users’ problems—it’s about using IT assets to further corporate goals. Whether the enterprise is focused on cutting costs, growing revenues, developing new products, or acquiring other companies, IT managers are being required to proactively support these goals.

Service level management is a critical tool for focusing IT support on strategic corporate goals. By developing SLAs

that work and then managing to them, you are aligning your group’s behavior with the goals embodied in the SLAs.

Of course it is possible to manage service delivery without SLAs. But this kind of management consists largely of fi refi ghting; the problems that rise to managerial attention are the ones that can no longerbe ignored. SLAs help managers think strategically—making the improvements that matter most to the company, heading off problems before they arise, and

delivering outstanding servicethat makes a difference to

the organization’s competitiveness and profi ts.

SLAs are also a prerequisite for productive working relationships betweenthe support group and the groups receiving support. Without SLAs, conversations about support are vagueand imprecise:

service customers that defi nes the services to be provided,how and when they are to be measured, the acceptable levelsof service, and the actions to be taken if acceptable levels are not met. SLAs are used in both outsourcing and in-house service relationships.

growing revenues, developing new products, or acquiring other companies, IT managers are being required to proactively support these goals.

Service level management is a critical tool for focusing IT support on strategic corporate goals. By developing SLAs

that work and then managing to them, you are aligning your group’s behavior with the goals embodied in the SLAs.

Of course it is possible to manage service delivery without SLAs. But this kind of management consists largely of fi refi ghting; the problems that rise to managerial attention are the ones that can no longerbe ignored. SLAs help managers think strategically—making the improvements that matter most to the company, heading off problems before they arise, and

delivering outstanding servicethat makes a difference to

the organization’s competitiveness and profi ts.

SLAs are also a prerequisite for productive working relationships betweenthe support group and the groups receiving support. Without SLAs, conversations about support are vagueand imprecise:

KEEP ING THE I T SUPPORT COMMUNIT Y CONNECTEDSuppor tWor ld

Developing Service Level Agreements that WorkBy Mike Yudkin

www.Th inkHD I .com November/December 2007

User manager: I was talking to my counterpart in Chicago. They get much better service than we do here in Houston.

IT manager: We try to provide good service everywhere.

User manager: We keep calling your techs to fix problems that were supposedly resolved.

IT manager: You have to realize that some level of mistakes is normal. One hundred percent perfection isn’t possible.

Service Level Examples

SLAs Make These Conversations Much More Specific:

User manager: I was talking to my counterpart in Chicago. They get much faster service than we do here in Houston.

IT manager: Actually, we’re resolving 93 percent of your incidents within four hours and only 92 percent of theirs. We promised both of you 90 percent. Does your unit need faster service times than we agreed to?

User manager: We keep calling your techs back to fix problems that were supposedly resolved.

IT manager: That happened in 5 percent of cases last month. We agreed on 2.5 percent as the target level for repeat calls, so you’re right that there are too many. We’ve already identified the problem—it was faulty disk drives from a new supplier. We’ve canceled the contract, returned the rest of the inventory, and restocked using suppliers with better track records.

SLA by Location

Response

■��Resident Platinum (e.g. Trader) 8 Minutes 20 Minutes 90% 95%

■��Resident Gold (e.g. VIP) 8 Minutes 30 Minutes 90% 95%

■��Resident Silver 1 Hour 4 Hours 90% 95%

■��Resident Bronze NBD NBD 90% 95%

■��Non-Resident Gold (e.g. Off Site VIP) 1 Hour 4 Hours 90% 95%

■��Non-Resident Silver 4 Hours NBD 90% 95%

■��Non-Resident Bronze NBD NBD N/A N/A

ResolveMinimum for Penalty

Expected

10

www.Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007

Precision isn’t the only difference between the first and second set of conversations. You’ll notice that SLAs also help the IT manager:

■��Discover whether a genuine problem exists. In the first issue—whether the Chicago office is getting better service than the Houston office—the “problem” may amount to an employee in Houston trying to blame his own lack of productivity on the support group. Or, it may turn out that the Houston office has been assigned a mission-critical project that really requires a higher level of support.

■��Address real problems faster and more effectively. In the second issue—too many repeat calls—the IT manager takes appropriate action even before the user brings up the problem, and reports this action to the user instead of responding defensively.

In both cases, the IT manager hasn’t just dodged a bullet, but has taken positive and proactive steps to help users. That’s why I called SLAs key to a productive working relationship.

Are SLAs Too Much Trouble?SLAs have been a recommended practice for decades. You’d think everyone would be using them by now, but that’s far from true. Some support units just never get around to putting SLAs in place, without ever quite saying why. Others are more explicit about why they don’t want to. Interestingly, there may be reluctance about SLAs from both sides of the fence.

Both IT managers and user managers may complain that SLAs are too rigid and bureaucratic, that they strain the relationship between users and support groups, and that they offer the wrong incentives. IT managers may also fear that generating data for service level measurement is onerous and will take up time that could be better spent serving users.

All of these objections may be valid—but they’re objections to poorly designed SLAs, not to SLAs in general. The answer is not to avoid developing SLAs, but to develop SLAs that work.

What Makes SLAs Workable?In order to enable strategic management and contribute to productive working relationships, service level agreements must be:■�Addressed to users’ needs■�Correctly balanced between cost and service■�Simple■�Achievable■�Measurable■�Flexible

1 Suitability�to�users’�needs. SLAs can’t be “one size fits all.” Different groups of users may have entirely different priorities. In the financial industry, all traders are constantly called on to make split-second decisions, and any downtime they experience translates directly into company profits. SLAs for support of trader workstations are related to keeping the traders up and running at all times.

In another industry, employees involved in designing complex new products might always need the most advanced and powerful workstations on the market. Their access to advanced workstations brings products to market sooner, even if the newer equipment is less stable and results in more downtime. SLAs for supporting this group might emphasize frequency of hardware and software updates.

SLAs should focus your attention on issues that matter to the company. If you’re devoting your energy, attention, and ingenuity to making sure that derivatives traders are always online, you know you are bolstering your organization’s profits.

2 �Balance. One aspect of targeting SLAs to the company’s needs is balancing costs against service levels. There is almost always a tradeoff—if we had rooms full of technicians sitting idle and waiting for the phone to ring, we could respond to all calls immediately.

In some cases, as with the financial-industry traders, lightning-fast response times are worth the extra cost. More often they’re not. If the user is a bookkeeper sitting alone in a remote outpost cleaning up last year’s accounts, a two-day response time might be fine. Part of the IT manager’s job is helping management understand the tradeoffs and deciding which service improvements are worth the extra money. Sometimes, walking through this decision process may result in lowering service level requirements.

SLAs should focus your attention on issues that matter to the company.

12

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Jason Jennings — Leadership Authority and Author, Make It Happen — FasterBenjamin Zander — Music Director, Boston Philharmonic, The Art of Possibility

Gene Kranz — Former Director of Operations, NASA and Apollo Missions, Failure is Not an OptionRobyn Benincasa — Eco-Challenge Champion, Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win

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ch3 �Simplicity. Even though one size doesn’t fi t all, it’s best to stick to a few standard sizes. Service levels can easily become overly complicated. In one company we worked with, the proposed service level requirements were based on how important the user was, where the user was located, and how critical the call was, withmany categories for each. Desktop support managers would have had to manage literally hundreds of queuesat once, each with its own set of SLAs. This really was a case where service level management would have stoodin the way of good service.

4 �Achievability. Setting unrealistic goals doesn’t help anyone. Ambitious goals can spur creativity, but goalsthat are outright unachievable just guarantee failure and cynicism, and ensure that the SLAs will be ignored.

How can you make sure you’re setting achievable goals? The simplest way is to compare your goals to industry standards, either by referring to published sources or by working with consultants who have experience in your industry. If you fi nd that you’ve set your goals far beyond what others are achieving, and you’re not expecting to invest more in support than they do, you’ve probablyset your sights too high.

That said, achievability isn’t a static quality. The level of what is achievable should change from year to year. Continuous improvement practices can help you raise the bar until you’re leading the industry instead of following it.

5 �Measurability. If a service level is too diffi cult to measure, you can’t obtain meaningful or consistent results. You won’t know whether you’re seeing real improvements over time, or whether you’re just getting better at measurement.

Most successful service levels are based on data thatis already being recorded for purposes of incident management. You need to know, for basic case tracking, which cases are open and which are closed, so you’re probably recording case opening and closing times.This is why elapsed time to close cases is one of themost popular service level measurements.

6 �Flexibility. If SLAs aren’t going to be perceived as “rigid and bureaucratic,” they need to have several typesof fl exibility built in. First, in recognition of the fact that there are uncontrollable circumstances in the world, an SLA must allow for occasional failures. That’s why so

many SLAs are framed in terms of percentiles—for example, 90 or 95 percent of cases closed within a certain time frame. That 5 or 10 percent exclusion allows for the times when a rash of equipment failures occurs just as half of your techs are home with the fl u.

Another type of fl exibility concerns the SLA’s consequences. Failure to meet the SLA usually invokes some kind of penalty, but applying penalties on amonthly basis can focus too much attention and anxiety on short-term results. Evaluating results on a quarterlyor semiannual basis gives you some breathing space towork on continuous-improvement projects that willraise performance more in the long run.

Finally, an SLA must be a living document. That doesn’t mean it should change continually, but it does need an escape clause in case users’ needs change—or in case you fi nd out that the fi rst iteration of the agreement didn’t completely meet users’ needs.

SummaryWell-designed service level agreements allow the ITgroup to be a partner in creating corporate profi ts. The SLA is a powerful tool for aligning behavior with corporate goals. In addition to helping you proactively drive service improvements and customer satisfaction, it gives you a framework for understanding and supporting corporate goals—as well as for demonstrating that you’ve understood and supported those goals. Finally, it creates a process, and an expectation, for continually raising performance levels so that instead of playing “catch-up” you can deliver service at the leading edge of your industry.

Michael Yudkin is senior vice president at Design Strategy Corporation, where he launched the managed distributed infrastructure services offering. Many components of that offering are now in place at Fortune 500 fi nancial institutions as well as other corporations. Earlier, as a vice president at JP Morgan Chase, he had global responsibility for supporting the company’s 120,000 desktop computers, improving service levels and productivity while implementing consistent management reporting acrossthe enterprise and reducing operational risk. He has a B.S. degree from CUNY, an MBA from Iona College, and a Graduate Certifi cate from Northwestern University.


Dynamic & Provocative Keynotes, including:

Beyond the OrdinaryMarch 9 – 12, 2008

Gaylord Texan Resort • Dal las,Texas

Register by January 11th& Save Up to $400!


Emmitt Smith — NFL Legend and ESPN NFL Analyst, A Championship VisionJeffrey C. Taylor — Founder, Monster.com and Eons.com, Bringing the Monster Idea to Life

Jason Jennings — Leadership Authority and Author, Make It Happen — FasterBenjamin Zander — Music Director, Boston Philharmonic, The Art of Possibility

Gene Kranz — Former Director of Operations, NASA and Apollo Missions, Failure is Not an OptionRobyn Benincasa — Eco-Challenge Champion, Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win

Rea

ch

The Strategic Focus —For evolving and mature support organizations and experienced professionals who are responsible for the strategic direction, long-term planning, and support vision for their organization.Topicsfeaturethebusinessissuesrelatedtoinfrastructuremanagement,ITsupport,andcustomerservice.Opentoall,ofparticularinteresttoExecutiveConnectionsparticipants.

101 ManagingGlobalSupport:CoreCompetencies..........................................Intermediate&Advanced112 ServiceDeskMaturityModelsandFrameworks.......................................Intermediate&Advanced201 EstablishingaSourcingStrategy:FirstStepsFirst.....................................Intermediate&Advanced212 BeyondKCS:ImplicationsofMasteringtheKMChallenge................................................ Advanced301 ChoosingandManagingGlobalServiceDeliveryPartners................................................ Advanced312 ManagingComplexGlobalSupportServices................................................................... Advanced401 TheLatestComplianceDrama:ITOutsourcing................................................................ Advanced501 CurrentDevelopmentsinSecurity,PrivacyandEnterpriseRiskMgt...........Intermediate&Advanced510 2011-AServiceDeskOdyssey......................................................................Allexperiencelevels601 Easy-to-UseFinancialToolsforEffectiveDecisionMaking.........................Intermediate&Advanced701 UncoveringHiddenSupportCosts............................................................Intermediate&Advanced801 UnleashingtheEnormousPowerofHelpDeskKPIs......................................................... Advanced

Support Masters — This interactive track addresses provocative support perspectives and prepares you for the future.Itisdesignedtochallengeyourestablishedthinking,generatenewconstructsforserviceexcellence,andengageyouinstimulatingdialoguewithindustrypeers.Uniquelycombiningkeyconceptpresentationsfromindustryexpertswithhighleveldiscussiongroups,thistrackisrecommendedforseasonedsupportprofessionalswithmorethan5yearsmanagementexperiencesettingtheorganization’sstrategicdirectionandservicebestpractices.Opentoall,ofparticularinteresttoExecutiveConnectionsparticipants.

102 SupportLeadershipinthe21stCentury.......................................................................... Advanced202 TheEthicalEdge........................................................................................................... Advanced302 ITIL’sNotJustforITAnymore......................................................................................... Advanced402 StaffingStrategiesforthe21stCentury.......................................................................... Advanced502 BusinessFusion:BuildingaBusiness-focusedSupportInfrastructure.............................. Advanced602 IndustryMegatrends:ABenchmarkingPerspective......................................................... Advanced702/802 FacilitatedDiscussionswithTrackFacultyandInvitedExperts,Part I / I I ............................ Advanced

Everything ITIL— Following an overview of ITIL v3, the expert HDI faculty and invited guest speakers lead you through the primary best practices as outlined by the IT Infrastructure Management Library centered on the service desk. Youwilldevelopaworkingunderstandingoftheemerginglifecycleapproachtoserviceandsupportmanagement,howthenewprocessesimpactyourserviceofferings,andhowtoassessyourorganization’sreadinesstomoveforward.ThistrackfeaturesITILconcepts,casestudiesapplyingITILbestpractices,andauniqueinteractiveworkshopthatpullsthenewconceptstogetherandestablishesafoundationforyoutotakethenextstepsforward.

Pre-4 ITILv3Foundations.................................................................................................. IntermediatePre-8 ImplementingITIL:WhereDoYouBegin?................................................................... Intermediate105 ITILv3:IsItWorthAlltheFuss?..............................................................Intermediate&Advanced205 ITILv2andv3:AWorkingComparison.....................................................Intermediate&Advanced208 ThePracticeofProcess:IncidentManagement.........................................Intermediate&Advanced305 AssessingYourITILReadiness:v2orv3orSomewhereinBetween?.............. Novice&Intermediate308 BridgingtheGapBetweenIncidentandProblemManagement...................Intermediate&Advanced405 ADayintheLifeofaServiceDesk:EventManagement.............................................. Intermediate505 RestorationandResolutionManagementProcessandFunction................................... Intermediate512 WhyDoWerewolvesMakeGoodConfigurationManagers?.......................Intermediate&Advanced604 ITILv3andKMComeTogether.................................................................................. Intermediate605 TheEvolvingServiceCatalogandServiceMgmtBestPractices.................Intermediate&Advanced704 ProactiveApplicationCheckoutsandManagedDeployment......................Intermediate&Advanced705/805 JointheITILApprenticeChallenge,PartI/II................................................................ Intermediate813 ComingofAgeOvernight............................................................................. Novice&Intermediate

Outstanding experience.I am so motivated and inspired.I wish the whole team couldhave been here.

Danica FryhlingSr. Support Center AnalystApplied Biosystems

• 6 dynamic and provocative keynotes

• Your choice of 100+ conference sessions focusing on internaland external service and support issues from the industry’smost knowledgeable speakers and practioners

• Fourteen 3-day, 2-day and 1-day pre-conference workshops, including HDI and ITIL® Certifi cation

• An active Expo Hall with new product launches and 100+ vendors

• Networking & Social Activities — take advantage of a widevariety of resources and activities to help you fi nd colleagueswith similar challenges

• Party with the Doobie Brothers at the most anticipated concertin the industry.

Make Your Conference Experience Extra-ordinary


Support Operations Management —For experienced managers (2 or more years in a management role) responsible for day-to-day technical support operations and for experienced support professionals preparing for management responsibilities.Thistrackexploresthelatestapproachestooperationalefficiencyandeffectiveness,includingprocessimprovement,self-service,knowledgemanagement,outsourcing,changemanagement,proactivesupportbestpractices,andmore.

Pre-2 HDISupportCenterDirector....................................................................Intermediate&AdvancedPre-3 KnowledgeManagementFoundations:KCSPrinciples................................................. IntermediatePre-7 MappingOutSupportProcesses:BlueprintsforSuccess............................................. IntermediatePre-10 TheFundamentalsofAccountingandFinanceforITSupportManagers.............AllexperiencelevelsPre-14 TechnologySupportinHigherEducation..................................................................... Intermediate103 ProactiveContactManagementStrategies.................................................... Novice&Intermediate104 IfYouAlwaysDoWhatYou’veAlwaysDone.................................................. Novice&Intermediate203 HangUpthePhoneandIncreaseCustomerSatisfaction............................Intermediate&Advanced204 WorkingAloneCanGetYouinTrouble......................................................Intermediate&Advanced303 BuildingaSelf-servicePortal:KeystoSuccess.........................................Intermediate&Advanced304 BusinessContinuityPlanningIsNotanOption!............................................................ Intermediate403 ClassifiedInformation:UnlockingtheServiceManagementCode.................. Novice&Intermediate404 KnowWhatWeKnow:KnowledgeEngineeringatPepsiCo.........................Intermediate&Advanced503 PracticalAdviceforOutsourcingITServices..............................................Intermediate&Advanced504 KeystoImplementingWebSelf-service...................................................................... Intermediate603 MakeYourMarketingEffortsSpeak‘Value’................................................... Novice&Intermediate703 The13TruthsofOrganizationalChange...................................................Intermediate&Advanced708 SupportCenterConsolidation...................................................................Intermediate&Advanced803 ElevatingSmoothlythroughPartnerships.................................................................... Intermediate804 TheGreatC.O.W.ServiceDrive.................................................................... Novice&Intermediate812 SurvivingSixSigma.................................................................................Intermediate&Advanced

The Human Factors —This track will appeal to all attendees regardless of support segmentor organizational perspective and is particularly vital for anyone responsible for managing support employees. Thetrackexamineskeypeopleissuesrelatedtostaffing,resourcemaximization,performance,qualitymanagement,andmetrics.Italsoexplorestheprinciplesofleadership,teambuilding,motivatingexcellentcustomersupportprofessionals,effectivecommunicationstrategies,managingstress,andpersonalgrowth.

Pre-12 A“MoreBetter”Workplace!......................................................................... Novice&IntermediatePre-13 SynergyCircles:TeamBuildingforthe21stCentury.........................................Allexperiencelevels108 Culturetopia...................................................................................................Allexperiencelevels109 TranslatingMetricstoBusinessBenefits..................................................................... Intermediate110 MaximizingtheBalancedScorecardforAgentandSiteImprovements........Intermediate&Advanced209 FiveStepstoImproveServiceMetrics......................................................Intermediate&Advanced210 GettingtheRightAttitude:7KeystoaCustomerServiceAttitude.................. Novice&Intermediate309 DiscoveringtheImportanceofEmotionalIntelligence........................................Allexperiencelevels310 ThreeKeysforUnlockingWhatReallyTurnsEmployeesOn............................ Novice&Intermediate313 HelpDesk:ACareer.................................................................................................. Intermediate409 PerformanceManagement:TheGood,Bad,andUgly.................................................. Intermediate410 IfYouCanDreamIt,YouCanHaveIt................................................................Allexperiencelevels509 Crazy,Busy,Nuts!..........................................................................................Allexperiencelevels609 ManagingHighAttritionRatesonYourHelpDesk.............................................Allexperiencelevels610 PositivelyContagiousLeadership....................................................................Allexperiencelevels709 EngagingtheDisengaged..............................................................................Allexperiencelevels710 BuildingConfidentPresentationSkills..............................................................Allexperiencelevels808 Seeding&Weeding:SuccessfulStylesforGrowingLeaders..............................Allexperiencelevels809 KeeptheChange:ManagingTransitions....................................................... Novice&Intermediate

Essentials for New Support Managers —For novice and rising support managers in new or evolving support organizations, this track features essential concepts, processes, and best practices that provide a foundation for success in your new role.Thistrackwillalsohelptune-upandrefreshexperiencedmanagersonthefundamentals.Itisidealfornewsupportmanagers,internalorexternal,andsmall-tomedium-sizedsupportorganizationswithfewerthan50supportprofessionals.

Pre-1 HDISupportCenterManager...................................................................... Novice&IntermediatePre-5 HDISupportCenterAnalyst................................................................................................Novice106 MoreBigFatLiesAbouttheHelpDesk................................................................................Novice206 DevelopinganEffectiveServiceDeliveryModel............................................. Novice&Intermediate306 DocumentingProcesses,Procedures,andWorkflows...........................................................Novice406 UnderstandingtheBalancedScorecard...............................................................................Novice413 TeachThemtoFish............................................................................................................Novice506 MakingSenseofServiceandOperatingLevelAgreements............................ Novice&Intermediate606 GiveMeSomeCustomerServicePlease..............................................................................Novice706 TheLittleEngineThatCould…ButShouldn’t................................................ Novice&Intermediate806 Martha’sTop10ListforSuccessfulServiceDeskAnalysts....................................................Novice

Customer Service —This track, combining concepts and skills-based sessions, is valuable to alltypes of organizations and experience levels. Topicsincludeunderstandingthevalueproposition,creatingaserviceculture,optimizingperformance,satisfactionmeasurement,andmore.Italsoexplorescallcenterskillsandrelatedtechniquesmanagerscanuseforin-servicetrainingbackintheiroffice.

Pre-6 HDISupportCenterTeamLead................................................................... Novice&IntermediatePre-9 TheFunBeginswithRemarkableService.................................................... Novice&Intermediate107 DesperatelySeekingService...................................................................................... Intermediate113 BetheVoiceoftheCustomer...................................................................Intermediate&Advanced207 EngineeringandDefiningtheSupportExperience......................................Intermediate&Advanced307 CapturingtheHeartofYourCustomer..............................................................Allexperiencelevels407 IfYouDon’tWantToKnow–Don’tAsk!....................................................Intermediate&Advanced408 ListenandLearnfromYourAgents............................................................................. Intermediate507 CommunicatingTechnicalInformationtoNon-technicalPeople...................... Novice&Intermediate508 3KeystoExceedingCustomersExpectationsEveryTime......................................................Novice607 UsingProfilestoUnderstandCustomerDepartmentalBehavior.................................... Intermediate608 TheClosedLoopofContinuousServiceImprovement.................................... Novice&Intermediate707 WhatCustomersAreReallySayingAboutITSupport........................................Allexperiencelevels807 TrueCustomerSatisfaction:MoreCalls....................................................................... Intermediate

Technology in Action —This track extends the Expo into the classroom and is appropriate forall audiences.Thecasestudiesinthistrackfocusonbestpracticesusingsupporttechnologiestoachievebusinessobjectives.Learnmoreabouthowtoimplementthelatesttoolsandtechnologiesandhowotherorganizationshaverealizedperformanceimprovementasaresult.

Pre-11 MeetWindowsServer2008.....................................................................Intermediate&Advanced111 WikisandWeb2.0:ImpactonKnowledgeManagement...................................Allexperiencelevels211 VistaandServer2008Security:What’sNew?...........................................Intermediate&Advanced213 LookMa,NoWires!UsingMobilitytoAlignITwithBusiness......................Intermediate&Advanced311 TheBrowserChallenge:HelpingUsersOvercomeBrowserFailures............................. Intermediate411 ManagingDataLossCriseswithConfidence.............................................Intermediate&Advanced412 IncidentResolution:On-sitevs.Remote....................................................Intermediate&Advanced511 KnowIt’sBrokeBeforeYourCustomersDo...............................................Intermediate&Advanced611 ProactiveCommunicationsforEnterpriseServiceDesks............................Intermediate&Advanced612 ArizonaFederal:PuttingITSMtoWork......................................................Intermediate&Advanced711 YouSayYouWantanEvolution:ApplyingWeb2.0.....................................Intermediate&Advanced713 OneWindowsImageforAllYourHardwarePlatforms.................................Intermediate&Advanced810 DigBeforeYouCall..................................................................................Intermediate&Advanced811 CaterpillartoButterfly:MovingtoVOIP........................................................................ Intermediate

Doobie Brothers Concert & Pre-event Receptionat HDI’s Anything But Ordinary Conference Party Tuesday, March 11, 7:30pm – 10:30pm

This year the indefi nable, tireless Doobie Brothers will help us rock the night away. But fi rst, let your hair down at the pre-concert cocktail party in the beautiful Gaylord Texan Atrium. Then, dance in the aisles with the Doobies. With their unique blend of rock, jazz, blues and country, the Doobies are the quintessential example of anything but ordinary!

Who says work can’t be fun? Anyone who has been to an HDI conference party knows better…and this year is no exception!

Conference PackagesFull Conference Package – $1,595The full conference includes access to all the core conferencesessions, keynote presentations, the Expo Hall, networking activities, breakfasts, lunches, parties and receptions.

The Executive Connections Package – $1,995An exclusive package reserved for senior executives, includes allconference package benefi ts, plus special networking offerings designed to meet the needs of our executive audience.

by Robert�S.�Last

“Please Don’t Call Us”: Building a Customer-friendly

Call Avoidance Strategy forthe Support Center

It is high time thatthe ideal of success

should be replaced by the ideal of service.

— Albert Einstein —

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If�you�want�your�customers�to�experience�service�of�the�highest�order,�give�them�reasons�and�find�ways�for�them�NOT�to�call�your�support�center�by�designing�and�implementing�a�call�reduction�and�avoidance�strategy.�Although we all love our customers and we know they love us, if we didn’t have to

speak with each other except for special occasions, we’d all be happier and more productive. For many support managers this concept is not new, but as with many ideas, it fights for attention amongst the daily grind of e-mail, emergencies, and egos that make time disappear like matter into a celestial black hole.

If you make a conscious decision to try to reduce your call volume, the key success factor should be the development and implementation of a detailed support strategy that includes reducing, deflecting, and wherever possible, eliminating call volume .1 Our friend, Chris Farver of BMC, says what you need to do is, “Instead of just focusing on efficient handling of the calls you do get, start focusing more on what you’re getting and why you are getting them.” 2

Is a Program of Call Avoidance That Important?

In a word, “yes.” The lower the call volumes that a support center has to handle, the less it costs the parent organization and the more time the staff will have to work on non-routine, high-value tasks and problems that contribute to business IT alignment (BITA). A good program will also produce these benefits:

� ��Less calls will increase customer satisfaction;

� ��The image of the support center will evolve from a necessary evil to a strategic, value-added, and business-critical operation;

� ��Support staff morale will rise as the staff spends less time on password resets, “how-to” questions, and routine problems and more time on problems and questions that will reduce the impact of user downtime and improve customer productivity;

� ��IT, in general, and IT support in particular, will move closer to the elusive goal of becoming partners with their customers and users;

� ��Avoiding outsourcing becomes easier as IT and IT support become the most efficient and effective solution for a business’s needs.

Preliminary Work Begins

It is the wise support manager that takes the time (or rather makes the time) once a year to examine how well their support center is operating by conducting an assessment that identifies its operational strengths and weaknesses. Yes, it is hard; it has a very low short-term return on investment, and it has very little glamour. As often happens, however, it is the difficult, long-term, and unglamorous activities that provide the most benefit to an organization; success is a journey, not a destination. A yearly assessment gives a support manager the opportunity to understand the hidden mechanics of their operation and control their destiny by finding and fixing small problems before they become big, complex problems.

�Step�1—Assess the Current State of the Support Center.

For most support managers, the following steps offer a useful starting point to assessing their operation:

1. List all the services that your support operation is currently delivering;

2. Rank each service in order of importance or value to the customer;

3. Categorize these services into problems versus requests;

4. Identify services where no value is added to the parent organization, the customer’s organization, and the support center;

5. Look for ways to deflect or eliminate these services (consider the constituencies for each service before you take any action);

6. Estimate the approximate cost to deliver each of these services;

7. Map your support center team’s skills to the services delivered. Determine the support center’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (SWOT).3

Step�2—Collect Data from the Assessment and Analyze It to Produce Information.

� ��Every call should be documented and categorized accurately and consistently to the same degree that a doctor and nurse record data into a medical chart. Such an effort can produce large amounts of data and when filtered and categorized correctly, this information will allow a support manager to target calls for reduction and elimination;

� ��At a minimum, the reports that are being generated should answer the following questions:

• Which part of the business is generating the most cases?

• Within each category, can you drill down to see what types of calls are coming in most frequently?

• Have you used the Pareto Model—call frequency X time spent—to see what types of calls are most costly in terms of your staff’s time?

• Have you calculated the dollar value of the most time-consuming calls—call frequently X average length of call X resource cost per minute—to see which cases have the greatest financial cost? 4

Step�3—Determine Solutions to Eliminate Calls

� ��Implement more sophisticated problem (root cause analysis), change, and release management processes (80 percent of calls to the service desk are a result of change—Gartner Group);

� ��Give customers alternatives to making a telephone call by instituting a “Web-based Toolbox:”

• Knowledge sources—Multi-media, multi-lingual knowledge articles and content; must be user-friendly; should be integrated with the support center’s incident management system;

• Support center managers should create programs that educate their users at every opportunity to the alternatives to calling;

• Broadcast regularly to users the “Top Ten” problems and solutions that the support center has identified;

• Identify the top ten callers in the past ninety days and analyze why they have called and group into problem-solution areas; develop specific solutions to eliminate these calls (for example, one-on-one training, system/component replacement, increased access, manager’s attention);

• Monitor this group of ten month-by-month and adjust as necessary;

• Experience tells us that it is possible to reduce calls by 75 percent; it is not easy, it can be time consuming and it is not very exciting, but when done well, it can be like a flu shot—a little pain for a lot of gain;

• Once you have identified the “first” top ten, then identify the “second tier” of top ten problems and repeat all of the activities discussed above;

• Other benefits: Higher satisfaction of the top ten to twenty callers; the development and implementation of a problem-resolution solution process that can be institutionalized;

• Elimination of misdirected and repeated calls; perform root cause analysis on mis-directed and repeat calls; identify the process, documentation and training weaknesses that are enabling these calls. Almost no support center manager does this and it shows, be different;

• Use designated callers whenever possible: Designate technical liaisons by group, location, branch, etc.; proactively communicate with these liaisons; create processes whereby users in a literal or virtual group communicate first with designated liaison; liaisons proactively communicate with their group; whenever possible, automate any process that can be automated. 5

Some Final Thoughts on Call Avoidance, Reduction, Elimination, Etc.

At the risk of stating the obvious, any attempts to avoid, reduce, or eliminate calls should:

� ��Be written down, have training built around, and be rehearsed before implementation; tribal knowledge is out, knowledge management is in; ad hoc is out, “prior planning prevents poor performance” is in.

20 www.Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007

� ��Identify profi le and understand your top sources of telephone calls, then choose ways to eliminate calls and automate the delivery of solutions for others.

� ��Perform an ROI for the entire project; it will surprise some people and delight others, that’s good for your support center’s reputation.

� ��Focus on business benefi ts and how your call reduction program will advance business IT alignment (BITA).

� ��Choose the support staff that will implement this plan carefully. It is hard work, it can be very complex, and the rewards are long term, not immediate. Choose a team that is smart, mature, and patient.

This basic approach to reducing and avoiding telephone calls is one of the most powerful tools that a support manager can use to better service a customer-base. It takes work, but this small investment—usually onlyone or two people can manage the entire program, can have a signifi cant impact on an entire organization.Good Luck!

1 Peter McGarahan, “Call Reduction Strategies That Work,” STI White Paper, 2004, p. 1.2 “Call Avoidance Strategies-Session 802,” Chris Farver, BMC, HDI Conference 2007, p. 3.3 Peter McGarahan, “Call Reduction Strategies That Work,” STI White Paper, 2004, p. 2.4 Ibid.5 Chris Farver, “Call Avoidance Strategies-Session 803,” HDI National Conference 2007,

p. 8-12.

Robert Last has over eighteen years experience in thesupport industry as a support manager, consultant, and trainer. He was a supervisor for the help desk at Cleveland State University for eight years, and the support manager for DataVantage, Inc. in Cleveland for three years. He is currently the content manager for HDI. He is the author of over two dozen articles and papers on technical support.

Users tell us that it’s important for us to be responsive. How do you get your users to say you’re responsive to their needs?

This is about your willingness to respond to customer needs by answering their phone or e-mail requests quickly, and your willingness to do what it takes to respond effectively to a service request. Responsivenessis adopting a can-do attitude, and a willingness to gothe extra mile for the customer. Recent research studies support the theory that soft skills (such as listening, empathy, courtesy, and creating rapport) are more important than technical skills in the career advancement of any employee. This is especially true in the support industry, where most managers have realized that they must hire people who have a good attitude or approachto serving customers plus an aptitude for technical knowledge, and that the rest can be taught.

A positive attitude is the fi rst step in building good soft skills. You have control over your attitude. Just like you can choose what clothes to wear in the morning, you can also choose what attitude to assume every day. You can choose to see the glass as half-full, or half-empty. Your

approach, or attitude, toward life is a self-fulfi lling prophecy. If your attitude is “Everyone has something to offer me!” then you will interpret everything that happens to you as an interesting journey. On the other hand, if you approach your job and your life in a less than positive way, every bump in the road will seem like a huge obstacle.

How do you answer your phone? Do you answer it promptly? Can the caller understand you or do you rush through your greeting? Are you pleasant and does your tone of voice convey a positive start to the call? How do you answer e-mails? Do you reply promptly? Do you convey in your e-mail responses that you really want to help your user? Do you understand the meaning of all the words you use? For those of you who provide support in a second language, make sure you’re using the user’s language correctly. Ask someone who speaks it natively to review your e-mail responses and give you feedback.

Look in the mirror. Often, the solution to our problems lies within ourselves. Several weeks ago, I faced some of the usual challenges of life on the road. Things usually go very well for me and on those rare occasions when things “hiccup,” they’re usually minor. This week, however, I dealt with a major problem that had the potential to cause


Delighting Your User:Providing Responsive End User Support

by Don�R.�Crawley

Look in the mirror.Often, the solution to our

problems lies within ourselves.

23


C u S t o m e r S e r v i C ea major disruption in my business. Now, as I look back on what happened, I’m beginning to see the entire situation with new clarity. I made several mistakes. The first mistake was in making assumptions about what a vendor would do. I could have spent more time at their Web site and learned more about their policies and procedures. Instead, I spent a brief time skimming over their services and made assumptions about how to order a particular service and whether it was the right service for me.

The second mistake I made was in not contacting this vendor earlier to discuss how best to use their services (and whether they were even the right vendor for this job). The third mistake I made was in trying to deal with this vendor while I was hurrying to catch a train. In other words, I was in a state of stress which undoubtedly came through in my voice (even though I don’t think I was rude, demanding, or abusive). As I dealt with this vendor in trying to resolve several problems, I received brusk (almost rude) customer service. I don’t believe there is ever a reason to treat any customer in a manner that is anything other than cheerful, pleasant, respectful, and empathetic, but I wonder if there were subtle messages that I was sending that caused me to receive less than exemplary customer service.

As I look back at my experiences with other people, I also need to look in the mirror. Am I doing everything I can to have a positive effect on everyone I meet? Have I gone out of my way to touch people in a positive way? When the world doesn’t go my way, do I take a moment to stop and regroup or do I complain to everyone around me so they can feel bad, too? I know I can’t control other people, but I certainly can control how I appear when they look in my direction.

��So,�what�are�the�lessons�I�learned�and�how�do�they�relate�to�you�as�a�tech�support�pro?�

Lesson one Start early. When you have plenty of time, you’re more relaxed and things just seem to go better. Arrive at your desk early. Give yourself fifteen or twenty minutes before your shift starts to gather your thoughts and organize your workspace. Then later, when the day starts to get frantic, you’ll find you’re more in control of things.

Lesson two Do enough research. As a tech support person, do you subscribe to news feeds and blogs about the products you support? Do you spend time each day reading articles and books related to the products you support? Have you set up a virtual lab using VMWare, VirtualPC, or Xen so you can experiment and test your solutions before you offer them to your users? Knowledge

is power and the more knowledge you have, the more you’ll be empowered to delight your users with relevant, accurate solutions.

Lesson three Focus on the task at hand instead of multi-tasking (Millennials really can multi-task, but GenXers, Boomers, and Veterans really can’t). This means, when your user calls needing help, you focus exclusively on them and nothing else. (And, for you Gen Y’ers, I know you really can multi-task, but don’t let your users know you’re doing it while you’re talking to them!)

Lesson four When the world is crashing around you, before you do anything else, look in the mirror. Maybe you can’t control the rest of the world, but you are in complete control over how you view the world and what’s happening in it. As a support professional, take a moment to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I put myself in the user’s shoes? 2. Do I take ownership of a problem and see it through

to completion? 3. Am I willing to help both users and co-workers? 4. Do I consciously assume a positive outlook with my

users and co-workers? 5. Am I respectful and courteous to the user? 6. Do I treat everyone with respect and courtesy? 7. Do I speak and conduct myself confidently with users?

If you answered yes to at least five, you are on the right track to creating a positive position from which to serve your users for the best results. If you answered yes to fewer than five, your attitude might be keeping you from doing your best to create the proper environment for success in your job.

Your users’ perception of your responsiveness starts with their perception of you. Your attitude, your demeanor, your tone-of-voice, and the words you choose all play a part in how you are perceived. You have it within your power to create users who perceive you to be responsive to their needs; to care about them as people first and co-workers second.

Don R. Crawley is president/chief technologist at soundtraining.net, the Seattle firm specializing in business skills and technical training for IT professionals. He works with IT pros to enhance their work, lives, and careers.

www. Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007 www. Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007

Running a successful help desk operation

means managing by the numbers. And

the most important number of all is the

magical quantity of staff that matches the

workforce as closely as possible to the

call workload. In the previous article on

Calculating Help Desk Staff, we outlined

the basic steps of calculating staff

requirements—calculating workload,

defi ning speed of answer goals, and

applying a staffi ng model to determine

the “just right” number of staff needed

to meet service goals. This article takes

a closer look at staffi ng requirements

and the many factors that infl uence the

staffi ng levels of your help desk.

In this article, we’ll address the following common staffi ng questions:

1 How will arrival rate affect my staffi ng requirement?

2 How does size impact staffi ng numbers and effi ciencies?

3 How much of a person’s time should actually be spent in active versus available state each hour?

4 How will reducing the number of staff affect overall help desk costs?

Call Arrival Rate

As discussed in the previous article, calls generally arrive at the help desk in a random fashion—no particular pattern within the hour or half-hour. And because of this random pattern, a help desk will always need more staff hours in place than the actual workload hours tobe accomplished.

On the other hand, if calls arrive in a smoother pattern (closer to a task after task paperwork environment), then the number of staff needed would be close to the workload hours. What help desk scenarios would represent this type of back-to-back work?

You might expect to see outbound calling follow this pattern, especially if an automated dialer is in use. The workload (outbound calling) occurs in a back-to-back

24


m e t r i C S & m e a S u r e m e n t S

By Penny Reynolds

sequential pattern rather than a random one. Likewise, responding to e-mails typically represents sequential workload as well, assuming that personnel respond to these contacts one right behind the other. In both these cases, the number of staff required is equivalent to workload hours.

On the other hand, what if the workload arrives in a peaked pattern rather than a smooth one? Let’s consider the support center that is responding to calls based on a system outage. There may be no calls arriving at 11:05, but a fl ood of calls arrives at 11:09 when the computer system crashes at 11:08. And then the calls drop again at 11:15 but peak again at 11:25. This “all or nothing” pattern requires enough staff to be in place to handle peaks of calls when they arrive, meaning more staff would be required than a typical random pattern.

Agent Group Size

Another factor that has a major impact on staffi ng is the size of the support center or the agent group. Help desks handling larger volumes of calls will naturally be more effi cient than smaller groups. This is due to the economies of scale of large groups.

As seen in the following example, doubling the call volume does not require two times the number of staff to meet the same service goal of 80 percent in 20 seconds.

And when call volume increases eightfold, only aboutsix times the number of staff are needed. As the volume grows, the staff to workload ratio gets smaller and smaller.

The reason for these increased effi ciencies and the lower staff to workload ratio is simply that with a higher volume of calls, there’s a greater likelihood that when an agent is fi nished with a call, there’s another one coming in right behind it for that person to handle. With a bigger volume, each person has the opportunity to process more calls each hour. Each person spends less time in available state waiting on a call to arrive and with each person handling more calls, you don’t need as many staff.

Staff Occupancy

If a higher volume of calls means that each person is busier, then you might assume that bigger is alwaysbetter, right? After all, these folks are being paid to sitand handle calls, so don’t you want them busy all thetime doing just that?

Calls per Hour

Workload Hours

Staff Required

Staff:Workload

Ratio

Staff Occupancy (workload/staff)

100 8.33 12 1.44 .69200 16.67 21 1.26 .79400 33.33 39 1.17 .85800 66.67 74 1.10 .901600 133.33 142 1.06 .94

25

The answer is yes…and no. While you want staff to be busy processing calls, having them too busy (in other words, no available time or “breather” between calls) isn’t such a good idea either.

The measure of how busy agents are is called agent occupancy or staff occupancy. It’s the percentage of logged in time that an agent is actually busy in talk or wrap-up time. It’s calculated by dividing the amount of workload by the staff hours in place. In the previous table, with 12 staff handling 8.33 hours of workload, agent occupancy is only 69 percent. At double the call volume with 21 staff in place, twice the workload is being handled without doubling the workforce, so each person is busier. In this case, occupancy has increased to 79 percent.

As the volume of calls grows, increased efficiencies and economies of scale come into effect, meaning occupancy goes higher and higher. And while you want your staff to be productive and busy, asking staff to stay occupied at a 94 percent rate is not realistic. Most help desks aim for the 85 to 90 percent range since occupancy rates higher than that lead to all kinds of undesirable call handling behaviors as well as a high turnover rate.

Cost and Service Concerns

A final staffing tradeoff has to do with the relationship of staff to service and cost. Managers these days are being asked to cut costs and to do more with fewer resources. Since 65 to 70 percent of a total help desk’s operating costs are related to staffing, that is generally the first place you look to reduce costs. It is all too common to think of layoffs and reduction in staff as a way to respond to the call from senior management to tighten belts. But before you write-up the pink slips, make sure you understand the implications of staff reductions.

Let’s assume that you’re a fairly small help desk with fewer than 50 agent seats. (If you’re larger, you can view these numbers as representative of a specialized agent group within the bigger support center structure.) Most days

you’re meeting your service goal of 70 percent in 30 seconds. The snapshot below indicates the staffing picture with varying numbers of staff during a half-hour in which you’re getting 175 calls.

As you can see, staffing with 33 “bodies in chairs” would enable you to meet your service level fairly consistently. But the loss of one person would worsen the service level from 74 percent to 62 percent (or average speed of answer from 30 seconds to 54 seconds). Eliminating another person would drop the service level to 46 percent, and the average delay would double to 107 seconds! And reducing staffing levels by three would horribly deteriorate the service level to only 24 percent, resulting in an average delay of 298 seconds! So those callers accustomed to waiting for only half a minute in queue would now be waiting nearly five minutes!

And service isn’t the only thing that suffers. With 33 staff in place to handle the call workload, agent occupancy (the measure of how busy staff are during the period of time they’re logged in and available) is in a good range at 88 percent. Taking one body away raises occupancy levels to 91 percent; taking two away results in 94 percent occupancy; and taking three away means staff would be busy 97 percent of the time during the hour. In other words, there would be only 3 percent (108 seconds) of “breathing room” between calls. Such a high level of occupancy can’t be maintained for long. The likely result will be longer handle times, longer periods spent in after-call work to “catch their breath,” burnout, and turnover.

And there’s another point to consider. The reduction in staff might be outweighed by the increased telephone


Numberof Staff

Avg Delay(ASA)

Service Level(in 30 sec)

Staff Occupancy

30 298 sec 24% 97%31 107 sec 46% 94%32 54 sec 62% 91%33 30 sec 74% 88%34 18 sec 82% 86%35 11 sec 88% 83%

Numberof Staff

Avg Delay(ASA)

Service Level(in 30 sec)

Staff Occupancy

30 298 sec 24% 97%31 107 sec 46% 94%32 54 sec 62% 91%33 30 sec 74% 88%34 18 sec 82% 86%35 11 sec 88% 83%

costs associated with the longer delay times. In this example, with 33 staff in place the average delay is 30 seconds per call. Multiply that by 350 calls per hour and that’s 10,500 seconds (or 175 minutes) of delay. If we apply a fully loaded telephone cost per minute to that usage of $.06 per minute, that’s $10.50 for the queue time. If we try and staff with 30 staff, remember our average delay increases to 298 seconds of delay. Multiply that by 350 calls and that’s 1738 minutes of delay, priced at $.06 for a total of $104.30 for the queue time that hour. In other words, by eliminating three staff to save money, we’ve just increased our telephone bill by $93.80 for that hour! And this doesn’t even take into account the likelihood of a longer call given the poorer than expected service levels. Telephone charges would likely increase even further.

So, from three different perspectives, you can see that a simple staff reduction may not save you any money. In fact, it may cost you more in terms of poor service, excessive occupancy levels, as well as increased telephone costs.

Next Steps

Now that we’ve discussed most of the factors that affect the number of staff needed to handle the contacts half-hour by half-hour, the next step is figuring out how to schedule in order to get the right number of people in place at the right times. In the next article in this series, I’ll discuss the basic steps of scheduling help desk staff in order to maximize service, minimize cost, and account for staff preferences.

NOTE: This article is an excerpt from the Staffing Tradeoffs chapter of the book Call Center Staffing—The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management. To learn more about this and other books from The Call Center School, visit: http://www.thecallcenterschool.com/bookstore/index.html.

Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center School, a Nashville, Tennessee based consulting and education company. The company provides a wide range of educational offerings for help desk and call center professionals, including traditional classroom courses, web-based seminars, and self-paced e-learning programs at the manager, supervisor, and frontline staff level. For more information, see www.thecallcenterschool.com or call 615-812-8400.


Dear Ready,It sounds like you are well on your way to improvingyour availability by capturing your “workload” with the ITSM tool. Your comments are very astute and followbest practice guidance discussed in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). You obviously know the value of capturing data about incidents. This information canhelp you increase “uptime” and decrease “downtime.”

Workload is defi ned in ITIL as the “amount of time and effort expended on any part of incident resolution.” That means everyone that works on an incident to resolve it must record their time in the ITSM tool provided. Once you have this information you can begin to sort and analyze it.

One approach might be to identify outages by technical component or by IT service. But keep in mind that the business is much more interested in which services are unavailable than which components are unavailable because their orientation is service management rather than system management.

Analysis by IT Service

If you are focusing on service unavailability, generatea report focusing on a critical service for a specifi c period of time such as three months, six months, or a full yearof time. During that period of time, note how many incidents caused that service to fail and not be available to the business. This incident “lifecycle” view allows us to


Dear Dr.Jim,Our IT department has been capturing a lot of data regarding incidents in our new IT service management (ITSM) software tool. Now that we have all this data about incidents (like how we are resolving them and how much time we are spending on the resolutions), what might be the next step in analyzing this data to see ifwe can fi nd a way to minimize the time we are spending on incident resolutions to reduce the amount of downtime whenever an incident occurs? Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

Ready for More in Raleigh

t h e S e r v i C e D r .

31

break down the unavailability into subsets of time including “detection elapsed time,” “response time,” “repair time,” and “recovery time.” In addition, the Mean Time Between System Incidents (MTBSI) is a way to measure the “reliability” of services. Reliability is a measure of how long a service, component, or configuration item (CI) can perform its agreed function without interruption.

Detection Elapsed Time refers to the period of time that passes from when the incident occurs and when we have detected the incident.

Response Time is the period of time between when we have detected the incident and when we have begun diagnosing the incident.

Repair Time is the time between when we begin diagnosing the incident and when we have found a resolution for the incident.

Recovery Time is the amount of time it takes the service to completely recover after the resolution is applied.

Now you can review the average times for detection, response, and repair. If these average values appear to be longer than you would like, you can begin to imagine ways to reduce the average times. By reducing the average times you will be increasing availability and reducing downtime.

For example, if detection elapsed time needs reducing, you may consider adding a monitoring device to the service (or a critical component of the service) so that an alert is generated as soon as the service has an outage. That way you can begin responding quicker.

If response time needs reducing, you might need to evaluate why it takes so long to respond. In researching you may discover that most of the outages occur at night when no technicians are onsite. Therefore, if an alert goes to a pager of someone who is home in bed asleep, they may need to drive all the way to the office before they are able to start diagnosing. Perhaps there are numerous technicians, but everyone works day shift hours. One solution might be to make sure that there is 24x7 onsite coverage to enable quicker response times by moving some staff members off the day shift onto an evening shift and a night shift. Another solution might be to install VPN connectivity in the homes of the technicians assigned after hours on-call duty to enable them to respond more quickly to begin troubleshooting from

home the issues that occur after hours instead of having to drive to the office each time there is an outage.

If repair time needs reducing this may require some research and analysis to determine the cause of the extended time for repair. It may be as simple as training for technicians, using a more methodical approach to troubleshooting, providing better tools, or better documentation of previous troubleshooting and previous solutions.

Analysis by IT Component

If you also focus on system management as well as service management you may be able to make additional progress. One technique for identifying critical components is Single Point of Failure Analysis. A single point of failure is any component that has no back-up or fail-over and could potentially cause disruption to the business if it fails. Whenever a single point of failure is identified, Component Failure Impact Analysis (CFIA) can be utilized to identify the impact of the single point of failure on the business. CFIA will help you identify where you may want to consider building in some resilience to your infrastructure. Redundancy is the most common type of resilience. So, making critical components redundant is a cost effective way to make sure there are less component failures that will impact services and thus impact the business.

What we have discussed here is a good starting point in using the valuable incident data that you have been diligent in collecting in your ITSM tool. You are way ahead of the game if you can get all of the staff that does incident management to record all their time and document all their work in the ITSM tool. That enables availability management to help improve the availability of systems and services, which translates to improving day-to-day operations and allowing the business to be more productive.

Jim McKennan, aka Dr. Jim the Service Doctor is often recognized for his highly developed customer service skills as well as being an adept call center manager, speaker, and award winning sales and IT professional. He is a Senior Consultant with Pink Elephant. Jim is a member of the Sacramento, CA chapter of HDI. He is also the past Western Region Director of the Member Advisory Board for HDI and is on the Support Center Certification Standards Committee for HDI. Jim has a BA in Psychology from California State University.

Suppor tWor ld


L o C a L C h a p t e r L i S t i n g

State City Chapter Name Chapter Contact Position Email Address Phone Number Chapter Web Site

AZ Phoenix SouthwestSynergy PaulElliott VPMembership [email protected] 602-605-7069 www.southwestsynergy.orgAB Calgary Calgary SheilaVoll President [email protected] 403-681-2746 www.hdi-calgary.orgAB Edmonton HDIEdmonton RonSmith President [email protected] 780-429-8695 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/edmontonBC Vancouver HelpDeskBC ClareAgapeyev President [email protected] 604-692-4614 www.helpdeskbc.comCA Irvine OrangeCounty TamiHill President [email protected] 949-863-8388 www.ochdi.comCA LosAngeles LosAngeles MaryCruse President [email protected] 310-482-5316 www.hdila.orgCA Sacramento Sacramento SeanMoore President [email protected] 916-350-8904 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sacramentoCA SanDiego SanDiego CynthiaMonroe President [email protected] 858-581-7868 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sandiegoCA SanFrancisco BayArea JustineNguyen President [email protected] 415-344-2069 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sfhdiCA SanJose SiliconValley RobMatheson President [email protected] 800-440-1904 www.svhdi.comCT Hartford Connecticut LarryRichard President [email protected] 860-862-7407 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/connecticutCO ColoradoSprings ColoradoSprings VicotiraBech VP-Membership [email protected] 719-785-5354 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/cosCO Denver RockyMountain MeredithRoque VP-Membership [email protected] 303-664-3133 www.hdidenver.orgDC Washington CapitalArea SandySeroskie President [email protected] 202-895-1258 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/capitaldcDE Dover DelawareValley MarieClark President [email protected] 717-391-8049 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/delvalFL Tampa Tampa CherylBierworth President [email protected] 727-399-3000x3331 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/tbaGA Atlanta HDIAtlanta DarienChimoff President [email protected] 404-881-7041 www.hdiatlanta.orgIL Chicago Chicagoland MikeVega President [email protected] 847-812-5065 www.chicagolandhdi.comIL Bloomington CentralIllini BrendenBernardi President [email protected] 309-820-2785IN Indianapolis Indiana KathiTrimble VP-Membership [email protected] 317-237-1276 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/indianaIA Iowa Iowa JayBoomershine President [email protected] 515-277-5948 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/ihdcKY Louisville Kentuckiana JennyHaeberlin VP-Membership [email protected] 502-420-3752MA Boston NewEngland KentBelcher VP-Membership [email protected] 781-461-3559 www.hdine.orgMD Baltimore Baltimore DaleWells President [email protected] 410-528-7636 www.hdibaltimore.comME Maine NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665MI Detroit Motown DanWilson President [email protected] 248-404-4107 www.hdimotown.comMI GrandRapids WestMichigan BrianVanderZee VP-Membership [email protected] 616-451-3500 www.westmihdi.orgMN Minneapolis Minnesota KathyRaph President [email protected] 615-205-1446 www.hdimn.comMO KansasCity Heartland KevinKwasiborski President [email protected] 913-814-2152MO St.Louis Gateway ChrisKientzle VP-Membership [email protected] 314-286-0211 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/stlouisNH NewHampshire NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665NJ NewJersey NorthernNewJersey AtulSharma VP-Membership [email protected] 908-981-7215 www.hdinj.comNY Poughkeepsie HudsonValley DanielleGowen President [email protected] 845-229-7893 www.hdihvny.orgNY NewYorkCity GreaterNewYork JeffreyLiddy President [email protected] 212-383-2836 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/nycNY Rochester/Syracuse Western&CentralNY KellyMcLaughlin President [email protected] 315-521-8317 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/wcnyNC Charlotte Charlotte DavidLando President [email protected] 704-348-8170NC Raleigh-Durham/ Triangle MikeLewis VP-Membership [email protected] 919-414-2197 www.trihdi.orgNC WinstonSalem Triad StephanieMyers VP-Membership [email protected] 336-251-1357 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/triadhdiNE Omaha Nebraska DanaOlson President [email protected] 402-280-2946 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/nebraskaOH Cleveland NorthCoast KeithLang VP-Membership [email protected] 330-379-7485 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/northcoastOH Columbus/Cincinnati Mid-Ohio RonKibbe VP-Membership [email protected] 614-293-2373 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/ohioOK OklahomaCity Frontier JohannStoessel President [email protected] 405-225-5822 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/frontierOK Tulsa GreenCountry StewartMoon President [email protected] 918-491-0600 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/tulsaON Ottawa Ottawa SteveWorth President [email protected] 613-740-5900x5319 www.hdiottawa.comON Toronto Trillium DonMcCarroll VP-Membership [email protected] 519-570-9731 www.hditrillium.comPA Philadelphia DelawareValley MarieClark President [email protected] 717-391-8049 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/delvalPA Pittsburgh SteelCity MattHowell President [email protected] 412-268-4096 www.steelcity.orgPA Scranton SusquehannaValley CatherineMcAnally President [email protected] 570-868-5720SC Columbia SouthCarolina TonyTackett President [email protected] 803-939-7808 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/scSC Greenville UpState ChrisCooper VP-Membership [email protected] 864-232-7442SK Regina Regina YvonneHarrison President [email protected] 306-761-4328 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/reginaTN Knoxville Knoxville CurtisJones President [email protected] 865-805-6296 www.knoxvillelhdi.comTN Memphis Memphis AndyGlover President [email protected] 901-820-6043TN Nashville Nashville PamWinton President [email protected] 615-458-0661TX Austin HDIAustin RobertSalmon VP-Membership [email protected] 254-770-6100 www.hdiaustin.orgTX Dallas/Ft.Worth DFW DouglasCoco President [email protected] 214-672-4114 www.dfwhdi.orgTX Houston Houston VikkiJansen VP-Programs [email protected] 832-813-4224 www.helpdeskhouston.comTX SanAntonio SanAntonio BernardBeaullieu President [email protected] 210-710-4161 www.sanantoniohdi.orgUT SaltLakeCity SaltLakeCity RobPlowgian President [email protected] 801-493-3083VT Vermont NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665WI GreenBay FOXofHDI SherryMathey President [email protected] 920-265-5340 www.foxhdi.orgWI Madison SouthernWisconsin ErikaOliver VP-Membership [email protected] 608-204-6440 www.hdimadison.orgWI Milwaukee PHD PhilGerbyshak President [email protected] 414-298-7445 www.profhelpdesk.org

State City Chapter Name Chapter Contact Position Email Address Phone Number Chapter Web Site

AZ Phoenix SouthwestSynergy PaulElliott VPMembership [email protected] 602-605-7069 www.southwestsynergy.orgAB Calgary Calgary SheilaVoll President [email protected] 403-681-2746 www.hdi-calgary.orgAB Edmonton HDIEdmonton RonSmith President [email protected] 780-429-8695 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/edmontonBC Vancouver HelpDeskBC ClareAgapeyev President [email protected] 604-692-4614 www.helpdeskbc.comCA Irvine OrangeCounty TamiHill President [email protected] 949-863-8388 www.ochdi.comCA LosAngeles LosAngeles MaryCruse President [email protected] 310-482-5316 www.hdila.orgCA Sacramento Sacramento SeanMoore President [email protected] 916-350-8904 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sacramentoCA SanDiego SanDiego CynthiaMonroe President [email protected] 858-581-7868 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sandiegoCA SanFrancisco BayArea JustineNguyen President [email protected] 415-344-2069 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/sfhdiCA SanJose SiliconValley RobMatheson President [email protected] 800-440-1904 www.svhdi.comCT Hartford Connecticut LarryRichard President [email protected] 860-862-7407 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/connecticutCO ColoradoSprings ColoradoSprings VicotiraBech VP-Membership [email protected] 719-785-5354 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/cosCO Denver RockyMountain MeredithRoque VP-Membership [email protected] 303-664-3133 www.hdidenver.orgDC Washington CapitalArea SandySeroskie President [email protected] 202-895-1258 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/capitaldcDE Dover DelawareValley MarieClark President [email protected] 717-391-8049 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/delvalFL Tampa Tampa CherylBierworth President [email protected] 727-399-3000x3331 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/tbaGA Atlanta HDIAtlanta DarienChimoff President [email protected] 404-881-7041 www.hdiatlanta.orgIL Chicago Chicagoland MikeVega President [email protected] 847-812-5065 www.chicagolandhdi.comIL Bloomington CentralIllini BrendenBernardi President [email protected] 309-820-2785IN Indianapolis Indiana KathiTrimble VP-Membership [email protected] 317-237-1276 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/indianaIA Iowa Iowa JayBoomershine President [email protected] 515-277-5948 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/ihdcKY Louisville Kentuckiana JennyHaeberlin VP-Membership [email protected] 502-420-3752MA Boston NewEngland KentBelcher VP-Membership [email protected] 781-461-3559 www.hdine.orgMD Baltimore Baltimore DaleWells President [email protected] 410-528-7636 www.hdibaltimore.comME Maine NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665MI Detroit Motown DanWilson President [email protected] 248-404-4107 www.hdimotown.comMI GrandRapids WestMichigan BrianVanderZee VP-Membership [email protected] 616-451-3500 www.westmihdi.orgMN Minneapolis Minnesota KathyRaph President [email protected] 615-205-1446 www.hdimn.comMO KansasCity Heartland KevinKwasiborski President [email protected] 913-814-2152MO St.Louis Gateway ChrisKientzle VP-Membership [email protected] 314-286-0211 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/stlouisNH NewHampshire NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665NJ NewJersey NorthernNewJersey AtulSharma VP-Membership [email protected] 908-981-7215 www.hdinj.comNY Poughkeepsie HudsonValley DanielleGowen President [email protected] 845-229-7893 www.hdihvny.orgNY NewYorkCity GreaterNewYork JeffreyLiddy President [email protected] 212-383-2836 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/nycNY Rochester/Syracuse Western&CentralNY KellyMcLaughlin President [email protected] 315-521-8317 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/wcnyNC Charlotte Charlotte DavidLando President [email protected] 704-348-8170NC Raleigh-Durham/ Triangle MikeLewis VP-Membership [email protected] 919-414-2197 www.trihdi.orgNC WinstonSalem Triad StephanieMyers VP-Membership [email protected] 336-251-1357 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/triadhdiNE Omaha Nebraska DanaOlson President [email protected] 402-280-2946 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/nebraskaOH Cleveland NorthCoast KeithLang VP-Membership [email protected] 330-379-7485 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/northcoastOH Columbus/Cincinnati Mid-Ohio RonKibbe VP-Membership [email protected] 614-293-2373 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/ohioOK OklahomaCity Frontier JohannStoessel President [email protected] 405-225-5822 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/frontierOK Tulsa GreenCountry StewartMoon President [email protected] 918-491-0600 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/tulsaON Ottawa Ottawa SteveWorth President [email protected] 613-740-5900x5319 www.hdiottawa.comON Toronto Trillium DonMcCarroll VP-Membership [email protected] 519-570-9731 www.hditrillium.comPA Philadelphia DelawareValley MarieClark President [email protected] 717-391-8049 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/delvalPA Pittsburgh SteelCity MattHowell President [email protected] 412-268-4096 www.steelcity.orgPA Scranton SusquehannaValley CatherineMcAnally President [email protected] 570-868-5720SC Columbia SouthCarolina TonyTackett President [email protected] 803-939-7808 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/scSC Greenville UpState ChrisCooper VP-Membership [email protected] 864-232-7442SK Regina Regina YvonneHarrison President [email protected] 306-761-4328 www.ThinkHDI.com/chapters/reginaTN Knoxville Knoxville CurtisJones President [email protected] 865-805-6296 www.knoxvillelhdi.comTN Memphis Memphis AndyGlover President [email protected] 901-820-6043TN Nashville Nashville PamWinton President [email protected] 615-458-0661TX Austin HDIAustin RobertSalmon VP-Membership [email protected] 254-770-6100 www.hdiaustin.orgTX Dallas/Ft.Worth DFW DouglasCoco President [email protected] 214-672-4114 www.dfwhdi.orgTX Houston Houston VikkiJansen VP-Programs [email protected] 832-813-4224 www.helpdeskhouston.comTX SanAntonio SanAntonio BernardBeaullieu President [email protected] 210-710-4161 www.sanantoniohdi.orgUT SaltLakeCity SaltLakeCity RobPlowgian President [email protected] 801-493-3083VT Vermont NorthernNewEngland RoyAtkinson VP-Membership [email protected] 207-288-6665WI GreenBay FOXofHDI SherryMathey President [email protected] 920-265-5340 www.foxhdi.orgWI Madison SouthernWisconsin ErikaOliver VP-Membership [email protected] 608-204-6440 www.hdimadison.orgWI Milwaukee PHD PhilGerbyshak President [email protected] 414-298-7445 www.profhelpdesk.org


EasyITIL®:Gettingto Done

By John Sundberg

i t i L®

35


lthough the concept of the InformationTechnology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) has been around for twenty-fi ve years, many organizations are just beginning to think about it. Thanks to our British peers across the pond, we have the benefi t of their experienceand hindsight to aid our own adoption of ITIL bestpractices. So why are we so skeptical?

ITIL originated in the 1980s by the UK Government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), which was later merged into the Offi ce of Government Commerce (OGC)—an offi ce of the UK Treasury. The CCTA documented a framework of best practices designed to facilitate the effi cient delivery of high-quality information technology (IT) services.These supplier-independent management procedures support IT infrastructure, development, and operations for providing fi nancial and operational value to business.

Amazingly, when I Googled “Easy ITIL” it returned 1,690,000 results. After reading them all (well, quitea few at least), I still wouldn’t describe ITIL as easy.On the other hand, you’re probably already using some combination of ITIL processes intuitively, especially if your service desk is operating reasonably well. Even though you may not be intimately familiar with the daunting 31-volumes of ITIL, if your IT shop or servicedesk has a formal process for requesting a change, it’s using an ITIL-recommended practice. Much of ITIL is straightforward, though portions can seem impossibly diffi cult. I’ll try here to sort out what’s most easily done and help you bypass some of the landmines.

To ITIL or not to ITIL?

Be forewarned that acceptance of ITIL is somewhat ofa blind-faith proposition; there currently is no formulato demonstrate a return on any of ITIL’s proscribed processes. And while ITIL guidelines suggest methodsfor change management and problem management,they do not provide explicit instructions.

This is perhaps why the organizations that fullyembrace ITIL are typically large, mature companieswith the resources to invest in this monumental endeavor. However, you don’t have to be a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate to begin to implement ITIL. Though ITILis vast, it is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Think ofit as a framework from which you can select and integrate those processes you consider relevant for your organization. You can always revisit those thatyou initially skip as your situation changes.

Prepare for the Journey

This is the key to making ITIL far less intimidating.Like every major undertaking, it is easier when broken down into digestible pieces. Remember: a journey of 1,000 miles starts with the fi rst step. This article willhelp you with the initial part of that journey.

As you embark on your ITIL odyssey, think processes fi rst, software second. It is preferable to rely on ITIL’s proven processes—rather than software—to help you establish or improve your service desk. It is far more effi cient to choose software that is aligned with your processes than to invest extra time (and budget) into manipulating highly confi gurable software to make itfi t your world.

The IT Skeptic, Rob England, has it right: “Many methodologies, including ITIL, have aspects that arenot applicable to small and medium enterprises.”¹

One fi nal, familiar caveat: Don’t blame ITIL forthe change your IT organization will undergo. IT organizations evolve even without a disruptive force.But rolling out ITIL—moving from having no or few formal processes to becoming process-centric—may create additional pressure. This is yet another reasonto take it step-by-step.

An Educational Process

Service desk software has not yet matured to the levelof cross vendor standards, and therefore frequentlylacks interoperability. Make a few inquiries among your peers and choose an affordable package that can be used out-of-the-box. Consider it a learning experience to determine what’s appropriate for your organization and what’s not. As software evolves over the next fi ve years you’ll be in a much better position to take the next steps.

Keep communicating with the vendor you choose, giving them feedback on their product. As they improve their offering you might fi nd your requested enhancements in the next release.

The future may bring quality hosted ITIL-based service desk software and outsourced providers to manage service desks. But by choosing to wait for these options to materialize, you’ll lose the opportunity to begin streamlining business processes and improving your service desk now.

Less Is More—Making ITIL Easier

Here are some suggestions to make the early stages of ITIL adoption, a not-so-easy undertaking, as simple as possible:

Put�training�and�experience�onyour�side.

Before embarking on your ITIL project, have your project manager and team members undergo ITIL training. They will undoubtedly be “ITIL smarter,” and, equally important, training will also bring consistency to the team with regard to nomenclature and processes. Everyone will be on the same page.

If you’re grumbling about the cost and time away from the job that training poses, hire somebody who has ITIL experience. This could be an in-house facilitator or an outside consultant who can analyze your current processesand plot a course to guide you to your destination. If you decide to hire consultants, make sure they arevendor-agnostic.

Forget�about�CMDB.

Few companies are currently using CMDBs for making decisions. Service desk professionals already have a fi rm grasp on the impact a change will make—and to arrive at more than an educated hunch is far too costly. After all, is spending tens of thousands of hours on building a CMDB and keeping

it updated worth saving an hour or so on a phone call?

Wait until confi guration management database software becomes more user-friendly. Currently it is unwieldy, especially in light of the debatable benefi ts and achievability of a CMDB. Simply put, no matter how much data you cram into a central repository, there will always be more somewhere else.

You’ll get more bang for your buckif you make people (cultural change)your top priority. Get everyone on board, then move on to process/change management.

Begin�ITIL�implementation�with�a�service�catalog.

Document the IT services that your service desk provides and give usersthe ability to request them via a service catalog. A service catalog manages the entire service request life cycle and keeps users informed of progress.

A service catalog roll-out should detail incident management processes for all types of incidents, so users understand what to do in situations that require assistance. An incident is any type of disruption of service. Successful incident management processes restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business operations to ensure the best possible levels of service quality and availability. It’s virtually impossible to anticipate every type of incident, but you can start by prioritizing your biggest pain points. Consider centralizing all of your customer calls through the service desk for a consistent, standardized approach to serving customers.

Problem management processes are required to resolve the root cause (errors within the IT infrastructure) of high-frequency incidents. Designed to reduce the number and severity of


incidents and their business impact, problem management provides documentation for fi rst- and second-line service desk personnel. A proactive process identifi es and resolves problems before incidents occur by:

Analyzing trends

� Targeting support action

� Providing information to users

Change management processes standardize the methods and procedures used to control changesin order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents and improve day-to-day operations. A change isany event that results in the addition, modifi cation, or removal of a confi guration item in the IT infrastructure. These processes include: how a change is requested; who can request a change; the approval process to authorize a change; and how changes are scheduled.

This is where I would suggest you pause to shore up your early adoption of ITIL. With a solid footing you can confi dently incorporate release management—the adoption of new services and upgrading of existing services; and confi guration management—defi ning how services are related to each other and maintained. These additions are big chunks that require a fi rm foundation.

A Beginner’s StanceIn summary, think of these recommendations as a beginner’s manual. When you take up golf, you don’t start with a handbook for pros focused on the game’s fi ne points.You start with the stance andpractice swinging.

Don’t get washed out to sea by theITIL tidal wave. The disparity among surveys that report statistics about ITIL adoption indicates that there are many interpretations and iterations in play. I’ve seen results as low as 6 percentand as high as 71 percent. For example, Aperture Research Institute reportsthat 29 percent of “100 data center organizations across a range of industries including banking, government, insurance, healthcare, data services, retail, and telecommunications have implemented ITIL.”² See what works for your business and do thebest you can… like most of the world.

1 “ITIL Through the Looking Glass–What we canall learn from scaling down ITIL” by Rob England, May 2006.

2 Aperture Research Institute Report: “ITIL is Gaining Momentum but the Data Center is Slow to Adopt,” August 2007.


John Sundberg, founder and President of Kinetic Data, has designed and managed more than 100 information systems for medium and large enterprises. He is president of the Minnesota Chapter of AFSMI (Association for Services Management International).

Additional reading: ITIL Small-scale Implementation, Offi ce of Government Commerce, The Stationery Offi ce Books, 2006.

Help Desk HUMOR

39


Back to Typing 101

Tech Support: You need to right-click on the desktop.Caller: OKTech Support: Did you get a pop-up menu?Caller: No.Tech Support: OK, right-click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?Caller: No.Tech Support: OK, sir, can you tell me what you have done up until this point?Caller: Sure, you told me to WRITE “click” and I WROTE “click.”Tech Support: OK. Did you type “click” with the keyboard?Caller: I have done something dumb, right?

Source: http://www.phonephunnies.com

The place I work for charges about $100/issue for tech support.

Tech Support: So what can I do for you?Customer: I’m trying to run Live Update with Norton, and it came up to a screen with a list of updates, and it says ‘Next.’ What do I do? Tech Support: Did you hit ‘Next’? Customer: Oh, it’s working now.Tech Support: Anything else I can do for you?Customer: No, that’s it, thanks.

Source: http://www.rinkworks.com

Tech Support: Do you have the icon on your desktop? Customer: No. It’s a thingy with buttons on the shelf. Um, a modem.Tech Support: Yes. I need you to look at the software you are using though. What do you click on?Customer: Oh. Ok.Tech Support: What’s the name of the icon you use to click on? Customer: The mouse?

Source: http://www.rinkworks.com

Hello, help desk.Yes, this is Mrs. Hardiman on the third fl oor.How can we help you, Mrs. Hardiman?I wanted to ask another favor. One of your peoplewas here last week to help me back up the fi leson my computer.Do you need to restore fi les that were backed up?No, no. I thought it was a good idea, that’s all. I was wondering if perhaps you could help me back up the printer too?

Source: http://www.techtales.com

By Robert S. Last

If you think back to December 1999, there was agreat deal of talk about the new century and whatit would bring to the world. In the IT world, we were busy updating legacy systems fi lled with COBOLand fi nalizing our support center staffi ng plans for December 31, 1999. Fast forward to the last quarter of 2007 and support center managers are now competing in a dynamic, never-sleeping, global economy that requires constant attention and the captivity imposed by BlackBerrys®, e-mail, and cell phones.

To manage the challenges that exist in a global IT environment, they use some of the most advanced technologies ever created by the human mind, but they do so using the same support structures that existed twenty and thirty years ago. Models such as the tiered support model (level 1 - level 2 - level 3); frontline/backline; Single Point of Contact (SPOC); and touch


We build too many wallsand not enough bridges.

— Isaac Newton —

ANew

Support Model

for a

New Century

and hold have been in existence in different formatsfor decades. All of these models are based on a manufacturing, command and control model where every aspect of solving a customer’s problem is captured, measured, analyzed, and used to dictate actions, compensation systems, and strategy. This approach has worked very well for decades, but as businesses, organizations, and support centers have come to use and rely upon information technology,a new approach has begun to develop: The use of collaborative tools and techniques in the workplace.

The Concept of Collaboration

In his excellent book, Managing Collective Intelligence, author Olivier Zara, discusses how companies will perform in the future and states:

What will business performance mean in the future?Business performance in an industrial and commercial society means knowing how to produce and sell better and faster than one’s competitors. Today, (2004) most companies know how to produce and sell. That is why they exist. If they did not know how, they would have already disappeared. But as companies fi nd themselves increasingly on a par with each other in this regard, the easiest way to grow and gain market share is to buy-up competitors.

Business performance in an information society means knowing how to mobilize collective intelligence and the knowledge of stakeholders (employees, suppliers, customers, etc.). If knowing how to produce and sell has become a basic necessity, it no longer constitutes a suffi ciently differentiating factor in international competition. In the past, enterprises were industrial and commercial; in the future, they will increasingly have to be intelligent.1

The “information society” is realized with collaboration; collaboration has numerous defi nitions, but for discussion purposes the author will use the defi nition developed by Kenneth Crow of DRM Associates. It is a bit ponderous and wordy, but it captures the strength and complexity of the term and has an orientation towards a defi nable end-point which is appealing for support managers and employees alike. The defi nition is:

Collaboration is the basis for bringing together the knowledge, experience, and skills of multiple team members to contribute to the development of a new product more effectively than individual team members performing their narrow tasks in support of product development. As such, collaboration is the basis for concepts such as concurrent engineering or integrated product development.

41


and hold have been in existence in different formatsfor decades. All of these models are based on a

Effective collaboration requires actions on multiple fronts:

� ■��Early involvement and the availability of resourcesto effectively collaborate;

� ■��A culture that encourages teamwork, cooperation,and collaboration;

� ■��Effective teamwork and team member cooperation;

� ■��Defi ned team member responsibilities basedon collaboration;

� ■��A defi ned product development process based onearly sharing of information and collaboration;

� ■��Collocation or virtual collocation;

� ■��Collaboration technology.2

The Reality of Collaboration

How does collaboration apply in a support center environment? We’re not entirely sure yet, but most support managers will recognize that their operations already have the basic elements of collaboration in place or have touched upon some of these elements in the course of a day’s work. Every time you’ve seen two or more people gathered around a desk discussing a problem, you have witnessed a collaborative discussion.If you are like this embarrassed author, you then quickly move to disrupt the conversation by citing concerns about cost per call and following escalation procedures!

Collaborative elements need to be nurtured and grown using the following techniques and approaches:

� ■��Availability�of�Resources: A concept that all support managers routinely struggle with, butone that most employees solve themselves. They know who they need to talk to, to solve a problem; the trouble is we usually don’t let them;

� ■��A�Culture�that�Encourages�Teamwork,�Cooperation,�and�Collaboration: The goal thatall support managers strive for, but have diffi culty producing in an industrial, command and control-oriented workplace;

� ■��Effective�Teamwork�and�Team�Member�Cooperation: So, how are your tier 1, 2, and 3 staff getting along? Anyone not willing to take “level 1” calls without a fi ght or a complaint? When did support centers become so status-conscious?

� ■��Defi�ned�Team�Member�ResponsibilitiesBased�on�Collaboration: Defi ning team member responsibilities is fairly easy for any competent manager; defi ning these responsibilities in away that encourages, facilitates, and promotes collaboration can be a problem for poor leaders.

� ■��A�Defi�ned�Product�Development�ProcessBased�on�Early�Sharing�of�Information�and�Collaboration: The key elements for support managers are “the early sharing of information”and collaboration. Most support centers struggle with the concept of sharing information withina support center, much less across any type of organizational boundary and collaboration. Collaboration is often lost within escalation frameworks and between support tiers; look for ways to break down barriers and reward employees that have the courage to try.

� ■��Collocation/Virtual�Collocation: These are poorly worded terms for employees and teams working in different locations on the same problems and projects in this never-sleeping global economy. Anyone in the eastern time zone that has triedto collaborate with a team member in Singapore, Manila, or Bangalore has quickly learned thatthe challenges of time, distance, and cultureare usually underestimated.

� ■��Collaboration�Technology: The growth and impact of wikis and online collaboration tools in the workplace and IT tools in general, is still being assessed. What we do know is that knowledge workers in Singapore, Manila, Bangalore, and Palo Alto can collaborate on a project or a problem from a Starbucks in their respective cities. That’s nothing short of amazing and this phenomenon is quickly becoming a trend and should be encouraged atall times.

The Questions We Should Be Asking About Collaboration

There is power and potential in the concept of collaboration and the tools that enable it; but as an industry we’re still trying to determine what worksand what doesn’t with collaboration in general and collaborative technology in particular. The current industry and academic focus is on the use of wikis and enterprise knowledge management concepts and tools. Almost everyone that encounters these tools is impressed by their potential, but using collaborative tools todayso far, raises more questions than answers. Some of the most common questions being asked are:

� ■��Is a wiki the best technology for what I am seeking to accomplish?

� ■��Is my community cohesive and focused enoughto be able to work together?

� ■��Am I asking my community to create a universal truth based on tangible facts?


v e r t i C a L m a r K e t

Suppor tWor ld

� ■��Is my community going to be able to agreeon these facts?

� ■��Is my community both knowledgeable and interested about the subject of the wiki?

� ■��Does my team/community have the necessary resources to support and facilitate the participation on the wiki?

� ■��Is the team/community capable of maintainingthe wiki with a robust enough infrastructure?

� ■��Do team/community members trust each otherwell enough to be able to update content on topof each other’s content without risking the quality of the knowledge shared?

� ■��Will the team/community provide the necessary education and training materials on how to effectively make use of the wiki for thatspecifi c purpose?

� ■��How will collaboration and collaborative toolswork in a heavily regulated environment? Willthey work in organizations that have to be audited for compliance (HIPPA and SOX, for example)?

� ■��Finally, can the team/community performthat task at hand with the same quality and participation using tools other than a wiki?3

Aldous Huxley, in his 1932 novel, Brave New World,wrote about the possibility of scientifi c breakthroughsin reproductive technology, biological engineering, and sleep-learning that would change society. While the concepts of collaboration and collaborative technology may not have the same impact as the discoveries described in his novel, they do have the potentialfor altering how, when, and where we work. One ofthe important challenges that all support managerswill face in the next fi ve to ten years is to fi nd ways to make collaboration and collaborative technology as well understood, effective, and routine as the average ACD report. Be a trailblazer; read, experiment, and let usknow what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

1 Managing Collective Intelligence-Toward a New Corporate Governance, Olivier Zara (Paris, France: M21 Editions, 2004) p. 5. URL: http://www.axiopole.com/pdf/Managing_collective_intelligence.pdf. Retrieved October 5, 2007.

2 “Collaboration,” Kenneth Crow, DRM Associates, 2002, p. 1. URL: http://www.npd-solutions.com/collaboration.html. Retrieved October 5, 2007.

3 “When wikis won’t work: 5 questions to ask,” September 2, 2007 URL: http://www.lucasmcdonnell.com/when-wikis-wont-work-5-questions-to-ask/. Retrieved on October 5, 2007. Thanks also to John Coles at Dell and a member of the HDI Strategic Advisory Board who was the fi rst person raise many of these questions.

Robert Last has over eighteen years experience in thesupport industry as a support manager, consultant, and trainer. He was a supervisor for the help desk at Cleveland State University for eight years, and the support manager for DataVantage, Inc. in Cleveland for three years. He is currently the content manager for HDI. He is the author of over two dozen articles and papers on technical support.

Mobilizing Your Service Desk

When it comes to supporting the IT infrastructure, IT service personnel in the field often have limited or no access to their company’s help

desk or CRM applications/systems. With the onset of mobile gadgets such as BlackBerries®, cell phones, and other handheld devices, technology is now available that gives these mobile devices the capacity to connect remotely to service management systems, thus granting deskside support technicians the ability to access and update information on the spot.

How is technology improving mobile access of service management systems and how does this impact service delivery within IT?

Mark J Lloyd, ITSM Business Manager, Vettro Corp.Many service desk managers and IT executives today are playing a critical role in the adoption of mobile technologies within various business processes in an effort to drive efficiencies from the mobile workforce. Since IT organizations themselves represent a highly mobile workforce in the enterprise, adoption of mobile IT service management offers significant productivity benefits.

In fact, the IT service management process is one of the few business processes where the use of mobile applications can enable the “Optimum Workflow,” or the lack of any impediment (time, lack of information, lack of access, etc.) to the execution of the complete set of requested steps to be performed. Mobile applications have advanced to now allow IT organizations to greatly enhance their capacity by removing obstacles in their existing workflow, accelerating the speed of response, resolution, and execution, as well as enabling task parallelization.

By enabling mobile incident management processes, which represents one of six ITSM processes that can benefit from mobility, IT organizations can positively impact various key metrics such as call volume to the support center, response and resolution times, SLA measurements, and customer satisfaction. More important, real-time capture of performance data including time-stamped updates to incidents, time-to-resolution, and tickets created in the field,

is allowing IT executives to better measure and demonstrate their organizational contributions to the enterprise bottom line.

Overall, today’s IT organization has much to gain from becoming adopters of mobile applications in their enterprise, far beyond the productivity gains its peer business lines seek—use of mobile IT applications enable IT organizations to position themselves as experts in their enterprises’ mobile endeavors and strengthen its role as a strategic partner in the business.

Dan Turchin, CEO, Aeroprise, Inc.Cool gadgets, QWERTY keyboards, and multimedia services have made wireless products one of the hottest selling consumer goods in the past few years. Worldwide, more than 3 billion handheld devices consume some 3.5 trillion voice and data minutes. Yet only 9 percent of us use PDAs and phones for more than voice and e-mail.

Why?Expensive hardware, security concerns, poor network coverage, and questionable ROI should no longer stop you from extending IT service management functionality and processes to mobile employees.

Cell phones, and even the latest BlackBerry® 8800, cost less than off-the-shelf laptops and bring more business value through their two-way interaction than a pager.

Data is protected both outside the firewall and on the device. Use a wireless VPN and presto, the mobile applications are as secure as anything on your LAN.

Hunkering down deskside with clients outside your carrier’s coverage zone will have little effect on your work. Stored information is sent and received automatically as soon as you pick up a network signal.

But the biggest advancement in enterprise wireless technology lies in the value it brings the business. Skilled technicians required to fix deskside and field problems are expensive to hire, train, and deploy. Arming them with mobile devices and remote access to the help desk system, however, often increases productivity by more than 30 percent.


“Please do not use the computers. They’ve fi nally been fi xed, and I don’t want them messed up again.”

45


t e C h n o L o g y t r e n D S

Bill McDaniel, Senior Software Engineer, Navara,a division of RAM Mobile DataWith the advent and success of mobile e-mail, organizations are now realizing the potential for mobile applications. By implementing a mobile interface, we are able to become proactive in activities such as help desk, change control, CRM, and asset management. We can capture data immediately, better refl ecting the real metrics of business. We can update multiple systems when change events occur, ensuring all other interfacesto the systems show the most current information. Having the most current data translates to a better understanding of our real performance and SLAs.

A properly designed mobile interface can be network and hardware agnostic these days. Giving an organization the freedom to use public carrier networks or their own internal network allows for complete communications fl exibility. The ability to utilize any major mobile device

allows an organization to choose the best devicecurrently available, with the security of knowingthat future devices will remain compatible with the investment in technology.

Installed client device applications provide a greaterlevel of continuity than session-based systems. Havingan ability to operate in a disconnected mode as needed—or as designed—will ensure transactional integrity and security, even in environments where networks are unavailable. So called “Mobile Middleware” systems make integration painless with quick-start wizards supporting major integration methods such as SOAP Web Services, XML, and ODBC. Drag-and-drop interface design makes developing for the multitude of mobile devices quickand easy—and all from within unifi ed development environments. Now, more than ever, is truly the timeto go mobile!

© 2007 Ted Goff


Reduce Support Costs and Improve Productivity through Knowledge Management

By Tom�Drain

The value of IT is often determined by the quality of support the IT staff provides to users who need to get their questions answered and their problems resolved quickly and competently.

Knowledge management can have a major impact on productivity, revenue, and the perception of IT.

What happens when a sales person at a client site needs to get a price quote for a client who wants to place an order,

but only has a few minutes to spare? The sales person encounters a problem when trying to connect to the sales information system, and then calls the company’s help desk. The customer may be disappointed when a technician is unable to solve the problem, even if the technician promises to research it and get back to him right away. As a result, the customer could terminate the meeting and the sales person could lose the deal.

47


t e C h n o L o g yBut it doesn’t have to be that way. With an effective knowledge management solution in place, the help desk technician could query the knowledge base while on the phone with the sales person. The technician could quickly find a workaround solution and see when the problem will be fixed. Then he could communicate this information to the salesperson, who would then be able to connect immediately to the sales information system, obtain the price quote, give it to the customer, and secure the order.

A knowledge management solution should improve the quality of support by helping IT aggregate, refine, and manage collective knowledge and make that information easily available to the support staff and end users. This can empower the IT staff to find, add to, and manage their collective knowledge. It would also permit end users to tap into the knowledge to help them answer questions and solve problems on their own—without needing to call the help desk.

Solve Problems QuicklyWhat about the employee who needs to install a new printer on her laptop computer? The employee calls the help desk and is put on what seems to be an interminable amount of time on hold. In frustration, she decides to bypass the help desk and asks her colleague for help, and together they spend the next two hours attempting to install the printer. This is now a time-consuming and unproductive use of time for the employee, and others who may be enlisted to assist.

A knowledge management system can eliminate this frustrating experience.�The employee connects to the user self-help site on the corporate intranet. She queries the knowledge base using natural language and quickly finds step-by-step installation instructions for her particular printer and laptop combination. Following the instructions, she successfully installs the printer, by herself, in a matter of minutes.

The self-help capability provided by the knowledge management solution has saved the employee and her colleague a considerable amount of time. It has also resulted in a decreased load on the help desk because the employee didn’t need to call the help desk for assistance. That translates into increased employee productivity and lower support costs.

Achieve Compelling Business BenefitsAccording to one study by an alliance group of customer service organizations, those organizations using

knowledge management have achieved significant improvements, including:

•��Faster Problem Resolution. Companies have experienced a 50 to 60 percent faster time-to-resolution and a 30 to 50 percent increase in first-call resolution. By resolving calls faster, IT support technicians can handle more calls. And by resolving more incidents on the first call, IT reduces the number of calls to the help desk. Combining these two factors means that IT can service many more users without increasing the help desk staff.

•��Optimized Use of Resources. Support organizations report a 70 percent improved time-to-proficiency, 20 to 40 percent improvement in employee satisfaction, and 20 to 35 percent improved employee retention through the use of knowledge management.

•� Lower Support Load. By permitting end users to access the knowledge base through Web self-help, support organizations report 50 percent less calls to the help desk, which results in higher user satisfaction because users are able to get what they need on their own.

•��Lower Support Costs. Through knowledge management, organizations are reporting a 10 percent call reduction due to root-cause removal (the removal of a problem that continues to cause repeated fixes, or resolution), and a 20 percent increase in lower-tier resolution. By resolving more problems at the first tier, IT saves a considerable amount of money. The cost of resolving a first-level support call is a fraction of that of a second-level support call.

What to Look for in a Knowledge Management SolutionThe foundation of a knowledge management solution is a knowledge base that consolidates the collective knowledge of IT. It is a living information source that is continually added to and refined as new knowledge is acquired by the IT staff. A knowledge management solution should permit easy addition to and management of the information in the knowledge base, and enable fast searching for needed information.

In most organizations, there is considerable knowledge stored in databases across the enterprise—help desk solutions, help desk trouble tickets, and IT asset databases. That’s why the knowledge base should be built on architecture that permits the consolidation of information from several knowledge sources, without needing to move the information to a single database.

Visit: www.ThinkHDI.com/oc/amCall: 1-800-248-5667Email: [email protected]

December/January/February Course Schedule

Course DeCember january february

ITIL® v3 Foundations

5–7 Toronto, ON 30–February 1 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY 6–8 Washington, DC 13–15 Los Angeles, CA ■� Seattle, WA20–22 Pittsburgh, PA ■� Chicago, IL

HDI Customer Service Representative

25 Washington, DC

HDI Support Center Analyst

3–4 Edmonton, AB ■� San Diego, CA10–11 Denver , CO ■� San Francisco, CA17–18 Indianapolis, IN

14–15 Washington, DC ■� Dallas, TX ■� Los Angeles, CA Boston, MA

24–25 Sacramento, CA 31–February 1 Portland, OR

4–5 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, IL Phoenix, AZ

19–20 Charlotte, NC21–22 Las Vegas, NV 25–26 Cleveland, OH ■� Austin, TX ■� Baltimore, MD

HDI Desktop Support Technician

3–4 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY 22–23 Chicago, IL24–25 Atlanta, GA

14–15 Los Angeles, CA26–27 Washington, DC

HDI Support Center Team Lead

23–24 Philadelphia, PA28–29 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, IL

11–12 Seattle, WA ■� Washington, DC ■� Los Angeles, CA19–20 Hartford, CT

HDI Support Center Manager

5–7 Edmonton, AB12–14 Denver, CO ■� San Francisco, CA

16–18 Washington, DC ■� Dallas, TX Los Angeles, CA ■� Boston, MA

6–8 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, IL Phoenix, AZ

27–29 Cleveland, OH ■� Austin, TX ■� Baltimore, MD

HDI Support CenterDirector

4–6 Tampa, FL 15–17 New York, NY 5–7 Atlanta, GA

Knowledge Management Foundations:

KCSSM Principles

5–7 Atlanta, GA 30–February 1 Chicago, IL 13–15 Washington, DC

ERIn wELCH – MIDWEST360.738.7938

[email protected]

VICToRIA BECH – WEST719.785.5354

[email protected]

SHEA KnAuFF – SOUTH CEnTral904.819.6647

[email protected]

STEVE KAnDRACH – nOrTHEaST719.268.0339

[email protected]

TIFFAny VAugHn – MID-aTlanTIC704.795.9850

[email protected]

Course schedule subject to change

HDI CertificationAndTraining•� Keep Knowledge Current: The knowledge management solution should permit the IT staff to keep the knowledge base current through a controlled authoring process that requires the refinement and approval of content before adding it to the knowledge base. This ensures the accuracy and consistency of information. The solution should accommodate rich content in the knowledge base—such as rich text HTML, linked documents, and graphics—to simplify information communication. Authoring facilities are important to facilitate information collection and refinement. For example, automatic harvesting of information from support interaction with users—such as through the automatic collection of information from help desk trouble tickets—facilitates knowledge collection. In addition, editing tools and industry-specific authoring templates help speed the refinement of new content to ensure information consistency and usability.

•� Automate: It is essential to automate the authoring process workflow, such as by routing information for refinements and approvals. Automation helps ensure consistency in authoring. Automated notifications to approvers for new content that requires their attention helps ensure timely approval cycles.

•� Provide Rapid, Easy Searching: IT support personnel and end users must be able to quickly and easily search the knowledge base, such as through natural language query and sophisticated Boolean searches. Look for a solution that permits searching across multiple information sources and consolidates the returned information for viewing in an integrated “hit list.” The solution should ensure the security of the knowledge base to protect sensitive information. This can be done by permitting users to access only the information they are authorized to view according to their relationship to the organization and their function within that relationship.

•� Integration with Other IT Service Management Applications: One of the key factors in ensuring high-quality IT services is to integrate IT service management processes. This requires integration of the applications and tools that support these processes. Consequently, the knowledge management solution should integrate easily with other IT service management solutions, such as incident and problem management, and change and configuration management.

Integration must be seamless, well beyond merely providing the capability to launch the knowledge management application from within another application. For example, a help desk technician should be able to search the knowledge base directly from within the help desk application, and the solution should integrate data from the help desk database. IT organizations today face the challenge of continuing to deliver high-quality support in an environment that is characterized by high and increasing IT infrastructure complexity, continually evolving technology, and flat or shrinking budgets. To meet the challenge, the IT support staff needs to harness the power of the valuable knowledge it collectively generates in its daily operations. This requires consolidating, refining, and making this knowledge readily available to the support staff and to end users. Adherence to industry best practices, such as Knowledge Centered SupportSM (KCS) or the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) would assist in assuring that a knowledge management solution meets these guidelines. IT can then fully leverage its collective knowledge to improve support quality, increase IT staff job satisfaction, increase end user satisfaction, and lower support costs.

Tom Drain, a senior manager of product management for BMC Software, has been working in IT for more than twenty-five years. He has been a programmer, system administrator, database administrator, professional trainer, and system consultant during this time. Tom is a frequent speaker at user conferences on topics ranging from operational management to service support. BMC Software offers a range of powerful knowledge management solutions that are easily integrated with BMC Software service desks and related applications. For more information, please visit www.bmc.com.


Visit: www.ThinkHDI.com/oc/amCall: 1-800-248-5667Email: [email protected]

December/January/February Course Schedule

Course DeCember january february

ITIL® v3 Foundations

5–7 Toronto, ON 30–February 1 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY 6–8 Washington, DC13–15 Los Angeles, CA ■� Seattle, WA20–22 Pittsburgh, PA ■� Chicago, IL

HDI Customer Service Representative

25 Washington, DC

HDI Support CenterAnalyst

3–4 Edmonton, AB ■� San Diego, CA10–11 Denver , CO ■� San Francisco, CA17–18 Indianapolis, IN

14–15 Washington, DC ■� Dallas, TX ■� Los Angeles, CABoston, MA

24–25 Sacramento, CA31–February 1 Portland, OR

4–5 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, ILPhoenix, AZ

19–20 Charlotte, NC21–22 Las Vegas, NV25–26 Cleveland, OH ■� Austin, TX ■� Baltimore, MD

HDI Desktop Support Technician

3–4 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY 22–23 Chicago, IL24–25 Atlanta, GA

14–15 Los Angeles, CA26–27 Washington, DC

HDI Support CenterTeam Lead

23–24 Philadelphia, PA28–29 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, IL

11–12 Seattle, WA ■� Washington, DC ■� Los Angeles, CA19–20 Hartford, CT

HDI Support CenterManager

5–7 Edmonton, AB12–14 Denver, CO ■� San Francisco, CA

16–18 Washington, DC ■� Dallas, TXLos Angeles, CA ■� Boston, MA

6–8 Atlanta, GA ■� New York, NY ■� Chicago, ILPhoenix, AZ

27–29 Cleveland, OH ■� Austin, TX ■� Baltimore, MD

HDI Support CenterDirector

4–6 Tampa, FL 15–17 New York, NY 5–7 Atlanta, GA

Knowledge Management Foundations:

KCSSM Principles

5–7 Atlanta, GA 30–February 1 Chicago, IL 13–15 Washington, DC

ERIn wELCH – MIDWEST360.738.7938

[email protected]

ERIn wELCH – MIDWEST VICToRIA BECH – WEST719.785.5354

[email protected]

VICToRIA BECH – WEST SHEA KnAuFF – SOUTH CEnTral904.819.6647

[email protected]

SHEA KnAuFF – SOUTH CEnTral

STEVE KAnDRACH – nOrTHEaST719.268.0339

[email protected]

STEVE KAnDRACH – nOrTHEaST TIFFAny VAugHn – MID-aTlanTIC704.795.9850

[email protected]

TIFFAny VAugHn – MID-aTlanTIC

Course schedule subject to change

HDI CertificationAndTraining

HDI Industry Forums Take Place in Colorado Springs

HDI recently had the opportunity to host Vertical Industry Forum meetings in their hometown of Colorado Springs,CO. There were seven different HDI Forum groups that met to network, exchange ideas, discuss support center issuesand challenges, and share benchmarking ideas with peers who work in similar industries. When these groups werenot immersed in learning activities, they were able to getout and soak up a bit of Colorado beauty. One evening,

all seven groups took an outing to the Garden of the Gods, where you will fi nd a picture above of the Forum members.

HDI’s Forums provide a place for you to strategize,network, and learn new game plans from industryMVPs. Forum members are a special team of 15-20who meet to conduct in-depth discussions on current industry related topics. Our Forums help you growand be successful. For more information,visit www.ThinkHDI.com/trainingEvents/executiveForums.

www. Th inkHD I .com I November/December 2007

C o m m u n i t y n e W S

50

Someone’s got abad case of the MONDAYS!Start the best week of the

year off with a BANG!!!

Johann StoesselTechnology Impact Manager, Sonic

The Million Dollar Pizza:How One Bad Customer Experience Can Cost Youa Million Dollars or More!

Phil GerbyshakFounder, Make It Great! Institute;

Author of 10 Ways to Make it Great; President, Milwaukee chapter of HDI

Get Promoted!Actionable Tactics for Improving Your Skills,

Productivity and Image!

Pete McGarahanPresident, McGarahan & Associates

Giddy UpYour Engagement!

Kirk WeislerChief Morale Offi cer

Motivate You!The Most Important Customer

Rich HandExecutive Director of Membership,

HDI

HDI Celebrates Customer Service Week with Webinars—Huge Success!

HDI and the service and support industry celebrated Customer Service Week with a webinar each daypresented by these industry favorites:

Throughout the week, these presenters piqued the interest of viewers with unique openings that were creative and fun—attendees felt connected to service-oriented topics and had an overall excellent time. More than 1,500 people showed upto participate, with groups of eight to twenty meeting in conference rooms for whole support teams to attend! All webinars were recorded and are now up on the HDI Web site. Check them out for yourself at www.ThinkHDI.com/CSweek.Continue the celebration of service with your team!

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