1

The Guru’s Guide for

LegaL Service DeSk SupportLaw firm specific meTrics & key performance indicaTors

2nd Edition September 2011

2

WeLcoMe To The Guru’s Guide, 2nd ediTion I have been involved with the law firm service desk, also often referred to as the helpdesk, in some form or fashion for the past 22 years. While my role has evolved, from Am Law 200 firm I.T. Director, to CIO, to CEO of a service desk outsourcing provider, I’ve consistently had access to service desk data. Being able to analyze it, and make use of it in order to improve desk performance, has always been extremely important to me.

Thus, we at Intelliteach have spent the last 18 months compiling law firm metrics on a massive scale and sharing our findings with the law firm community. Measuring service levels, ticket volumes, and user satisfaction is only valuable if it can be measured over time, compared and analyzed to other metrics, and acted upon. Gaining access to the needed data is critical to any managed process.

The original Guru’s Guide, launched in August 2010 and including 600,000 analyzed tickets, was followed up in January 2011 with a 30 city ‘Become a Helpdesk and Deskside Support Guru’ roadshow co-sponsored by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA).

The data and statistics included in the 2nd Edition Guru’s Guide represent over 1.2 million service desk tickets closed across a variety of law firm sizes, locations, and hardware and software configurations during the period of January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011.

If you have ideas or suggestions on what you would like to see in future Guru’s Guides, please contact us at guru@intelliteach.com or email me directly at lwaagner@intelliteach.com.

Lance waagner president & ceo, intelliteach

3

As was the case with the original Guru’s Guide released in August 2010, the 2nd Edition is an evolving ‘work in progress’ report and will be regularly updated with fresh data as well as new metrics and performance indicators.

The data and findings included in the 2nd Edition Guru’s Guide are based on the specific technology infrastructure and service level assumptions.

Items of note...

The data presented in the 2nd Edition Guru’s Guide is based on the following:

• Analysis of more than 1.2 million law firm tickets

• 150+ major software rollouts and upgrades supported by Intelliteach service desk analysts within the past five years

• An Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system receiving, distributing and reporting the results of all phone and email support requests is in place

• A ticketing system automatically recording each customer interaction and soliciting end-user satisfaction is in place (IQTrack)

• Assumed service levels are as follows:

• >= 90% telephone live rate within 20 seconds

• <= 5 minute average wait all others calls

• <= 15 minute average email response time all emails

• >= 85% first call resolution

• >= 90% excellent or good end-user survey

Any changes to the above systems or assumptions will alter the corresponding data.

Guru’s Guide: daTa & sysTem assumpTions

4

Intelliteach, the only dedicated law firm-specific outsourced service desk company, has released the 2nd Edition of the Guru’s Guide, a comprehensive report aggregating independent law firm user support and service desk statistics and metrics. The updated Guru’s Guide provides unique benchmark data relating to the most supported legal applications, service desk staffing, service quality ratios pre and post-software conversions, and analysis of support ticket ‘origins’ and day of service. The data presented in the 2nd Edition is based on 1.2 million service desk tickets collected and analyzed from January 2010 through June 2011 across a variety of law firm sizes, locations and hardware/software configurations.

2nd ediTion Guru’s Guide findinGs incLude:

eXecuTiVe summary

Top TickeT caTeGories 43% of the 1.2 million service desk tickets closed are specific to various versions of Microsoft Office, including 22% for Microsoft Outlook.

14% of all service desk calls pertained to firm document management systems.

increase in microsofT office 2007 & 2010 TickeTs Microsoft Office-related service desk calls have more than doubled within the last 12 months.

conVersion & upGrade impacT on The serVice desk Conversions cause a significant increase in volume and add additional strain to existing resources, systems, and service quality.

Ticket volumes increased by 42% during firm-wide upgrades and took an average of 90 days to return to pre-conversion levels.

1 2 3

5

LiVe raTesPre-conversion, the overall live rate is 93%. If staffing is kept the same during conversions, the live rate drops by 25%.

Average wait time in the queue jumps from 10 seconds to 81 seconds.

TickeTs by oriGin 70% of employees reach out to the service desk via phone, while 27% sent an email describing their technology issues.

Email is far less efficient for both the user and the service desk: 86% of live (phoned-in) service desk tickets are resolved in that first contact whereas only 7% of email tickets can be resolved in a single contact.

Data indicates that, on average, tickets created via email have a lifespan 6 times longer than those originated by telephone.

TickeTs by weekday Based on 1.2 million analyzed tickets, Tuesday sees the highest call volume (20.52%) and Friday (16.81%) the lowest.

It should be noted that all firms analyzed in the Guru’s Guide provide 24/7 support and therefore urgent issues that occur over a weekend can be dealt with on the Saturday or Sunday.

Firms not providing 24/7 support typically see Mondays as the most demanding service desk call days.

4 5 6

2nd Edition Guru’s Guide Findings

EquipmentRequest

Laptop

Hardware

LitigationSupport

Desktop

PDA

Telephone

Server

Printer

Anti-virus,Spyware, etc.

Administration

OtherMicrosoft Office

Network

Timekeeping

OperatingSystem

DocumentProduction Tools

Internet Explorer

PDF Tools

Remote Access

Other Software

DocumentManagement

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Outlook

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

<1%

1%

1%

2%

2%

2%

4%

4%

4%

6%

6%

6%

14%

19%

22%

Exchange Server

Laptop

Telephone

Hardware

PDA Procurement

Desktop

DocumentManagement Server

Server

Network

Printer

4%

4%

5%

5%

5%

6%

6%

6%

8%

10%

6

Top TickeT caTeGories

This chart shows the top categories of all law firm user support tickets closed by Intelliteach’s service desk from January 2010 to June 2011. The total, including requests handled by internal legal I.T., exceeded 1.2 million tickets during that time frame.

10% oF tIckEtS SubmIttEd to I.t. dEPartmEntS pertain to common printer issues.

This is historically the biggest rESourcE draIn of any I.T. department.

Approximately 50% of all user service tickets handled directly by legal I.T. are specific to office hardware, networks and servers.

14% oF SErVIcE dESk tIckEtS relate to various versions of document management systems.

43% oF SErVIcE dESk tIckEtS relate to various versions of Microsoft Office.

22% are specific to Microsoft Outlook.

The next largest category is Microsoft Word at 19%.

inTernaL i.T. deparTmenT Top 10 TickeT caTeGories

7

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

Q2 2011Q1 2011Q4 2010Q3 2010Q2 2010Q1 2010

Not knownXP200320072010

Office version

19,44821,327

49,981 49,885

66,219

48,627

The chanGinG profiLe of microsofT office TickeTs

Items of note...Towards the end of Q4 2010, Office 2010 call volumes increased, however, not enough for significant data impact or analysis.

[ ToTaL microsofT office caLLs receiVed ]

By Q1 2011, Office 2007 calls make up 44% of the total Microsoft Office calls compared to 22% for the same period 12 months earlier (Q1 2010).

The proportion and volume of Office XP calls has dropped significantly from 19% in Q1 2010 to just 7% in Q1 2011.

Office 2010 calls make up less than 1% of calls in Q1 2011 and increase to 3% in Q2 2011. Related ticket volumes will continue to rise through 2011, with several client firms planning to roll out Office 2010 with Windows 7 in Q3 and Q4 2011.

As to be expected, given the number of Microsoft Office rollouts taking place during 2010 and 2011, Office-specific call volumes increased from month to month: from 16,000 total calls in Q1 2010 to 50,000 total calls in Q4, and dropping slightly to 48,000 calls in Q1 2011, as firms completed their rollouts before year-end. (Typically conversions are paused during holidays or at the approach to financial year-end.)

distribution of calls by office version as % of total

1 2

3

4

8

conVErSIonS cauSE a SIGnIFIcant IncrEaSE In VolumE and add addItIonal StraIn to ExIStInG rESourcES and SyStEmS.

Most firms prudently staff to “maintenance” levels not “project” levels and require additional support to properly service the user community during upgrades.

Using recent data from law firm service desks (average firm size 700 employees), volumes increased by 42% during firm-wide software upgrades.

Analysis of a limited number of Intelliteach’s full-time clients suggests that, on average, it takes three months for call volumes to return to pre-conversion levels.

!The impact to staffing is significant. The difficulties a firm faces in recruiting and training a team familiar with the new software while maintaining existing support for the old software is only magnified by the recent cost cutting measures most firms have instituted.

The impacT of conVersions on firms and The serVice desk

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

90 days post conversion

60 days post conversion

30 days post conversion

ConversionPre-conversion

2.00

2.652.85

2.302.10

[ aVeraGe TickeTs per user per monTh ]

42% IncrEaSE In VolumE

during firm-wide software updates

month

1month

2month

3

9

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

Jan Feb Mar Jan Feb MarApr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2010 2011

Pre-conversion Conversion Post-Conversion

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

Jan Feb Mar Jan Feb MarApr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2010 2011

Pre- Conversion Post-Conversion

Firm ‘A’ implemented an aggressive rollout, or “big bang” approach across multiple offices, including international. Call volumes took five months to return to normal after the last user was converted.

Firm ‘B’ implemented a slower rollout across its multiple offices. In this case, call volume took one month to return to normal after the last user was converted.

inTeLLiTeach has supporTed oVer 150 major roLLouTs for many Law firms of VaryinG sizes.

here are Two sampLe scenarios To demonsTraTe ‘back To normaL’ TickeT VoLumes.

reTurninG To pre-conVersion caLL VoLumes

Firm a

Firm b

Average pre-conversion call volume: 4,574/month

Average pre-conversion call volume: 2,656/month

Volume returned to normal after five months

Volume returned to normal after one month

10

measurement Pre-conversion conversion difference

Overall Live Rate 93% 68% 25%

Average Time in Queue 10 seconds 1 min, 21 sec 1 min, 11 sec

Maximum Time in Queue 1 min, 40 sec 12 min, 40 sec 11 min

The common “make do” attitude firms have when it comes to handling major implementations can severely impact service desk quality. If a firm assumes they can absorb the volume increase, not only will the I.T. staff suffer, but response time to end-users and possibly the quality of support will be negatively impacted. Using the same data from the sample firms on page 7, Intelliteach modeled service levels and how those compare without appropriate staffing.

The overall summary to the “make do” approach reduces the live rate by 25% and significantly increases user hold times, abandon rates, and maximum queue times all contributing to service desk frustration and a dissatisfied user experience.

impacT of conVersions on serVice desk sTaffinG and QuaLiTy of supporT

[ percenT of caLLs answered in 20 seconds – LiVe raTe ]

0 20 40 60 80 100%

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

Percent of calls answered in 20 sec Average delay

lIVE ratEIntelliteach defines ‘live rate’ as the percentage of phone calls answered real time within 20 seconds per a typical Sla

11

usinG same sTaffinG LeVeLs as pre-conVersion:

pre-conVersion conVersion

[ maXimum Time in Queue in seconds ] [ aVeraGe deLay in seconds ]

[ percenT of caLLs Queued ]

0 20 40 60 80 100%

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

Percent of calls answered in 20 sec Average delay

0 200 400 600 800

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

0 20 40 60 80 100%

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

Max. time in queue Percent of calls queued

0 200 400 600 800

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

0 20 40 60 80 100%

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

Max. time in queue Percent of calls queued

12

The TickeTs by oriGin charT shows how The end-user conTacTed The serVice desk.

69% of contacts were made via the telephone while email produced 27% of total contacts. 2% “other” include phone and email contacts made to other members of the I.T. staff.

More law firms are also trying new channels for support including self-service and instant messaging.

TickeTs by oriGin

Items of note...While email continues to grow in usage, are employees actually receiving better service?

A sample of 1400+ tickets across a range of law firms were analyzed and this reflected that, on average, most live calls can be resolved in the first contact (78%) whereas only 11% of email incidents can be resolved in the initial contact.

Data indicates that, on average, tickets created via email have a lifespan six times longer than those originated by telephone. This is typically due to the user’s inability to troubleshoot their situation or clearly describe the need they have in their original request, often requiring an additional email exchange or callback.

1

2

Live Call

69%Email

27%

Voicemail

1%

Other

2%Walk-up

1%

Live Call

69%

Email

27%

Voicemail

1%Other

2%Walk-up

1%

Live Call

69%Email

27%

Voicemail

1%

Other

2%Walk-up

1%

Live Call 69%

Email 27%

Voicemail 1%

Other 2% Walk-up 1%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80%

0

10

20

30%

1

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2015*(*estimates based on IQTrack data)

Number of contacts per service desk ticket

2020*

2 3 4 5 6 7

Live calls by telephone

Incidents logged by email

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80%

0

10

20

30%

1

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2015*(*estimates based on IQTrack data)

Number of contacts per service desk ticket

2020*

2 3 4 5 6 7

Live calls by telephone

Incidents logged by email

[ percenT of aLL serVice desk incidenTs LoGGed by emaiL ]

[ efficiency of LiVe caLLs Vs emaiLed incidenTs ]

EmaIl IS tHE FaStESt GroWInG contact mEtHod with most firms averaging less than 10% just five years ago.

13

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

19.05%20.52% 19.96% 18.87%

16.81%

1.98%

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

350,000

19.05%20.52% 19.96%

18.87%

16.81%

1.98%2.44%

The TickeTs by weekday charT shows on which day of The week The end-user conTacTed The serVice desk.

One might expect Mondays to have the highest call volume, however most public holidays are on a Monday and if people take a long weekend, this may have some impact on call volumes.

It should be noted that the firms analyzed provide 24/7 support and therefore urgent issues that occur over a weekend can be dealt with on the Saturday or Sunday. If a firm does not provide 24/7 support, Mondays may be more demanding.

Typically, firms not providing 24/7 support receive 1% of incidents over a weekend or weeknights after hours. In firms that do provide formal 24/7 support, that volume is likely to increase to 5% of total call volume, typically servicing timekeepers or fee-earners.

TickeTs by weekday

Perhaps surprisingly, Tuesday typically sees the highest weekday volume ...

... while Friday sees the lowest.

Tickets on the weekend are slightly higher on Saturday compared to Sunday.

14

Measuring the effectiveness of support across locations is an important gauge on how successful an I.T. organization is at reaching all of its employees and determining if centralized procedures are paying dividends.

A simple chart, by location, providing % of total employees, % of tickets, and % of unique users* will provide invaluable information to that end. Graphing the same data will often provide clarity to any issue which is in need of review.

* Unique users have contacted the service desk at least one time.

here is a sampLe:

Items of note:While the New York office represents 51% of all firm employees, its employees produce 67% of the total volume. Why is this? Could that location be going through an upgrade, have networking issues that haven’t previously been identified or simply need more assistance?

London logs the lowest number of tickets despite having more employees than the Chicago office. Are London callers more proficient? Should lower call volumes be a consideration when establishing after-hours or 24/7 staffing?

Why are Chicago’s unique users considerably lower than other locations? Could it be that a local I.T. representative is fielding requests that normally should go to the service desk (and are not being logged)?

TickeTs & reQuesTers by LocaTion

1 2 3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100%

LondonChicagoNew York

Total Users

Total Tickets

Unique Users

15

Measuring user satisfaction may be the most important measurement of all. If employees aren’t happy with the service they receive they will find an alternative for support in the form of a co-worker or possibly discover the answer for themselves. Both of these alternatives create non-productive time while never addressing root-cause issues and/or sharing knowledge with others.

Providing end-users the opportunity to rate each and every interaction with the service desk is critical in effective management of that function. Having ticket-specific reporting vs. annual or occasional surveys allow for action to be taken whether the issue might be specific to a particular analyst, a lack of team-wide training, training the entire firm might benefit from, or sometimes an adjustment to user expectations.

Above are Intelliteach survey results from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 based on satisfaction surveys completed by 102,000 random and voluntary end-users. While this benchmark might not be a realistic target for all law firms, it is equally imperative that once survey information is collected, any negative items are addressed immediately. In our environment, poor surveys automatically reopen, the priority changes to emergency status, and the ticket is escalated to a member of management for follow-up with all parties involved including the end-user. Regardless of how you handle your workflow, never allow a complaint to go unanswered.

surVeys

QUALITY OF SERVICE

EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

TIMELINESS FRIENDLINESS OVERALL EXPERIENCE

91.9%

6.6%0.7%

0.8%

91.8%

6.8%0.8%

0.7%

93.2%

6.1%0.4%

0.3%

91.6%

6.8%0.8%

0.8%

cusTomer saTisfacTion raTinGs

an aVEraGE oF 98.7% ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ ratings

16

abouT inTeLLiTeachIntelliteach, the only dedicated law firm-specific service desk company, currently supports over 100,000 law firm employees in 50 countries spanning 1,250 locations and including more than 30% of the Am Law 200.

The Atlanta-based company first started serving the legal community in 1999 and is fully staffed to handle all legal software support questions, as well as first-level networking issues.

Intelliteach offers need-based support options including:

• Complete Service Desk Outsourcing (live user support 24/7/365)

• After-Hours Support (extends the internal law firm service desk with additional coverage at night and on weekends)

• Overflow Support (provides call assistance on an as-needed basis)

Intelliteach opened a dedicated London/UK office in December 2009.

abouT The Guru’s Guide Intelliteach, as part of an ongoing effort to provide clients with timely reporting and to accelerate service desk improvements through better user support information, consistently collects and tracks massive amount of service desk related statistics. The data presented in the 2nd Edition Guru’s Guide is based on 1.2 million service desk tickets collected and analyzed from January 2010 to June 2011 across a variety of law firm sizes, locations and hardware/software configurations.

for more information on the Guru’s Guide:

visit www.intelliteach.com/Guru email guru@intelliteach.com or call (866) 698-7837