Standardize the Service Desk
Build a solid foundation for future IT service improvements.
- The service desk is functional but has room for improvement and needs to be more consistent in service delivery.
- There may be plans to embrace new technologies, but concerns exist about moving poor processes into new solutions.
- The team knows changes need to happen, but it’s difficult to know where to start.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Use a data-driven strategy to standardize service desk processes for the benefit of both users and technicians.
Impact and Result
- Focus on standardizing and driving consistency on the service desk to be able to optimize support and improve interfacing processes.
- Without standardized processes, organizations become a mass of confusion, redundancies, and cost overruns. Standardization prevents wasted energy on reinventing solutions to recurring issues.
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After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.5/10
Overall Impact
$68,275
Average $ Saved
28
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Lake County, FL
Workshop
10/10
N/A
8
Being able to have discussions as a group that were led by someone with a lot of experience in the area was very valuable. At the end of the worksh... Read More
FOSTER + PARTNERS LIMITED
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
2
Alison's subject matter expertise allows us to target the recommendations of most impact to our business
Loram Maintenance of Way
Guided Implementation
8/10
$34,250
20
The guidance from Theo was excellent. It was more of a time commitment than I was expecting.
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Workshop
9/10
$13,700
50
The best part was Dave Kernohan, he was very knowledgeable a lead the workshop well. I cannot identify the worst part of this workshop.
City of St Albert
Workshop
10/10
$40,000
14
The feedback from the Service Desk team was overwhelmingly positive - they really appreciated that time and attention to their processes - and it w... Read More
City of Ontario, CA
Workshop
10/10
$34,250
10
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Guided Implementation
10/10
$4,110
50
I appreciate the tools I can keep and share with my team to help us implement the changes we'd like to make. I also really appreciate the plethora ... Read More
National Institutes of Health
Workshop
10/10
$34,250
32
The best part of this workshop is allowing our team to come together to self analyze our internal processes, reporting and daily operational tasks.... Read More
Excelerate Energy
Workshop
9/10
$26,030
32
No negatives. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Ben. He listened to our concerns and provided valuable insights.
City of St. Louis
Workshop
10/10
$13,700
20
Joe was a great facilitator. Really appreciated him sharing from his own experiences. My staff found the time to be valuable. It gave us the jum... Read More
Canadian Defence Academy
Workshop
8/10
$1M
120
Caveat: The estimates are high if project(s) are defined to accomplish the objectives. The tools and advice are/were excellent, meeting expecta... Read More
UNITING AGEWELL LIMITED
Guided Implementation
9/10
$45,500
10
Reiter Affiliated Companies
Workshop
9/10
$34,250
20
Best the customer service and willing to help the us.
County of Los Alamos
Guided Implementation
10/10
$34,250
20
Extremely happy to be working with Theo. His expertise and advise on this topic has been very valuable to to our team as we make decisions on creat... Read More
Kentucky Housing Corporation
Workshop
10/10
N/A
50
The best part is that the entire team expressed their satisfaction with the workshop and participated throughout the week. The team left motivated... Read More
Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$34,250
20
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat - Data and Digital Policy Sector
Guided Implementation
10/10
$200K
120
The best part of our experience was how Frank took the time to work with us and how he "met the team where they were in their learning journey". Fr... Read More
Los Angeles County Public Defender
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
5
Worst part of this experience is to float high and low in how i wanted my Service Desk to flow and function efficiently. The best part was that Be... Read More
City of Conroe
Workshop
10/10
$68,500
32
Very informative, general where it needed to be while specific enough information to be useful in our unique environment.
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Ben did a good job of discussing how the service desk methodology and tools would translate for our use case which is a customer facing contact cen... Read More
City of Williamsburg, VA
Guided Implementation
10/10
$13,700
20
Emily was fantastic to work with. She knew every aspect of the engagement and ensured we stayed on track. I will request her again for future wor... Read More
Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD)
Workshop
10/10
N/A
N/A
Best part: Instructor, Joe Riley. Joe gets it. His experiences, wrapped in his passion for service, teamwork, and excellence, empowered and chall... Read More
City of Winter Park
Guided Implementation
10/10
$13,700
5
Allison is very knowledgeable in the subject area. The experience so far has been built on collaboration and knowledge sharing.
City of Miramar, FL
Workshop
10/10
N/A
10
The best part was how tailored it was for our environment. There was no bad experience in my honest opinion.
Monroe #1 BOCES
Workshop
8/10
$13,700
5
Facilitator was fantastic; most challenging aspect was solidifying internally what is within and outside of scope.
Sedgwick Cms
Workshop
9/10
$137K
55
Mahmoud was courteous, knowledgeable and took time to explain and walk the team through the workshop sessions also engage the team in completing ta... Read More
EndUser
Guided Implementation
10/10
$5,000
5
Allegheny County, PA
Guided Implementation
10/10
$68,500
50
Working with Sandi Conrad was truly a gift as she was so well versed on all of our needs for a new ITSM application. Her guidance and expertise wa... Read More
Parks Canada
Guided Implementation
10/10
$300K
50
As the Project Lead and National IT Manager, Service Management, standardizing our service desk is a very important priority for the Digital Servic... Read More
Cameron County, TX
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
50
Ms. Sugerman was patient and explained the processes in great detail. Her personality made her a great consultant to work with.
Service Desk
Strengthen your service desk to build a strong foundation for ITSM maturity.
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.
- Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Completion Time: 2-2.5 hours
Workshop: Standardize the Service Desk
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Lay service desk foundations
The Purpose
Define current state and develop a service desk vision. Define service desk structure and ticket intake.
Key Benefits Achieved
Alignment on goals for workshop. Improved service desk structure and ticket intake and triage.
Activities
Outputs
Assess current state of the service desk.
- Current state assessment.
Review service desk structure and shift-left strategy.
- Shift-left strategy and implications.
- Roles and responsibilities.
Identify service desk metrics and reports.
- Service desk metrics and reports.
Identify ticket handling procedures.
Module 2: Design incident management
The Purpose
Capture and report on the right data. Improve incident resolution.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Establish the foundation needed to capture useful data through effective ticket categories and metrics that enable continuous improvement.
- Documented and improved incident management workflow.
Activities
Outputs
Build incident and critical incident management workflows.
- Incident and critical incident management workflows.
Design ticket categorization scheme and proper ticket handling guidelines.
- Ticket categorization scheme.
Design incident escalation and prioritization guidelines.
- Ticket escalation and prioritization guidelines.
Module 3: Design request fulfilment
The Purpose
Improve service request fulfillment and enable shift-left.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Clear differentiation between standard service and non-standard service requests and projects.
- Established process for building out and maintaining an internal and external knowledge base.
- Increased self-service options.
Activities
Outputs
Build service request workflows.
- Distinguishing criteria for requests and projects.
- Service request workflows and SLAs
Build a targeted knowledge base.
- Knowledge base article template, processes, and workflows.
Prepare for a self-serve portal project.
Module 4: Build project implementation plan
The Purpose
Communicate and implement the vision for a standardized service desk.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Align on the vision for the next steps of the service desk.
- Develop effective messaging for key stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Build implementation roadmap.
- Project communication plan and workshop summary presentation.
Build communication plan.
- Project implementation and task list.
Standardize the Service Desk
Build a solid foundation for future IT service improvements.
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Analyst Perspective
Standardize before you optimize.
Customer service issues are rarely based on personality, but are almost always a symptom of poor and inconsistent process. When service desk managers seek to resolve customer service issues through hiring and executives push back, it’s time to look at improving process and the support strategy to make the best use of technicians’ time, tools, and knowledge sharing. Once improvements have been made, it’s easier to make the case to add people or introduce automation.
Replacing service desk solutions will also highlight issues around poor process. Without fixing the baseline services, the new solution will simply wrap your issues in a prettier package.
Ultimately, the service desk needs to be the entry point for users to get help, and the rest of IT needs to provide the appropriate support to ensure the first line of interaction has the knowledge and tools they need to resolve problems quickly and preferably on first contact. If your plans include optimization to self-serve or automation, you’ll have a hard time getting there without standardizing first.
|
Emily SugermanSenior Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations |
Executive Summary
Your Challenge
- The service desk is functional but has room for improvement and needs to be more consistent in its service delivery.
- There may be plans to embrace new technologies, but concerns exist about moving poor processes into new solutions.
- The team knows changes need to happen, but it’s difficult to know where to start.
Common Obstacle
- The service desk team is in firefighting mode and finds it difficult to find the time to proactively improve processes.
- Tools may need improvement, but without a clear plan on what needs to be updated or configured or what could be fixed with process improvement, it’s difficult to know how to solve these issues.
- There may be a perception of understaffing, and until process is improved, it’s difficult to make the case for more staff.
Info-Tech’s Approach
- Focus on standardizing and driving consistency on the service desk to be able to optimize support and improve interfacing processes.
- Without standardized processes, organizations become a mass of confusion, redundancies, and cost overruns. Standardization prevents wasted energy on reinventing solutions to recurring issues.
Service desk is the face of IT
Use a data-driven strategy to standardize service desk processes for the benefit of both users and technicians.
The service desk’s work is never done
Both low maturity and high maturity service desks can encounter challenges:
-
Low Maturity Challenges
If organizations do not have a well-functioning service desk:
- It’s difficult to make time for improvement projects when the phone won’t stop ringing.
- Users complain that it takes too long for them to get help from IT.
- Senior technicians complain that they get too much work from the service desk.
- The data and metrics in the system is incomplete and untrustworthy.
-
High Maturity Challenges
If organizations do have a well-functioning service desk:
- It’s difficult to make the business case for new tools and new staff, since the service desk doesn’t provide revenue.
- Service desk technicians are handling user requests and issues that could be automated.
- Users want more ways to ask IT for help (e.g. calling, walk-up, instant messaging, chatbot), but you don’t have the staff for those methods.
Many service desks feel constantly in firefighter mode
Without process standardization, it will be challenging to move beyond firefighter mode
- Innovator
Information and Technology as a Competitive AdvantageTeams that are finding new markets for their organizations, based on the emerging technologies they identify. - Business Partner
Effective Delivery of Strategic Business ProjectsTeams that are focused on driving revenue for their organizations through the business projects they support. - Trusted Operator
Enablement of Business Through Applications and Work OrdersTeams that have solidified and standardized their operating processes and can now focus on IT efficiency. - Innovator
Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service DeskFirefighters are the IT teams who have achieved some reliability, but are still primarily driven by the latest service desk tickets. - Innovator
Inability to Consistently Deliver Basic ServicesThe IT teams who are unable to provide any sort of reliable service to the business.
Determine where to start based on where you are now
Follow this guide to determine which blueprint is the right place to start your service desk improvement journey.
Start here
Assess Current State
If you don’t know where you’re at or where you need to improve, start with an assessment such as one of the following:
End-User Satisfaction Diagnostic – to capture broad end-user satisfaction with IT (including the service desk).
Service Desk Satisfaction Diagnostic – to measure end-user satisfaction specifically with the service desk (contact your account representative).
Service Desk Maturity Assessment – a quick and targeted service desk assessment.
Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data – a tool to help you analyze your ticket data to gain actionable insights.
Standardize the Service Desk
You are here
If you want to improve the foundations of your service desk, start here. This blueprint will help you define metrics to track and improve and document ticket classification and handling procedures and incident management and request fulfillment processes, and build a knowledgebase and self-service portal. If you are a small enterprise, see Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise. If you need to consolidate multiple distinct service desks, see Build A Service Desk Consolidation Strategy.
Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy
If your processes are already well established, you’re tracking and reporting on metrics, and you have a knowledgebase and self-service in place but you are looking for ways to improve the efficiency of your service desk, increase adoption of the knowledgebase and portal, and introduce automation, either start here or come here after you’ve standardized.
Automation and Continual Improvement
If you’ve already standardized and optimized the service desk and are looking for ways to continually improve or innovate, leverage one of these blueprints:
Build a Continual Improvement Program – to identify improvement initiatives, prioritize your list, execute initiatives, and keep momentum.
Accelerate Your Automation Processes – to define your automation suite and select new automation solutions.
Then, improve other ITSM processes
The service desk is the foundation for service management
Leverage Info-Tech resources to plan your broader service management improvement journey.
Start here
Assess Your Current State and Create a Roadmap
If you’re not sure where to start in your service management journey or which ITSM processes to focus on first, start here:
Service Management Maturity Assessment Tool – Use this tool to perform a current-state assessment, identify gaps, and create a roadmap for success.
Create a Service Management Roadmap – Understand the foundational and core elements that allow you to build a successful service management practice focused on outcomes.
Then, use your assessment and roadmap to select an ITSM process to improve, such as:
-
Incident and Problem Management
Improve Incident and Problem Management -
IT Asset Management
Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy -
Change Enablement
Optimize IT Change Management -
Service Catalog Management
Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog -
Release & Deployment Management
Stabilize Release and Deployment Management -
Service Configuration Management
Harness Configuration Management Superpowers -
Monitoring and Event Management
Engineer your Event Management Process -
Availability and Capacity Management
Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan
Research Centers
For the most up-to-date guide to Info-Tech’s service management research, visit these research centers:
The service desk is the foundation of all other service management processes
Start here: Stabilize the core processes of the service desk before maturing to other processes
STRATEGIC PARTNER
- Fully aligned with business
- Drive innovation
- Drive measurable value
SERVICE PROVIDER
- Understand business needs
- Ensure services are available.
- Measure service performance based on business-oriented metrics
PROACTIVE
- Improve quality of service (performance, availability, reliability)
- Avoid and prevent service disruptions and recurring incidents
STABILIZE
- Deliver stable, reliable IT services to the business
- Respond to user requests quickly and efficiently
- Resolve user issues in a timely manner
- Deploy changes smoothly and successfully
Navigate Info-Tech’s service desk research
If you’re looking for more tactical, focused research on specific service desk improvement projects, match your need to one of these resources in Info-Tech’s service desk research space. For a complete and up-to-date list of service desk research, visit the Infrastructure & Operations Research Center
- Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data —› Build dashboards to measure and analyze key service desk metrics.
- Staff the Service Desk to Meet Demand —› Determine your optimal service desk structure and staffing levels.
- IT Service Management Selection Guide —› Build a business case and define use cases and requirements for a new ITSM tool.
- Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan —› Build a plan to implement a newly purchased ITSM tool.
- Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy —› Consolidate, or merge, multiple service desks and disparate processes.
- Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback —› Design, run, and analyze end-user satisfaction surveys.
- Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department —› Train your service desk to deliver excellent customer service experiences.
- Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog —› Design and build a service request management program and catalog.
- Build a Chatbot Proof of Concept —› Implement a chatbot proof of concept mapped to business needs.
- Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk —› Classify VIP tickets and define the process for resolving them.
- Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk —› Determine outsourcing requirements and create an RFP.
- Transform Your Field Technical Support Services —› Improve remote client support services.
Service desk standardization benefits the whole business
Increase business satisfaction:
- Create a consistent customer service experience for service desk patrons.
- Improve confidence that the service desk can meet service levels.
- Create a single point of contact for incidents and requests and escalate quickly.
- Support growth: standardized processes are scalable so that process maturity increases with the size of your organization.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs:
- Increase first contact resolution and decrease time and cost to resolve tickets
- Empower end users and technicians with a targeted knowledgebase.
- Cross-train to improve service consistency.
Reduce recurring issues:
- Create tickets for every task and categorize them accurately.
- Generate reliable data to support root-cause analysis.
Enhance demand planning:
- Analyze trends to forecast and meet shifting business requirements.
On average, organizations that were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT processes 36% higher than dissatisfied end users.
Organizations that were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT processes 27% higher than dissatisfied end users.
“Satisfied” organizations had average scores of 8 or more out of 10.
“Dissatisfied" organizations had average scores of 6 or less out of 10.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2022-23
(n=28,000+ respondents from 160 organizations)
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Improve IT Satisfaction by Standardizing the Service Desk
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About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Lay service desk foundations
- Call 1: Conduct current-state assessment. Review shift-left service support strategy.
- Call 2: Identify operations metrics, and reports. Review ticket handling procedures.
Guided Implementation 2: Design incident management processes
- Call 1: Map out incident management workflows.
- Call 2: Design categorization and identify escalation points.
- Call 3: Design prioritization guidelines and service-level objectives.
Guided Implementation 3: Design request fulfilment processes
- Call 1: Differentiate between requests and projects, build request workflows, and make a self-service portal plan.
- Call 2: Design processes and workflows to produce a targeted knowledgebase.
Guided Implementation 4: Plan the implementation of the service desk
- Call 1: Build a communication plan and implementation roadmap.
Contributors
- Tracey Church, Revenue Operations Team Lead, Information Technology, City of Chesapeake, Virginia
- Matt Beran, Senior Product Specialist, InvGate
- Andrew Graf, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, TeamDynamix
- Aaron Kennedy, Director of Information Technology, El Dorado Irrigation District
- Katrina Macdermid, Co-founder & Director of HIT Global; Creator of Humanising IT™
- Mary Mann, Queue Manager, City of Chesapeake, Virginia
- Chuck Williams, Deputy Director of Information Technology, CTO, City of Chesapeake, Virginia
- 1 anonymous contributor
Standardize the Service Desk
Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy
Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog
Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy
Design a VIP Experience for Your Service Desk
Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake
Improve IT-Business Alignment Through an Internal SLA
Implement Systems Management to Improve Availability and Visibility
Build a Chatbot Proof of Concept
Incident Management for Small Enterprise
Analyze Your ITSM Ticket Data
Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department
Accelerate Your Automation Processes
Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan
Right-Size the Service Desk for Small Enterprise
IT Service Management Selection Guide
Manage the Active Directory in the Service Desk
Staff the Service Desk to Meet Demand
Define Service Desk Metrics That Matter
Improve Service Desk Ticket Queue Management
Transform Your Field Technical Support Services
Define Requirements for Outsourcing the Service Desk
Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback
Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk
Build Better Workflows
Service Desk Satisfaction Diagnostic
