HelpDesk and ServiceDesk. What is it and why does your company need it
The most popular and perhaps the most convenient method of work in the IT field is the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology. It was developed by a British government organization to streamline relationships with IT service contractors. Initially, the ITIL library consisted of 7 books, of which the main ones were Service Delivery and Service Support. They described the processes that make up the core of ITIL, including Incident management.
The main purpose of Incident management - the fastest possible elimination of problems in the IT infrastructure - accidents, problems with equipment, etc. To implement the process in the organization, a special department is created that contacts with employees and coordinates the elimination of problems with the IT department. This department may be called the Customer Service Center or the Customer Help Center.
')
ITIL Libraries view the IT department as a supplier of a specific list of services that are designed to support business processes. Accordingly, the level of quality of service is fixed between the manufacturer of the services of the Service Desk services and their customers through the SLA (Service Level Agreement) documents. For example, they define the permissible maximum inactivity period during an accident.
The task of the Service Desk is to register the applications of users, provide them with the required assistance and attract the IT staff of the department to resolve problems as soon as possible. Additionally, this service analyzes the statistics of incidents and the time to resolve them. This is necessary to assess and improve the quality of IT services.
Help desk is a narrower concept, it is a tool for technical support of users.
The processes in the Service Desk regulate all the difficulties that arise in the work of the IT department.
Incident Management is a process that is responsible for quickly resolving incidents — faults, damages, critical errors requiring response. Service Desk records the statistics of incidents and the time of their elimination.
Problem Management - the goal of this process is to reduce the number of incidents coming to the Service Desk. For this, their causes are identified and eliminated.
Change Management is a process that regulates only meaningful changes and coordination of their implementation among all users of business services.
Release Management is a process that sets a condition not to disrupt the company's work while making any changes. The release management process monitors and installs updated versions of software and hardware through the Service Desk.
Service Level Management is a process that determines the number and composition of employees involved, as well as the quality of services in the Service Desk. With his help, the quality level is monitored and operations are carried out to reduce the likelihood that poor quality service can be provided.
Financial Management is a process that describes the disposal of finances to support the activities of other processes.
Availability Management - tasks related to the availability of services of the IT department; isolated processes are distinguished so that they can be monitored and conclusions drawn. The level of availability is determined by constancy, maintainability and reliability.
Capacity Management is the task of managing IT assets.
Continuity Management - IT service continuity control. The main areas of focus are the development, maintenance, implementation, and verification of actions to ensure the continuity of business services.
Information Security Management is a guarantee of uninterrupted service security and information reliability.
Implementing the Service Desk and Help Desk is beneficial for everyone - business owners, company managers, IT departments and end users. Such services eliminate the problems associated with the slow response of IT services to requests. The quality of services of organizations that have several offices and divisions in different regions also improves. Accordingly, the security of the IT infrastructure of companies is improved, costs are reduced and it becomes possible to predict them.
For users, the implementation of the Service Desk and Help Desk is characterized by an increase in the level of service provided and a decrease in the periods of stops due to problems in the IT infrastructure. And for the IT services themselves, the introduction of such an organization of work becomes a solution to the problem when a business cannot understand the requests of IT people. It is possible to simply justify investments in IT and plan the budget according to the needs in the development of business processes. In addition, the IT department can provide up-to-date and reliable data about its work and increase the availability of its services to users.
The introduction of Service Desk and Help Desk also allows you to formulate certain requirements for IT staff and develop certain skills.
( Source )
This is an HDI association statistics from the 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report . They named the 10 most important skills for Service Desk employees, which are taken into account when hiring them:
Today, users are becoming more demanding of the technical level of IT services in their company. This is due to the increasing role of self-service in the corporate IT system. Simple tasks in the Help Desk can be performed by an employee with any level of technical literacy - just follow the instructions laid down in the Service Desk scripts.
What, in this case, would remain for the Service Desk? These will be more complex cases, requiring technical support from employees much more than the ability to read scripts. That is, Service Desk employees need more technical skills.
Thus, the use of Service Desk allows you to carry out a certification of the quality of the entire IT department. The implementation of the Service Desk allows you to understand how many calls go to the support service, how often the equipment breaks down and how well the services are provided. Based on this information, it is possible to draw conclusions about the weak points of the company, plan the development of IT infrastructure and train specialists. Accordingly, the implementation of Help Desk systems helps users to quickly enroll in processing, and management to monitor the work of company managers, the quality of their service, as well as the efficiency of the IT department.
Getting to the choice of Help Desk and Service Desk systems, it is necessary to clearly define the goals that face the IT department in your company. First of all, it concerns the criteria for evaluating its activities. It is necessary to formulate goals, and then fix and formalize the criteria for their achievement.
Assign functional responsibilities and define the work algorithms of IT department employees. This will be needed to understand the changes in the organization of its work with the introduction of the ITSM system.
Identify the main goals of customer support and develop a catalog of IT services.
They will be evaluated services and services provided by the IT department.
Immediately before implementation, it is necessary to define a clear procedure for introducing changes to the work of companies.
Determine whether your system will further support ITIL processes. Think about further support automation. Determine the system scaling parameters that will change as your needs grow.
Most of the preparatory work for the implementation must be carried out before choosing a system. If you do the opposite, then in the future you will have to adapt your business processes to the capabilities of the selected system. This means that you will be forced to proceed from constraints, not opportunities, which will not solve your problems, but can only aggravate them.
Implement Service Desk should be, if your company has already grown to a full-fledged IT department with technical support. However, individual elements of the ITIL methodology can be used even in a small startup. For example, almost any company that produces a product for people needs user support — both customers and employees. To do this, you must buy or develop, and then implement the appropriate system that could work on these two fronts. We at Deskun have created a service based on Gmail mail. Familiar to users, the web interface of Google’s email client allows you to organize the Help Desk service for both clients and users, quickly and without attracting additional company resources.
The main purpose of Incident management - the fastest possible elimination of problems in the IT infrastructure - accidents, problems with equipment, etc. To implement the process in the organization, a special department is created that contacts with employees and coordinates the elimination of problems with the IT department. This department may be called the Customer Service Center or the Customer Help Center.
')
ITIL Libraries view the IT department as a supplier of a specific list of services that are designed to support business processes. Accordingly, the level of quality of service is fixed between the manufacturer of the services of the Service Desk services and their customers through the SLA (Service Level Agreement) documents. For example, they define the permissible maximum inactivity period during an accident.
The task of the Service Desk is to register the applications of users, provide them with the required assistance and attract the IT staff of the department to resolve problems as soon as possible. Additionally, this service analyzes the statistics of incidents and the time to resolve them. This is necessary to assess and improve the quality of IT services.
Help desk is a narrower concept, it is a tool for technical support of users.
Service Desk processes in IT
The processes in the Service Desk regulate all the difficulties that arise in the work of the IT department.
Incident Management is a process that is responsible for quickly resolving incidents — faults, damages, critical errors requiring response. Service Desk records the statistics of incidents and the time of their elimination.
Problem Management - the goal of this process is to reduce the number of incidents coming to the Service Desk. For this, their causes are identified and eliminated.
Change Management is a process that regulates only meaningful changes and coordination of their implementation among all users of business services.
Release Management is a process that sets a condition not to disrupt the company's work while making any changes. The release management process monitors and installs updated versions of software and hardware through the Service Desk.
Service Level Management is a process that determines the number and composition of employees involved, as well as the quality of services in the Service Desk. With his help, the quality level is monitored and operations are carried out to reduce the likelihood that poor quality service can be provided.
Financial Management is a process that describes the disposal of finances to support the activities of other processes.
Availability Management - tasks related to the availability of services of the IT department; isolated processes are distinguished so that they can be monitored and conclusions drawn. The level of availability is determined by constancy, maintainability and reliability.
Capacity Management is the task of managing IT assets.
Continuity Management - IT service continuity control. The main areas of focus are the development, maintenance, implementation, and verification of actions to ensure the continuity of business services.
Information Security Management is a guarantee of uninterrupted service security and information reliability.
Why do I need to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in the company?
Implementing the Service Desk and Help Desk is beneficial for everyone - business owners, company managers, IT departments and end users. Such services eliminate the problems associated with the slow response of IT services to requests. The quality of services of organizations that have several offices and divisions in different regions also improves. Accordingly, the security of the IT infrastructure of companies is improved, costs are reduced and it becomes possible to predict them.
For users, the implementation of the Service Desk and Help Desk is characterized by an increase in the level of service provided and a decrease in the periods of stops due to problems in the IT infrastructure. And for the IT services themselves, the introduction of such an organization of work becomes a solution to the problem when a business cannot understand the requests of IT people. It is possible to simply justify investments in IT and plan the budget according to the needs in the development of business processes. In addition, the IT department can provide up-to-date and reliable data about its work and increase the availability of its services to users.
The introduction of Service Desk and Help Desk also allows you to formulate certain requirements for IT staff and develop certain skills.
( Source )
This is an HDI association statistics from the 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report . They named the 10 most important skills for Service Desk employees, which are taken into account when hiring them:
- The ability to ask questions.
- Sociability.
- Fast learner.
- Diagnostic and problem solving skills.
- Ability to work in stressful conditions.
- Adaptability.
- Teamwork skills.
- Interpersonal skills.
- Experience in user support.
- Honesty.
Today, users are becoming more demanding of the technical level of IT services in their company. This is due to the increasing role of self-service in the corporate IT system. Simple tasks in the Help Desk can be performed by an employee with any level of technical literacy - just follow the instructions laid down in the Service Desk scripts.
What, in this case, would remain for the Service Desk? These will be more complex cases, requiring technical support from employees much more than the ability to read scripts. That is, Service Desk employees need more technical skills.
Thus, the use of Service Desk allows you to carry out a certification of the quality of the entire IT department. The implementation of the Service Desk allows you to understand how many calls go to the support service, how often the equipment breaks down and how well the services are provided. Based on this information, it is possible to draw conclusions about the weak points of the company, plan the development of IT infrastructure and train specialists. Accordingly, the implementation of Help Desk systems helps users to quickly enroll in processing, and management to monitor the work of company managers, the quality of their service, as well as the efficiency of the IT department.
How to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in IT
Getting to the choice of Help Desk and Service Desk systems, it is necessary to clearly define the goals that face the IT department in your company. First of all, it concerns the criteria for evaluating its activities. It is necessary to formulate goals, and then fix and formalize the criteria for their achievement.
1. Assure management of the need to implement and support ITSM solutions
2. Determine the structure of the IT department
Assign functional responsibilities and define the work algorithms of IT department employees. This will be needed to understand the changes in the organization of its work with the introduction of the ITSM system.
3. Identify and record the responsibility of the IT department.
Identify the main goals of customer support and develop a catalog of IT services.
4. Define quality criteria.
They will be evaluated services and services provided by the IT department.
5. Determine the order of changes
Immediately before implementation, it is necessary to define a clear procedure for introducing changes to the work of companies.
6. Formulate system requirements
Determine whether your system will further support ITIL processes. Think about further support automation. Determine the system scaling parameters that will change as your needs grow.
Most of the preparatory work for the implementation must be carried out before choosing a system. If you do the opposite, then in the future you will have to adapt your business processes to the capabilities of the selected system. This means that you will be forced to proceed from constraints, not opportunities, which will not solve your problems, but can only aggravate them.
Deskun
Implement Service Desk should be, if your company has already grown to a full-fledged IT department with technical support. However, individual elements of the ITIL methodology can be used even in a small startup. For example, almost any company that produces a product for people needs user support — both customers and employees. To do this, you must buy or develop, and then implement the appropriate system that could work on these two fronts. We at Deskun have created a service based on Gmail mail. Familiar to users, the web interface of Google’s email client allows you to organize the Help Desk service for both clients and users, quickly and without attracting additional company resources.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/331354/
All Articles