Kerry Angel, Service Delivery Manager, Macfarlanes
Regardless of the industry you’re in, our clients are demanding, right? But does that mean that the service desk is always wrong when things don’t go according to plan? Constant battering of the service desk’s reputation is bad for moral internally and adds to the bad reputation externally. So what can be done?
It starts with proof. And confidence in the technology being used. And that’s where a good IT service management (ITSM) solution comes in. But how do you change possibly years of bad behaviour, attitude, and reputation? And how do you convince stakeholders that the outlay of a good ITSM solution is going to be worth it?
This is a common problem, and one that we were facing at our (Law) firm, Macfarlanes, until recently. To learn how we overcame these challenges, please come along to the annual SDI conference – SDI20 – and attend our presentation “Taking your Team – and the Business – with You”.
But first, to offer a little insight into some of the actions that you can start taking, and to offer a little insight into the types of advice that will be included in our session, please keep reading…
Plan, plan, plan
Start with where you are now (which happens to be the first guiding principle in ITIL 4). Have a baseline. Identify where your gaps are. What are people complaining about when it comes to the service that you’re delivering? Are there any quick fixes that you can apply? For example, changing the shift rotas to make sure that there are enough people to cover the phones and reduce wait times could be an easy one.
Then look around. Spend time deciding what is needed, what would help your user base, both within IT and your wider audience. If you need a new ITSM soluion, do your research – there are so many different ITSM tools out there and not all of them will be the right fit for YOUR organisation. Sometimes the market leader and most experienced solutions just won’t work for you. So take your time. What do you want out of the tool? Do you want it to automate some of the mundane tasks that the service desk has to perform, which would free up their time to look at user issues in more detail? Think about it long term too. Do you see this new solution as a quick replacement for what you have already or are you planning to commit to a long-term relationship?
Next, sell it
Sell your vision to your stakeholders in order to secure your required funding – whether it be for a new tool, or for something else that you’ve identified as a key area for improvement. Help them to see where the investment is going and how it’s going to benefit them.
And after all that? After the money has been agreed, and changes are put in place, how do you keep your team engaged? How do you encourage the business to use a new ITSM tool, for example?
SDI20
My presentation at SDI20 will discuss questions like these in more detail, and look at how, at Macfarlanes, we were able to make changes to better support the service desk, whilst also encouraging the user base to really engage with us. Join my session to learn how to:
- Get buy in from your team
- Prepare your team for change
- Embrace the challenges
- Not forget the Business
- Create a predictive service
Interested? I hope to see you at SDI20 in Birmingham, 15th-17th March 2021
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