After just 18 months, The Telegraph’s outsourced service desk relationship was failing, causing the business to question the credibility of IT services being provided. This session explains how the Telegraph set about restoring confidence in IT operations by applying Agile principles as it brought the service desk back in-house.

1. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Carol Johnson
Head of Service Delivery & Operations
Telegraph Media Group
How Agile Rescued the
Telegraph’s Service Desk

2. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
OUR STORY

3. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
OUR PRODUCTS

4. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
1855 20121994 20102009 2014
1994-Firstnewspapertolaunchawebsite
2005–FirstregularpodcastbyanewspaperinUKlaunched
2009–LaunchediPadapps
2013–FirstgeneralinterestnewspapertointroduceapaymeterinUK
INNOVATION

5. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
16.8m people each month cross platforms

6. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Supported locations & employees
• Approximately 1200 staff
• Mainly based in Victoria
– Foreign correspondents
– Journalists in the field
– Call Center - Chatham
– Sales Team - Media City
– Small branch offices

7. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Operations Strategy
• Transform IT from a vendor management group
to a business focused solutions provider
• Ask at every opportunity
“Is this in service of our customers”

8. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
What issues do TMG staff need help with?
• Getting the paper published daily
• Ensuring the website & mobile apps are available 24x7
• Computer support
• Hardware & software requests
• Printer management
• Mobile device support
• Account Management inc password resets
• Network support
• Systems support
• Application Support

9. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
MAY 09
Service Desk
Outsourced
FEB 12
Planning starts to
outsource all IT
Operations to a new
provider
MAY 13
Start of new
outsourced
contract
The outsourcing journey
OCT 14
Outsourced
contract ends
December
New CIO joins
TMG. Agile
introduced
July
Contract
terminated
April
Contract
Review
Outsourced relationship failed after just 18 months
Business lost faith in the credibility of IT services

10. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
SLA Quality
Challenges
VS
Difference in cultural currency

11. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Pain Points
• Inexperienced staff
• Low skillset
• Poor communication skills
• Lack of transparency
• Poor resolution times
• Usability of tool was bad
• Limited reporting and lack of transparency

12. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
The Service Review
“ shenanigans ”
The contract was driving the
wrong behaviours

13. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Deciding the future
“make it better today than it
was yesterday”
“minimum viable product”

14. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
THE PLAN

15. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
● Bring the service back in house without derailing the
business
● Complete the implementation within 3 months
Goals

16. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Requirements & challenges
What skills / behaviours do we need to do the job?
Can we recruit within 60 days? And if not, can we run initially
with only 50% of the team?
How do we measure performance of individuals?
Do we know what key processes we need to keep the
service running?
Can we get these in place quickly?
PROCESSES
TOOLS
Do we have the tools available?
Are they efficient, integrated with our other systems & can
we manage/control them? If not, can we get these quickly?
What training is required to support & use?
PEOPLE

17. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
The ITSM Vision
One team &
one way of working;
Automation & scale
Quality service
over SLA
Delivering
speed of service
integration over isolation
Customer is served
above all else
Self Service
Setting &
meeting
expectations
Common
language &
communicate
more

18. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Achieving faster delivery
Initial
Goal
Real
Goal
Agile Plan
Analyse Plan Design Build Test Deploy
Design
Test
Build
Design
Test
Build
Design
Test
Build
Traditional Plan
Achieved in 3 mths

19. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Value in all, however first statement is valued more
Agile Manifesto

20. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Customer
Satisfaction
Highest Priority
Grow & work in a cross functional
team
Early and
continuous delivery
Agile Principles
Simplicity
< = >
Less is more
Effective face to face
communication
Build Around Motivated
Individuals

21. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Evaluate out
of the box
solution
POC
Configuration
Changes for
MVP
Incorporate
Changes
Cutover
Rolled out
new solution
in 13 weeks
3 weeks
Implementation Approach
5 weeks
KB Setup
2 weeks
Training /
Induction &
Beta Testing
2 weeks 1 week 1 hour

22. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Staffing Model for Implementation
• Helpdesk
– Moved to an on-call basis for OOH support
– TUPE’d 4 staff
– Recruited 4 new staff including Team Lead
– Modified shifts to align to peak periods
• Desktop Support
– TUPE’d 3 Staff
– Recruited 2 new staff
– Modified shifts to align to peak periods
• Enterprise Operations
– Recruited 3 new staff
• Application Support
– Recruited 3 new staff

23. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Daily Stand-ups - staying on track

24. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
OUR TOOLS

25. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Our Tools

26. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Welcome JIRA Service Desk
Legacy JIRA Service Desk
Usability feedback Poor Great
Customisability Poor Great
Self Management Poor Great
Flexibility Poor Great
Reporting & visibility Manual Reports £ Out of the box Dashboards &
Reporting, exports & SQL
Extensibility / integrations Difficult £ Easily configurable & custom
add-ons
HAPPY USERS
ENGAGED SUPPORT
TEAMS
WELL-INFORMED SENIOR
MANAGEMENT

27. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Ingredients for Success
Willing & able participants
no need for :
experienced developers or
extensive professional services

28. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
RESULTS

29. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
created since October
Service Desk
tickets
23,575

30. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
98.7%
Tickets resolved

31. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
What we improved in the first 3 months
30%
Increase in number
of contacts
66%
Reduction in
number of days
tickets are
resolved
(average)
20%
Increase in fix at
first contact
50%Reduction in call
waiting times
(average)

32. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Easy to configure dashboards

33. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Easy to configure reports

34. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Easy to configure ticketing portal

35. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Request Types

36. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Personal View of Tickets

37. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Easy to configure KB using Confluence

38. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
LESSONS LEARNED
& WINS

39. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
What did we achieve / learn?
• Selected, designed & built an integrated
Service Desk tool - 3mths
• Seamless cut-over (only 50% recruited)
• We can improve quality whilst handling increased
volumes
• Matching staff availability to peak periods

40. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Keys to our success
• New Process: Agile approach
– Responding to change over following a plan
– Individuals & interactions over processes & tools
– Control of tool chain was critical for
transformation

41. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Keys to our success
• Recruiting to match our vision & values
– Teams are motivated to achieve and deliver
– Behaviours over SLA drove better customer
experience

42. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Keys to our success
• Being realistic : Minimum viable product (MVP)
– Do we need it all
– Whats the best we can achieve in the timescale
• Fast failure and change is good

43. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Rated 4 or above (see key) Jan Feb Mar
Getting what I need from the Helpdesk is easy 42% 50% 100%
When I contact the helpdesk their knowledge is great 58% 83% 100%
Speed at which my issues and requests are resolved is great 42% 60% 100%
The updates & communication I receive for my issues or
requests is great
42% 83% 100%
The support provided by the Helpdesk is great 42% 67% 100%
● Volume of responses has reduced significantly since October
● Ratings continue to improve, renewed trust in the service
● Volume of escalations remains low
Customer Satisfaction

44. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Service issues
July
(Outsourcer)
August
(Outsourcer)
October
(TMG)
November
(TMG)
December
(TMG)
P1 0 2 1 9 2
P2 43 30 14 19 15
Insourcing has enabled us to respond faster to fixing issues and reduce the number of P2s
66% Reduction in Service failures
Reducing Service Failures

45. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Speeding up Transformation
• No blocker to multiple web releases
in a day; provided we have the
functionality
• Defined changes
• Implied ownership
8 days
1 day
New Tool
1 step approval
process
Daily sign off
meetings introduced
Outsourced Tool
4 Step Approval Process
Weekly Sign Off
meeting
Revised definitions
2 Step Approval Process
(1 step some cases)
Twice Weekly Sign off
meetings introduced
5 days
Improved approval process for implementation of new products & services
2013 2014 2015

46. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Continuing to deliver the vision
Password reset tool for Windows Logins
Self Help Guides available on the intranet
Improved app to resolve session & launcher issues
Auto alerts for printers (toner replacement / jams) reduced business interruption by 20%
Better Products & Services
Self Service ticketing
Improved Communication
Empower the Customer / Self Service
Proactive over Reactive

47. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
Summary
• Delivering - quicker, simpler & better
• Focus is now on quality support for the customer
• Talented team with clear roles
• Fantastic achievement by the team effort
• Continued positive feedback
• Ongoing improvements to deliver a world class service

48. © Telegraph Media Group 2015
THANK YOU