1. © Computacenter 2013
Susan Cobb
Service Management Assessment Presentation
Thursday 21st
November 2013
Infrastructure Services
Scheduling Function for Non-Standard requests

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Agenda
• Introduction
• IFS Scheduling Team
• Progression since taking on the IFS Scheduling Function
• Systems
• Issues
• Solutions
• Questions?

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Introduction
• The scheduling function for Non-Standard requests was originally run from
Computacenter in Nottingham but was contracted into TRG Scheduling in 2012
• The department uses a 5 day Service Level Agreement process
• At present the role is quite manual therefore attention to detail is key
• Requests are received via email from Service Managers and Project Managers for
various customers which are then logged onto an Shared Excel spreadsheet and
resource is chased with the relevant teams across the Infrastructure Services
department
• It is the schedulers responsibility to keep the requestors, technicians and team leaders
updated at all stages of the requests
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IFS Scheduling Team
• The team has changed several times since 2012
• Steve Finch was initially the main point of contact regarding any IFS issues or
processes. This role has since been taken over by Mark Pitty and is due to be taken
over by Daisy Twyford in the near future
• The Scheduling manager is Andrea Bensley
• There were originally 3 schedulers, however there is now just myself and another
scheduler who left the company last week. Their replacement is due to start next week
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Progression since taking on the IFS
scheduling function
• I moved onto the IFS team at the start of the transition in August 2012. At which time
there was no formal process in place to chase outstanding requests, this led to my
discovery of a backlog of old requests that had not been completed
• I managed to clear the outdated requests by chasing the teams and requestors for
updates and chairing daily conference calls to keep the management informed of the
department’s progress
• The department is now more structured since implementing processes for chasing
request updates and collating daily email reports recording the request figures. This
has now been cut down to weekly reports
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Systems
Excel:
• All of the departments data is currently stored on Excel
• A new Excel document has been created for the department. Until this goes live and is
being used across all IFS teams I am manually inputting details for every request onto
both the old and the new documents. I transferred all of this months data onto the new
document in order for this to be kept current in order to reflect accurate reports
MRS:
• From March to June 2013 it was planned for the department to be run from MRS.
Before this could happen, the data transfer for existing requests needed to be put onto
the system manually
• The management on IFS decided not to go with MRS before we were able to go live
ITSP:
• Mark Pitty has advised that he plans for the department date to move onto ITSP in the
near future
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Issues
Changing procedures:
• The multiple changes in procedure causes confusion amongst the technical teams if not
sufficiently communicated out and not all teams are favourable of some of the process changes
The manual process leads to failing SLA’s:
• At one stage the IFS Wintel team had a backlog of 60 requests and this number was building
daily, amounting to a total revenue of £54,607.68
After escalating to higher management, the number continued to rise. I kept track of these by
contacting all requestors asking if their task was still required, I also spent time with the Wintel
point of contact to ensure tasks were assigned
By focusing on these tasks I managed to save the department £43,909.51, however the
department still lost £10,698.17 due to cancellations & rejections as a result of neglecting these
requests
Small team :
• During a busy period, partially trained staff were assisting the department. In order to evenly
distribute the workload while ensuring tasks were covered accurately, I discussed with the team
which areas they felt they were most confident with and delegated the work accordingly
• The data transfers for MRS and the new excel document were both given short notice deadlines,
therefore overtime was required in order to complete the transfers in time
• As a result of my absence on the team today, the new scheduler who was due to join the team
yesterday, had their start date postponed until next week and the new excel system that was due
to go live across all IFS teams this week has been also delayed until I am back in the office
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Solutions
• Earlier this week I have been training someone from another department to act as
backfill in my absence today and we have a new starter joining the team on Monday
next week
• When IFS moves onto ITSP and MRS Reports can be automated and request updates
can be monitored accurately. This will save extra admin for schedulers, technicians
and team leaders. By cutting down the workload only one scheduler will be required
with backfill in place for absence and holiday and busy periods. Overtime will not be
required for transfers once the department has a permanent system in place
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Questions?
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Questions?
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