The document discusses improving crisis management at a company's service desk. It outlines the current ineffective situation where the service desk is overwhelmed during crises. This causes lost revenue, lower customer satisfaction, and lower employee performance. The document analyzes alternatives like improved communication, training, and using the ServiceNow ITSM tool. It recommends providing ITIL training for management, improving support team communication, clearly defining crisis processes, and using ServiceNow to allow faster access to information to decrease response times during crises. The benefits would be improved customer satisfaction from timely crisis resolution and increased employee morale.

1. Improvements in Crisis
Management
KATRINA CLAY

2. Importance of Crisis Management
 In all facets of business, proper Major Incident or Crisis Management is of the
utmost importance.
 Major Incidents cause high impact disruptions in services and can seriously
impact the reputation and profitability of a company.

3. Overview
THE CURRENT SITUATION
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES
STRATEGIC OPTION

4. Current Situation
 The Service Desk is often overwhelmed and ineffective when presented with a
Major Incident, Outage, or other Crisis.
 This inefficiency impacts the company in several negative ways including:
 Loss of revenue
 Decreased customer satisfaction
 A measurable drop in employee performance and morale

5. Areas of Improvement
 There are several areas of interest that may yield opportunities for improvement.
These facets of the company will be investigated for possible solutions:
 Service Desk communication with other support groups
 Quality of Knowledge at the Service Desk
 Current staffing model
 Front End Messages
 Crisis Management skills of existing employees

6. Key Success Factors
 In order to successfully improve the Service Desk’s Crisis Management skills, it will
be necessary to
 Improve training standards
 Ensure key players understand the proper process
 Revamp key procedures and processes
 Change the toolset utilized by the Service Desk
 Improve communication with other Key Players

7. Alternatives
Communication
• In house communication
• Management team
communication
• Support Team communication
• Executive level communication
• Documentation/Post Mortem
Toolset Utilization
• ServiceNow
• Sales Force
• Remedy
• FEM tool
Additional Training
• Six SIGMA
• ITIL
• Process training
• HDI Manager training

8. Strategic Option
 Utilize the Client’s chosen ITIL compatible ITSM tool (ServiceNow) for Crisis
Management efforts
 Will allow other teams and key players to access information faster, decreasing response
time
 Provide ITIL foundation training for key management members
 Gives management team a better understanding of change, configuration, and problem
management items essential to Crisis Management
 Improve communications with necessary support teams
 Creating emergency on call rosters will improve response times
 Thoroughly define the Crisis Management process
 Understanding roles and responsibilities will help the entire team thrive during Crisis

9. Strategic Option BENEFITS & RISKS

10. Benefits
 ITIL certified management staff are worth more to the company
 A strong, proven Crisis Management team can be a selling point for increasing
business
 The up front costs of the plan are negated by the long term benefit
 Stress will be decreased on the call center floor and employee morale will
improve
 Customer satisfaction will increase with timely Crisis resolution

11. Risks
 There will be a monetary cost associated with switching toolsets and providing
the necessary training
 If the employees are not properly motivated, the plan will not succeed regardless
of cost
 If improvements are not made quickly enough, the contract will be given to a
competing company and revenue will decrease
 The Crisis Management strategy places heavy emphasis on the management
team

12. Solution FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

13. Improving the Crisis Management skills of the Service Desk will have a positive, measurable impact
on the success of the company as a whole. By improving in several key areas including training,
process definition, communication, and tool set management the Service Desk team can increase
their chances for success exponentially.

14. References and Additional Info
 Smith, D. (2013) Business Continuity Management. A Crisis Management
Approach. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 47-48.
 Smith D.J. (2012) ‘BCM: How do you measure up?’, Institute of Business Continuity
Management, RSA
 Welcome to the Official ITIL® Website. (2014, July 5). ITIL® Home. Retrieved July
5, 2014, from http://www.itil-officialsite.com