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1. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
1. Introduction –The service desk plays an important role of user support. It serves as the
front office for the other IT departments, and deal with many customer queries without
needing to contact specialist personnel. For the user, the service desk provides theg p p p
single point of contact with the IT organisation.
2. Basic conceptp
Three types of structures should be considered for optimum usage:
• Local Service Desk (distributed)• Local Service Desk (distributed)
• Central Service Desk
• Virtual Service Desk.

2. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
2. Basic concept
Local Service DeskLocal Service Desk
Local User Local User Local UserLocal User Local User Local User
Local
Service Desk
First line support
Third Party
Support
Network &
Operations
Support
Application
Support
Desktop
Support

3. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
2. Basic concept
Central Service Desk
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3
Centralised
Service Desk
Second Line Support
Third Party
Network &
O ti
Application Desktopy
Support
Operations
Support
pp
Support
p
Support

4. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
2. Basic concept
Paris Service Desk
New York
Service Desk
Virtual Service
Desk
Virtual Service
Desk
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3
Desk
Singapore
London
Service
Desk Hong
K
Singapore
Service Desk
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3
Kong
Service
Desk
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
Customer
Site 3

5. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
2. Basic concept
Service Desk Technology
• Integrated Service Management and Operations Management systems (e.g
HP helpdesk, Marvel, Remedy etc)
• Advanced telephone systems (e.g. auto-routing, hunt groups, Computerp y ( g g g p p
Telephony Integration (CTI), Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP))
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems
• Electronic mail (e.g. voice, video, mobile comms, Internet, email systems)
• Fax servers (supporting routing to email accounts)• Fax servers (supporting routing to email accounts)
• Pager systems
• Knowledge, search and diagnostic tools
• Automated operations and Network Management tools. (e.g HP OpenView)

6. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
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3. Objective :
• To provide a single point of contact for Customers
• To facilitate the restoration of normal operational service with minimal
business impact on the Customer within agreed service levels and business
priorities

7. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
4. Activities
4.1 Responding to calls, there are 2 types / categories of calls
- Incidents
- Error reports – true faults and complaints about the services.
- Service requests – are classified in ITIL as incidents, but do not involve a
failure in the IT infrastructure. Service requests also do not fall into the
change management category.
- Changes – these are non-standard changes, which are not handled as service
requests. A request for such a change will follow the standard process of Change
Management, requiring a formal Request for Change (RFC).
4.2 Providing information –Service desk should serve as the main source of
information to users. All efforts must be made to inform the users of the status of
the incidents as well as the information of new services, Service Level Agreement
(SLAs), procedures and costs. Active and passive.
4.3 Supplier – Service desk is often responsible for contacts with maintenance
suppliers, including the repair and replacement of printers, workstations, and in
some cases, network equipment.

8. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
4.4 Operation management tasks – Making back-ups and restores, providing LAN
connections, disk space management on local servers, creating accounts,
authorizing and resetting passwords may also be the responsibility of the Service
DeskDesk.
4.5 Infrastructure monitoring – Service desk may have access to tools, which can be
used to estimate the impact of faults affecting essential equipment, such as
routers servers and gateways mission critical systems applications androuters, servers, and gateways, mission critical systems, applications and
database. These tools will detect faults and inform incident management
automatically.

9. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
5 Critical Success factors
• Provide 'quick wins' to demonstrate the benefits• Provide quick wins to demonstrate the benefits
• Start simple, adopting a phased approach
• Involve Customers, especially those that tend to be outspoken and
critical of your services
• Explain the differences that will be seen by Customers
• Involve third-party service suppliers
• Make sure everyone involved or affected by the Service Desk knows
what is being done and why - this also includes other supportwhat is being done and why - this also includes other support
operations, such as telecommunications, building services)
• Sell the benefits to support staff to avoid resistance to the changes -
particularly important because support staff are generally cautious
• Educate staff and managers to be 'Customer - and service-focused'.

10. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
6 Role and function
The role and responsibilities of the Service Desk is the recording and life-cycleThe role and responsibilities of the Service Desk is the recording and life cycle
management of all Incidents that affect the operational service delivered to the business
and its customers.
The common Service Desk functions include:The common Service Desk functions include:
• Receiving calls, first-line Customer liaison
• Recording and tracking Incidents and complaints
• Keeping Customers informed on request status and progressKeeping Customers informed on request status and progress
• Making an initial assessment of requests, attempting to resolve them or refer
them to someone who can, based on agreed service levels
• Monitoring and escalation procedures relative to the appropriate SLA
• Managing the request life-cycle including closure and verificationManaging the request life cycle, including closure and verification

11. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
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6 Role and function
The common Service Desk functions include:The common Service Desk functions include:
• Communicating planned and short-term changes of service levels to Customers
• Coordinating second-line and third-party support groups
• Providing management information and recommendations for service improvementProviding management information and recommendations for service improvement
• Identifying Problems
• Highlighting Customer training and education needs
• Closing Incidents and confirmation with the Customer
• Contributing to Problem identificationContributing to Problem identification.

12. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
6 Role and function
The roles of service agent or service desk staffThe roles of service agent or service desk staff
• Customer-focused
• Articulate and methodical
T i d i i t l kill• Trained in interpersonal skills
• Multilingual (if required)
• Able to understand the business's objectives
• Able to understand and accept that the Customer's Problem affects thep
business, without the Customer there is no support department and
customer is an expert in their own field
• Genuinely wanting to deliver a first-class service.

13. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
6 Role and function
Good Customer relationships to win businessGood Customer relationships to win business
• Answer all incoming phone calls before the third ring.
• When you answer the phone be warm and enthusiasticWhen you answer the phone, be warm and enthusiastic.
• When answering the phone, welcome callers courteously and identify
yourself and our organization.
• Enunciate clearly, keep your voice volume moderate, and speak slowly and
clearly when answering the phone, so your caller can understand you easily.
• Control your language when answering the phone Don't use slang or jargonControl your language when answering the phone. Don t use slang or jargon.
Instead of saying, "OK", or "No problem",
• Train your voice and vocabulary to be positive when phone answering, even
on a "down" dayon a down day.

14. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
6 Role and function
Good Customer relationship to win businessGood Customer relationship to win business
• Take telephone messages completely and accurately. If there's something
you don't understand or can't spell, such as a person's surname, ask the
caller to repeat it or spell it for youcaller to repeat it or spell it for you.
• Answer all your calls within one business day even just to update the
incident.
• Always ask the caller if it's all right to put her on hold when answering the
phone, and don't leave people on hold.
• Don't use a speaker phone unless absolutely necessaryDon t use a speaker phone unless absolutely necessary.
• Train everyone else who answers the phone to answer the same way to
provide consistency.

15. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
7 Key Performance Indicator
I th t l h d i kl ?- Is the telephone answered quickly?
- Are calls routed to second level support within x minutes.?
- Is the service restored within an acceptable time and in accordance with
the SLA?
- Are the users advised in time about current and future changes and
errors?
- Is the telephone answered courteously?
Are users given good advice on how to prevent incident?- Are users given good advice on how to prevent incident?
- Customer satisfaction.

16. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
8 Possible problems
L k f t i i f th i t- Lack of training for the service agent
- Management commitment for resources, i.e fund, personnel etc
- Awareness among staff in the organisation.

17. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
Quiz
1 Whi h f th i DIRECT b fit f h i S i D k?1 Which of these is a DIRECT benefit of having a Service Desk?
A Customer Service Level Requirements are established
B Technical support staff are less likely to be interrupted to deal with user’s callpp y p
C Changes taking place are properly coordinated
D All the information in the CMDB is kept up to date
( )
2 Which incidents should be logged by Service Desk?
A Only incident not resolved at logging
B Only incidents which has major impact on the IT service
C All incidents except simple enquires
D All incidents ( )

18. ITIL best practise - Service Desk
Chapter 2
Quiz
3 C id i th f ll i t i3 Considering the following metrics:
1 Number of incidents closed without onward referral
2 Number of incidents correctly categorised at loggingy g gg g
3 Number of hardware faults reported
Which of the above are valid performance indicators for the service desk?
A 1, 2 & 3
B 1 & 2
C 1 & 3
D 2 & 3 ( )