An innovative approach to using process and your ITSM tool to embrace a culture of continual service improvement

1. Marval’s innovative
Continual Service Improvement
approach to guaranteeing
service staff buy in

2. www.marval.co.uk
Why Adopting
ISO2000 will give you
more value & control
than ITIL?
Point 2

3. Objectives of Continual Service Improvement
1. Review, analyse and make recommendations on
improvement opportunities
2. Review and analyse Service Level achievement results
3. Identify and implement individual activities to
improve IT service quality and improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of enabling ITSM processes
4. Improve cost effectiveness for delivering IT services
without sacrificing customer satisfaction
5. Ensure applicable quality management methods are
used to support continual improvement activities

4. Current situation
We are always quick to comment on what we
should be doing or how we can/should fix
things, but we don’t have an approach or any
evidence to back it up

5. Continual service improvement model
What is the Service Desk
Vision?
Service & Process
Improvement
Measurable Targets
Baseline
Assessments
Where do we want to
be?
How do we get there?
Did we get there? Measurements & Metrics
Business Vision, Mission
Goals & Objectives
Where are we now?
How do we keep the
momentum going?
Continual service
improvement

6. Be practical
Are we
doing the right
things?
Are we
doing them the
best way?
Are we
doing them
well?
Are we seeing
the
Improvements?
(Have we the evidence to
prove it)
Financial
worth/value/benefit
Alignment
to
Industry
good
practice &
standards
Level of Professionalism
{

7. Key approaches adopted
 Add new request classifications to
your ITSM tool
Suggested Service Improvements (SSI)
 Add some new processes
 Sell to support staff
 Involve support specialists

9. Staff benefits:
Direct staff contribution to service improvement on call
closure
Leveraging staff specialist knowledge and skills
Stopping repeat calls and unnecessary interruptions
Helping your colleagues
Question: Do I need to record an SSI against every request
Answer: NO, You should only specify an SSI where you believe,
based on YOUR expertise and knowledge that this suggestion will
contribute to an improved service.

10. Marval "definition of the SSI”
1. The main priority and intent of having a classification section Suggested Service Improvement
(SSI), is to allow the support specialists working on a specific request to identify and record, based
on their experience, a suggested improvement which can then be reviewed, and if beneficial,
implemented and sold back to the business
2. This activity is designed to support an organisation’s continual service improvement plan
3. Outputs should contribute to:
 Supporting the problem management process
 Improved customer and team satisfaction
 A more reliable and improved IT service
 A reduced resource commitment by support staff
 Justification for change
 Highlight a customer training or educational need
 Improved processes, procedures and documentation

11. High level classification
Business service
Symptom/function
Root cause
Resolution/action taken
Suggested service
improvement
Perception metrics
Reality metrics
Continual
improvement metrics

12. www.marval.co.uk

13. Process
Process is how we are
supposed to work
If a process is not delivering
value – IMPROVE IT, Don’t
ignore it

14. Process improvement ‘flags’
Sample ‘Root Cause’ classification examples:
Root cause Affected process
Email error Incident
Failed change Change
Service Offline Availability
Service slow Performance
Lack of disk space Capacity
Root cause unknown Problem
Virus present Security

15. Sample ‘Service Breach Reason’ classification codes:
Breach code Outcome activity
Customer delay Awareness? BRM review
2nd line Renegotiate SLA? Review OLA
3rd line Supplier and contract review?
Agreed Proactive/planned
Resource issue Evidence to review
No reason given So how did we fix it?
Business override Management review
Process improvement ‘flags’

16. Suggested Service Improvements (SSI)
 Availability review required
 Capacity review required
 Customer review required
 Documentation review required
 Hardware review required
 Major incident review required
 Follow up not required
 Performance review required
 Procedure review required
 Review of process or policy required
 Raise a request for change
 Raising a known error required
 Raise a problem request
 Security review required
 SLA or OLA review required
 Software review required
 Vendor/3rd party or supplier review required
 Training review required
The person resolving
or completing the
activity is best placed
to flag this …right
there and then, not
later on

17. Question: what about the ‘root service’?
Scenario:
Customer reported an issue with the
Online ordering service
This is what the business is interested
in
The cause was the payment service -
an underpinning infrastructure service
(component)
We need to know about both areas

18. Example request classification blocks
 Affected Service – Email
 Symptom – Unable to
access service
 Root Cause – Lack of disk
space
 Resolution – Cleared disk
space
 SSI – Review disk capacity
 Affected Service – Email
 Symptom – Unable to access
service
 Root Cause – User finger
trouble
 Resolution – Advice given
 SSI – Customer training
recommended
Example 1 Example 2

19. Sample SSI (Suggested service improvement) classifications
 Customer training
recommended
 Resource review recommended
 Availability review required
 Capacity review required
 Documentation review required
 Hardware review required
 Recommend Hardware
replacement
 Major incident review required
 Performance review required
 Procedure review required
 Process review required
 Raise known error/FAQ
 Security review required
 SLA/OLA review required
 Vendor/3rd party review required
 Software review required

20. www.marval.co.uk
Process

21. Request CSI classification codes
Code Description
SSI Suggested Service Improvement
From any service request using a SSI dictionary entry (is an output from a
request – Incident, problem, change)
SIR Service Improvement Review
Business service that reviews SSIs classified in Service Dictionary (is an input
to a request)
SIA Service Improvement Activity
For any service improvement outcome that has been performed (is
an output from a request)
PSR Planned Service Review
From any service request using a SSI dictionary entry (is an output
from a request)

22. Conclusion
CSI forces us to adopt more
proactive working practices
CSI allows us to identify and
demonstrate our successes and
areas for improvement
CSI is not difficult, just different

23. www.marval.co.uk
Tips

24. www.marval.co.uk
“Ensure you have a
Service Improvement Plan in place”

25. Report evaluation criteria
 What does the report tell me?
 Do I ‘understand’ what the statistics are saying?
(Back to drivers and audience)
 Are the results a surprise?
 Do they highlight areas for improvement?
 Do they highlight our areas of success?
 What do they tell the person who needs them?
 What action / decision will they invoke?
 Do they meet targets, or achieve goals?
 Do we need this report?

26. Conclusion
1. At every opportunity the service desk is
responsible to ensure that it actively
supports a culture of Continual Service
Improvement
2. It is a manager’s responsibility to ensure
teams know their efforts are valued
3. It is everyone's responsibility to market
and demonstrate the team’s
professionalism and successes