Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
Top 3 Help Desk Challenges & What You Can Do About ThemSolarWinds
Learn more about the Top 3 Help Desk Challenges and how you can best tackle them.
-- Difficulty of Handling Growing Ticket Volume
-- Complexity of Managing the Ticketing Process
-- Lack of Proper Reporting & Metrics
Service Desk or Helpdesk is nowdays have become an Important part of any Organization.
BPO/KPO s have maintained their own Heldesk if there is ny Technical DIfficulty.
The Project will guide you to how an Techincal officer works.
Service Catalog Essentials: 5 Keys to Good Service Design in IT Service CatalogsEvergreen Systems
Fresh thinking on IT Self-Service!
It’s easy to create hundreds of services, fast – with little oversight – and it will kill your Service Catalog initiative. Your customer will see it as inconsistent, complex and confusing – and stop coming.
Do you make lots of small services, or a few big, complex ones?...How do you decide?...Which do your customers prefer?
Please join us as we share best practices on creating and using a consistent Service Design Process – that addresses these issues and actually saves time, simplifies your work, and gives you consistent quality. And it will make your customers happy!
Full webinar recording with ServiceNow demo available at: http://content.evergreensys.com/webinar-it-service-catalog-good-service-design
ServiceNow® IT Service Management (ITSM) provides a modern service management solution in the cloud. ServiceNow’s system of action allows you to consolidate tools, transform the way you deliver services, and improve the customer experience.
Top 3 Help Desk Challenges & What You Can Do About ThemSolarWinds
Learn more about the Top 3 Help Desk Challenges and how you can best tackle them.
-- Difficulty of Handling Growing Ticket Volume
-- Complexity of Managing the Ticketing Process
-- Lack of Proper Reporting & Metrics
Service Desk or Helpdesk is nowdays have become an Important part of any Organization.
BPO/KPO s have maintained their own Heldesk if there is ny Technical DIfficulty.
The Project will guide you to how an Techincal officer works.
Service Catalog Essentials: 5 Keys to Good Service Design in IT Service CatalogsEvergreen Systems
Fresh thinking on IT Self-Service!
It’s easy to create hundreds of services, fast – with little oversight – and it will kill your Service Catalog initiative. Your customer will see it as inconsistent, complex and confusing – and stop coming.
Do you make lots of small services, or a few big, complex ones?...How do you decide?...Which do your customers prefer?
Please join us as we share best practices on creating and using a consistent Service Design Process – that addresses these issues and actually saves time, simplifies your work, and gives you consistent quality. And it will make your customers happy!
Full webinar recording with ServiceNow demo available at: http://content.evergreensys.com/webinar-it-service-catalog-good-service-design
ServiceNow® IT Service Management (ITSM) provides a modern service management solution in the cloud. ServiceNow’s system of action allows you to consolidate tools, transform the way you deliver services, and improve the customer experience.
GSS America\'s Workplace Services aim at equipping customer’s business with round-the-clock support, through its Global Operations Command Center (GOCC). Its comprehensive range of workplace services gives customers the ability to reduce their costs and improve their service levels. GSS intends to help global enterprises cut down on their infrastructure maintenance costs and provide access to expert skills.
How to build an integrated and actionable IT Service Catalogmboyle
This presentation provides a lower level of detail on how to build a n IT service catalog than provided by ITIL V3. It augments thinking in this area based on 25 years of building Service Catalogs
Mario Vivas, CEO, River Horse
ITIL4 is out and everyone is eager to learn about the updates this release introduces. This session will summarize the key changes that ITIL4 presents with a focus on the more operational processes that organizations deliver on a day to day basis (Incident, Problem, Change and so on). The ServiceNow platform has a powerful set of baseline features and optional plugin functions that can help an organization align with the recommendations of ITIL4.
Please join us and Mario to learn about how you can start applying ITIL4 concepts in your ServiceNow implementations!
Presentation from the 5th itSMF SEE Regional Event on title: KEY ITSM DRIVERS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS.The conference covered more than 30 inspiring and thought-provoking sessions, and as such it was the biggest and best-ever IT Service Management programme of seminars, panel discussions and keynotes in South East Europe. (http://www.itsmf.org.rs/drupal/content/itsmf-see-2011-programme)
Online version of the presentation - http://prezi.com/lstdrvohprmp/belgrad-prezentacija/
Defining Services for a Service CatalogAxios Systems
To view this complimentary webcast in full, visit: http://forms.axiossystems.com/LP=289
Faced with continued cost pressures, as well as growing business unit demand for new services and higher service levels, IT is about to make transformation. IT is having to align their services with the needs of the business, develop standardized process and improve overall internal customer satisfaction. Arguably the most important tool to deliver these demands is the Service Catalog.
Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge…and Service Catalog? A Powerful Circle. Evergreen Systems
For years ITSM has been done the same old tired way – Incident, Problem, Change and a little Knowledge – because that’s what we know. But it does NOTHING for our CUSTOMER – their experience doesn’t change at all.
This is no longer good enough.
Tying Service Catalog with Incident, Problem, Change and Knowledge changes the answer to the question, “Why are we doing this?”
Please join us as we explore the powerful links between these five, how this changes the way we think and how this can powerfully (and positively) impact the value your IT organization delivers to your customer and your business. It’s time to demand more.
As always, we will demonstrate these concepts in our constantly evolving view of a very advanced Employee Self-Service Catalog & Portal, built on ServiceNow technologies.
Recording with demo available at http://content.evergreensys.com/service-catalog-webinar-incident-problem-change-slides
.
How To Drive A Successful ServiceNow ImplementationAspire Systems
In this webcast we discussed on ServiceNow Implementation , it's key success factors and the pitfalls.
• ITSM – The enablers and constraints
• ServiceNow – Introduction and key benefits
• How to ensure an effective ServiceNow Implementation?
->The Prerequisites
->A realistic, yet effective Roadmap
->Avoid the Pitfalls
• Case study: ServiceNow implementation for a Fortune100 firm
What is Agile Service Management? Why Is it Important? ITSM Academy WebinarITSM Academy, Inc.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the need for IT to be more “agile”. While the term Agile is freely used, there is not a clear definition of what “being agile” actually means, particularly in the context of IT support and service management. This webinar explores the concept of Agile Service Management and how agility helps IT service providers better meet the rapidly changing requirements of business and customers.
Making Problem Management Work for Your OrganizationAtlassian
Houston, we have a problem. Too many companies are fixated on the definitions of ITIL and problem management instead of actually getting value out of them. When you don't have a bonafide problem management policy, plus the training and skills to back it up, your team is likely to spend too much energy on ineffective activities. But there's hope. IT veteran John Custy will introduce the concepts you need to understand, dispel a few misconceptions, and explain the different problem management methodologies. He'll also cover the pros and cons of each methodology, and when to use each of them.
IT Service Management Tutorial | What Is ITSM? | ITIL Foundation Training | S...Simplilearn
This presentation on 'IT Service Management' will take you through everything you need to know about the concept of IT service management. ITSM is the practice of delivering IT services and supporting internal customers with the help of people, processes and technology. The video will also cover concepts like what is ITIL, what is ITSM, key concepts of ITSM and the ITIL service lifecycle.
What are the course objectives?
ITIL® 4 is the latest release of the ITIL framework, designed to provide a more practical viewpoint to the ITIL lifecycle with best practices from other complementary platforms such as Agile, DevOps and Lean. The objective of this course is to provide a foundational level of understanding of the ITIL 4 framework, key elements, concepts and terminologies associated with ITIL service lifecycle, and how it has evolved to adopt modern technologies and operational processes. The course covers all necessary concepts in the service management framework to support candidates studying for the ITIL 4 Foundation Certification Exam.
What skills will you learn?
Upon completion of this ITIL Certification training you will learn:
- Concepts, key principles and process models required to pass the ITIL 4 Foundation exam.
- How ITIL principles can help an individual understand and apply IT service management in their organization.
- How to improve customer experience and ITSM efficiency with the help of ITIL tools and techniques.
- The purposes and key terms of 15 ITIL practices.
- Industry best practices for deploying IT services.
Below are the topics explained in this ITIL presentation:
1. What is ITIL?
2. Why ITIL?
3. ITIL Service Lifecyclehttps://www.simplilearn.com/it-service-management/itil-foundation-training
ITIL, formally an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. In its current form (known as ITIL V3),
The overwhelming challenges of IT infrastructure managementNIIT Technologies
CIOs are now looking at IT infrastructure management as a mean to drive business transformation. To transform the way businesses work, CIOs need responsive systems and processes to bridge the gap between operations and business. With this understanding, IT leaders need to align IT with business and manage IT infrastructure as a service model. This paper surveys the challenges service providers face in managing IT infrastructures. It also lists down solutions for the effective management of IT infrastructures.
GSS America\'s Workplace Services aim at equipping customer’s business with round-the-clock support, through its Global Operations Command Center (GOCC). Its comprehensive range of workplace services gives customers the ability to reduce their costs and improve their service levels. GSS intends to help global enterprises cut down on their infrastructure maintenance costs and provide access to expert skills.
How to build an integrated and actionable IT Service Catalogmboyle
This presentation provides a lower level of detail on how to build a n IT service catalog than provided by ITIL V3. It augments thinking in this area based on 25 years of building Service Catalogs
Mario Vivas, CEO, River Horse
ITIL4 is out and everyone is eager to learn about the updates this release introduces. This session will summarize the key changes that ITIL4 presents with a focus on the more operational processes that organizations deliver on a day to day basis (Incident, Problem, Change and so on). The ServiceNow platform has a powerful set of baseline features and optional plugin functions that can help an organization align with the recommendations of ITIL4.
Please join us and Mario to learn about how you can start applying ITIL4 concepts in your ServiceNow implementations!
Presentation from the 5th itSMF SEE Regional Event on title: KEY ITSM DRIVERS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS.The conference covered more than 30 inspiring and thought-provoking sessions, and as such it was the biggest and best-ever IT Service Management programme of seminars, panel discussions and keynotes in South East Europe. (http://www.itsmf.org.rs/drupal/content/itsmf-see-2011-programme)
Online version of the presentation - http://prezi.com/lstdrvohprmp/belgrad-prezentacija/
Defining Services for a Service CatalogAxios Systems
To view this complimentary webcast in full, visit: http://forms.axiossystems.com/LP=289
Faced with continued cost pressures, as well as growing business unit demand for new services and higher service levels, IT is about to make transformation. IT is having to align their services with the needs of the business, develop standardized process and improve overall internal customer satisfaction. Arguably the most important tool to deliver these demands is the Service Catalog.
Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge…and Service Catalog? A Powerful Circle. Evergreen Systems
For years ITSM has been done the same old tired way – Incident, Problem, Change and a little Knowledge – because that’s what we know. But it does NOTHING for our CUSTOMER – their experience doesn’t change at all.
This is no longer good enough.
Tying Service Catalog with Incident, Problem, Change and Knowledge changes the answer to the question, “Why are we doing this?”
Please join us as we explore the powerful links between these five, how this changes the way we think and how this can powerfully (and positively) impact the value your IT organization delivers to your customer and your business. It’s time to demand more.
As always, we will demonstrate these concepts in our constantly evolving view of a very advanced Employee Self-Service Catalog & Portal, built on ServiceNow technologies.
Recording with demo available at http://content.evergreensys.com/service-catalog-webinar-incident-problem-change-slides
.
How To Drive A Successful ServiceNow ImplementationAspire Systems
In this webcast we discussed on ServiceNow Implementation , it's key success factors and the pitfalls.
• ITSM – The enablers and constraints
• ServiceNow – Introduction and key benefits
• How to ensure an effective ServiceNow Implementation?
->The Prerequisites
->A realistic, yet effective Roadmap
->Avoid the Pitfalls
• Case study: ServiceNow implementation for a Fortune100 firm
What is Agile Service Management? Why Is it Important? ITSM Academy WebinarITSM Academy, Inc.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the need for IT to be more “agile”. While the term Agile is freely used, there is not a clear definition of what “being agile” actually means, particularly in the context of IT support and service management. This webinar explores the concept of Agile Service Management and how agility helps IT service providers better meet the rapidly changing requirements of business and customers.
Making Problem Management Work for Your OrganizationAtlassian
Houston, we have a problem. Too many companies are fixated on the definitions of ITIL and problem management instead of actually getting value out of them. When you don't have a bonafide problem management policy, plus the training and skills to back it up, your team is likely to spend too much energy on ineffective activities. But there's hope. IT veteran John Custy will introduce the concepts you need to understand, dispel a few misconceptions, and explain the different problem management methodologies. He'll also cover the pros and cons of each methodology, and when to use each of them.
IT Service Management Tutorial | What Is ITSM? | ITIL Foundation Training | S...Simplilearn
This presentation on 'IT Service Management' will take you through everything you need to know about the concept of IT service management. ITSM is the practice of delivering IT services and supporting internal customers with the help of people, processes and technology. The video will also cover concepts like what is ITIL, what is ITSM, key concepts of ITSM and the ITIL service lifecycle.
What are the course objectives?
ITIL® 4 is the latest release of the ITIL framework, designed to provide a more practical viewpoint to the ITIL lifecycle with best practices from other complementary platforms such as Agile, DevOps and Lean. The objective of this course is to provide a foundational level of understanding of the ITIL 4 framework, key elements, concepts and terminologies associated with ITIL service lifecycle, and how it has evolved to adopt modern technologies and operational processes. The course covers all necessary concepts in the service management framework to support candidates studying for the ITIL 4 Foundation Certification Exam.
What skills will you learn?
Upon completion of this ITIL Certification training you will learn:
- Concepts, key principles and process models required to pass the ITIL 4 Foundation exam.
- How ITIL principles can help an individual understand and apply IT service management in their organization.
- How to improve customer experience and ITSM efficiency with the help of ITIL tools and techniques.
- The purposes and key terms of 15 ITIL practices.
- Industry best practices for deploying IT services.
Below are the topics explained in this ITIL presentation:
1. What is ITIL?
2. Why ITIL?
3. ITIL Service Lifecyclehttps://www.simplilearn.com/it-service-management/itil-foundation-training
ITIL, formally an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. In its current form (known as ITIL V3),
The overwhelming challenges of IT infrastructure managementNIIT Technologies
CIOs are now looking at IT infrastructure management as a mean to drive business transformation. To transform the way businesses work, CIOs need responsive systems and processes to bridge the gap between operations and business. With this understanding, IT leaders need to align IT with business and manage IT infrastructure as a service model. This paper surveys the challenges service providers face in managing IT infrastructures. It also lists down solutions for the effective management of IT infrastructures.
Driving Business Excellence through Innovative IT Service ManagementCognizant
IT organizations need to left-shift service support activities, utilize best-of-breed technology, and adopt output- and outcome-based delivery to drive service excellence.
The industry is abuzz with discussions around how technology will improve the service desk and allow it to become more efficient and productive. However, there is always an underlying rhetoric that these technologies will be implemented to the detriment of the service desk analyst. This is simply not the case. As SDI data suggests, the role of the analyst will not become redundant, but will evolve to work alongside technologies, and potentially provide more value to the service desk.
Here Scarlett explores how the role of the service desk analyst will evolve, including what skills will be necessary for the Analyst v2.0. Furthermore, she will look at what this means for the service desk, and how emerging technologies will shape how it will look in the future.
Kick-Starting Digital Transformation: Four IT StrategiesCognizant
For IT organizations, digital transformation can be an especially daunting task. Keeping up with and managing ever-evolving technologies and applications entails four essential components that help accelerate time to market, minimize project risk; automate and handle thousands of requirements, enrich collaboration and manage costs.
TIPA (Tudor IT Process Assessment) is an internationally-recognized framework that uses the principles of the ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE) standard for IT process assessment within an organization. The framework offers a turnkey solution to determine the maturity levels of IT processes that are aligned with IT best practices such as ITIL® and ISO/IEC 20000, and enables process improvements.
Your Challenge
As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating.
Vendors use a lot of marketing jargon, buzzwords, and statistics to sell their solutions, making objective evaluation rather difficult.
The endpoint protection (EPP) market is overcrowded and fragmented, resulting in information overload and consequently, a difficult vendor assessment.
Disparate product solutions are being bundled into one-off solutions or suites, often resulting in less efficient solutions than the more niche players.
Imminent obsolescence is an issue. Previous EPP solutions have not adapted with the rapidly evolving threat landscape and are no longer relevant, resulting in breaches or vulnerabilities.
Critical Insight
Don’t let vendors and market reports define your endpoint protection needs. Identify the use cases and corresponding feature sets that best align with your risk profile before evaluating the vendor marketspace.
Your security controls are diminishing in value (if they haven’t already). Develop a strategy that accounts for the rapid evolution and imminent obsolescence of your endpoint controls. Plan for future needs when making purchasing decisions today.
Endpoint protection is a matter of defense in depth and risk modelling, there is no silver bullet protection and mitigation solution. As end-client-technology providers release regular product/software updates, security tools will become outdated. Multiyear endpoint protection commitments will leave you playing a constant game of catch up.
Impact and Result
The solution is a holistic internal security assessment that not only identifies, but satisfies, your desired endpoint protection feature set with the corresponding endpoint protection suite and a comprehensive implementation strategy.
Use this blueprint to walk through the steps of selecting and implementing an endpoint protection solution that best aligns with your organizational needs.
Your Challenge
Companies understand the importance of business process improvement (BPI) and recognize the touted benefits: cost savings, waste elimination, and process efficiency.
With this said, 70% of companies that embark on process improvement initiatives fail.
The high probability of failure is attributed to a number of factors, including lack of continuous improvement and failing to define measurable outcomes.
Our Advice
Adopt a forward-facing outlook. Don’t focus solely on the current state, set improvement targets upfront to drive the initiative.
Break problems down into root-cause variables. Don’t look at the symptom, dive deeper and alleviate the root cause.
Empower business analysts. Create a practical process improvement methodology that your analysts can follow.
Impact and Result
Kick off process improvement by identifying the goals and defining the improvement targets.
Start by referring to the operating model and identifying level 1, 2, and 3 processes. Once the team understands the relationship between processes, they can begin to map a level 3 process using a standard mapping notation.
Use qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing the root cause rather than the symptoms.
Ensure the design is aligned with the initial improvement targets. Focus on value-added activities.
Consistently monitor the process and assess the root-cause variables to gauge the success of the process improvements.
Your Challenge
Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
Vendors have well-honed negotiating strategies. Without understanding your own position and leverage points, it’s difficult to withstand their persuasive – and sometimes pushy – tactics.
Software – and software licensing – is constantly changing, making it difficult to acquire and retain subject matter expertise.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software contract review.
Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
Learning to negotiate is crucial.
Impact and Result
Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
Redline the terms and conditions of your software contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.
Your Challenge
Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”
Impact and Result
Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and takes a balanced approach toward deploying changes, while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
Establish easy-to-follow intake, assessment, and approval processes, and ensure that there is visibility into changes across the organization.
Your Challenge
Infrastructure, by focusing on the reliability, availability, and serviceability of existing platforms, is perceived as a cost center rather than a business enabler.
Business stakeholders look to external vendors, rather than Infrastructure, to exploit emerging technologies. This leads to duplication of effort, inconsistent standards, and ineffective IT governance.
Infrastructure directors are unable to draw a line showing how their activities directly support the overall business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Think of the roadmap as a service, not a product. Its value is inversely proportional to the time since its last update.
Alignment perception issues can be addressed by having the infrastructure practice formally engage and communicate with business stakeholders.
Shadow IT can provide business-ready initiatives that need only to be tweaked to align with Infrastructure’s internal goals.
Impact and Result
This blueprint will help you build:
A formal channel and way of communicating value bottom-up and top-down between IT and the executive team.
A methodology to prioritize and create projects that generate business value.
A tool that can produce multiple outputs of value for different audiences using the same data.
An ongoing roadmap process, rather than a static document, that is able to adjust and react to evolving business circumstances.
Your Challenge
Risk is an unavoidable part of IT. And what you don't know, can hurt you. The question is, do you tackle risk head-on or leave it to chance?
Get a handle on risk management quickly using Info-Tech's methodology and reduce unfortunate IT surprises.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
1. IT risk is business risk.
Every IT risk has business implications. Create an IT risk management program that shares risk accountability with the business.
2. Risk is money.
It’s impossible to make intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what they’re worth.
3. You don’t know what you don’t know.
And what you don’t know can hurt you – so find out. To find hidden risks, you need a structured approach.
Impact and Result
Stop leaving IT risk to chance. Transform your ad hoc IT risk management processes into a formalized, ongoing program and increase risk management success by 53%.
Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest risks before they happen.
Involve key stakeholders including the business senior management team to gain buy-in and to focus on IT risks that matter most to the organization.
Share accountability for IT risk with business stakeholders and have them weigh-in on prioritizing investments in risk response activities.
Your Challenge
Companies are approving more projects than they can deliver. Most organizations say they have too many projects on the go and an unmanageable and ever-growing backlog of things to get to.
While organizations want to achieve a high throughput of approved projects, many are unable or unwilling to allocate an appropriate level of IT resourcing to adequately match the number of approved initiatives.
Portfolio management practices must find a way to accommodate stakeholder needs without sacrificing the portfolio to low-value initiatives that do not align with business goals.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Failure to align projects with strategic goals and resource capacity are the most common causes of portfolio waste across organizations. Intake, approval, and prioritization represent the best opportunities to ensure this alignment.
More time spent with stakeholders during the ideation phase to help set realistic expectations for stakeholders and enhance visibility into IT’s capacity and processes is key to both project and organizational success.
Too much intake red tape will lead to an underground economy of projects that escape portfolio oversight, while too little intake formality will lead to a wild west of approvals that could overwhelm the PMO. Finding the right balance of intake formality for your organization is the key to establishing a PMO that has the ability to focus on the right things.
Impact and Result
Eliminate off-the-grid initiatives by establishing a centralized intake process that funnels requests into a single channel.
Improve the throughput of projects through the portfolio by incorporating the constraint of resource capacity to cap the amount of project approvals to that which is realistic.
Silence squeaky wheels and overbearing stakeholders by establishing a progressive approval and prioritization process that gives primacy to the highest value requests.
Read this Executive Brief to understand why your team should make the case to modernize your communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Understand why it's time to move forward with modernizing your communications infrastructure.
Discover the productivity and efficiency gains you can achieve.
Redefine how you think about communications.
Learn how to build a strategy that addresses both unified communications and collaboration.
Understand Info-Tech's methodology and approach to modernizing communications and collaboration infrastructure.
Your Challenge
Organizations have to adapt to a growing number of trends, putting increased pressure on IT to move at the same speed as the business.
The business, seeing that IT is slower to react, looks to external solutions to address its challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
IT and business leaders don’t have a clear and unified understanding or definition of an operating model.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The IT operating model is not a static entity and should evolve according to changing business needs.
However, business needs are diverse, and the IT organization must recognize that the business includes groups that consume technology in different patterns. The IT operating model needs to support and enable multiple groups, while continuously adapting to changing business conditions.
Impact and Result
Determine how each technology consumer group interacts with IT. Use consumer experience maps to determine what kind of services consumer groups use and if there are opportunities to improve the delivery of those services.
Identify how changing business conditions will affect the consumption of technology services. Classify your consumers based on business uncertainty and reliance on IT to plan for the future delivery of services.
Optimize the IT operating model. Create a target IT operating model based on the gathered information about technology service consumers. Select different implementations of common operating model elements: governance, sourcing, process, and structure.
Info-Tech is the most innovative firm in the industry, and we pride ourselves on delivering better research than anyone.
Become a member and unlock a range of data-driven tools and resources to drive systematic IT improvement.
Your Challenge
It is difficult to start the project, engage the right people, and find the necessary requirements to drive the value of an enterprise architecture operating model.
It is challenging to navigate the common enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks and right-size them for your organization.
The EA practice may struggle to effectively collaborate with the business when making decisions, resulting in outcomes that fail to engage stakeholders.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The benefits of an EA program are only realized when all components of the operating model enable the achievement of the program goals and objectives. Many times organizations overplay the governance card while ignoring the motivational aspects that can be addressed through the organization's structure or stakeholder relations.
Info-Tech’s methodology ensures that all components of an EA operating model are considered to optimize the performance of the EA program.
Impact and Result
Place and structure your EA team to address the needs of stakeholders and deliver on the previously created strategy.
Create an engagement model by understanding each relevant process of COBIT 5 and make stakeholder interaction cards to initiate conversations.
Recognize the need for governance and formulate the appropriate boards while considering various policies, principles, and compliance.
Develop a unique architecture development framework based on best-practice approaches with an understanding of the various architectural views to ensure the creation of a successful process.
Build a communication plan and roadmap to efficiently navigate through enterprise change and involve the necessary stakeholders.
Your Challenge
Business transformations are happening, but CIOs are often involved only when it comes time to implement change. This makes it difficult for the CIO to be perceived as an organizational leader.
CIOs find it difficult to juggle operational activities, strategic initiatives, and involvement in business transformation.
CIOs don’t always have the IT organization structured and mobilized in a manner that facilitates the identification of transformation opportunities, and the planning for and the implementation of organization-wide change.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t take an ad hoc approach to transformation.
You’re not in it alone.
Your legacy matters
Impact and Result
Elevate your stature as a business leader.
Empower the IT organization to act with a business mind first, and technology second.
Create a high-powered IT organization that is focused on driving lasting change, improving client experiences, and encouraging collaboration across the entire enterprise.
Generate opportunities for organizational growth, as manifested through revenue growth, profit growth, new market entry, new product development, etc.
Craft an End-to-End Data Center Consolidation Strategy to Maximize BenefitsInfo-Tech Research Group
Your Challenge
Data center operating costs continue to escalate as organizations struggle with data center sprawl.
While data center consolidation is an attractive option to reduce cost and sprawl, the complexity of these projects makes them extremely difficulty to execute.
The status quo is also not an option, as budget constraints and the challenges with managing multiple data centers continues to increase.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Despite consolidation being an effective way of addressing sprawl, it is often difficult to secure buy-in and funding from the business.
Many consolidation projects suffer cost overruns due to unforeseen requirements and hidden interdependencies which could have been mitigated during the planning phase.
Organizations that avoid consolidation projects due to their complexity are just deferring the challenge, while costs and inefficiencies continue to increase.
Impact and Result
Successful data center consolidation will have an immediate impact on reducing data center sprawl. Maximize your chances of success by securing buy-in from the business.
Avoid cost overruns and unforeseen requirements by engaging with the business at the start of the process. Clearly define business requirements and establish common expectations.
While cost improvements often drive data center consolidation, successful projects will also improve scalability, operational efficiency, and data center redundancy.
Your Challenge
Organizations are struggling to keep up with today’s evolving threat landscape.
From technology sophistication and business adoption to the proliferation of hacking techniques and the expansion of hacking motivations, organizations are facing major security risks.
Every organization needs some kind of information security program to protect their systems and assets.
Organizations today face pressure from regulatory or legal obligations, customer requirement, and now, senior management expectations.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Performing an accurate assessment of your current security operations and maturity levels can be extremely hard when you don’t know what to assess or how to assess it.
Alignment can be a difficult area for security to get right when it’s trying to balance both regular IT and the business.
Communication is needed between the business leaders, IT leaders, and the security team for an effective security strategy to be in place.
Impact and Result
Info-Tech has analyzed and integrated regulatory and industry best practice frameworks, combining COBIT 5, PCI DSS, ISO 27000, NIST SP800-53, and SANS to ensure an exhaustive approach to security.
Through this process, a comprehensive current state assessment, gap analysis, and initiative generation ensures that nothing is left off the table.
This project will elevate the perception of the security team from being a hindrance to the organization to an enabler.
Your Challenge
Even though organizations are now planning for Application Integration (AI) in their projects, very few have developed a holistic approach to their integration problems resulting in each project deploying different tactical solutions.
Point-to-point and ad hoc integration solutions won’t cut it anymore: the cloud, big data, mobile, social, and new regulations require more sophisticated integration tooling.
Loosely defined AI strategies result in point solutions, overlaps in technology capabilities, and increased maintenance costs; the correlation between business drivers and technical solutions is lost.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Involving the business in strategy development will keep them engaged and align business drivers with technical initiatives.
An architectural approach to AI strategy is critical to making appropriate technology decisions and promoting consistency across AI solutions through the use of common patterns.
Get control of your AI environment with an appropriate architecture, including policies and procedures, before end users start adding bring-your-own-integration (BYOI) capabilities to the office.
Your Challenge:
As Portfolio Manager, you’re responsible for communicating portfolio results and future capacity to your steering committee.
Business and IT leaders need more accurate information on project status and resource availability to decide when to start and stop projects.
You need to better understand the needs of the PMO and assess the costs and benefits associated with different tools and approaches to PPM.
Our Advice - Critical Insight:
PPM is a practice, not a tool. Before succeeding with a commercial tool, you need to establish discipline and trust around reporting processes, which can be done using spreadsheets and other simple tools.
Portfolio management is separate from project management. Think of it as the accounting department for time. Project managers report into the portfolio and are held accountable to it, but it isn’t simply an extension of project management.
Our Advice - Impact and Result:
Decrease the wasted portfolio budget by reducing the number of cancelled projects and other sources of efficiency.
Establish the portfolio as the “one source of truth” for project reporting by increasing rigor around project status updating and reporting.
Align project intake with resource capacity to improve throughput, quality of estimates, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Your Challenge:
Implementing a shared services model is a difficult process to undertake, and is comprised of many different components. Becoming a shared services provider is comparable to becoming a vendor and most IT groups don’t have the capabilities to easily make the transition.
Most companies look to achieve cost reductions through offering a shared services model. Adopting a shared services model doesn’t always result in these intended cost reductions. Simply combining the operations of two IT organizations doesn’t necessarily result in economies of scale and cost efficiencies. Before leaping forward with your shared services implementation, determine if the project will deliver value to your organization.
Our Advice - Critical Insight:
Implementing a shared services model needs to be viewed as more than simply extending a current service to other sites. The organization providing services essentially turns into a vendor. As a vendor, think of the IT service you’re offering as the “product.”
Remember that there are people, process, and technology capability pre-requisites to successfully becoming a shared services provider. These capabilities are not typical for the average IT shop, and need to be taken into consideration when you look to transition to a shared services model.
Our Advice - Impact and Result:
Before jumping into the implementation of your shared services project, assess your customer requirements and your current people, process, and technology capabilities to assess whether your organization is ready to implement a shared services model.
Understand the financial implications of moving to a shared services model prior to implementing. Make sure there is a strong case for implementation.
Your Challenge:
Situation
Enterprise Architecture increases the organization’s ability to provide consistent services, accessible information, scalable infrastructure, and flexible technology integration on demand. It helps bridge the gap between business and IT and creates a shared enterprise vision.
Complication
EA programs that are run without the required EA capability level are prone to failure.
EA capability optimization and EA operating model design skills are not common, as they are not everyday tasks.
Our Advice:
Critical Insight
Using this research while assessing and optimizing your EA capability will help you:
Architect the EA capability by applying four architectural perspectives: Contextual, Conceptual, Logical, and Physical. Develop an EA Operating Model starting at the contextual level, and proceeding through to the physical.
Develop a sponsored mandate for EA capability. Identify and engage EA capability stakeholders. Determine organizational scope, i.e. responsibility and authority of EA. Identify business drivers for optimizing an EA capability. Analyze organizational context. Secure executive support and authorization to execute.
Establish EA capability purpose and strategic direction. Write EA capability vision statement. Craft EA capability mission statement. Define EA capability goals and measures. Create EA principles. Assess current and determine target EA capability level.
Document EA management process. Define EA management practices. Define interactions between EA management and other processes. Define EA capability performance and value measurement approach.
Design EA organization and roles. Design EA organization structure. Define EA roles. Define required skills and proficiency levels for EA roles. Determine required EA staff capacity.
Standardize EA tools and work products. Establish an EA repository. Decide on EA tools to be used. Define EA artifacts and work products.
Develop an EA capability improvement plan. Consolidate and refine steps required to roll out the target EA operating model and improve EA capability. Draw an EA capability improvement roadmap.
Your Challenge:
Impending audits intimidate CIOs and business executives – and for good reason.
A failed audit can result in punitive fines and injunctions that disrupt continuing operations until violations are resolved.
These highly visible failures are best prevented through auditor-enterprise collaboration and pragmatic audit management.
Our Advice:
Critical Insight
Shift the audit paradigm: auditors need to be enabled, not resisted.
Auditors provide a value-added service that you are paying for. Establishing an effective relationship and enabling the audit team can ensure you get value from the engagement. However, you must also be vigilant in mitigating the risk of damaging findings
.
Impact and Result
Effective audit management means acting with kindness to establish an effective relationship and taking vigilant, calculated steps to reduce the risk of adverse findings.
Clarify the audit scope and prepare documentation in advance.
Start off on a positive note and enable the auditor.
Manage audit logistics to minimize business disruption.
Dispute unwarranted findings.
Continuously improve your auditability.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
2. Info-Tech Research Group 2Info-Tech Research Group 2
Business leaders sometimes assume that standardizing the service
desk is simply a matter of buying the right tool or sorting out the
analysts who handle the initial tickets. This mistake is behind more
than one misguided service desk standardization projects and most
hasty ITSM tool purchases.
Service desk technologies and processes are definitely part of the
equation, but the variables extend far beyond the first tier of the
service desk. Improving service support is an exercise in
organizational change. The goal is to work toward establishing a
single service-support team across the IT group and supporting it
with a cooperative, customer-focused culture.
Focus on building the standardized processes for incident
management and service request fulfillment one group at a time until
everyone who touches a ticket embraces the same set of processes and
technologies.
Sandi Conrad,
Senior Director, Infrastructure Practice
Info-Tech Research Group
ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
3. Info-Tech Research Group 3Info-Tech Research Group 3
This Research is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
This Research Will Assist:
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
This Research Will Also Assist:
A method for getting your service desk out of firefighter mode
• The CIO and Service Manager who need to
increase service desk effectiveness and
timeliness, and improve end-user satisfaction.
• The Service Manager who wants to lead the
team out of firefighting mode to providing
consistent and proactive support.
• Create a consistent customer service
experience for service desk patrons.
• Increase efficiency, first-call resolution, and
end-user satisfaction with the Service Desk.
• Decrease time and cost to resolve service
desk tickets.
• Understand and address reporting needs to
address root causes and measure success.
• Build a solid foundation for future IT service
improvements.
• Enhance demand planning and trend
reporting.
• Services teams who want to increase their
own effectiveness and move from a help desk
to a service desk.
• Infrastructure and Applications Managers
who want to decrease reactive support
activities within their teams.
4. Info-Tech Research Group 4Info-Tech Research Group 4
Resolution
Situation
Complication
Executive summary
• Most service desk managers are worried about tools and staffing. They
never feel they have the right technology or enough people to provide
the level of service the business needs.
• If only the phone could stop ringing, the Service Desk could become
proactive, address service levels, and improve end-user IT satisfaction.
• Not everyone embraces their role in service support. Specialists would
rather work on projects than provide service support.
• The Service Desk lacks processes and workflows to provide consistent
service. Service desk managers struggle to set and meet service-level
expectations, which further compromises end-user satisfaction.
• Go beyond the blind adoption of best-practice frameworks. No simple formula exists for improving service desk maturity.
Use diagnostic tools to assess the current state of the Service Desk. Identify service support challenges and draw on best-
practice frameworks intelligently to build a structured response to those challenges.
• An effective Service Desk must be built on the right foundations. Understand how:
o Service desk structure affects cost and ticket volume capacity.
o Incident management workflows can improve ticket handling, prioritization, and escalation.
o Request fulfillment processes create opportunities for streamlining and automating services.
o Knowledge-sharing supports the processes and workflows essential to effective service support.
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new.
A new service desk tool alone won’t solve
the problem. Service desk maturity
improvements depend on putting in place
the right people and processes to support
the technology.
If they build it, they will come.
Service desk improvement is an exercise
in organizational change. Engage
specialists across the IT organization in
building the solution, and emphasize how
everyone stands to benefit from the
initiative.
5. Info-Tech Research Group 5Info-Tech Research Group 5
Directors and executives understand the importance of the
service desk and believe IT can do better
Info-Tech Research Group’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program
assesses the importance and effectiveness of core IT processes. Since its inception, the
MGD has consistently identified the service desk as an area for immediate improvement.
Service Desk
Importance Scores
No Importance: 1.0-6.9
Limited Importance: 7.0-7.9
Significant Importance: 8.0-8.9
Critical Importance: 9.0-10.0
Service Desk
Effectiveness Scores
Not in Place: N/A
Not Effective: 0.0-4.9
Somewhat Ineffective: 5.0-5.9
Somewhat Effective: 6.0-6.9
Very Effective: 7.0-10.0
Source: Info-Tech, 2016; (n=3,285)
7.6
7.0
6.4
6.7
9.0 8.9 8.9 8.7
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
Frontline Manager Director Executive
MGDScore
Seniority Level
Effectiveness Importance
6. Info-Tech Research Group 6Info-Tech Research Group 6
Since 2013, Info-Tech has surveyed
over 20,000 business stakeholders as
part of our CIO Business Vision
program.
Business stakeholders ranked the
following 12 core IT services in terms of
importance.
Network Infrastructure
Service Desk
Business Applications
Data Quality
Devices
Analytical Capability
Client-Facing Technology
Work Orders
Innovation Leadership
Projects
IT Policies
Requirements Gathering
11
10
12
1
2
4
5
8
9
7
6
3
Top IT Services for Business Stakeholders
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2016; (n=21,367)
Learn more about
the CIO Business
Vision program.
Business stakeholders consistently rank the service desk as
one of the most important services that IT provides
7. Info-Tech Research Group 7Info-Tech Research Group 7
Increase business satisfaction:
• Improve confidence that the service desk can meet service levels.
• Create a single point of contact for incidents and requests, and
escalate quickly.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs:
• Empower end users and technicians with a targeted knowledgebase.
• Cross-train to improve service consistency.
Reduce recurring issues:
• Create tickets for every task and categorize them accurately.
• Generate reliable data to support root-cause analysis.
Enhance demand planning:
• Analyze trends to forecast and meet shifting business requirements.
Having an effective and timely service desk correlates with
higher end-user satisfaction with all other IT services
“Satisfied” end users had average scores of 8-10.
“Dissatisfied" end users had average score of 1-6.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2016;
(n=25,998)
On average, end users who were
satisfied with service desk effectiveness
rated all other IT processes 55.9%
higher than dissatisfied end users.
End users who were satisfied with
service desk timeliness rated all other IT
processes 54.3% higher than
dissatisfied end users.
Embrace Standardization
• Over time, organizations without standardized processes become a
mass of confusion, redundancies, and cost overruns. Standardization
prevents organizations from wasting energy on reinventing solutions to
recurring issues.
• Prepare your organization to scale its IT services with standardized
processes that promote creativity while defining repeatable approaches
to work. That way, process maturity increases with the size of your
organization.
5.2 5.4
8.0 8.1
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Service Desk
Effectiveness
Service Desk
Timeliness
AverageSatisfactionwithITServices
Dissatisfied End User Satisfied End Users
+55.9% +51.3%
8. Info-Tech Research Group 8Info-Tech Research Group 8
Use the Service Management Efficiency Calculator to assess
the business impact of your own service desk project
The Service Management Efficiency Calculator helps organizations
calculate the business impact of service management initiatives like the
standardize the service desk project.
The tool tracks the impact of service desk staffing and average resolution
cost, which sheds light into the project’s impact on the service desk’s
operating costs.
For instance, standardizing the service desk should:
• Reduce the average ticket resolution time.
• Reduce the ticket volume.
These two reductions are expressed in terms of total productivity hours
saved and average employee costs to generate the project’s profitability
contribution.
To use the tool:
1. Define the number of average annual productive hours, and
average employee costs in Section 1, Tab 2.
2. Define the average call resolution time, ticket volume, ticket
distribution, and total number of end users supported.
3. Estimate targeted reductions in average call resolution time and
ticket volume.
4. Document the results of the efficiency assessment in the Service
Desk Executive Presentation.
Where do I find the data?
Consult:
• Service Manager
• Service Desk Tools
9. Info-Tech Research Group 9Info-Tech Research Group 9
More than a hundred organizations engaged
with Info-Tech, through advisory calls and
workshops, for their service desk projects in
2016. Their goal was either to improve an
existing service desk or build one from
scratch.
Organizations who estimated the business
impact of each project phase help us shed
light on the average measured value of the
engagements.
Sum of Measured Value
Dollar Impact
Average Measured Value
Dollar Impact
$10,127.00
USD
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2016; (n=74)
Standardize the service desk the Info-Tech way to get
measurable results
Average Measured Value
Time Saved
$749,397.78
USD
The analysts are an amazing resource for this
project. Their approach is very methodical,
and they have the ability to fill in the big
picture with detailed, actionable steps. There
is a real opportunity for us to get off the
treadmill and make real IT service
management improvements.
– Rod Gula, IT Director
American Realty Advisors
15 Days
10. Info-Tech Research Group 10Info-Tech Research Group 10
Info-Tech’s approach to service desk standardization focuses
on building service management essentials
Phase 1:
Lay service desk
foundations
Phase 2:
Design incident
management
Phase 3:
Design request
fulfilment
Build service desk
structure
Assess current state
1.2
1.1
Build incident
identification and
logging processes
Build incident
management
workflows
2.2
2.1
Build request
workflows
Prepare for a service
catalog project
3.2
3.1
• Current state assessment
• Diagnostic: end-user survey
• Organizational chart
• Service desk staffing
• Incident and critical incident
management workflows
• Categorization scheme
• Prioritization matrix
• Escalation guidelines
• Request vs. project criteria
• Ticket channels
• Ticket templates
Phase 4:
Plan implementation
Build communication
plan
Identify ITSM
tool requirements
4.2
4.1
• ITSM tool requirements
• Vendor shortlist
• Communication plan
• Executive presentation
• Implementation Gantt chart
• Sunshine diagram
Identify skills, roles,
and responsibilities
Identify metrics and
reports
1.4
1.3
• Skills gap analysis
• Roles and responsibilities
• Metrics and reports
Deliverables
Design ticket
categorization
2.3
Design incident
escalation and
prioritization
2.4
Build self-help tools3.3
Build implementation
roadmap4.3
3.4
Build a targeted
knowledgebase
• KB article template
• KB process and workflow
• Request workflows
• Service design checklist
11. Info-Tech Research Group 11Info-Tech Research Group 11
Info-Tech Research Group’s approach to service desk
standardization focuses on building essential best practices
Consolidate
Build a strategic
roadmap to consolidate
service desks to reduce
end-user support costs
and sustain end-user
satisfaction.
Standardize
Build essential incident,
service request, and
knowledge management
processes to create a
sustainable service desk
that meets business
needs.
Extend
Facilitate the extension of
service management best
practices to other business
functions to improve
productivity and position IT
as a strategic partner.
Our Approach to the Service Desk
Service desk optimization goes
beyond the blind adoption of best-
practice frameworks.
Info-Tech’s approach focuses on
controlling support costs and making
the most of IT’s service management
expertise to improve productivity.
Complete the projects sequentially
or in any order.
Info-Tech’s
Service Desk
Methodology
Adopt Lean
Build value map incident
management and request
fulfilment workflows, and
focus the service desk’s
efforts on high-value-
added activities.
Improve
Build a continual
improvement plan for the
service desk to review and
evaluate key processes
and services, and manage
the progress of
improvement initiatives.
Select and Implement
Review mid-market and
enterprise service desk
tools, select an ITSM
solution, and build an
implementation plan to
ensure your investment
meets your needs.
12. Info-Tech Research Group ‹#›
Info-Tech Research Group Helps IT Professionals To:
Quickly get up to speed
with new technologies
Make the right technology
purchasing decisions – fast
Deliver critical IT
projects, on time and
within budget
Manage business expectations
Justify IT spending and
prove the value of IT
Train IT staff and effectively
manage an IT department
Toll Free: 1-888-670-8889