IT Six Sigma Magazine

Help Desk / Service Desk

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:42:00 +0000

Service Desk DMAIC Phases

Service Desk: Control Stage

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 05:22:00 +0000

Service Desk: Improve Stage

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 05:21:00 +0000

Service Desk: Analyze Stage

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 05:16:00 +0000

by Steven McElwee, 12/27/2005

Analyze Tips

Service Desk: Define Stage

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:14:00 +0000

by Steven McElwee, 12/26/2005

Scope

The Service Desk or Help Desk acts as the primary support liaison between customers or end users and the technology staff. It is responsible for receiving reports of incidents that affect individuals and groups of end users. It is generally considered to be effective only if the Service Desk is able to resolve a significant percentage of requests upon first contact. The Service Desk is generally the coordinator of incident resolution and acts as a communication point both to end users and technologists for incidents.

Opportunities

Creating clear channels for reporting incidents and obtaining resolution has a very positive effect on the overall organization. Keeping end users up and running means that sales representatives are able to spend more time selling, accounts receivable is able to spend more time collecting revenue, and forecasting is able to spend more time optimizing inventory levels. IT support, especially the Service Desk, is a key enabler for improved business performance.

Key Activities

Act as the single point of contact for customers.
Classify incidents and assign the severity level.
Own the incident control process and monitor progress of resolution.
Reporting of incidents.
Dissemination of relevant information to end users.

Critical to Quality (CTQ) Goals

Availability - How quickly the service desk responded to the call or email.
Turn Around Time - How quickly the end-user's request was satisfied.
Communication - How adequately the service desk communicated with the end-users.
Courtesy - How well the analyst listened and empathized with the end-user.

Service Desk: Measure Stage

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 04:11:00 +0000

by Steven McElwee, 12/27/2005

Following is a sample measurement plan for the Help Desk/Service Desk. These are the highest level measurements and relate to customer satisfaction. There are detailed operational metrics that provide additional data and lead to quality in the CTQ goals below.

Availability

Goal	85% of calls answered in less than 30 seconds.
Measurement	Average Speed of Answer Abandon rate Customer satisfaction
Sources	Phone system Customer surveys

Turn Around

Goal	70% of all cases resolved on first contact Service level objectives/agreements met
Measurement	First call resolution percent SLA performance by support team Customer satisfaction
Sources	Help ticket system Customer surveys

Communication

Goal	Customer satisfaction with the level of communication
Measurement	Customer satisfaction
Sources	Customer surveys

Courtesy

Goal	Customer satisfaction with courtesy of analysts
Measurement	Customer satisfaction
Sources	Customer surveys

Release Management

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:44:00 +0000

Change Management

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:44:00 +0000

Configuration Management

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:44:00 +0000

Problem Management

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:43:00 +0000

Incident Management

Steven McElwee — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:43:00 +0000