1. Build a Service Desk Continual Improvement Plan
Teach your old service desk new tricks.
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2. ANALYST PERSPECTIVE Where do we go from here?
Service desk managers often learn the hard way that standardizing their processes is only the start of the service quality journey. Quality service desk processes are not only difficult to build, they’re also difficult to sustain. Service managers who steward mature processes often find themselves stuck at the top of the mountain with no idea how to survive there.
There are three things you can do to put in place improvements that stick: engage, engage, engage. Engage executives; engage informal leaders; engage service desk analysts. Not only will each group have insights that could make or break the service desk improvement, but engaging them will also get them to buy into the process. Ultimately, it will sustain the change process, and help ensure you don’t tumble back down the mountain.
Sandi Conrad,
Senior Director, Infrastructure Practice Info-Tech Research Group

3. Our understanding of the problem
CIOs who need to instill a culture of continual improvement in their IT organization.
IT directors who want to review the strategic direction of their service desk.
Managers of mature service desks who want to make gains in service desk effectiveness, timeliness, and customer service.
Set a strategic vision for the service desk.
Conduct a service desk audit to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Identify and prioritize service desk initiatives to improve the service desk.
Set measurable targets for improvement initiatives.
Design a service desk improvement project that sustains and cements change.
Measure and monitor progress to ensure initiatives achieve the desired outcome.

4. Executive Summary
The ideal service desk offers prompt and cost-effective service that improves service availability, resource use, and productivity. In reality, however, IT managers must work hard to maintain and improve service quality or risk performance deterioration over time.
Lean into incremental improvements. Mature service desks with the capacity for change are ideally situated to respond to shifting business priorities.
It’s easier to climb Mount Everest than to stay there. Without continual service improvement, sustained service desk quality will be temporary. Organizations need to put in place an ongoing process to audit, enhance, and sustain the performance of your service desk whatever your process maturity.
Even service desks with a high degree of process maturity must contend with business priorities that change over time in order to sustain operational excellence.
Without the right leadership, commitment, and processes, improvements in service quality can be difficult to sustain.
Continual service improvement is not only a development plan, but also an organizational culture. The goal is to embed a process of continual improvement in target service desk processes that enhances capabilities and improves service quality over time.
Build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review and evaluate key processes and services, and manage the progress of improvement initiatives. The plan should develop a vision for the service desk, review its architecture, set measurable targets for improvement initiatives, identify relevant initiatives, and manage their progress.
The service desk continual improvement plan is an ongoing process. As one improvement cycle ends, the next cycle begins, which allows the service desk to keep pace with changing business requirements.

5. Our Approach to the Service Desk
Info-Tech Research Group’s approach to service desk optimization focuses on building essential best practices
Extend 03
Facilitate the extension of service management best practices to other business functions to improve productivity and position IT as a strategic partner.
Info-Tech’s
Service Desk
Methodology
Improve 04
Build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review and evaluate key processes and services, and manage the progress of improvement initiatives.
Standardize 02
Build essential incident, service request, and knowledge management processes to create a sustainable service desk that meets business needs.
Lean 05
Use Lean principles to review service desk processes, identify how they create value, and uncover tasks that add waste to your service desk activities.
Our Approach to the Service Desk
Service desk optimization goes beyond the blind adoption of best-practice frameworks.
Our approach focuses on controlling support costs and capitalizing on IT’s service management expertise to improve productivity.
Consolidate 01
Build a strategic roadmap to consolidate service desks to reduce end-user support costs and sustain end-user satisfaction.

6. Put the basics in place before you embark on a service desk continual service improvement initiative
What is continual service improvement?  
Continual service improvement is a proactive approach to service desk management. It involves measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of people, processes, and technology to:
Identify areas for improvement.
Adapt to changes in the business environment.
Align the IT strategy to organizational goals.
A continual improvement process helps service desks move away from a reactive approach to service improvements, which focuses only on fixing problems as they occur.
First things first.
Make sure the basics are in place before you embark on a continual improvement initiative.
Putting in place a continual improvement process for your service desk will improve operational costs and end-user satisfaction, but only once you have consistent incident management and service request fulfillment processes.
Info-Tech Research Group’s Standardize the Service Desk blueprint can help you assess the current state of your service desk, and build consistent processes to support a tiered service desk and a single point of contact for IT services.
The standardize project will help:
Compare current service desk practices against best practices.
Put in place consistent processes for:
Ticket handling
Incident management
Service request fulfillment
Develop a knowledgebase to improve first call resolution and end-user satisfaction.

7. Implement a continual improvement plan to improve the performance of the service desk and consolidate your gains
Implementing a continual improvement plan for the service desk:
Motivates action to make immediate improvements to key target areas.
Adapts service desks to changes in the environment.
Addresses issues proactively.
Demonstrates a commitment to service improvement.
Identifies opportunities for improvement, and measures progress on your initiatives.
Focuses the service desk on providing value to its end users.
Why implement a continual improvement plan for the service desk?
Time
Improvement
Quality
Standards
Continual
improvement
Standardization

8. A continual improvement plan is the most effective initiative you can implement to increase end-user satisfaction
Improved business satisfaction:
Deliver service to the enterprise with confidence.
Channel incidents and requests through a single point of contact.
Escalate incidents quickly and accurately to the right business function.
42.1%
On average, end users who were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT services 42.1% higher than dissatisfied end users.
Fewer recurring issues:
Tickets are created for every incident and categorized correctly.
Reports can be used for root cause analysis.
38.0%
On average, end users who were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT services 38.0% higher than dissatisfied end users.
Increased efficiency / lower cost to serve:
Use FAQs to enable end users to self-solve.
Use a knowledgebase to troubleshoot once, solve many times.
Cross-train to improve service consistency.
Project Benefits
Empower other business functions to provide effective, timely services that meet business needs at a lower cost.
Follow the steps in this project blueprint to guide non-IT partners through the process.
Enhanced demand planning:
Trend analysis and reporting improve service providers beyond IT through the ability to forecast and address the demands of the business.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2015; N=19,349

9. Key Project Deliverables
Project structure
Key Project Deliverables
A service desk assessment (Excel) to assess the maturity of key service desk processes.
A continual service improvement plan (Word) for service desks to organize the project.
A service desk continual service improvement roadmap (Excel) to keep track of all improvement initiatives, prioritize opportunities, break down selected projects into steps, and track your progress.

10. CASE STUDY Executive Brief Case Study – CERN Industry Source
Scientific Research
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
CERN Computing Centre
The European Organization for Nuclear Research is one of world’s largest centers for scientific research, hosting thousands of visiting scientists from around the world. The IT Platform and Engineering Services (PES) group provides batch, interactive, and specialized services to the staff at CERN.
Continual Service Improvement Cycle
The PES group at CERN set out to initiate a continual improvement plan in order to:
Advance the use of ITIL best practices.
Develop a knowledge-sharing culture within the group.
Decrease ticket volume and average resolution time.
Results
After running the program for two years, the PES group increased the percentage of tickets solved by level-two teams from 25% to 43%.
The use of a support structure that allowed for knowledge exchange was critical to project success. The team holds weekly improvement meetings with key stakeholders, and identifies and communicates effectively any necessary training and documentation needs.
The case study continues in step 3.
The Continual Service Improvement Cycle
included the following components:
Decide what should be measured
Decide what can be measured
Gather data
Process data
Analyze data
Present and use the information
Implement corrective action

11. Info-Tech offers various levels of support to suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

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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
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