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From the Blogosphere Top-Performing IT Help Desk | @CloudExpo @Zoho #DevOps #ITSM #AI #DX
Tips to ensure help desks delivers exceptional service while maximizing productivity
May. 30, 2017 07:30 PM
Seven Essentials for a Top-Performing IT Help Desk The help desk forms the backbone of IT operations for many federal, state and local government agencies. In fact, the cross-functional nature of its operation means the help desk directly impacts productivity and is an essential part of what enables an agency to meet its stakeholder needs. However, owing to increasingly complex IT environments, managers struggle to ensure that their help desks are operating at optimum efficiency. This seven-point guide will help IT managers ensure their help desks deliver exceptional service while maximizing productivity. 1. Create the right structure: Properly structuring an IT help desk can greatly improve its efficiency. Organize help desks into multiple levels or tiers. In a three-tier help desk, for example, tier 0 can be a self-service portal, with tiers 1, 2 and 3 made up of technicians with increasing levels of knowledge and skill. Depending on the complexity of the issue in a ticket, issues can be routed to the appropriate tier. IT managers should also set up a channel for inter-level communication and escalations. 2. Queue and assign requests: Most help desks address tickets on a priority basis, with higher priority tasks taking up most of the technicians' productive time. Other tickets can remain unaddressed until a technician responds to it, leading to higher turnaround times and violations of service-level agreements. Queue up tickets on a first-come, first-served basis and use automated assignment models like round robin and load balancing to keep on top of requests. Priority-based business rules can also be applied to ticket assignments. 3. Conduct end-user surveys: To better evaluate the help desk's performance IT managers should assess critical success factors like processes, technicians and technology. Technicians should be evaluated on their responsiveness and speed of ticket resolution; processes by the ease of submitting a ticket, reaching a technician and receiving support; and technology by the ease of communication. To get feedback on individual tickets, send a survey to users when their tickets are closed. For higher-scale feedback, conduct annual or semi-annual surveys. 4. Empower end users with self-service: Users often encounter simple and repetitive issues that they can resolve themselves, which can take some of the burden off of the IT help desk team. To help end users solve their own problems, create a self-service portal that provides information and solutions as well as a service catalog where they can easily view and choose the services they need. Additionally, a self-service portal can be used to make organization wide announcements to keep users informed about any issues, planned maintenance, etc. 5. Better manage routine tasks: IT help desks often carry out periodical tasks like changing a printer's toner or performing system checks. These tasks can be managed in two ways:
6. Generate reports with targeted key performance indicators: To gauge help desk performance, one tell-all report will not suffice for all stakeholders. Generate targeted reports and, for starters, measure the following:
Presenting those metrics as scorecards is an effective way to monitor help desk performance at a higher level and can be particularly useful for strategists and decision makers. 7. Increase collaboration and communication: On certain occasions, technicians communicate back and forth extensively with the requester. Technicians may spend considerable time switching between applications and typing out emails. This overhead can be eliminated by using a help desk tool that sends and receives emails from within the request. Canned text for routine responses and resolutions will further reduce the need to manually type emails. Government agencies have now started looking at IT help desks as value additions rather than cost centers. To meet the needs of stakeholders, agency help desks have had to keep pace with the evolution of emerging and increasingly complex technologies. The tips above can set up an IT help desk for success and add value for agency users. As first published in GCN. ### Ujjwal Sood is a product analyst at ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corp. He works in the ITSM products division for the flagship product ServiceDesk Plus. He tracks emerging IT technologies and studies their impact and application in the IT service management context. When not immersed in reading IT industry reports or writing articles, he morphs into a coach for the company's cricket team. For more information on ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, please visit www.manageengine.com; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter @ManageEngine. @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo taking place June 6-8, 2017, at Javits Center, New York City, and is co-located with the 20th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. DevOps at Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo 2017 New York DevOps at Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo 2017 Silicon Valley Download Show Prospectus ▸ Here The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long development cycles that produce software that is obsolete at launch. DevOps may be disruptive, but it is essential. @DevOpsSummit will expand the DevOps community, enable a wide sharing of knowledge, and educate delegates and technology providers alike. Recent research has shown that DevOps dramatically reduces development time, the amount of enterprise IT professionals put out fires, and support time generally. Time spent on infrastructure development is significantly increased, and DevOps practitioners report more software releases and higher quality. Sponsors of @DevOpsSummit will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021. The World's Largest "Cloud Digital Transformation" Event @CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2017 New York @CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2017 Silicon Valley Full Conference Registration Gold Pass and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here Register For @CloudExpo ▸ Here via EventBrite Register For @ThingsExpo ▸ Here via EventBrite Register For @DevOpsSummit ▸ Here via EventBrite Sponsorship Opportunities Sponsors of Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez (@GonzalezCarmen) today by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021. Secrets of Sponsors and Exhibitors ▸ Here All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades. With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation. Track 1. FinTech Delegates to Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo will be able to attend 8 simultaneous, information-packed education tracks. There are over 120 breakout sessions in all, with Keynotes, General Sessions, and Power Panels adding to three days of incredibly rich presentations and content. Join Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo conference chair Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040), June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA for three days of intense Enterprise Cloud and 'Digital Transformation' discussion and focus, including Big Data's indispensable role in IoT, Smart Grids and (IIoT) Industrial Internet of Things, Wearables and Consumer IoT, as well as (new) Digital Transformation in Vertical Markets. Financial Technology - or FinTech - Is Now Part of the @CloudExpo Program! Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 20th Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA will find fresh new content in a new track called FinTech, which will incorporate machine learning, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and blockchain into one track. Financial enterprises in New York City, London, Singapore, and other world financial capitals are embracing a new generation of smart, automated FinTech that eliminates many cumbersome, slow, and expensive intermediate processes from their businesses. FinTech brings efficiency as well as the ability to deliver new services and a much improved customer experience throughout the global financial services industry. FinTech is a natural fit with cloud computing, as new services are quickly developed, deployed, and scaled on public, private, and hybrid clouds. More than US$20 billion in venture capital is being invested in FinTech this year. @CloudExpo is pleased to bring you the latest FinTech developments as an integral part of our program, starting at the 20th International Cloud Expo June 6-8, 2017 in New York City and October 31 - November 2, 2017 in Silicon Valley. @CloudExpo is accepting submissions for this new track, so please visit www.CloudComputingExpo.com for the latest information. Speaking Opportunities The upcoming 20th International @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA announces that its Call For Papers for speaking opportunities is open. Submit your speaking proposal today! ▸ Here Our Top 100 Sponsors and the Leading "Digital Transformation" Companies (ISC)2, 24Notion (Bronze Sponsor), 910Telecom, Accelertite (Gold Sponsor), Addteq, Adobe (Bronze Sponsor), Aeroybyte, Alert Logic, Anexia, AppNeta, Avere Systems, BMC Software (Silver Sponsor), Bsquare Corporation (Silver Sponsor), BZ Media (Media Sponsor), Catchpoint Systems (Silver Sponsor), CDS Global Cloud, Cemware, Chetu Inc., China Unicom, Cloud Raxak, CloudBerry (Media Sponsor), Cloudbric, Coalfire Systems, CollabNet, Inc. (Silver Sponsor), Column Technologies, Commvault (Bronze Sponsor), Connect2.me, ContentMX (Bronze Sponsor), CrowdReviews (Media Sponsor) CyberTrend (Media Sponsor), DataCenterDynamics (Media Sponsor), Delaplex, DICE (Bronze Sponsor), EastBanc Technologies, eCube Systems, Embotics, Enzu Inc., Ericsson (Gold Sponsor), FalconStor, Formation Data Systems, Fusion, Hanu Software, HGST, Inc. 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(Bronze Sponsor), New York Times, Niagara Networks, Numerex, NVIDIA Corporation (AI Session Sponsor), Object Management Group (Association Sponsor), On The Avenue Marketing, Oracle MySQL, Peak10, Inc., Penta Security, Plasma Corporation, Pulzze Systems, Pythian (Bronze Sponsor), Cosmos, RackN, ReadyTalk (Silver Sponsor), Roma Software, Roundee.io, Secure Channels Inc., SD Times (Media Sponsor), SoftLayer (Platinum Sponsor), SoftNet Solutions, Solinea Inc., SpeedyCloud, SSLGURU LLC, StarNet, Stratoscale, Streamliner, SuperAdmins, TechTarget (Media Sponsor), TelecomReseller (Media Sponsor), Tintri (Welcome Reception Sponsor), TMCnet (Media Sponsor), Transparent Cloud Computing Consortium, Veeam, Venafi, Violin Memory, VAI Software, Zerto About SYS-CON Media & Events Cloud Expo®, Big Data Expo® and @ThingsExpo® are registered trademarks of Cloud Expo, Inc., a SYS-CON Events company. Web 2.0 Latest News
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