Service desk system for local area network. What is the difference between Help Desk and Service Desk? Company management: “Service Desk? Personnel reserve! "

Here look. There is a business. There is a service. There are orders, there are headache... You can't just take it this way and deal with all these questions. Especially when you start from scratch. But what can you do, this train has already started - jump on the fly.

Today we will talk about Help Desk systems. What is it, what are they, what solutions already exist, and why they need to be chosen more carefully than a toothbrush. Let's go in order.

What is Help Desk?

In short - a system for accounting applications. If it is long, it is an information system that helps to process requests from customers, partners and in the IT department. Accordingly, there are at least three formats of Help Desk systems oriented to different tasks.

Help Desk formats

In its basic meaning, the word Help Desk is used to describe services for processing customer requests (tools that collect all responses from customers in one database).

This service format was called common word Customer Service ( full work with the client: from, to and on time). This is a large part of all existing cloud solutions, as without them there would be no online business.

Working with applications from legal entities is a separate format of Help Desk systems. The case concerns service companies keeping records of service objects, client equipment and other issues. There are few such solutions, as well as information about their successes. But I will try to tell you about several interesting projects in this direction.

The last (not least important) format in service is "sharpened" for ITSM (IT Service Management). This refers to the management and organization of IT services and everything that follows from this. These are exactly Service Desk solutions, internal technical support. Accounting for applications in your sandbox, where control is also needed.

Today I will try to describe the most interesting solutions found for each format of Help Desk systems. Objectively and to the point.

What Help Desk systems are worth exploring and trying

Happydesk

It is always easier to work with incoming requests when you have a real, multifunctional tool at your fingertips. Create your personal happydesk - and off you go. Are you “happier” using it? Definitely. And there are several reasons for this:

For 2 thousand rubles a month, you can deploy on your own server, set up insignia and integrate with your CRM. Here you can also see archived applications - for marketing analytics;
All popular instant messengers and social media are in operation, as well as direct requests from Email;
It is easy to set up communication routes: each employee has his own area of responsibility;
Customer questions may be repeated from day to day. In this case, templates and templates for answers are provided;
Professional API (and support for revision and implementation) for the development of any technical solutions;
Any data can be traced and controlled on graphs and tables;
Nice widget (although who can you surprise with this today?).

Happydesk service is designed to make it easier for managers once and for all, to do it professionally and with taste. It works with client requests.

HelpDeskEddy

Another tool for the Customer Service format. Simple, straightforward, with a minimum threshold of entry (for a painless transition from other Help Desk systems).

Omnichannel is appreciated here: mail, Vkontakte, Facebook, Telegram. And smart ticket-level support.

Tasty facts:

Ample opportunities for differentiation of rights (you can organize work for the whole company in one place: from top management to support staff);
Integration with IP telephony;
You can transfer the technology to your server and customize for yourself through the API (for large players);
According to the developers, the system holds a load of 5 million applications (Lamoda is a prime example);
Constant development of the project and updates (it's nice to see that your partners are growing).

Additional advantages: communication routes, personalization and your own domain, your own knowledge base, flexible SLA, and also a nice mobile application.

All this is not counting the interactive analytical reports in any aspect (for example, the level of customer satisfaction) and the automation of the process of working with requests due to template responses.

Definitely worth a try.

vsDesk

A strong project to manage your own IT department. The very same technical support, taking into account requests and incidents within the company (although it is possible to work with remote teams and external clients).

The project started in 2012, providing a free program for small businesses. Now it is a completely commercial product for B2B and B2G.

There was and is no SaaS, the system is installed on a corporate server and does not take into account the number of active users (which is beneficial for companies with a large staff).

What are the benefits?

SLA with different metrics (the system itself monitors that everything is on time);
Auto-assignment and re-assignment of responsible persons for each application;
Service quality assessments (so that no one is phoning);
It is possible to connect SMS notifications (and message templates);
Customization of rights and roles is possible (for convenient access to the system for any team member);
A large number of integrations (Active Directory, Asterisk, Slack and others);
Demo version for trial, for processing the first 50 applications.

What else? There are clear installation instructions (and a solid knowledge base), and tariffs start from 30 thousand for small companies. Among the clients: Gazprom, Ministry of Health, TGK.

And this is a really serious product for serious IT people.

Okdesk

Among all the professional tools for processing applications, Okdesk stands apart, he, like the "Black Cloak", appeared out of nowhere and saves people. Not at all ordinary people, and burdened with a stream of client requests ...

I would like to note right away that the tool is focused on post-sales support in b2b (unlike the others). Therefore, it solves the problems of partnership interactions. Okdesk tools also help service companies with specific tasks such as calculating ROI on a service contract, accounting for supported client hardware and software, automating one-off jobs, and other industry-specific issues.

What can Okdesk do?

Multichannel registration, processing, storage and analysis of incoming orders from contractors, partners and manufacturers;
Accounting for service objects or locations (the whole map is at a glance);
Accounting for client equipment and software in relation to locations (to be aware of each point);
Accounting for one-time jobs (for really convenient outsourcing without nerves);
Agreements and SLA, including for subscription and periodic services (digital nirvana for large companies and replacement with additional services for paperwork);
Mobile application (even works offline);
And other ready-made modules that make the service effective, understandable and enjoyable.

The main difference between Okdesk is its focus on target customers. This is a highly specialized solution for medium and small service businesses - companies that need a single tool to solve all the tasks of after-sales service. Everything that is missing in the main settings is easy to implement via the API. By the way, there is integration with more than 20 PBXs.

As such, Okdesk has no competitors in this direction. And this makes him an indispensable assistant for heads of companies from different industries: from IT outsourcing and digital agencies to servicing commercial real estate and various equipment.

IntraService

The IntraService system is the last instrument under the magnifying glass that we will consider today. Solid and powerful.

Main areas of application: can be used both for simple setting of tasks and tracking their implementation, and for organizing a full-fledged Service Desk or providing outsourcing services.

Main advantages: there is a free tariff (up to 3 performers), in the box version there is no limit on the number of performers, Russian development, new versions are released every quarter.

And what about the functionality?

SLA and Work Schedules - the due date can be calculated based on the lead time agreement, taking into account the work schedule;
Acceptance of requests by mail and routing based on conditions (for example, by the presence of keywords in the subject or body of the letter);
Knowledge base with access settings - you can place both materials for internal use and for clients;
Response templates for quick response to frequently created tickets;
Analytical report (KPI) - the ability to track the change in key indicators (for example, the number of completed applications) over time;
Automatic assignment of performers / groups of performers;
Mobile applications (iOS and Android) are indispensable for field workers (and for setting tasks on the fly);
A ready-made module for accepting applications from sites on Bitrix (IntraBitrix).

There is an API: it is made according to REST standards and is designed to solve the following tasks:

To implement the modules "Personal Account" on corporate websites;
For integration with other information systems.

By the way, the clients here were: Siemens, MTS, Renaissance Insurance. This already says something.

Due to its versatility, the service can help many companies that combine Help Desk and Service Desk in servicing, and will serve as an excellent alternative to a multi-format business.

Afterword

It is, of course, silly to advise any one tool. Everyone has a different idea of perfect service and different starting options. But there is a choice. And there is a profitable solution for each format of Help Desk systems. Try it and don't be afraid to change. Everything will pay off ...

If you have your favorite Help Desk system - welcome to the comments. I will be glad to any estimates and opinions.

The most popular and, perhaps, the most convenient method of working in the IT field is the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology. It was developed by a British government agency to streamline relationships with IT service contractors. The original ITIL library consisted of 7 books, of which the main were Service Delivery and Service Support. They described the processes that make up the core of ITIL, including Incident management.

The main purpose of Incident management is the fastest elimination of problems in the IT infrastructure - accidents, equipment problems, etc. To implement the process in the organization, a special department is created, which contacts the employees and coordinates the elimination of problems with the IT department. This department may be called the Service Desk or Help Desk.

ITILs view the IT department as a provider of a specific set of services that support business processes. Accordingly, the service quality level is fixed between the Service Desk service provider and their consumer through SLA (Service Level Agreement) documents. For example, they define the permissible maximum period of inactivity during accidents.

The task of the Service Desk is to register user requests, provide them with the required assistance and involve IT department employees to quickly eliminate problems. Additionally, this service analyzes the statistics of incidents and the time of their elimination. This is necessary to assess and improve the quality of IT service delivery.

Help desk is a narrower concept, it is a tool technical support users.

Service Desk processes in IT

The processes in the Service Desk regulate all the difficulties that arise in the work of the IT department.

Incident Management- a process responsible for the quick resolution of incidents - malfunctions, damages, critical errors that require response. Service Desk registers statistics of incidents and the time of their elimination.

Problem Management- the purpose of this process is to reduce the number of incidents reported to the Service Desk. For this, their causes are identified and eliminated.

Change management- a process that regulates only meaningful changes and the coordination of their implementation among all users of business services.

Release Management- a process that sets a condition not to disrupt the work of the company during the implementation of any changes. The release management process monitors and installs updated versions of software and hardware through the Service Desk.

Service Level Management- a process that determines the number and composition of employees involved, as well as the quality of services in the Service Desk. With his help, the quality level is monitored and operations are carried out to reduce the likelihood that a poor-quality service may be provided.

Financial management- a process that describes the management of finances to support the activities of other processes

Availability Management- tasks related to the availability of IT services; isolated processes are highlighted so that they can be monitored and conclusions can be drawn. Availability is determined by consistency, maintainability, and reliability.

Capacity Management- the task responsible for the management of IT assets.

Continuity Management- control of the continuity of IT services. The main areas of the task are the development, maintenance, implementation and verification of actions to ensure the continuity of business services.

Information Security Management- guarantee of continuous service security and information reliability.

Why do you need to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in a company

Service Desk and Help Desk implementation is beneficial for everyone - business owners, company managers, IT departments and end users. These services eliminate the problems associated with the slow response of IT services to requests. The quality of services of organizations that have several offices and divisions in different regions is also improving. Accordingly, the security of IT infrastructure of companies is improved, costs are reduced and it becomes possible to predict them.

For users, the introduction of Service Desk and Help Desk is characterized by an increase in the level of service provided and a decrease in stoppages due to problems in the IT infrastructure. And for the IT services themselves, implementation such an organization work becomes a solution to the problem when the business cannot understand the requests of IT specialists. It becomes possible to simply justify investments in IT and plan the budget according to the needs in the development of business processes. In addition, the IT department can provide up-to-date and reliable data about its work and increase the availability of its services to users.

The implementation of Service Desk and Help Desk also makes it possible to formulate certain requirements for the employees of IT departments and develop certain skills in them.

These are HDI statistics from the 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report. They also named 10 essential skills for Service Desk employees that are taken into account when hiring them:

Ability to ask questions.
Sociability.
Fast learner.
Diagnostic and problem solving skills.
Ability to work under stressful conditions.
Responsiveness.
Teamwork skills.
Interpersonal skills.
Experience in user support.
Honesty.

Today users are becoming more demanding of the technical level of IT services in their company. This is due to the growing role of self-service in the corporate IT system. An employee with any level of technical literacy can perform simple tasks in the Help Desk - just follow the instructions in the Service Desk scripts.

What will be left to the Service Desk in this case? These will be more complex cases that require much more from the support staff than the ability to read scripts. That is, Service Desk employees need more technical skills.

Thus, the use of the Service Desk allows for quality assurance of the entire IT department. The implementation of the Service Desk allows you to understand how many calls the support service receives, how often equipment breaks down and how well the services are provided. Based on this information, one can draw conclusions about the company's weak points, plan the development of IT infrastructure and train specialists. Accordingly, the implementation of Help Desk systems helps users' requests to be processed quickly, and the management controls the work of company managers, the quality of their service, as well as the efficiency of the IT department.

How to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in IT

When starting to choose Help Desk and Service Desk systems, it is necessary to clearly define the goals facing the IT department in your company. First of all, this concerns the criteria for evaluating its activities. It is necessary to formulate goals, and then fix and formalize the criteria for their achievement.

1. Convince management of the need to implement and maintain an ITSM solution

2. Determine the structure of the IT department

Distribute functional responsibilities and define the algorithms for the work of the IT department. This will be needed to understand the changes in the organization of his work with the implementation of the ITSM system.

3. Define and document the areas of responsibility of the IT department

Define the main goals of customer support and develop a catalog of IT services.

4. Define quality criteria

They will be used to evaluate the services and services provided by the IT department.

5. Determine the order of implementation of changes

Immediately before implementation, it is necessary to determine a clear procedure for introducing changes in the work of companies.

6. Formulate the system requirements

Determine if your system will need to support ITIL processes in the future. Consider automating your help desk further. Define system scaling parameters that will change as your needs grow.

Most of the preparations for implementation must be done before choosing a system. If you do the opposite, then in the future you will have to adapt your business processes to the capabilities of the selected system. This means that you will be forced to proceed from limitations, not opportunities, which will not solve your problems, but can only exacerbate them.

Deskun

The Service Desk system should be implemented if your company has already grown to a full-fledged IT department with a technical support service. However, individual elements of the ITIL methodology can be used even in a small startup. For example, almost any company that makes a product for people needs user support - both customers and employees. To do this, you need to buy or develop and then implement an appropriate system that could work on these two fronts. We have created our own service based on Gmail mail. The web interface of the Google mail client, familiar to users, allows you to organize the work of the Help Desk service for both clients and users, quickly and without attracting additional company resources.

Help desk is a narrower concept, it is a tool for technical support of users.

Service Desk processes in IT

The processes in the Service Desk regulate all the difficulties that arise in the work of the IT department.

Problem Management- the purpose of this process is to reduce the number of incidents reported to the Service Desk. For this, their causes are identified and eliminated.

Change management- a process that regulates only meaningful changes and the coordination of their implementation among all users of business services.

Financial management- a process that describes the management of finances to support the activities of other processes

Capacity Management- the task responsible for the management of IT assets.

Information Security Management- guarantee of continuous service security and information reliability.

Why do you need to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in a company

For users, the introduction of Service Desk and Help Desk is characterized by an increase in the level of service provided and a decrease in stoppages due to problems in the IT infrastructure. And for the IT services themselves, the introduction of such an organization of work becomes a solution to the problem when the business cannot understand the requests of IT specialists. It becomes possible to simply justify investments in IT and plan the budget according to the needs in the development of business processes. In addition, the IT department can provide up-to-date and reliable data about its work and increase the availability of its services to users.

The implementation of Service Desk and Help Desk also makes it possible to formulate certain requirements for the employees of IT departments and develop certain skills in them.

These are HDI statistics from the 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report. They also named 10 essential skills for Service Desk employees that are taken into account when hiring them:

Ability to ask questions.
Sociability.
Fast learner.
Diagnostic and problem solving skills.
Ability to work under stressful conditions.
Responsiveness.
Teamwork skills.
Interpersonal skills.
Experience in user support.
Honesty.

How to implement Help Desk and Service Desk in IT

1. Convince management of the need to implement and maintain an ITSM solution

2. Determine the structure of the IT department

Distribute functional responsibilities and define algorithms for the work of the IT department. This will be needed to understand the changes in the organization of his work with the implementation of the ITSM system.

3. Define and document the areas of responsibility of the IT department

Define the main goals of customer support and develop a catalog of IT services.

4. Define quality criteria

They will be used to evaluate the services and services provided by the IT department.

5. Determine the order of implementation of changes

Immediately before implementation, it is necessary to determine a clear procedure for introducing changes in the work of companies.

6. Formulate the system requirements

Determine if your system will need to support ITIL processes in the future. Consider automating your help desk further. Define system scaling parameters that will change as your needs grow.

Deskun

Service desk system

This software is designed to automate the work of the service department. The main task of the service desk system is to process service requests or incidents that occurred during the operation of certain systems or services of the company. The tasks of this class of software allow you to set the following parameters when creating an order:

Service is a service and a set of characteristics that a service desk provides to a business.
Service level (SLA) is a set of response and decision metrics, a schedule of business hours during which the service desk provides services to the business.
Responsible employee or group is a person or group of people who, as employees of the service department, are responsible for the work this service and can perform troubleshooting work or escalate the incident to the desired level.
An observer is a person or group of people who, as employees of the company, can monitor the progress of a task and give comments or take part in solving a task.
An approver is a person who, being an employee of the company, must give their consent to carry out work, confirm or deny the correctness of a specific request. Usually the coordinator is assigned to a service or service.
Configuration items are universal objects that can consist of assets, software, hardware, and any other complex objects. KEs make it possible to link an incident or an application to a specific equipment and receive reports in the context of this equipment.

Often, in most large companies, systems Service desk must be tightly integrated with the Microsoft Active Directory directory service. This allows you to use a single authorization in the company's services and in the service desk system. Seamless authorization in any corporate system based on Active directory accounts allows you to reduce the time required to implement Service desk systems on large network configurations.

Service desk systems for automating the acceptance of applications within the company, installed on the internal server capacities and administered by the service department. It is in this configuration that it is convenient to integrate with AD and internal mail services.

Service Desk is a kind of dispatch service, which is fully responsible to customers or users for the provision of services agreed with them, is the center for receiving all complaints and suggestions, monitors the current state of services and has the authority to issue orders to eliminate possible failures, as well as to monitor the troubleshooting process. In the very general view it can perform these functions in relation to all (not just IT-related) services provided by the organization and its individual units. However, in the future we will consider only the aspect of supporting IT services.

From such a definition, the need for such a service is not entirely obvious. Let's dwell on this in more detail. In the context of the constant complication of the IT services used and the increasing requirements for them, the issue of the normal functioning of IT infrastructures is tantamount to the issue of business success. Efficient maintenance of the software and hardware used is critical to achieving the organization's business goals.

When a user or client encounters any problem (malfunction, failure, simply inability), he expects to receive qualified assistance in working with the service or product he has purchased. At the same time, he is interested in the fastest possible resolution of the problem. Few things are more annoying than multiple calls to an organization to find there the right person- even more so when you don't really know who you really need.

In addition, even if such an employee is found, he may be busy with some other business (for example, solving the problem of another client). What should be done in this case? Who should prioritize and decide on how to proceed? On what grounds? But what if this happens outside of working hours? Many similar questions can be asked. How can I find answers to them?

To eliminate these and many other problems, the Service Desk is introduced. This term is not generally accepted; such a structure may be called “ Hot line Customer Hot Line, Call Center, Technical Support Center, Help Desk or otherwise. As a rule, the difference in the name hides in itself some difference in functionality.

Having reached this point, a rare reader will not ask the question: how is Service Desk able to help my business? What exactly will I get if I spend the time and money creating such a service? Will it not turn out to be another "freeloader" in an already rather cumbersome IT infrastructure?

The Service Desk provides a single point of contact for users, customers, IT staff, IT services, and potential "outside" organizations that provide any ancillary services (eg, power, external communications, etc.). For the client, this is the most important (strategically) function of the IT department. Indeed, the client, as a rule, uses the services without the help of IT department employees, contacting them only in special cases (for example, when an incident occurs or if he wants to make changes to the structure of the services received) and at the same time communicating with the Service Desk operator. In turn, within the IT department, it is the Service Desk that defends the interests of the client in front of the rest of the staff.

Further, the Service Desk is responsible for resolving the incident. Even if the work is actually performed by employees of other departments (including "external" partners), full accounting of the time of elimination of the incident, control over the elimination process, informing the user about the status of the problem, informing the management about delays in elimination, their reasons - all these are responsibilities Service Desk services. Like the previous one, this function is more focused on the client and the quality of the services provided to him. At the same time, do not forget that the Service Desk must be granted the appropriate rights.

In addition, the Service Desk generates a variety of management information, including the levels of resource utilization; the productivity and efficiency of the services provided; the need for customer training; the total cost of services; shortage of services, etc.

By lowering the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure by improving resource efficiency, enabling change management of IT infrastructure and processes in a distributed business environment, optimizing investments and managing business support functions, identifying business opportunities, helping to ensure customer satisfaction and retain them. Desk participates in the formation of surplus value.

Do not think that Service Desk is needed only in large organizations with a significant number of users and services. Experience has shown that in small structures, the management of resources, technology and the level of documentation of the necessary procedures and decisions can be just as important.

Compared to traditional perceptions, the understanding of the role of Service Desk operators has changed. In the past, they often acted as a barrier against annoying customer demands and shielding staff from overly talkative users. In the modern concept, the operator is obliged to accept as truth all the client's feelings regarding the IT services provided to him and thereby act on his side of the client, seeking from the IT staff to resolve the client's problems. In addition, using modern technologies new opportunities are emerging for maintaining contact with customers: requests can be received not only by telephone, but also by e-mail, fax, website, etc. Additional types communications are preferred mainly for non-business-critical services and / or for non-critical incidents.

So, building a Service Desk can bring real benefits to a wide variety of organizations.

Service Desk Build Rules

How to approach the implementation of the service? There is no universal answer, and it cannot be, since the real conditions are too different. All attempts to offer typical solution doomed to fail. For effective work it is necessary to take into account all the little things, not to mention the fundamental factors, which include global business goals, information system development strategies, etc. At the same time, ITIL recommends a certain group of parameters that must be taken into account without fail.

Service Desk functions and processes

In order to build a really useful service and get the maximum effect from its functioning, it is necessary to initially determine the responsibilities assigned to it, establish the functions it performs and formalize the processes being implemented. You can suggest the following list of basic functions:

Ideally, all these functions should be assigned to the Service Desk. In reality, this can be hindered by a variety of factors: insufficient quantity (or quality) of technologies, staff restrictions, the impossibility of assigning certain responsibilities to this service in connection with corporate policy, etc. However, even partial implementation will allow obtaining a positive effect, albeit in a reduced form; at the same time, it may turn out to be the initial stage implementation of a full-scale system. In general, from the very beginning it is recommended to determine the functions assigned to the service, to establish: which of them and to what extent will be implemented at the first stage, and which - in the future.

Selection and qualification of personnel

V modern conditions only technical knowledge is not enough for Service Desk personnel. Often, successful service departments recruited their staff directly from business units or similar service-oriented organizations, and subsequently trained the recruited staff on the technology and services provided. Today's true Service Desk professional is a specialist in a wide variety of fields and strives for even greater knowledge. He must:

focus on the client;
express your thoughts clearly and systematically;
have interpersonal skills;
speak several languages if necessary;
understand the goals of the business;
remember that: customer problems are important to the business; without clients, the Service Desk will not be needed; clients are experts in their activities;
strive to provide first-class service.

Determining the required number of Service Desk staff will be extremely difficult without analyzing service requirements and workloads. In general, the number of employees employed in the Service Desk depends on the needs of the business and is determined based on the analysis of the following characteristics:

available / required budget;
the level of service expected by customers: the time of service availability (i.e. the periods of time during which the service is operational); response speed (maximum allowable waiting time for a response to a sent request); the scope of the provided capabilities (the number of various functional modules required for the user's work); other parameters that are recommended to be formulated in terms used by the customer;
the size, age, architecture, complexity of the IT infrastructure and the service catalog (for example, the number of incidents with equipment and programs, the level of standardization or uniqueness of the set of workstations, etc.);
number of users supported and associated miscellaneous characteristics (types of incidents, length of time to log incidents different types: simple questions, specialized issues about applications, etc.);
number of incidents;
required time of Service Desk operation;
normal scope of work (daily, at the end of the month, etc.);
general information about the composition of the SLA;
types of communication with the Service Desk (telephone, Email etc.);
the required level of personnel training;
available assistive technologies (telephone systems, programs ...);
implemented processes and procedures.

All of these parameters must be carefully examined before deciding on the number of employees. In addition, their number may depend on the requirements for the levels of documenting incidents. It is worth remembering that the better a service works, the more often its services are used.

As a rule, there is a high turnover among Service Desk operators, so this must be borne in mind in all calculations. It is recommended to schedule periodic training and additional training of personnel.

Creation of conditions for Service Desk work

Having made the decision to create a Service Desk, the management of the organization must be aware of the fact that operators need to create certain conditions for normal work: it is clearly not enough to limit the installation of tables and telephones. The problem becomes even more urgent in cases when it is possible for customers to visit the Service Desk. Many organizations use the space that hosts the Service Desk operators to demonstrate the quality of their services and create a positive customer experience for the entire organization. During the creation of the Service Desk, it is recommended that you:

if possible, place operators in a room separate from the rest of the support staff, where there are convenient places for customers and operators, a low noise level, it is possible to ensure the secrecy of negotiations;
have documentation on all solutions, devices and programs used by clients;
create and maintain up to date a catalog of services provided;
provide for the possibility of organizing conference calls, devices that leave hands free and other technical means for operators.

Particular attention should be paid to the availability of documentation and its relevance. The possibility of automated access to it will reduce the time of communication with the client.

Service work: rules, reporting, control

For each of the designated functions of the Service Desk, the process responsible for this function must be described. It is necessary to clearly designate the sequence of activities, the execution of which will make it possible to declare that this function has been implemented. Being formal and general, the processes do not provide an answer to the question: what exactly should each individual performer do in specific situations. For such concretization, procedures are used - detailed, adapted to each case and each applied technological solution, sets of personnel actions. The procedures should be carefully documented and cover all possible situations. The procedure documentation serves as the basis for employee activities. Employees must be trained on the basis of this documentation and act in accordance with it.

Regular monitoring of the functioning of the service is required. The control procedures can include both the collection of various evaluative information about the quality of its functioning, and the control of the level of preparedness of personnel and the entire service using specially trained "super users" who periodically contact the Service Desk, asking prepared questions and simulating incidents.

In general, the Service Desk is a source of the most diverse useful management information on the status, availability of services and individual systems, levels of personnel and user training, the degree of system utilization, the quality of interaction between individual departments, etc. This information should be documented in structured reports on a regular basis. It is necessary to determine in advance the frequency of submission, completeness and quality for different versions of reports. Such reports can be used as a basis for further analysis of emerging problems, identifying their causes, determining the need to make changes to systems - for everything that in ITIL terms is called "Problem Management".

Service Desk computerization

Many support services started out with regular paper logbooks, with an individualized entry for each case, with details and solutions noted. However, in this way, you can only record incidents and the very fact of their elimination. Great opportunities are provided by computerized solutions, which, while introducing accuracy and accuracy, at the same time make it possible to quickly search and access records of previous situations, known errors, history of requests from the client and other management information. The greatest benefit is achieved precisely from the possibility of easy access to previously practically inaccessible information.

The main advantages of a computerized implementation of the Service Desk are:

the availability of information about the incident to all support personnel;
reduction of the incident service period;
improved procedures for tracking, escalating and handling incidents;
Online availability of better quality information (including about known errors, solutions and query history), as well as external sources of information;
greater availability and accuracy of management information;
elimination of losses, "forgetfulness" and duplication of information;
better use of qualified personnel;
facilitating the solution of aggregate tasks and calculations.

Modern Service Desk systems are capable of managing, controlling and tracking service requests, contract compliance, human resources, and work flow. These systems integrate with the rest of the important components of the overall IT resource management system (including recommended ITIL - Change Management, Configuration and Asset Accounting, Price Management, Business Continuity, Opportunity Planning, Network Management, etc.).

As of mid-2000, Meta Group analysts rank the following five among the most developed systems designed for the implementation of Service Desk in medium and large organizations:

CA Advanced Help Desk;
HP OpenView Service Desk;
Peregrine ServiceCenter;
Remedy Action Request System;
Tivoli Service Desk.

All of these systems have a high degree of functionality, scalability, manageability, and suitability for a variety of IT architectures. In these conditions, the decisive factors in the choice are: the ability to integrate with other solutions for managing various elements of the IT infrastructure (networks, servers, workstations, applications, etc.); conditions of the support provided (its completeness and availability, as well as the possibility of attracting consultants from companies specializing in the implementation of these systems). When choosing, you need to pay attention to the whole range of upcoming expenses. Often the cost of the software itself is significantly lower than the cost of personnel training and the cost of implementation procedures. It is also necessary to take into account the prospects for the further development of the system.

Service Desk implementation is usually done as a pre-consulting project. A high-quality implementation of such a project is possible only with sufficient qualifications of the specialists involved in the implementation. Most manufacturers software products focused on the implementation of services like the Service Desk do not recommend implementing solutions if the contractors do not have certificates that guarantee their qualifications.

Literature

1. Z. Alekhin. ITIL is the foundation of the IT service management concept. " Open systems", 2001, No. 3
2. CCTA. Best Practice for Service Support. London: The Stationery Office, 2000

Zaurbek Alekhin ([email protected]) - project manager of the i-Teco company

Typical Service Desk scenarios

Scenario 1. Many different support services

A large company is armed with a heterogeneous information system that unites servers of various types from different manufacturers (RISC servers, PC servers, mainframes), a total of several dozen, special data storages and about a thousand user workstations. At the same time, the information system itself continues to develop: the technologies used are being improved, new software systems... The load on the system is constantly increasing.

In such a large system, users are bound to have various requests: from replacing consumables and fixing hardware failures to connection problems (for example, a lost password) and learning how to work with a separate application. When prompted, users independently determine who to contact: economic service(install a new cartridge in the printer), to electricians (to check the efficiency of the network hub, otherwise “for some reason the lights on it stopped blinking”), to the administrator application system(“She’s working too slowly”), and so on.

With high qualifications of the user and the right choice specialist, the problem will be eliminated quickly. But not all users are able to determine the real cause; sometimes no one can do it quickly. In this case, the time to troubleshoot the problem increases dramatically, the user starts calling everyone in a row, and engineers who are constantly distracted from business stop paying attention to his calls. The picture is sad.

The cause of the problem is the lack of a single point of contact. When implementing Service Desk, the user does not need to independently look for someone responsible for fixing a specific problem: the operator will do it for him, who will receive the message, register it and, in accordance with the established procedure, appoint an executor. This saves time not only for the user, but also for the performers, who get rid of unnecessary contacts.

Scenario 2. Poor support desk efficiency

In accordance with the recommendations, the organization reorganized the support service and now, when an incident occurs, users are required to report it to one operator. In accordance with the recommendations, the operator records information about the user and the nature of the problem encountered, for which an ordinary paper log is used. Next, the operator roughly defines the area to which the problem may relate and appoints an executor. The contractor in a way known only to him eliminates the problem, while independently deciding when exactly to do it.

In principle, everything works. But users say that the support service is practically inaccessible: the phone is busy, the operator is nervous, sometimes they do not understand the essence of the issue and the difficulty of identifying the executor. The engineers do not report on the resolution of problems, so you have to check again and again if the system is working. Even if the same problem occurs frequently, the time to fix it does not decrease and depends on the specific engineer on duty: some deal with it quickly, others take too long.

The reason is the absence of an automated system for registering incidents that maximizes the speed of entering user data (by choosing from a constantly maintained list of users), simplifying the classification of incidents (again, by choosing from pre-defined categories), allowing you to quickly and unambiguously select performers in accordance with established rules ... At the same time, the responsibility of the executors, who receive instructions not from the operator, but from the system, is introduced, simultaneously with the appointment of an executor that determines the priority of the problem and the deadline for its elimination. The system requires the contractor to report the fact and methods of its elimination at the end of the work. In the next case of such a problem, the system will report this information, which will shorten the time for its elimination. In addition, the operator has additional time to inform users about the current status of the incident.

Scenario 3. Poor use of accumulated data

Acting in accordance with the recommendations, the organization implemented an automated system with the necessary functionality. However, the number of requests from users has not decreased. Moreover, sometimes there is a clear lack of information about the functioning of various systems and applications.

The reason is the lack of mechanisms for analyzing the accumulated information and optimizing the used information systems and procedures. After identifying the need for additional user training, the service should provide appropriate recommendations. Faced with poor quality of the application, which resulted in too often received complaints, the service should recommend that the application be improved. CIOs should receive a summary of trends in the registration of the number of different incidents to good governance divisions, etc. The accumulated information should not lie dead weight, but serve as a basis for making decisions at various levels.

Of course, the Service Desk cannot replace all the processes necessary for the correct management of the IT infrastructure. Moreover, and general practice, and our own experience shows that, being the only service facing the client, it plays one of the main roles in organizing the effective functioning of a variety of information systems.

Service Desk classification

Call Center

This type of service is characterized by a predominant focus on organizing the reception of a large number of telephone messages. Registration of incoming calls is carried out in accordance with the established rules, and, if necessary, forwarding to the appropriate specialist.

Help Desk

In addition to the previous point, control over the elimination of the problem that has arisen is carried out. The main goal is to resolve incidents as much as possible short time and ensuring the safety of all available information about the incident. If possible, the problem is eliminated directly by the operator by consulting the client.

Service Dispatch (Service Desk)

In this case, accounting for the impact of the services provided on the business as a whole is added to the functions already listed, accounting not only for incidents, but also for any other requests and wishes of customers, monitoring compliance with contracts, monitoring the current state of services and much more.

This classification is not generally accepted. For example, on the site, all of the above is referred to as a "message center".

Reducing the cost of Service Desk

All other things being equal, the cost of operating this service is based on the wages of the operators. In general, the human resource very often becomes the number one problem for her. Traditionally, there is a very high turnover rate among operators, so new operators have to be constantly trained. Their mood at any given moment plays a huge role. Psychological incompatibility may arise between the user and the operator of the service. Operators cannot work equally well at any time of the day.

Many of these problems can be resolved by introducing so-called "self-service systems" - interactive automated systems allowing the user to place a request, receive a response and modify the services used without operator assistance. Examples of such an approach are the services offered by mobile operators for self-monitoring of the status of accounts, supplementing or deactivating certain services, forwarding calls to another number, etc. Of course, nothing is given for nothing: such systems must be carefully and very thoughtfully built (after all, an automaton cannot think of anything on its own), and then, with the same thoroughness, be kept up to date. But as practice shows, if these conditions are met, the "self-service system" can significantly reduce costs and achieve greater satisfaction of user needs.

Call Center in the statistics mirror

In 1999, there were about 12,750 different message centers in Europe; this number is projected to increase to 28,300 in 2006. In the United States, there were 69,500 in 1999, and by 2003 it is expected to be around 78,000.
The capacity of the European market for systems providing such services will increase from $ 3.6 billion to $ 9 billion over the period from 1999 to 2003. At the same time, about 80% of these systems will be in the UK, France, Germany and Holland.
The capacity of the world market for services for the creation of such services was estimated at $ 23 billion in 1998. The forecast for 2003 is $ 58.6 billion. consulting services, integration and outsourcing, which occupies a leading position (from $ 17 billion in 1998 to $ 42 billion in 2003).

Sometimes a significant difference in the given estimates arises from differences in definitions. Even so, it is clear that the need to develop their own services is being understood and accepted by an increasing number of organizations around the world.