Servicedesk staffing model

[MichaelWeiss]

I currently manage a 22 person 24/7 SD. All my staff are Tier1, with Tier2 being the operations group on a 24/5 basis. Pretty basic- Tier1 being FPOC for all incidents, Tier2 being the next escalation.

As it stands, the infrastructure in place *today* doesn't readily support Tier1 accessibility to perform the basic system/admin duties to drive expedient closures. Furthermore, my Tier1 staff is approx. 90% green/inexperienced- they are essentially Incident Response (phone/email ticketing agents). Tooling for automation is not quite there either.

I am proposing an operational shift (at least in the grand scheme of this particular company) to the following model:

Tier1 (NOC) grows in functional roles to handle the Top 5-10 current Tier2 issues (i.e. server/service restarts, user management, etc). The current Tier2 staff gets silo'd to specific business unit SWAT teams.

It requires a significant amount of tooling and upskilling of current staff. Due to budgetary constraints I'm working with limited capital.

I'm not going into all details, and I'm aware a lot of this is fuzzy. I'm curious, though, if there's anyone out there who has completed something similar, developed a staffing model they'd like to share, etc.

[Timo]

Hi Michael,

in my previous company we had our Tier 1 (service desk) staff perform quite a few activities that would be considered "advanced" for that function. However, it is all a matter of coaching and training and availability of up to date documentation.

The model, or rather an approach, that was adopted was that Tier 2 and 3 will continuously identify issues that could be handled by the service desk, such as restarts, provisioning, accounts, etc... The tier 2 would get an agreement from the management to "outsource" these activities to SD, prepare and conduct training, provide documentation and be available for support for a specified period of time.

Couple of key factors for the success of this approach are:
- eagerness and ability of Tier 1 staff to learn new things (right technical skills)
- Procedures and tools in place to support their ability to execute specific tasks
- Accurate, up to date documentation and availability of Tier 2 to answer questions and provide support during the transition period

Other than that, it's just a matter of persistense

Hope this helps,

Michael

[jpgilles]

I'd like to add on this that your tier 1 team is usually staffed to cope with a certain flow of incidents: it happens quite regularly that the incoming flow is lower than the design target; therefore you have available ressources to perform non urgent and back-office type of activities, that will reduce the numbers you would need to staff tier2 if you don't use that possibility.

b.r.
JP
_________________
JP Gilles

[Sarkel]

Hey Michael.
It is Nasim.
I see you are all business.
Guess what. I passed my SD , Heh, was not preparing at all
When u r in NYC, shot me an email or call, we will have another beer.
_________________
Nas
SarkelIT, Inc.

[viv121]

Comments from a newbie

I come from a similar environment where the Service desk was considered technically advanced compared to the others. The Service Desk I worked in used to be the computer administrators, they had permissions on the Active Directory to add users in groups as requested by the end user and approved by the Service Desk manager, they could install all authorised software, were the first line admins of the Blades and the Citrix environment. Also, all the application related password resets were either automated or were done on the fly. Empowering the Service Desk means that the Tier 2 support for the infrastructure and the applications spend their time doing quality stuff and not trivial stuff like password resets or providing Active directory Security group permissions. They should be fixing the bugs and carrying out projects for a robust infrastructure. Ofcourse, it saves a lot of money as well.

The basic skill requirement of a Service desk analyst should be that he should a Microsoft Certified Desktop Technician (MCDST). Funding the course and the certification to the SD staff involves minimal costs. This also ensures that your staff evolves from being an analyst to Microsoft Certified Technicians . Add values. Doesn't it ?

[Mr_Resistor]

MSDST is a good start on the technical side, but equally important are the soft skills (customer service) Look into HDI Support Center Analyst. (HDI is in Partnership to build the uber help desk tech)

- Jim -