Service Desk extended role

[viv121]

Hello,

Not an ITIL question but seeking best practice or perhaps better practices. The Service Desks which I own perform standard desktop troubleshooting, password resets, email client troubleshooting etcetra etcetra. I am now trying to incorporate( my teams have the bandwidth) the following into the support scope :

1. Incident Management by experienced and qualified Service Desk Professionals as they have the first hand information of any incidents.
2.Installation / moves and changes- Single user s/w installation in liaison with the CMDB software license Management
3. Access on the Macafee ePO console to find out the infected machines on the network and manually push the latest virus definition files
4.Network monitoring through web based interface to the NOC.
5.A/D account creation, shared folder permissions assignment, mailbox permissions, monitoring and freeing up disc space on a need basis. Adding software to the citrix profile, assigning permissions to the users for remote logging
6.End user mail management. Releasing trapped emails of business importance to the end users.

My company is among the biggest in the world but the Service Desks under my support scope are region based and they support an average of 4000 users each. Is my approach alright or am I asking too much ?

[LizGallacher]

The activities you are suggesting all sound ideal for a Service Desk to take on, and would speed up the response to the users for these requests. You do need to have the bandwidth to do it, but I have found that logging a request, passing it on, chasing it up, confirming closure with the user all takes up a similar or longer time than logging it, doing it, and closing it does! So it may not be so much more work after all. It also widens the skill level at the Service Desk, which means that the staff churn rate there is reduced, as staff see it as a place where they can expand their skills. Go for it!
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[viv121]

Thanks Liz. Underused staff in the first and the second line of support inspires me to take up this initiative. As Noel Bruton says "service" and not help that is required of a service desk .I wonder if someone has more views to share in this forum .

Regards
Viv

[LizGallacher]

Service Desks are the unsung heroes of IT, in my opinion, and also the most badly utilised. By companies refusing to train them, work is passed to 2nd line, which is more costly, slower, less satisfactory for the user, and ultimately leads to a bored, de-motivated person talking to your customers. Companies try and squeeze the costs down through out-sourcing etc., rather than seeing the service desk as their key resource.
I have set up and run many service desks, and the ones which took on more work as you are considering, were highly-valued by their customers, respected by the rest of IT and had motivated staff, with a low churn rate. Its a no-brainer as far as I am concerned, yet it is also rare.
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[dboylan]

I have always advocated using the talents of the Service Desk personnel. These days it is relatively inexpensive to hire a tech savvy person to work the Service Desk. They probably run Linux at home and can build a gaming computer from PC components with their eyes closed. And yet when we put them in the Service Desk and they are asked if they can install a printer driver or map a drive letter, they answer that they are unable to perform these simple operations. It usually boils down to the fact that they aren't given the authority or the tools to perform these functions.

Yes, there needs to be controls in place that properly document changes made by the Service Desk.

Yes, there needs to be training so that they aren't IT cowboys learning how the system works by the seat of their pants.

If you have both training and controls in place, there is very little that a good Service Desk tech can't do from the comfort of their seat. I have seen as high as 80% first call resolve for techs that have:

- Remote control software
- Accurate (or on-demand) inventory
- Push software capability
- A well populated knowledge base
- Policies that allow them to do more intense Incident resolution

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Don

[LizGallacher]

Glad to see that we share the same soapbox!!
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance