Global Service Desk

[Jet]

We are currently challenged with setting up a Global Service Desk. Has anyone gone through this process and have any advice on any problems that they have encountered and any traps we should be looking out for? What is the key, in your opinion, to a successful implementation of a Global Service Desk?

[JT]

I am also interested in this topic.
How do you deal with Language barriers?
We have sites in the US and Mexico.

[Azard]

Hi, setting up a global service desk, as you realize is a large undertaking. There are several keys to its success:

1) Executive sponsorship
2) Standard processes
3) Communication
4) Defined roles and responsibilities

I am not sure if your vision of a global service means a central service desk, or many service desks, or even an outsourced service desk. All of which have their own pros and cons.

1) Executive sponsorship must occur at the top of the organization, and must be more than just lip service. Without executive sponsorship driving this initiative, it can quickly lose momentum and you will face challenges.

2) Standard processes.
a. You need to have all of the key stakeholders involved and bought into the concept of a global service desk.
b. You need to get everyone handling incidents the same way across the organization.
c. Define process flows that will achieve this and ensure everyone buys into them.

3) Communication is very important.
a. Involve people early on, and throughout the process.

4) Define roles and responsibilities.
a. You will need clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
b. Those people in these role, now become your “champion” to continue to support and defend the service desk.


While this is a starting point, there is a lot of work that goes into an initiative like this. Do not underestimate the time required. You will face time differences; there may be language concerns, etc

As for dealing with languages, you need to determine how you want your metrics to be presented. If the need is to roll it up the results to senior management, then it would be best to standardize on one language. Remember, a global service desk, does imply only one service desk to the customer.

Hope the helps.

Cheers.

[ITIL_Practitioner]

To sucessfully setup a Global Service Desk the following is required:

1. A proper infrastructure
2. Skillful people
3. Best practice methodology - ITIL
4. Processes
5. Procedures
6. Tools
7. Knowledge and past experience

[Xmihai]

[Fabien]

Those are good lists but, as I will be starting to look at Global SD soon as well, I would be interested in understanding for instance, what the most common challenges are, and how to practically circumvent them.

Here are a few of the challenges my company faces:

- Language: company present in 70 countries

- Existing local resources: at least an IT guy on every site. Not always 100% 1st level support but he/she knows the local infrastructure, local language, etc.

- maturity levels: company organized in 3 main regions. Have diff. levels of maturity in IT operations.

- Growth: company acquires new business units continuously.

Obviously these are just a few but some info on how to tackle them successfully, ... or where to find the information on how to tackle them successfully would be most welcome...

Thanks!
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[Mahmoud]

Guys, the items you have mentioned and the other gentleman, just a few items from longer list you have to consider. We have implemented a GSD for a leader enterprise in IT service mangement in North America. You have to devide your projects into three main parts:
1- People: Service culture for each region and how they do their business at the current state and your objective for them to adapt your project.
2- Process: for each region or country has it's own process, you have to consider that and for them to adapt your process project.
3- Technology: you have to come up with a tool that can serve and support multilingual and time zone for SLA calculation.

The above was followed and our project went well to support world wide customers from centralized data centre.

Regards
Mike

[Xmihai]

Hi Fabien

If you have this kind of challenges i recommend to outsource this project to a specialised company. If you want a could recommend you a company based in Eastern Europe. I worked with them and they have excellent Language capabilities (for your 70 countries), 5 years of setting up this kind of projects and not the last very good prices comparing to Western Europe

[Fabien]

Please do. I will be in Europe in 2 1/2 weeks and I may be able to take a discussion with them...
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[PeterOz]

Quick tips for a global service desk application:

1.Support Unicode for multi language entry on one system and valiable language screens
2. Ensure application is 100% web based or you will have the worst time of your life rolling this out and maintaining it
3. As mentioned before make sure the app supports full time zoning for all areas including SLA, updates, version control and reports.

That's the easy bit, the hard bit is getting everyone to agree in which case you should probably work for the UN instead.[/list]

[NealBinkley]

Has anyone had issues with sharing employee data or consumer data? We are having issues with EU rules around where data is stored.

[jpgilles]