Service Desk implementation

[Avalanche]

Hi

If I've unterstood correctly, ITIL is thought to be implemented over the whole IT, which to a certain extent makes sense.

But what is the best way to implement a central Service Desk, for me it would make more sense to have a local Service Desk at each branch, that sorts out problems within the branch (PC & LAN problems) and that hands over Problems with groupwide components (ERP) to the ERP Support department.

In my case the ERP is serviced by a IT department at the company headquarters. If Bugs occur they open a support ticket which is then dealt with. If they want a change implemented the first ask their business analyst who then writes a change request. Each Business Unit has its BA who's the interface to the IT. This means there is not really a single point of contact, but letting the user open RfC on his own (in the same application as the Support tickets) resulted in a flood of RfC which are know filtered by the BA.

How do you solve those probs?

[Nikhil]

The BA's that you are refering to are also called Super Users in ITIL terminology. But for Super User, ITIL says there should be a distinct identification of there job otherwise VS. the role they perform to help the SD.

Nikhil

[Avalanche]

Well with us there is only one Business Analyst per Business Unit (Branch), the Superusers are Sales People who know the System well, they are the first people employees contact when they have a problem or question how to work with the ERP System.

I haven't yet heard of Superusers in ITIL, have you got some source where I could read about them.

And what does VS stand for?

Regards

[fighter]

Local SD or Central SD can be implemented based on the resources you have.

Do you have a consolidated CMDB?

What kind of infrastructure do you have for all the users to call one single location? I mean do you have a Voip based Telephony systems?

It is not a very wise idea for all the users to raise RFC. If you are going to have a centrlised SD & CMDB have the RFC's raised through your SD ( your BA at each location can contact SD to raise a RFC. )

Your BA in each location for each business unit would be the customer contact for SD. In other words any communication from the IT to the business users can go through your BA.

Have support groups and experts seperate. Each location should have few tech support staff who can visit the site to fix some issue which remote support cannot fix. You can have a larger pool in the centralised location ( team of tier 2 support and experts )

Hope this helps!

Vimzie

[Ed]

Vimzie

Just a couple of points

From my point of view as a Change Manager, I think that limiting the ability for raising RFC's is extremely dangerous. This is likely to lead to shortcutting of the process i.e. RFCs not being raised for some Changes as it will be seen as 'too much trouble'. I firmly believe that you have to involve everyone. In practice, not everyone will want to raise a Change, but will delegate down the ladder if they are able. You must give them the option, or it becomes an excuse for not raising a Change at all.

I also think that a centralised Service Desk is far better than a fragmented one, as you are likely to get more than one version of the truth, which is not good news. Where would you stop - 5 cmdb's to go with 5 Service Desks? You might need fragmented Tech Support, but even that can be dealt with from a central location - it depends on the circumstances

I agree most of the requests will come through the Service Desk, but in my experience not all will - what do you do here? I think that the person who knows the Business case best should be the one to raise the RFC, rather than a SD agent, who by the very nature of the job is at the bottom of the pile and knows little of what drives a particular department or customer.

Regards

Ed

[fighter]

Ed,

I cannot argue with your experience. .

I have practically seen Subject Matter Experts or BA raising RFC's through SD. SD will act as mediator between all involved and SME. Think of this scenario, the SME knows what he wants from the business prespective. Once the change is initiated till Change is implemented then becomes the responsibility of SD team.

I think it all boils down to what we really want to achieve.

And Regarding the Centralised SD Team it all depends on the resources (CMDB, communications, Staff , Budget etc... available to perform the action and Management's commitment to having one. ..

Cheers!