Merging Service Desks - Benefits, Risks & Pitfalls

[lazzareo2010]

Hi all,

In the current financial climate everyone is looking to save money and in our organisation I have been asked to investigate the feasibility of merging the following Service/Help Desks: -

ICT
Finance
Procurement
Business Services
Estates Management

I work in ICT and we currently have a Skilled Service Desk which receives approximately 7000 IT calls per month and we are in the process of implementing a new fully intergrated Service Management tool.

Does anybody have any experience of merging different business functions into one Service Desk?

I would appreciate any advice on the benefits, risks & pitfalls of doing so.

Thanks

[Diarmid]

Bad timing to be looking at radical change while you are implementing a new system.

Guess you will have a write-off on your current project. Your first issue is to decide whether to cut your losses now and scrap the implementation while you determine your new requirements or go ahead and risk a morale drop when people realize all the current work is going to have to be done again.

At least you will have some idea of the real costs of a major implementation project to inform your decision.

I don't believe there are any pitfalls (except for the risk that the business does not thoroughly understand what it uses service desks for).

Basically you need to analyse the volumes, skill sets and activities pertaining to the existing systems, establish the service requirements and the budget and draw up a specification in order to establish a suitable management system and from that to identify suitable software etc.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

[UKVIKING]

Actually there is a benefit - Hire Diarmid

There are risks in not hiring Diarmid

There are pitfalls in not hiring Diarmid



This has been brought to you by the letter U and the number 2
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[Timo]

Sounds like just investigating could be quite a project on its own. While I can't back it up with experience, my initial gut feeling that this is something that company should hire a resource with exactly that kind of experience... somebody who managed service desk merger. It should be a project with representatives from all the aforementioned service desks providing data regarding volumes, skill sets, costs, etc... Mind you, it may also spook many folks thinking that the merger means downsizing... which is probably the case, as I assume you company is looking to create a single service desk that can handle same scope of activity as combined individual ones only with fewer resources.

Anyway, my only real advise is that you should consider the investigation project itself as a major undertaking, and not something that you can do in between your daily tasks.