Technology and technology people are strange and fickle. We like to play with our toys and “techy things.” We like to use models, frameworks, and systems (each with its own landscape and jargon). We spend a lot of time agonizing over and then eulogizing “management,” “processes,” and...
Tag(s): continual service improvement, ITIL, ITSM
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
Today, outsourced service providers live in a world where customers call the shots. As a customer, you’ve come to expect more than a standard set of services. Instead of one model in one color, you want outsourced services that can be customized to your needs, uniquely branded and themed for...
Tag(s): practices and processes, outsourcing, process management, business of support, sourcing
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
For this issue, HDI invited influential members from across all segments of our community to provide a snapshot of key imperatives that will guide 2013 initiatives. This unique collection of essays offers a rare glimpse inside technical service and support organizations, spanning healthcare,...
Tag(s): business of support, desktop support, customer service, practices and processes, service management, trends, IT service management, outsourcing, byod
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
By and large, support tools and processes have simply not kept up with the growth of technology as a whole. Why can’t all of these systems be integrated?
Tag(s): technology, incident management, service management, tools
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
Whenever there’s a one-to-one relationship between release and change management (i.e., one release for each change), it makes sense to combine the change and release workflows. As a combined process, change and release are easier to manage, and there’s less chance of slippage between the two...
Tag(s): change management, ITIL, release management
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
In the pursuit of improvement, knowledge is key. Today’s knowledge management tools are more robust, and getting smarter all the time. But remember, a lot comes down to the human factor: a body of knowledge is only as good as the support professionals who use it, fix it, flag it, and add to it.
Tag(s): technology, knowledge management
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
In the beginning, it’s all about the basics: incident management, problem management, and change management. The momentum generated by the simple act of embracing the new concepts carries things forward—to a point. There is so much excitement that maybe, just maybe, things will really change...
Tag(s): metrics and measurements, service design, service management
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
A self-assist solution is one in which a person doesn’t directly rely on any other person to resolve their problem. No phone call needs to be placed. No chat window needs to be opened. No email needs to be exchanged. True self-assist (sometimes called self-service) is similar to how gas stations...
Tag(s): practices and processes, knowledge management, self-service tools, KM
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
While BYOD and broader consumerization trends may be turning the corporate IT world upside down, such factors have long been a reality in the campus IT environment. But that doesn’t mean that university IT departments are immune to the changing expectations of today’s empowered device owners.
Tag(s): case study, byod, desktop support, service desk, security management
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
Total contact ownership is a mark of business maturity for technical service and support organizations. It takes the best practices of ITSM and strengthens them with customer service resolve. TCO has always depended on the “one team, customer first” approach, as it requires the assignment groups...
Tag(s): customer experience, customer satisfaction, customer service, ITSM, practices and processes
Date Published - Last Updated July 19, 2018