For more than twenty years, the technical service and support industry has been trying to arrive at a common understanding of IT/business alignment. But why is this subject so important? Well, IT/business alignment has long been seen as one of the keys to synching IT’s goals with the business’s...
Tag(s): business alignment, incident management, ITIL, service desk, service level 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
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
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
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
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
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
At some point or another, we’ve all fantasized about starting a business and, of course, being a great success. Is managing a service desk really all that different? I’m always telling my students and clients that they need to run support as a business within the business. This is one of the...
Tag(s): business of support, process, service strategy
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016
Nobody seems to consider it important anymore, but not so very long ago, in its halcyon days, infrastructure management was the phrase on everybody’s lips, as the key component in what is still called ITIL. And what does ITIL stand for? The Information Technology Infrastructure Library. So where...
Tag(s): process, framework and methodologies, practices and processes
Date Published - Last Updated May 11, 2016
ITIL v3 was officially launched in June 2007, after a three-year development period. Much has happened in the world over the past three years, which has slowed every business down considerably, yet research shows that in ITSM, things are still moving along. Overall, 68 percent of ITIL (v2 and...
Tag(s): process, framework and methodologies
Date Published - Last Updated May 11, 2016