White Papers

Papers with this icon are available to non-members. All other white papers are accessible only to HDI Members.

Featured White Papers of the Month

Level the Playing Field with a Help Desk in the Cloud

156 KB - 08/19/2010
BMC Software
Small and midsize companies shouldn’t have to use less efficient, limited-functionality service desk solutions. Today’s cloud-based help desks pack the same punch as on-premise enterprise solutions, without a large up-front investment or long installation time. Learn the advantages of cloud-based solutions and how to get started with a cloud-based help desk today.

The Support Manager's Metrics Primer

908 KB - 07/15/2010
Robert S. Last, HDI
No aspects of technical support are more complex, more frustrating, or more prone to error than the selection, analysis, and use of metrics. But metrics don’t have to hurt; in fact, collecting and analyzing them should be one of the easiest parts of a support leader’s job!

At the most fundamental level, they are simply an account of the support center’s operations and a record of the success or failure of a business or organization’s products, services, and activities. This white paper will give you the tools to build a practical metrics program; we will discuss how to understand, report, and analyze metrics.

Most Recent White Papers

Top Considerations for Moving to a Cloud-based (SaaS) Delivery Model for IT Service Management

326 KB - 6/30/2010
Paul Avenant, BMC Software
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is more than just a cloud-based delivery model. It is a service approach that IT organizations are considering for meeting their IT service management needs. With a SaaS model, IT organizations can focus their staff and infrastructure on high-priority activities and initiatives while still enjoying access to IT service management productivity solutions. They can achieve these benefits without having to invest their own resources in the systems or in the management and upgrading of the applications.

Grow Up: How Mature Is Your Help Desk?

25 KB - 12/31/2002
Jeanne Cuff, Compass America
Specific behaviors and levels of maturity mark an individual’s life stages of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. And as any parent will tell you, the transition from one stage to the next can leave some damage in its wake. Organizations can follow a similar dynamic. Consider an IT help desk: its responsibilities and skills develop in response to changes in the business environment. But when those changes outpace the help desk’s maturity level, problems can result both for the IT organization and the business it serves. Effective managers can ensure that help desk capabilities evolve and stay abreast of business requirements. By establishing goals, processes, and measures that align with business needs, management can enhance help desk service, retain skills and knowledge, and ease the transition to the next stage of maturity.

Starting or Restarting Your ITSM Program with an Improvement Focus

470 KB - 4/16/2010
John Clark, ICCM

This white paper addresses misnomers such as "implementing ITIL®". You don't implement ITIL. Your goal should be focused on improvement from where you are today - to implement process efficiencies for and into your business:

Improvements that measurably add to your top or bottom line
Demonstrate compliance
Manage and improve quality

Written by John Clark, this insightful white paper provides a different way to look at your ITSM strategy and gives you some great "food for thought."

Eight Wastes at the Service Desk

58 KB - 2/5/2010
Daniel Lafever, Alverno Information Systems

"Let's make toast the American way: you burn and I'll scrape." --William Deming

In the current economic climate, IT organizations have begun to examine the inefficient and redundant processes in their services. As mentioned in the above quote, waste in IT can tie up valuable staff in “burning and scraping” activities because systems and tools were installed but never optimized for maximum efficiency. As a result, waste runs rampant, fire fighting is the norm, and problems pile up because the root cause is never addressed. Do you know where the waste is in your service desk? Do your support center employees know where to look to improve processes? In the brave new world of ITIL V3, continuous service improvement touches every aspect of the service lifecycle. Identifying the non-value-added processes in your service desk can be a first step in embracing continuous improvement. Once you have done so, there are many tools or methods such as Plan-Do-Check-Act, Lean, Six Sigma, Quick and Easy Kaizen, and others that one can use to drive out improvements. However, the question remains: where do you start?

Tightening the Belt on IT Service Management: Don't Be a Victim!

202 KB - 3/1/2009
Patrick Bolger, Hornbill Systems, Ltd.
Throughout history there are numerous examples of financial meltdowns, typically where "boom" is followed by "bust." The boom period usually leaves behind a legacy, such as the massive development of internet infrastructure that remained after the dot.com bubble had bust. This current economic crisis may not have crafted much in the way of new technology developments. However it will certainly leave a legacy and those organisations that survive the crisis are likely to come out the other side leaner, more agile and better governed than ever before. Cutting costs may be a major directive, but with some research, consideration of others’ successes and planning it can be achieved without compromising the ultimate aim of any service department – to improve customer satisfaction. IT has many tools and options to help it achieve this dual goal and now is the time to consider those that may apply to your organisation. Propose cost-optimization to the business now and it could do you a favor in the longer term – don’t be a victim!

Most Popular White Papers

Mapping IT Service and Support - Learn: Govern: Improve

408 KB - 5/9/2006
Brian Johnson, Sandra Simpson, Ken Wendle, HDI Strategic Advisory Board
This white paper introduces a map that leads you through the metrics and processes employed in service and support and explains their relationship to one another. Using the map you can find out how to benchmark and improve upon key processes through the use of metrics, frameworks, education, and knowledge management.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Contact Centers and Help Desks

148 KB - 11/1/2005
eGain Communications, eGain Communications
More than a decade ago, Stephen Covey wrote about seven key habits that can help people elevate their personal and professional effectiveness in a groundbreaking book. These habits are equally relevant to contact centers and help desks, and can assist in dramatically boosting their effectiveness and efficiencies, while enhancing customer relationships and business growth. This white paper explains how the seven habits apply to contact centers and help desks, and provides thought leadership, best practices distilled from decades of experience, and new ideas to take your contact center and help desk performance to the next level. Learn and use these powerful secrets to get ahead of the competition!

51 Ways to Reduce Contact Center Costs

285 KB - 12/31/2002
Fred Shadding, SITEL
This document provides insightful strategies for contact center managers to leverage in their ongoing efforts to reduce costs while also enhancing the effectiveness and quality of support within their operations.

Adapting Best Practices for IT Service Management

319 KB - 12/18/2003
Remedy ,
To better align business requirements with IT capabilities and deliver those capabilities at an appropriate cost, IT leaders are shifting from an IT technology focus to an IT service model approach. In this white paper, experts from Remedy, a BMC Software company, explore how leveraging best practices, such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), can help you quickly and efficiently implement the IT processes that support this service model, and how adapting those best practices to unique requirements can help extend your competitive advantage.

Benchmarking and Monitoring Performance of Inbound Support Centers

89 KB - 12/31/2002
Bill Sheehan, Renaissance Partners
Advanced technology is increasingly finding its way into the hands of all levels of corporate employees. Growth in computing power and software availability has allowed corporations to gain competitive advantage by implementing functions that were previously never possible.

Free White Papers

HDI Local Chapter Social Media Best Practices

924 KB - 9/1/2009
Rich Hand, HDI
Officers and Members of the 60-plus local chapters of HDI have a broad range of knowledge about Social Media. Many already have LinkedIn or Facebook accounts and a large number use Twitter YouTube and other types of Social Media. Mirroring emerging business trends, there are a growing number of HDI chapters that use Social Media to promote and grow their chapters. In an effort to provide a framework and share knowledge of these growing technologies, HDI Local Chapter Officers launched a Social Media committee to brainstorm, discuss and suggest guidelines and best practices for local chapters to use Social Media.

Mapping IT Service and Support - Learn: Govern: Improve

Legato Support Services Knowledge-Centered Support at Work

62 KB - 2/5/2005
Consortium for Service Innovation ,
Legato is a leading provider of information management software. Standing behind its information access, information availability, and information protection solutions for complex and heterogeneous storage environments, Legato is held in a special position of trust by its customers, who are, in effect, buying peace of mind. Technical complexity combined with this enterprise-critical aspect of Legato’s products puts a tremendous burden on the support organization.

Knowledge-Centered Support Operational Model

960 KB - 2/5/2005
Consortium for Service Innovation ,
Whether you support products for a corporate help desk, a product manufacturer, a channel or a third party provider, chances are you’re under the gun to better manage your resources and improve your service levels. Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is a business methodology that was developed and put to the test by members of the Consortium for Service Innovation. The goal of KCS is to solve a problem once . . .and use the solution often! Adoption of KCS has improved operational efficiency, employee morale and customer satisfaction. This brief examines the need for a knowledge-centered strategy as well as the organizing principles of KCS and its benefits.

HP NonStop Customer Support Knowledge-Centered Supportsm (KCS) at Work

903 KB - 2/5/2005
Consortium of Service Innovation ,
The HP NonStop Customer Support organization is an essential part of the brand promise: they keep their customers’ mission critical hardware and software systems running, nonstop, all around the world.

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