Assemble and implement a framework or maturity model in your support center, from ISO and ITIL to COBIT and more. Learn about ROI, VOI, and business alignment.
The Business of Support
Develop strategies, improve your value proposition, and increase your ROI and VOI.
Frameworks and Methodologies
See what ITIL, ISO, COBIT, and other frameworks and methodologies can offer your support center.
Practices and Processes
Frontline tools and techniques for a successful support center.
HDI Certification Standards
Learn how HDI certifications help professionals and support centers stand out from the crowd.
Questions about relationships, expectations, resources, and financial management can be resolved effectively when you view a service desk (or any IT service delivery group) as a business within a business. Unrealistic expectations, accusations that you cost too much, and a lack of perceived...
Tag(s): business of support, process, financial management, cost models
Purposeful support practices are an innovative way to look at those widely accepted service management processes, but with an emphasis on achieving a desired, measurable end result. Purposeful practices should always be open to investigation and continuous improvement, therefore...
Tag(s): process, practices and processes, leadership
The challenges organizations face today aren't the same as the challenges we faced ten or twenty years ago. There are few places where this is more apparent than support, and many organizations are changing the way they do business to address these challenges. Today, there is a rising...
Tag(s): customer service, business of support, process, practices and processes
Tag(s): desktop support, customer service, framework and methodologies, practices and processes, metrics and measurements, process, research, RESOURCES, technology
Customers and service providers sometimes have different opinions of what value is. Getting the right mix of benefits, features, quality, guarantees, and costs is paramount to happy customers and a good night’s sleep. Let’s call this right mix “the zone.” You want to be in the zone at all times....
Tag(s): customer service, metrics and measurements, process
In May 2007, the board of trustees for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) healthcare system called for the replacement of its homegrown electronic health record (EHR) system, which was targeted at ambulatory care, with Epic, a readily available, commercial system. Epic provides comprehensive...
Tag(s): technology, process
True story: The CEO of a large defense contractor spills coffee on his laptop while en route to a business meeting. His staff arranges for a local company to recover highly sensitive data from the damaged laptop, data that is critical to a pending business merger. The recovery is a success, but...
Tag(s): technology, process, practices and processes
In this environment of rapidly changing support requirements and increasing customer demands, the question is not whether organizations should make the transition to web-based support (i.e., chat), but how they can make that transition successfully. When implemented perfectly, chat can deliver...
Tag(s): process, practices and processes, workforce management, technology
Designing a ticket categorization structure that not only makes sense, but which can also stand the test of time is an important, if difficult, task. Support organizations must strike a balance between selecting categories that are easy for analysts to choose correctly and producing reports that...
Tag(s): process, practices and processes, metrics and measurements
When Apple announced the launch of the Apple Stores in 2001, it was met with widespread skepticism. There was concern over the impact the stores would have on Apple’s existing retail channels, the fact that Apple had no experience in retail, and that the mere existence of retail stores would do...
Tag(s): process, business of support, people, customer service