Some of the most effective techniques for doing more with less come from lean management. Using these techniques, I’ve been able to mobilize my teams while maintaining or improving morale and customer satisfaction. But where do you start? How do you identify the areas that will have the biggest...
Tag(s): continual service improvement, leadership, organizational change management, process-improvement, support center
Supporting Office 365 is no easy task, especially in a university setting with a diverse audience of end users. But the University of New Mexico Information Technologies (UNM IT) is doing just that—and achieving exceptionally high first contact resolution rates, as well as huge growth in the use...
Tag(s): case study, desktop support, first call resolution, infrastructure change management, knowledge management, KM, release management, service desk
Offshoring—moving jobs to other countries—is a topic that elicits strong reactions from people. Management is frequently in favor of it, for a variety of reasons; workers, on the other hand, can feel threatened, fearing that their jobs are in danger. There are political, economic, and ethical...
Tag(s): outsourcing, support center
How well do you know your customers? Do you understand their expectations around technology and its support? The fact is, these expectations change depending on age and exposure to technology. Consider the terminology you see in popular media concerning each successive generation: Baby Boomers,...
Tag(s): future of support, customer experience, supportworld
We define a Lean service desk operation as one in which volume, variety, and process variation are managed, and in which individual workflows are optimized for efficiency. That’s a very simple definition, and while it suggests a high bar for qualification, we believe that consistently applied...
Tag(s): service desk, support operations
The IT world is in the midst of dramatic change. With each passing day, the traditional model for remote support becomes increasingly outdated. Today there are 10 billion mobile devices, 50 percent more applications, an infinite amount of unique configurations, and more distributed workers than...
Tag(s): monitoring, remote support tools, service desk, support center, tools
The technical support center of the future is poised to play an even more integral role in helping businesses innovate—and hence, gain competitive advantage.
Tag(s): future of support, service desk
The consumerization of technology and the “Google-ization” of information have changed the knowledge management landscape. How can you address these challenges in a way that benefits your users, your staff, and your business?
Tag(s): knowledge management, knowledge-management-systems, Knowledge Management Systems, support center
For a long time, the average lifecycle for support center software—including both simpler ticket management tools and more sophisticated IT service management systems—has been three to five years. This may seem like a relatively short period of time to those of us who have gone through the...
Tag(s): support center, tools
On the surface, one might think that a mobile workforce (or student body) using its own technology would increase demand for distance support. Though we have seen a modest increase in distance support, we’ve actually seen a marked demand for in-person support. From our perspective, mobility has...
Tag(s): byod, case study, desktop support, service desk