Mitigating Multichannel Mayhem: Six Best Practices for Complex Contact Centers

Today’s multichannel contact centers are anything but simple. According to ICMI, almost 86 percent of today’s contact centers are multichannel. While voice is still predominant, one channel is no longer enough. Consumers want to engage with technical support and customer service through multiple...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

From Phones to Phablets: Providing Support in a Mobile World

I am the Cherwell service desk’s worst nightmare. There, I said it (and they’d tell you so, too). Why? Because I’m in love with technology, but I’m a minimalist. Laptops are too bulky; I want to be able to do everything I need to from my phone...or, better yet, from my watch. I’m constantly...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Thinking and Doing: Current Practices in Problem Management

While the practice of problem management isn’t new, the buzz surrounding its implementation and benefits continues to grow as organizations mature and move beyond incident management. HDI recently conducted a survey of 475 technical support professionals, across more than thirty vertical...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Security and Facilities Control: Support Considerations

There’s an information security maxim that states, “There’s no security without physical security.” Buildings and infrastructure (other than specifically IT infrastructure) are usually the domain of a department other than IT, but the technology used to monitor and secure facilities of all types...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

The Self-Empowered Leader at the Service Desk

In any department, it’s only the manager who does the leading, right? David Ratcliffe disagrees. He submits that anyone can embody the characteristics of leadership without necessarily being an official leader, and without causing a disruption.
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Shift to the Left!: Delivering Discontinuous Improvements with Remote Solutions

In today’s increasingly competitive world, customers are always looking for more from their service providers: better response times, improved uptime, lower costs, personal service, a better overall experience, etc. Your company’s leaders and its shareholders have their own needs: lower costs,...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

SMACing ITSM into the Next.IT

Next.IT—the emergence of digital services, social networks, mobile technology solutions, Big Data analytics, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things—is upon us, and growing quickly. But this doesn’t mean that IT management and business service management are going to go away; these...
Date Published - Last Updated September 16, 2024

ITIL in the Support Center 2.0: Will It Thrive?

ITIL, the best practice framework formerly known as the IT Infrastructure Library, has played a big role in the evolution of corporate IT. Love it or hate it, it’s hard to dispute the fact that ITIL has done much to improve the professionalism and performance of technical service and support...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

The 2020 Generation Gap: Is Your Company Ready?

These days, most companies have hectic social schedules. From baby showers to retirement parties, cross-generational events like these are examples of how diverse our workforce is right now. Many of us are lamenting the fact that ...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Digital Disruption and the Role of Support

We’re living in a world in which virtually everything has been changed—disrupted, you might say—by the integration of technology into nearly every facet of life. Technology is now at the center of our professional and personal lives. While there are exceptions, for most of us, it’s difficult to ...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016