Making the Grade: Performance Management and Measurement at All Levels

If you’ve been a support center manager for more than ten minutes, you’ve probably been faced with the question, “How is your team doing?” Because of the role they play, support organizations are often large and/or highly visible. As a result, senior IT leadership wants to understand the return...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Offshoring Infrastructure: Global Challenges, Global Opportunities

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...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Combining People and Process Management for Optimal Service Management

If you agree with ITIL, successful service management is the result of “an appropriate mix of people, process, and information technology.” While ITIL is touted as a systematic approach that treats all three components equally, in practice it often focuses more heavily on the process side....
Date Published - Last Updated April 19, 2019

Rewards and Recognition: Reestablishing the Connection

Do you feel you reward and/or recognize your team frequently enough? Do you feel you are rewarded and recognized enough? For most people, there’s a big disconnect. So what can we do to reestablish the disconnection?
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Service Desk 2.0: How to Achieve Service Excellence in 2013 and Beyond

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 With each passing day, the traditional model for remote support becomes increasingly outdated.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...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Shine: Execute the Fundamentals of Customer Interaction…Brilliantly!

In this article, we’ll explore the customer service and communication skills (also known as soft skills) that enable customer support professionals to deliver consistent, high-quality service and support to customers. We’ll also discuss how these skills fit into three overall groups:...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

The Secret to Gold-Medal Performance: SIMPLE SMILEs!

The key to trouble-free performance management is regular communication. Take the SIMPLE SMILE approach and you’ll have engaged, empowered, and energized employees who know what’s expected of them and rise to the challenge!
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Staffing Studies: Salaries, Stats, and Skills—Oh My!

The technical support staff is the voice, and often the face, of IT. Over the past couple of years, HDI has conducted several studies on staffing in the technical service and support industry, focusing on topics like hiring, retention, staffing structure, salaries, skills, and the future. By...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Tech Trends: Monitoring Tools

With all of the changes and innovations happening in the technical service and support industry, it can be difficult to stay ahead of potential issues, problems, and challenges. But today’s monitoring tools can give technical service and support organizations the edge they need to respond...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Tech Trends: Workforce Management

We asked Fancy Mills, author of “Workforce Management: Underutilized Metrics for Success,” to share a list of the resources, tools, and software she recommends to her clients. If you’ve used or worked with any of the following, we invite you to share your feedback in the HDI Buyer’s Guide.
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016