Build a continual improvement plan

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Build a Service Desk Continual Improvement PlanTeach your old service desk new tricks.






Build a Service Desk Continual Improvement PlanTeach your old service desk new tricks.


Table of contents

1. Title

2. Executive Summary

3. Execute the Project/DIY Guide

Phase 1: Focus the Continual Improvement Plan

Step 1: Determine goals and objectives

Step 2: Determine critical success factors and target metrics

Step 3: Conduct a full assessment of your service desk

Phase 2: Build the Continual Improvement Plan

Step 4: Identify and prioritize initiatives

Step 5: Build Continual Improvement Plan

Phase 3: Run the Continual Improvement Plan

Step 6: Monitor progress

Step 7: Measure outcome

5. Summary/Conclusion

6. Next Steps

7. Appendices


Service desk managers often learn the hard way that standardizing their processes is only the start of the service quality journey. Quality service desk processes are not only difficult to build, they’re also difficult to sustain. Service managers who steward mature processes often find themselves stuck at the top of the mountain with no idea how to survive there.

There are three things you can do to put in place improvements that stick: engage, engage, engage. Engage executives; engage informal leaders; engage service desk analysts. Not only will each group have insights that could make or break the service desk improvement, but engaging them will also get them to buy into the process. Ultimately, it will sustain the change process, and help ensure you don’t tumble

back down the mountain.

Sandi Conrad,

Senior Director, Infrastructure Practice

Info-Tech Research Group

Where do we go from here?

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE


This Research is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

Our understanding of the problem

CIOs who need to instill a culture of continual

improvement in their IT organization.

IT directors who want to review the strategic

direction of their service desk.

Managers of mature service desks who want

to make gains in service desk effectiveness,

timeliness, and customer service.

Set a strategic vision for the service desk.

Conduct a service desk audit to identify your

strengths and weaknesses.

Identify and prioritize service desk initiatives to

improve the service desk.

Set measurable targets for improvement

initiatives.

Design a service desk improvement project

that sustains and cements change.

Measure and monitor progress to ensure

initiatives achieve the desired outcome.


Resolution

Situation

Complication

Info-Tech Insight

Executive Summary

• The ideal service desk offers prompt and cost-effective service that

improves service availability, resource use, and productivity. In reality,

however, IT managers must work hard to maintain and improve service

quality or risk performance deterioration over time.

• Even service desks with a high degree of process maturity must contend

with business priorities that change over time in order to sustain

operational excellence.

• Without the right leadership, commitment, and processes, improvements

in service quality can be difficult to sustain.

• Continual service improvement is not only a development plan, but also an organizational culture. The goal is to embed a

process of continual improvement in target service desk processes that enhances capabilities and improves service quality

over time.

• Build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review and evaluate key processes and services, and manage

the progress of improvement initiatives. The plan should develop a vision for the service desk, review its architecture, set

measurable targets for improvement initiatives, identify relevant initiatives, and manage their progress.

• The service desk continual improvement plan is an ongoing process. As one improvement cycle ends, the next cycle

begins, which allows the service desk to keep pace with changing business requirements.

1. Lean into incremental improvements.

Mature service desks with the capacity

for change are ideally situated to

respond to shifting business priorities.

2. It’s easier to climb Mount Everest

than to stay there. Without continual

service improvement, sustained service

desk quality will be temporary.

Organizations need to put in place an

ongoing process to audit, enhance, and

sustain the performance of your service

desk whatever your process maturity.


Info-Tech Research Group’s approach to service desk optimization focuses on building essential best practices

Consolidate 01

Build a strategic

roadmap to consolidate

service desks to reduce

end-user support costs

and sustain end-user

satisfaction.

Standardize 02

Build essential incident,

service request, and

knowledge management

processes to create a

sustainable service desk

that meets business

needs.

Extend 03

Facilitate the extension of

service management best

practices to other business

functions to improve

productivity and position IT as a strategic partner.

Our Approach to the Service Desk

Service desk optimization goes beyond

the blind adoption of best-practice

frameworks.

Our approach focuses on controlling

support costs and capitalizing on IT’s

service management expertise to

improve productivity.

Info-Tech’s

Service Desk

Methodology

Lean 05

Use Lean principles

to review service

desk processes,

identify how they

create value, and

uncover tasks that

add waste to your

service desk

activities.

Improve 04

Build a continual

improvement plan for

the service desk to

review and evaluate

key processes and

services, and manage

the progress of

improvement initiatives.


The standardize project will help:

1. Compare current service desk

practices against best practices.

2. Put in place consistent processes

for:

• Ticket handling

• Incident management

• Service request fulfillment

3. Develop a knowledgebase to

improve first call resolution and

end-user satisfaction.

Put the basics in place before you embark on a service desk continual service improvement initiative

What is continual service improvement?

Continual service improvement is a proactive approach to service desk management. It involves measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of people,

processes, and technology to:

• Identify areas for improvement.

• Adapt to changes in the business environment.

• Align the IT strategy to organizational goals.

A continual improvement process helps service desks move away from a reactive

approach to service improvements, which focuses only on fixing problems as they

occur.

First things first.

Make sure the basics are in place before you embark on a continual improvement

initiative.

Putting in place a continual improvement process for your service desk will

improve operational costs and end-user satisfaction, but only once you have

consistent incident management and service request fulfillment processes.

Info-Tech Research Group’s Standardize the Service Desk blueprint can help you

assess the current state of your service desk, and build consistent processes to

support a tiered service desk and a single point of contact for IT services.

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/standardize-the-service-desk


Implement a continual improvement plan to improve the performance of the service desk and consolidate your gains

Implementing a continual improvement

plan for the service desk:

• Motivates action to make

immediate improvements to key

target areas.

• Adapts service desks to changes

in the environment.

• Addresses issues proactively.

• Demonstrates a commitment to

service improvement.

• Identifies opportunities for

improvement, and measures

progress on your initiatives.

• Focuses the service desk on

providing value to its end users.

Why implement a continual

improvement plan for the

service desk?

Time

Qu

alit

y

Imp

rove

me

nt


A continual improvement plan is the most effective initiative you can implement to increase end-user satisfaction

Improved business satisfaction:

• Deliver service to the enterprise with confidence.

• Channel incidents and requests through a single

point of contact.

• Escalate incidents quickly and accurately to the

right business function.

Increased efficiency / lower cost to serve:

• Use FAQs to enable end users to self-solve.

• Use a knowledgebase to troubleshoot once, solve

many times.

• Cross-train to improve service consistency.

Fewer recurring issues:

• Tickets are created for every incident and

categorized correctly.

• Reports can be used for root cause analysis.

On average, end users who were

satisfied with service desk

effectiveness rated all other IT

services 42.1% higher than

dissatisfied end users.

On average, end users who

were satisfied with service

desk timeliness rated all

other IT services 38.0%

higher than dissatisfied end

users.

38.0%

42.1%

Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2015; N=19,349

Enhanced demand planning:

• Trend analysis and reporting improve service

providers beyond IT through the ability to forecast

and address the demands of the business.

Empower other business functions to

provide effective, timely services that

meet business needs at a lower cost.

Follow the steps in this project

blueprint to guide non-IT partners

through the process.

Project

Benefits


Project structure

Key P

roje

ct

De

live

rab

les

• A service desk

assessment (Excel) to

assess the maturity of key

service desk processes.

• A continual service

improvement plan (Word)

for service desks to organize

the project.

• A service desk continual

service improvement

roadmap (Excel) to keep

track of all improvement

initiatives, prioritize

opportunities, break down

selected projects into steps,

and track your progress.

Build a service desk continual improvement plan

Ph

ase

2:

BU

ILD

Co

nti

nu

al

Imp

rov

eme

nt

Pla

n

Ph

ase

1:

FOC

US

Co

nti

nu

al

imp

rove

me

nt

Pla

n

Ph

ase

3:

RU

N C

on

tin

ual

Im

pro

vem

en

t P

lan

Phase

1. Determine goals and

objectives of CSI2. Identify CSFs

3. Conduct service desk assessment

1. Prioritize improvement

initiatives

1. Monitor progress

2. Measure outcome

2. Build CSI action plan

Organizational and IT goals

CSFs, KPIs, metrics

SD Assessment Tool (EXCEL)

CSI Register SD CSI Roadmap

(EXCEL)

CSI Plan Template (WORD)

Communication Plan


Executive Brief Case Study – CERN

CERN Computing Centre

The European Organization for Nuclear Research is one of world’s

largest centers for scientific research, hosting thousands of visiting

scientists from around the world. The IT Platform and Engineering

Services (PES) group provides batch, interactive, and specialized

services to the staff at CERN.

Continual Service Improvement Cycle

The PES group at CERN set out to initiate a continual improvement

plan in order to:

1. Advance the use of ITIL best practices.

2. Develop a knowledge-sharing culture within the group.

3. Decrease ticket volume and average resolution time.

Results

After running the program for two years, the PES group increased the

percentage of tickets solved by level-two teams from 25% to 43%.

The use of a support structure that allowed for knowledge exchange

was critical to project success. The team holds weekly improvement

meetings with key stakeholders, and identifies and communicates

effectively any necessary training and documentation needs.

The case study continues in step 3.

The Continual Service Improvement Cycle

included the following components:

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Scientific Research

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

Decide what should be measured

Decide what can be

measured

Gather data

Process data

Analyze data

Present and use the

information

Implement corrective

action


Consulting

“Our team does not

have the time or the

knowledge to take this

project on. We need

assistance through the

entirety of this project.”

Guided

Implementation

“Our team knows that

we need to fix a

process, but we need

assistance to

determine where to

focus. Some check-ins

along the way would

help keep us on track.”

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already

made this critical

project a priority, and

we have the time and

capability, but some

guidance along the

way would be helpful.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the

ground running and

get this project kicked

off immediately. Our

team has the ability to

take this over once we

get a framework and

strategy in place.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to suit your needs


Best-Practice

Toolkit

1.1 Determine goals and objectives

1.2 Identify critical success factors

1.3 Conduct service desk

assessment

2.1 Prioritize improvement

initiatives

2.2 Build CSI action plan

3.1 Monitor progress

3.2 Measure outcomes

Guided

Implementations

Determine the goals of the

continual improvement plan, and

align them to organizational goals

and strategy.

Identify critical success factors for

the project, conduct a service

desk audit, and review the results.

Brainstorm and prioritize continual

improvement initiatives for the

service desk.

Draw on the prioritized list of

service desk initiatives to build a

continual improvement plan and

strategic roadmap.

Build a plan to communicate

progress, promote the benefits of

the projects, and reflect on

lessons learned.

Onsite

Workshop

Module 1:

Focus the continual improvement

plan

Module 2:

Build the continual improvement plan

Module 3:

Run the continual improvement plan

Phase 1 Outcome:

• Continual service improvement

plan goals aligned to

organizational goals.

• A service desk maturity baseline.

Phase 2 Outcome:

• A continual improvement plan for

the service desk.

• A strategic roadmap for the

continual improvement plan.

Phase 3 Outcome:

• A communication plan to promote

the benefits of the project and

communicate changes to various

stakeholders.

1. Focus 2. Build 3. Run

Build a service desk continual improvement plan


Workshop overview

Day 1* Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Ac

tivit

ies

Preparation

1. Confirm workshop

scope. Send

agenda to

workshop

participants.

2. Analysts review

service desk

organizational

structure.

3. Analysts conduct a

ticket trend analysis

on ITSM tool data.

Workshop Day

1. Determine

organizational

goals and

objectives of

continual service

improvement plan.

2. Identify critical

success factors.

Workshop Day

1. Conduct service

desk assessment.

2. Prioritize service

desk improvement

initiatives.

Workshop Day

1. Build continual

service desk

improvement action

plan.

Workshop Day

1. Build a process to

monitor progress

and measure

outcomes.

2. Develop a

communication

plan.

3. Reflect on lessons

learned.

Deli

ve

rab

les

1. Workshop scope

and agenda.

2. Comparative

analysis of current

service desk

structures against

best practices.

3. Ticket trend

assessment,

including ticket

volume, and most

important incidents

and service

requests.

1. List of organizational

goals, related IT

goals, and goals for

the continual

improvement

program.

2. List of critical

success factors, key

performance

indicators, and

metrics.

1. Service desk

assessment tool.

2. Continual service

improvement

register including

matrix to prioritize

initiatives.


desk improvement

plan.


desk improvement

roadmap.

1. Communication

plan.

* Day 1 is conducted

off-site


Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this

research

This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform

the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get

the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.

This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as

part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to

facilitate a workshop for your organization.

Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to

the recommended activities.






PHASEFocus the Continual Improvement Plan

1

Build a Service Desk Continual Improvement Plan


PHASE

321

Phase Focus the Continual Improvement Plan 1


Phase 1 outline

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of

2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Focus the service desk continual improvement planProposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 1.1: Determine Goals and

Objectives

Step 1.2: Identify Critical Success

Factors

Step 1.3: Conduct a Full Assessment

of Your Service Desk

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Discuss how to gather organizational

goals, and set objectives for the

continual improvement plan.

Review findings with analyst:

• Review best practices for identifying

critical success factors and KPIs.

Finalize phase deliverable:

• Review best practices for conducting an

audit of service desk processes.

Then complete these activities…

• Define triggers, goals, and objectives

of continual improvement.

• Determine roles & responsibilities.


• Define CSFs, KPIs, and target metrics.

• Identify key performance indicators and

metrics to measure progress in achieving

critical success factors.


• Review the results of your diagnostic

programs to inform your current state,

including:

o End-user satisfaction survey

o CIO business vision

• Identify key metrics to assess

improvement initiatives.

With these tools & templates:

Continual Service Improvement Plan


Continual Service Improvement Plan


Service Desk Audit Tool

Phase 1 Results & Insights: Continual improvement must demonstrate its worth to the organization before the process can begin. By

focusing the plan around organizational goals, you will generate support from within to effectively deploy the continual improvement plan in the

future. This will also allow the Service Desk to effectively respond to shifting business priorities.

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email [email protected] for more information.

mailto:[email protected]


Step 1 – Determine goals and objectives

This step will walk you through the following activities: This step involves the following participants:

• Define triggers, goals, and objectives of continual

improvement.

• Determine roles and responsibilities.

• Service Desk Manager

• CSI Manager

• Business Executives

• CIO/IT Director

Outcomes of this step

• A set of goals and objectives that align with the business vision.

• A defined business, IT, and service desk strategy.

• A list of roles and responsibilities and a RACI chart for the continual improvement process.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment of

your service

desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome


Identify the business vision and needs to ensure IT services will align

Ensure that continual improvement will benefit

the business

• One of the primary goals of continual improvement

is to continually align and realign IT services to

changing business needs.

• All improvements to IT services that will be

undertaken through the continual service

improvement (CSI) process should support

business processes and business needs.

• While growth and innovation are top of mind, 53%

of technology CEOs recognize that operational

efficiencies are critical and the most important

factor when it comes to the future well-being of their

companies (KPMG, 2015).

• Thirty-four percent of technology CEOs name

implementing disruptive technologies as their top

strategic priority.

• The service desk needs to work in conjunction with

other parts of the organization.

Understand the business vision

• Understand the high-level business objectives to

set the vision for continual improvement in a way

that will align IT strategies with business

strategies.

• A clear picture of your organization’s goals and

overall corporate strategy is the crucial first step

to continual improvement and will set the stage

for the metrics you select.

• Knowing what your business is doing and

understanding the impact of IT on the business

will help you ensure that any metrics you collect

will be business-focused.

• Understanding the long-term vision of the

business and its appetite for commitment and

sponsorship will also inform your IT strategy and

continual improvement goals.

The first step of the continual improvement process is to understand the business needs and

objectives in order to ensure the CSI process will align with and support the business vision.

https://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/global-automotive-executive-survey/Documents/2015-report-v1.pdf


Develop IT’s strategy and goals to set the framework for the improvement process

A lot of mature service desks are heavily

invested in ITIL, so every project they

undertake is heavily-based on what ITIL

says they should be doing that they’re

currently not doing.

You don’t need to strictly adhere to each

and every single guideline that ITIL or a

specific framework provides, as this may

lead you to try to solve a “problem” that isn’t

really a problem for your organization.

Rather, design your service desk strategy

based on the specific needs and vision of

your organization, taking into account

suggestions and steps from various

frameworks where applicable.

IT Strategy

After checking in with the business leaders, check in with IT

management and executives in order to clearly identify and

evaluate IT’s strategy and objectives for the future.

If there is a clearly identified IT strategy in place, evaluate it,

redefine it if necessary, and ensure it aligns with the business

strategy.

If no IT strategy currently exists, IT leaders should define a

clear strategy with goals and objectives, which will help set the

framework for the service desk strategy and improvement

process.

Service Desk Strategy

Similarly, a clearly defined service desk strategy should be in

place, which will support both IT and business strategies.

Don’t limit your strategy to following the steps from one specific framework; design your

strategy based on your specific needs.


Continual Improvement

Audits

Process maturity

Management reviews

Technology advances

Regulations

New staff or technology

Identify the triggers for the continual improvement process

Audits: Check for performance

requirements in order to pass major audits

for frameworks like ISO 20000.

Assessments:

Variances in efficiency

or effectiveness of

metrics when compared

to the industry standard.

Management reviews:

Routine reviews that

reveal gaps.

Technology advances: For

example, new service desk

architecture has become

available.

New staff, new

technology: Disruptive

technology or new skills

that allow for

improvement.

Regulations: Compliance

to new or changed

regulations (ISO 20000).

Process maturity:

Opportunity to

increase efficiency

of services &

processes.

Assessments


Define a manageable strategy for continual improvement by focusing on key goals and priorities

Don’t try to boil the ocean. Beginning with too wide a scope

will consume too much time and resources.

Executive Support Is Key

Leadership and commitment are essential to

service desk strategy and CSI.

Developing a strategy to improve the process and

structure of the service desk will require qualified

leadership from individuals in management and

leadership positions who are committed to the

entire process from setting goals and priorities

through measuring effectiveness to making and

sustaining improvements.

Info-Tech Insight

In my experience it’s the lack of commitment from management or the perception that there is no such commitment. To improve a service desk it needs to have a clear identity and a set mission converted to targets/goals. I’ve seen a lot of methods mentioned…which are all parts of the solution in my opinion, but without the motivation and drive it’s going be just the “next” improvement in the eyes of the employees.

– Marc Fransen, IT Service Manager

CSI must be implemented with a limited scope if it will be

successful. Don’t try to improve every process/service at once; it is

a continual improvement process.

It’s important to focus on key goals and the priorities of the vision

to help set the scope for the CSI process.

Develop a continual improvement strategy

Before initiating the CSI process, begin by developing an ongoing

continual improvement strategy that will be referenced over the

long term as you continually select and implement improvement

initiatives.

The continual improvement strategy should include clearly defined

goals, objectives, and key measurements that will lead to

actionable improvements.

The CSI strategy should address:

• The overall health of the service desk.

• The maturity of each of the service desk processes and

services.

• The continual alignment of the service desk to IT services and

future business needs.


Define the triggers, goals, and objectives of continual improvement and align them with your IT strategy

1.1 Define the objectives of the continual improvement program Time Allotment: 90 minutes

1. Schedule a meeting with recommended participants.

2. Facilitate a discussion to outline the business vision or

strategy and IT needs in order to ensure the continual

improvement strategy will be aligned.

3. Define the triggers for the continual improvement

plan.

• Remember that triggers can come from a variety

of places.

• Defined triggers make it easier to identify

initiatives for improvement.

4. Identify the goals and objectives for continual

improvement.

• Goals should be aligned to strategy and

informed by triggers.

• These goals and objectives will set the

framework for the critical success factors to be

determined in the next step.

Recommended Participants• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

Document as you go:

Document the outcome of the

discussion in the Continual

Improvement Plan, Section

2.1 and 2.2.


Lead with the benefits to overcome resistance to change from management

“There’s a perception that CSI is

looking for faults, but that’s not

always the case; sometimes we’re

looking at things that are working

good but could be working great.

It could be they’re working at 70%,

but everything else is running at

85%-90%, so there is room for

improvement.”

-Dave Smith, IT Trainer

It’s important to bring solutions to the business

when implementing CSI rather than problems;

that way all that has to be done is signing off on

a decision.

Focus on the positives to be gained from the

improvement and how the negatives are

bringing the Service Desk down.

Even if a process is working well, focus on how

it could be working even better.

There’s a perception that CSI is looking for faults, but that’s not always the case; you might be

looking at things that are good but could be great. If you have a process that’s scoring at 70%,

but all of your other processes are scoring at 85-90%, there’s room for improvement.

When discussing improvement opportunities,

discuss both sides of the situation – talk about

the things that are working well and then talk

about the things that aren’t working well and

how those are affecting service delivery.

If you talk about an improvement, explain the

reason you’re doing it and the benefits to be

gained once you put this improvement in place.

There needs to be engagement from people at

all levels to get everyone excited about change.

Gain support from the business by bringing solutions, not problems, to the table. Lead with the

benefits, and explain the reasoning behind changes before introducing them.


Gain support from within to ensure a cultural shift

Unless you have the support of your team, you won’t be able to deliver the right solution. You

can tell your team that having a knowledgebase will improve the Service Desk, but ultimately,

they need to build it. Without support from your team, even the best improvement plan can fail.

Get all service desk staff on your side from the beginning so that they understand the benefits

and make sure the project is tailored to their needs. Get people involved in changing the

process, making key individuals responsible for improvement to process.

Make sure to communicate executive support of the project to the service desk

team. Top-down support for a project helps ensure employee buy-in at any level.

Involve the service desk staff in the process – let them know you’re trying to improve

their practice and engage them in the mission. Make sure there is training, and be

prepared to take time (persist long enough to effect change to habits).

Don’t forget to communicate the benefits of the continual

improvement plan to service desk employees, and clarify how

everyone’s role will be affected.


Communicate the benefits of CSI clearly to justify the effort

CSI must demonstrate its worth to the organization before the process can begin.

Host a CSI workshop for business executives to kick off the improvement process at a

leadership level.

Explain the benefits in the context of the business vision and needs and how

continual improvement will better align IT services to the organization.

Define the benefits in a clear and measurable way.1

Benefits may include:

• Improved quality of business operations through better support and alignment

from IT services.

• More reliable support from the service desk, resulting in more realistic

customer/end-user expectations.

• Improved customer/end-user satisfaction.

• Increased staff productivity through more efficient processes and better

availability of services.

• Reduced costs through more cost-effective processes and services, leading

to long-term financial benefits.

• Improved ability to adapt quickly to changing trends and new requirements.

• Improved metrics and data collection and reporting.

3

2

When executives hear "continual improvement" they typically say they've seen it before and have never seen it done well. Once you position CSI correctly and leadership can see the practicality and value, I've never seen a business that then says they don't want that.

– CSI Manager


Define roles and responsibilities to ensure accountability

The manager of the CSI process

will be responsible for filling and

monitoring all CSI roles, developing

the continual improvement action

plan, and ensuring success of the

initiatives.

CSI analysts will be responsible

for analyzing data and trends that

are captured through the CSI.

Manager

Analysts

Focus on people in addition to

process and technology

Have different parties responsible for different phases of the

project to ensure objectivity.

• For example, if the same individuals set the strategies and

goals and also measure whether they were achieved, they

may be more biased to say that the project succeeded.

Ensure that the service desk staff have the appropriate skills

and knowledge to carry out the steps necessary to achieve

the goals of the continual improvement program.

• If not, determine what training may be necessary for staff.

The continual improvement activities will only be successful if specific roles and responsibilities are clearly identified.

Depending on available staff and resources, you may be able to have some individuals in full-time CSI roles, or include

CSI activities in their job descriptions.

Each improvement action that you identify should have clear ownership and accountability to ensure that it is completed

within the specified timeframe.

Roles and responsibilities can be reassigned throughout the CSI process.

Consider assigning dedicated CSI roles


Determine roles & responsibilities

1.2 Organize roles & responsibilities in a RACI chart Time Allotment: 60 minutes

1. Schedule a meeting with recommended participants.

2. Facilitate a discussion to define the roles and

responsibilities for the continual improvement

process. Discuss:

• Which existing roles apply.

• Any new roles that need to be created.

• Any potential challenges facing current or new

roles.

3. Identify specific responsibilities for roles within the

continual improvement process.

• This may include a CSI Manager, Service

Manager, CSI Analyst, and Service Team.

• CSI-specific roles such as the CSI Manager do

not have to be separate positions, but

responsibilities should be assigned to ensure

accountability for the progress of the continual

improvement plan (CIP).

4. Use a RACI chart to record the roles and

responsibilities of each member of the service team.

Recommended Participants

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

• Service Desk Analysts

• Tier 2/3 Specialists

Document as you go:




2.3.


Step 2 – Identify critical success factors and target metrics


• Define CSFs, KPIs, and baseline and target

metrics.

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO/IT Director



• A list of CSFs

• Two to three KPIs for each CSF

• Metrics for each KPI

3 4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment

of your

service desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

21


Identify critical success factors for the continual improvement process

• Critical success factors (CSFs) are higher level goals or requirements for success, such as improving

end-user satisfaction; they’re factors that must be met in order to reach your IT and business strategic

vision.

• Critical success factors for a service desk should cover the five Ps:

◦ People, Process, Products, Performance, and Partners

Factor Content CSF Example

People Tasks, roles, and responsibilities• Improved agents’ knowledge of IT services

or business objectives

Process Maturity and consistency of processes

• Defined process in place to consistently

identify and categorize urgency and impact

of a ticket

ProductsTechnical tools and software used by

the service desk

• Effective ticketing system with workflows for

ticket management

PerformanceEfficiency, effectiveness, and value of

the service desk• Improved end-user satisfaction and retention

Partners*

(*if relevant)

Timeliness and quality of services

provided by internal and external

suppliers

• Well-defined agreements for second-level

technician support


Select KPIs that will identify useful information for the initiative

QuantityOutput measures such as incidents resolved or service

desk requests completed within a specific timeframe.

QualityCorrectness or accuracy measures such as the percentage

of correct queue assignments.

TimelinessTime-based measures such as the percentage of Level 1

incidents that are resolved within a specific timeframe.

ComplianceMeasures of how well processes and controls are being

executed properly.

KPIs should cover these four vectors of service desk

performance: Some of the most useful KPIs

for service desk may include:

• Cost per contact/ticket

• Customer satisfaction

• Agent utilization

• First contact resolution rate

• First level resolution rate

• Agent satisfaction

• Aggregate service desk

performance

Examples of defined KPIs:

• First call resolution is at least

75%

• Level 1 incidents are

responded to within ten

minutes

Less is more – don’t try to measure and report on too many KPIs at once. Select only those KPIs that

can be measured accurately to inform the CSFs that will support the business organization.

Aim for two to three KPIs for each CSF and no more than three to five KPIs per CSF.

Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for each CSF; these will usually involve a trend, as an increase or decrease in

something. If KPIs already exist for your service desk, re-evaluate them to assess their relevance to current strategy, and

redefine if necessary. Selected KPIs should provide a full picture of the health of your service desk.


Set target metrics that would define an improvement for each KPI

• For each CSF and KPI, identify the baseline metric you were achieving and establish a targeted improvement metric to aim

for through the continual improvement process.

• As part of your continual improvement action plan, a first step will be to identify your CSFs, two to three KPIs for each CSF,

and target metrics for each KPI. An example is shown below.

CSF KPI KPI Measure Baseline Metric Target Metric Metric Source

Increased

number of

tickets resolved

by the first

person to speak

to the customer

• Total number

of tickets

• Number of

tickets

resolved on

first contact

First contact

resolution rate

50%Equal to or

greater than

60%

ITSM tool for

ticket

management

Improved end-

user satisfaction

with IT

• Increase in

net promoter

score over

the next six

months

• Increase in

end-user

satisfaction

score over

the next year

• Support score

based on

number of

promoters

and

detractors

• End-user

satisfaction

survey score

60%

Equal to or

greater than

75%

• Transactional

end-user

satisfaction

surveys

• Annual end-

user

satisfaction

survey


Define CSFs, KPIs, and target metrics

1.3 Identify CSFs, KPIs, and associated metrics Time Allotment: 60 minute

1. Schedule a meeting with recommended

participants.

2. Brainstorm CSFs to achieve as part of the

continual improvement plan. Consider:

• The objectives of continual improvement.

• The five Ps: People, Process, Products,

Performance, and Partners.

• Inviting a few Tier 1 analysts in order to

get frontline feedback.

3. For each CSF, select two to three KPIs and

target metrics to define each KPI.

• Remember to keep KPIs manageable and

your metrics realistic.

4. Record your results in a table like that shown in

the previous slide.


• Service Manager, CSI

Manager

• IT Manager


Document as you go:



Improvement Plan, Sections

2.4 and 2.5.


Step 3 – Conduct a full assessment of your service desk


• End-User Satisfaction Survey

• CIO Business Vision

• IT Skills Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool

• Service Desk Audit

• Identify key metrics to assess improvement

initiatives

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO/IT Director



• Current State Assessment

4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment

of your

service desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

1 32


Use three forms of assessment to create a complete picture of service desk performance

In order to obtain a full picture of the current performance of your service desk, it’s not

enough to rely on a single source of evaluation. Evaluate information from three sources

in order to obtain an unbiased baseline assessment of your service desk performance.

Metrics

End-user feedback

Service desk staff

feedback

Collect and evaluate key service desk

performance metrics.

Survey your end users to understand their

assessment of and satisfaction with the

service desk.

Interview your staff to gain their insights into

their satisfaction and how well the service

desk is running.


Conduct a service desk assessment to identify best practices

Overcome resistance to an audit by emphasizing that you’re seeking to identify best practices to share across the service desk or with another service desk, and by involving the service desk in the process. Frame the audit as identifying the positive rather than the negative. If you do find best practices, share those with the team.

– Gautam Bangalore, Service

Management Professional

• Interview users within the business that use the service desk a lot, as they can provide quality insight about

performance.

• In addition to interviews, metrics play a key role in understanding what needs improvement. After you implement

metrics, have an impact report regularly generated (daily) to monitor them.

• After conducting the initial audit, conduct future audits quarterly or semi-annually, unless you have evidence from the

metrics that there’s a problem.

• Understand the capabilities of the staff themselves (all levels from analyst to manager), and provide training or

upgrading of skills if necessary.

Method Pros Cons

Self-

Assessment

• Reduced cost

• Internal knowledge of service

desk processes

• Learning and communication

gained through the process

• Difficult to remain objective

and impartial

• Limited skills and

knowledge

• Requires resources and

time from staff

External

Assessment

• Objective viewpoint

• Expert knowledge and

experience

• Detailed

• No loss in staff time

• Higher cost

• Limited knowledge of the

internal environment

Assessments can be conducted internally by the organization, or

externally through a third party. There are pros and cons to each; select

the method that is most appropriate for your organization.


Conduct a formal assessment to collect and analyze data on key performance metrics

Metrics will not be useful in terms of identifying areas for improvement if they

are not realistic. Be honest and as accurate as possible through the process.

The first place you must start for any CSI exercise is to get some clear knowledge of

exactly where you are right now. That means you must have some good metrics in place.

Metrics tell an important

part of the story about

where you are now and

where you need to

improve. It is important to

ensure that the metrics

you collect:

• Are accurate and

reliable.

• Align with the

business and IT

strategy.

• Inform your continual

improvement plan.

The metrics you assess will be informed by the

CSFs and KPIs you identified in Step 2.

Metrics are not just how the service desk is doing, but how all parts of the

organization are working together.

These metrics must not be focused too narrowly; ensure you have a genuine

coverage of both quality and cost, and effectiveness and efficiency.

Gathering those metrics is a challenge for many organizations, therefore, they

don’t do it and do not provide as good a service as they could.

The metrics you should be putting in place need to be focused around what the

business is trying to achieve.

Audits are useful to establish baseline metrics, but should also leave behind a

set of metrics that can be continually monitored and reported on.


Gather and evaluate existing performance data to determine what new data you need to collect

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t automatically start gathering data and waste time collecting data that already exists. Start by analyzing existing

data on service desk performance to determine what information you still need to collect.

Start by identifying the tools and measurements you

already have in place. This may include:

• Service management tools

• Monitoring tools

• Reporting tools and databases

Identify what data each of these

tools currently measures and

collects.

Identify what data is

currently being reported

on.

Identify what relevant

information is not being

collected.

Evaluate the integrity of the data

– identify what information can be

used to inform your assessment

and what data is not reliable.

Evaluate whether the data

aligns with strategy and

goals for improvement.

Use this gap analysis to

determine what information still

needs to be collected.


Select and implement appropriate metrics to clarify your current state

Suggested Service Desk Metrics

1. Single point of contact

2. First point of contact resolution

3. Telephone answering time

4. Time to action issues raised by

email or web portal

5. Functional escalation

6. End-to-end management

7. Availability of knowledge

8. Cost of calls

9. Call pattern

The specific metrics you choose to include in your assessment will be informed by the goals and

objectives of the continual improvement plan, including the target metrics you identified to align

with your KPIs and CSFs.

Three types of metrics you will need to

collect include:

Technology metrics: Component and

application performance/availability

Process metrics: Health of each service

desk process

Service metrics: Effectiveness and

efficiency of service delivery

If SLAs are in place, ensure you also collect data on

whether/how well the service desk is meeting SLAs.

This will inform improvement initiatives that can

increase business and end-user satisfaction.


Identify key metrics to assess improvement initiatives

1.4 Identify and record data on key metrics Time Allotment: 2 hours


• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

• IT Manager

Document as you go:

Document the list of key

metrics in the Continual


2.5.

Record data on key metrics

in the Service Desk

Assessment Tool.

1. Identify a list of metrics that will inform the continual

improvement program and will be necessary to track.

• These will be informed by the CSFs and KPIs you

identified earlier.

• Metrics should align with the business strategy and the

service desk strategy and goals for continual

improvement.

2. Identify metrics that you are already tracking and reporting

upon regularly.

• Ensure the data is accurate and reliable.

3. Compare list of desired metrics to list of metrics that are

already being tracked and metrics that are included in the

Service Desk Assessment Tool.

• Any metrics that are not being tracked will need to be

evaluated and reported upon.

• Any metrics that are tracked but not included in the

Service Desk Assessment Tool will need to be reported

on separately.

• All other metrics should be recorded in the Service Desk

Assessment Tool.


Measure end-user feedback to gain a different perspective on performance

Customer perceptions are an essential component

of service desk quality.

IT teams often rely on service level targets such as

incident response and resolution rate, but these

don’t tell you enough about the customer’s

perceptions.

Even a mature service desk may not necessarily be

meeting customer needs.

Include a measurement of customer feedback –

their perceptions of what you’re doing well and what

you need to improve.

If you’ve had a service desk in place for a while, a

survey is more accurate than relying on call logs –

users may not be calling because they are not

expecting anyone to answer.

Asking your users about their current expectations

via formal surveys is the best way to start the

improvement process.

Get out there and ask your users what is driving them crazy. Your user community is the one that is going to tell you how you’re performing. For example, sometimes it’s not what version of software you’re using, but how people are using it.

– Joseph Philpott, Acting Director Service Assurance

Relying only on metrics from the service desk side may not entirely capture the

customer/end-user experience with the service desk.

Info-Tech Insight

The most powerful way to drive continual

improvement of a service desk is to continually

share customer feedback. At the end of the day,

service quality all comes down to customer

perceptions.


Da

ta–D

rive

n D

iag

no

sti

cs

Solicit direct feedback from the organization to gain critical insights

into their perceptions of IT.

• CIO Business Vision: Understanding the needs of your

stakeholders is the first and most important step in building an IT

strategy. Use the results of this survey to assess the satisfaction

and importance of different IT services.

• End-User Satisfaction Survey: Solicit targeted department

feedback on core IT service capabilities, IT communications, and

business enablement. Use the results to assess the satisfaction of

end users with each service broken down by department and

seniority level.

We recommend completing at least the End-User Satisfaction Survey

as part of your service desk assessment. An analyst will help you set

up the diagnostic and walk through the report with you.

To book a diagnostic, or get a copy of our questions to inform your

own survey, visit Info-Tech's Benchmarking Tools, contact your

account manager, or call toll-free 1-888-670-8889 (US) or 1-844-618-

3192 (CAN).

Don’t base your current state assessment

on a hunch.

Collect relevant quantitative and qualitative data to assess the perception of IT across the organization

End-User Satisfaction Survey

CIO Business Vision

http://www.infotech.com/benchmarking


Review the results of your diagnostic programs to inform your current state assessment

1.5 Understand satisfaction with the service desk Time Allotment: 60 minutes

1. Set up an analyst call through your account manager to review

the results of your diagnostic.

Whatever survey you choose, ask the analyst to review the

data and comments concerning:

• Assessments of service desk timeliness/effectiveness

• IT business enablement

• IT innovation leadership

2. Book a meeting with recommended participants. Open and

project the results of your diagnostic survey.

3. Facilitate a discussion of the results. Focus on the first few

summary slides and the overall department results slide.

• What is the level of IT support?

• What are stakeholders’ perception of IT’s performance?

• How satisfied are stakeholders with IT? Does the

department understand and act on business needs?

• What are the business priorities and how well are you

doing in meeting these priorities?

• How can the service desk assist the business in achieving

goals?


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

Document as you go:


discussion in Continual

Improvement Plan, Section 2.6.

Record End-User Satisfaction in the

Service Desk Assessment Tool,

Tab 4.


Implement transactional end-user surveys to understand customer satisfaction on a granular level

Win back end users with a customer service attitude.

Transactional end-user surveys measure ticket satisfaction from the end user’s perspective

with a few questions that measure satisfaction on a numerical scale (usually 0-5 or 0-10).

These basic satisfaction questions may be followed up with one or two open-ended

questions asking the reason for the score and suggestions for improvement.

The score can drive continual improvement in a way that will also improve the perception of

the IT Service Desk from the perspective of the customer.

The best way to drive a higher survey response rate is to send out less surveys.

Assign a randomized selection from each day’s closed tickets to receive a survey. Keep the

surveys short (three to five questions maximum) and easy to answer.

3

2

1


Challenge Solution Results

Lonely Planet, a travel guide

company with offices in

Australia, the UK, the USA,

India, and China, wanted to

increase its overall IT

satisfaction.

The company had a fairly

large IT department

(approximately 100

employees), and it was

looking for innovative ways to

improve service quality and

increase IT’s reputation with

the business.

Lonely Planet implemented end-user

transactional surveys based on Net

Promoter. At first this was done semi-

manually but is now automated with a

specialized tool called CIOPulse.

A Net Promoter survey was issued

when an incident was closed to

understand customer satisfaction,

which can be tracked over time and

benchmarked against other teams.

Lonely Planet also encouraged

processes like calling detractors

(unhappy people) back to benefit

from the Service Recovery Paradox,

and sharing positive feedback in team

meetings.

Over a period of just six months,

in which the only change made

was the adoption of the

transactional surveys, including

calling people back and sharing

feedback, Lonely Planet

increased overall IT satisfaction

by 23 percentage points.

Since the engagement, Lonely

Planet’s IT satisfaction has

consistently been hitting a Net

Promoter score in the high 90s.

Sharing the positive feedback

during team meetings helps

reinforce best practices for

customer service.

Case study: Lonely Planet

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Travel & Tourism

Dave O’Reardon


Embrace the service recovery paradox to increase end-user satisfaction

Time

Cu

sto

me

r L

oya

lty

Service FailureService Recovery

Customers with service failure and

successful recovery

Customers without

service failure

Have you ever had a negative experience at a restaurant or a retail store? You likely left that

experience with a negative opinion about the entire establishment.

If you later contacted the establishment about your negative

experience and they went out of their way to correct the

problem – for example, you had very poor service at a

restaurant and the restaurant provided you with a gift

certificate to make up for it – your opinion of the restaurant will

actually be rated higher than it would be if no problem had

occurred at all. This is known as the Service Recovery

Paradox (SRP).

The SRP does not work as well for big failures – customers

who have had a horrific service desk experience are almost

beyond repair with regards to a SRP approach.

If a mistake is beyond your control, communicate it. The SRP

works better if the customer believes it was beyond your

control. Service desk staff should be taught to manage

customer expectations when the service issue is truly beyond

company control.

The SRP is a useful part your service management toolbox, but it is by no means a strategy. Focus on

improving your end-user satisfaction and overall service management quality through tools such as

transactional surveys.


Speak to your service desk staff to understand their needs

Those on the frontlines are often in the best place to suggest changes.

• Staff are your greatest assets and often provide the clearest

insights; those closest to the problem are best placed to suggest

solutions.

• Let service desk staff speak up about improvement opportunities

that make their lives more productive. Capture what needs to be

done then turn that into action.

• If you start getting engagement from the service desk by

showing that you're interested in real change, more people will

begin stepping up with more suggestions – they have a voice

and we should listen.

– Dave Smith, IT Trainer

• The third key source of information for

your service desk assessment is the

service desk staff themselves.

• As part of your assessment, hold

structured interviews with a

representative selection of service desk

staff at various levels – including Tier 1,

Tier 2, Tier 3, and managers.

• Find out what is holding them back from

performing their job effectively, and what

they feel needs to change in order to

provide better service to the end users.

• Measure agent satisfaction and consider

improving agent satisfaction as an

objective of your continual improvement

plan if necessary.

Service Desk Assessment Tool

Document as you go:

Document the outcome of

the discussion in the


Plan, Section 2.6.


Evaluate the abilities of service desk agents to prioritize training gaps

Understand three key attributes of your service desk agents to prioritize training gaps.

• Are there service desk agents that are keeping knowledge of certain

processes to themselves?

• For example, if only one of five agents takes on mobile device issues, this

can create a bottleneck of mobile device tickets.

• What if that agent leaves the organization? Their knowledge and

experience have now left your company.

• Not all agents are the same in terms of their preferences and work habits,

but if your organization is adopting a new process or new work, some

agents will naturally gravitate towards that work, while others may resist

change.

• Having a profile of your agents developed through a team profiling service

will provide value to your team.

Understand Silos

Understand Work Styles

Understand Skills

• Know the skills present across your service desk staff.

• Not all service desk agents may be trained equally in all areas of work.

• Use Info-Tech’s IT Skills Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool to map the

skills of your service desk agents.

Info-Tech Insight

Time spent in training is never

wasted.

Insufficient training will complicate

the roll-out of the continual

improvement plan. Ensure that

groups receive the support they need

to be successful. That begins with

understanding the abilities of your

service desk agents.

Skills Inventory Gap Analysis


Evaluate skills gaps across your staff to identify training needs1.6

Take a deeper dive into employee development and staffing requirements with the IT Skills Inventory Tool

As part of your service desk assessment, move from analyzing tasks to skill sets. Build a training

and staffing plan that will fill existing gaps and guard against new ones.

The Skills Table tab in the IT Skills

Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool

will help you to:

List skills required to support the

organization.

Document and rate the skills of the

existing IT staffing contingent.

Assess the gaps to help determine

hiring or training needs, or even

where to pare back.

Build a strategy for knowledge

sharing, transfer, and training.

Note: This tool will help IT managers build toward a more flexible, balanced skill set for their IT department. This tool can

be completed as a step in the service desk assessment, or listing required skills could be done quickly as a group

activity.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-skills-inventory-and-gap-assessment-tool


Document as you go:

Assess your service desk to create a plan for improvement

Assess your current state1.7

Establish current state of the service desk.

• Answer the questions about current state in the Environment and

Maturity Survey tabs of Info-Tech’s Service Desk Assessment to

assess the health of your service desk.

• This tool provides insight into the overall health of your service

desk based on:

◦ Process maturity

◦ A series of metrics

• Data-driven visibility of the health of your service desk will help you

clearly identify areas of improvement.

◦ The best choices for areas of improvement may not necessarily

be those with the lowest score.

◦ The goal of continual improvement is not to strictly avoid

negative outcomes, but to achieve new ones.


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager




2.6.



The role of service manager at

CERN included the key duties of

support, consolidation, and

evolution of services.

The burden of the support part of

the role was identified as a

project trigger and action was

taken to improve the support

role.

Proper identification of a project

trigger allowed action to be taken

to correct that issue.

Since the support load for the

service manager was deemed to

be substantial, optimization of the

duty was chosen as the solution.

Trigger identification allowed

CERN to determine:

A CSF: effective ticketing system

with workflows for ticket

management.

KPIs: ticket escalation, first-call

ticket resolution.

Metrics: percentage of tickets

reaching Tier 2 or higher agents.

This process of identification and

focus allowed effective workflows

to be established in order to

progress to the next phase of the

CIP.

Focus the continual improvement plan

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Scientific Research

Journal of Physics






PHASEBuild the Continual Improvement Plan

2



PHASE

321

Phase Build the Continual Improvement Plan 2


Phase 2 outline



Guided Implementation 2: Build a Continual Improvement PlanProposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 2.1: Identify & prioritize improvement initiatives Step 2.2: Build continual improvement action plan


• Review the results of the service desk audit.

• Review relevant service desk continual improvement initiatives

common in the industry.


• Review the improvement initiatives selected.

• Discuss best practices for building a continual improvement plan

and strategic roadmap for the service desk.


• Brainstorm CSI initiatives and record in CSI register.

• Use the CSI register tool to prioritize initiatives.


• Use the CSI Roadmap tool to build your action plan.


Service Desk Assessment Tool

Service Desk Continual Improvement Plan

Service Desk Efficiency Calculator


Continual Service Desk Improvement Roadmap

Service Desk Continual Improvement Plan

Phase 2 Results & Insights: When you build out your continual improvement plan, it is crucial to have your priorities in order. The

best approach is to select “quick wins” that can demonstrate immediate benefits for the business, assisting with organizational buy-in for the

CIP. Once these quick wins are implemented and buy-in is established, major projects that require more effort can be undertaken.




Step 4 – Identify and prioritize improvement initiatives


• Brainstorm CSI initiatives and record in CSI

Register

• Service Desk Efficiency Calculator

• Use the CSI Register tool to prioritize initiatives

• Service Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO



• Identification of major initiatives.

• Identification of quick wins.

• Selection of projects for continual improvement cycle.

4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment

of your

service desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

1 32


Consolidate and analyze the information gathered in phase one to identify improvement initiatives

Now that you have assessed your service desk and have performance metrics, end-user feedback, and

agent feedback, the next step is to consolidate all of that information to identify improvement initiatives.

Once data is gathered, the next step is to process the data and condense all the information you collected

into manageable reports. Process the data in a way that will make it as simple as possible to analyze the

data and get a clear picture of where improvements are needed.

Once data is processed, it’s time to analyze the results. This involves transforming the information into

clear knowledge and understanding of where improvements will be needed and where actions can be

taken.

Look for clear trends in the data, areas of strengths and weaknesses, and gaps between end-user

perceptions and metrics.

Process the data

Compare the data

Analyze the data

Compare the data against your goals, objectives, CSFs, and KPIs, as well as the business vision.

It is important to be open and honest at this stage.

1

2

3


Consider improvements in strategy, practice, and process

Frame your approach in terms of

people, process, and technology

This may include

staff training or

replacing staff.

Creating a new

process for

performing certain

functions.

Implementing new

software or fixing

hardware issues.

People

Process

Technology

Improving the strategy of the service desk can ensure it

will maintain suitability in a changing landscape.

Examples include:

• Adjusting strategy and/or security requirements.

• Training and information gathering.

Improving practice can increase the effectiveness of

services that are provided.

Examples include:

• Implementing new services.

• Implementing new processes and organizational structures.

• Ceasing unnecessary actions.

Improving processes can increase the efficiency of

services and processes.

Examples include:

• Refining processes.

• Renewing technology.

• Organizational changes.

Improvement initiatives may fall under three categories:


Create a CSI register to track improvement suggestions

A CSI register is a place to record all the improvement initiatives that you may be considering. Most tools do not have

modules for these registers, but it can take the form of a simple spreadsheet, and will allow you to manage, track, and

prioritize improvement suggestions.

Consider tracking the following information in your CSI register, adjusted to meet the needs of your organization:

Category Description

Opportunity number Identify each initiative with a unique number or ID for reference.

Date submitted Track when the idea was added to the register.

Description Brief description of what the improvement initiative entails.

Value Expected benefits of the improvement initiative.

Effort Expected effort the improvement initiative will require.

Priority How urgent is the improvement? Categorized based on impact and effort.

ResponsibleIdentify who will own this opportunity and ensure it is completed. Consider also separating

out the individual who submitted the idea and the individual who should review the idea.

StatusTrack the status of the initiative (e.g. proposed, under review, rejected, approved, in

process, completed).

You can also consider using the register to track the

outcome, cost, and benefit of improvement initiatives

after they have been completed.

Populate your register with ideas that come from your

first round of assessments, and use this document to

continually add and track new ideas as they emerge.


Brainstorm CIP initiatives and record in CSI register

Brainstorm improvement initiatives Time Allotment: 1 hour2.1

1. Analyze the assessment data collected throughout phase

one and using the Assessment Tool.

• From the data, identify trends, gaps, and areas of

weakness that arose through the assessment and

feedback collected from end users and service desk

staff.

2. Use this data to generate a list of initiatives that should be

undertaken in order to improve the performance of the

service desk.

3. Record each suggestion in the CSI register, along with

associated information including a description of the

activity, expected benefits or value, required effort, and

who will be responsible for managing the initiative. The

tool will automatically categorize each initiative in terms of

priority based on the value and effort.

4. This list will be continually refreshed and maintained

throughout the CSI process. You will use this list to select

your highest priority initiatives with which to begin the

improvement cycle.

• Use the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator (described

in activity 2.2) to quantify initiatives to assist in

prioritization.


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager

Document as you go:

Record improvement initiatives

in the CSI register in Tab 2 of

the Continual Improvement

Roadmap tool.


Use the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator to quantify the productivity gains of extending the service desk

Service Desk Efficiency Calculator 2.2

1. Define the number of productive hours an employee has in an average year

and the average employee costs.

• Review the average annual employee productive hours and the average

employee costs outlined in Section 1, Tab 2 of the Service Desk

Efficiency Calculator. The section is prepopulated with a feasible case

involving an IT department.

2. Define the average call resolution time, ticket volume, ticket distribution, and

total number of end users supported.

• With the target unit’s current processes in mind, estimate:

o The average cost per ticket or contact.

o The average resolution time.

o The number of tickets annually from all channels.

o The average ticket distribution between tiers (if any).

o The number of end users supported by the target department.

3. Estimate targeted reductions in average call resolution time and ticket

volume.

• Extending basic incident, request, and knowledge management

processes should reduce ticket volume and average call resolution time.


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager


Optional – Review the results of the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator to build the case for the initiative

2.3 Review the results Time Allotment: 2 hours

The third tab of the tool will quantify:

• Service Desk Staffing

The impact of different ticket distribution on service desk staffing

levels.

• Service Desk Ticket Resolution Cost

The impact of different ticket distributions on ticket resolution costs.

• Service Management Efficiency

The business impact of service management initiatives, specifically,

the time lost or captured in service management processes relative

to an average full-time employee equivalent.

Prepare to facilitate a discussion.

Focus on the efficiency gains expected from the project. Review the

expected gains in average resolution time, the expected service desk

ticket reductions, and the associated productivity gains.

In the case of most business units, the expected service desk ticket

reduction will correspond to a reduction in the number of internal client

contacts the unit expects as a result of the project.

Document as you go:

Document the outcome of the Service

Desk Efficiency Calculator, if desired, in

the Continual Improvement Plan,

Section 3.1.

http://www.infotech.com/research/service-desk-efficiency-calculator


Identify “quick wins” that can provide immediate improvement

Keep the scope of the continual improvement process manageable at the

beginning by focusing on a few key areas that you want to improve.

Choose the right services to improve at the first stage of continual improvement to

ensure that the continual improvement process delivers value to the business.

From your list of proposed improvements, focus on a few of the top pain points

and plan to address those.

1

2

3

Prioritize these “quick wins” in order to immediately demonstrate the success of

the continual service improvement effort to the business.

• If you have identified “pain points,” addressing these will demonstrate the value of the project to the

business to gain their support.

• Choose the services or processes that continue to disrupt or threaten service – focus on where pain

points are evident and where there is a need for improvement.

• Critical services to improve should emerge from the service desk assessment.


Use the CSI Register tool to prioritize initiatives

2.4 Prioritize Initiatives in a two by two plot Time Allotment: 60 minutes

1. Open the Continual Improvement Roadmap tool.

2. Go to tab 2 and rank all of opportunities in terms of value

and effort on a scale of -5 to 5.


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager


Document as you go:

Document the four selected

opportunities in the Continual


3. Use the two by two matrix to examine where your

opportunities fall in terms of impact and effort.

• The opportunities in the top right are

major projects; they are both high impact

and high effort.

• The opportunities in the top left are quick

wins; they are low effort but high impact.

4. Select four of these opportunities (a mix of quick

wins and major projects) and input them into the

CSI Roadmap tool in tab 3.



The service desk for a large

insurance company in Sweden

only used their in-house

service desk to sort tickets, but

the support professionals who

handled tickets were located at

a facility in India.

Some tickets were very

complex, and the language

barrier between the two

service desks amplified this

challenge.

The service desk had a high

workload and high volume of

tickets, which led to a high

backlog.

The company conducted a trend

analysis on tickets received and

found that almost 50% were service

requests. It was suggested that two

full-time staff be hired to handle only

service requests.

A gap analysis revealed that the

knowledgebase of the service desk

was not being updated regularly. A

simple, automated knowledgebase

was developed in order to alleviate

the burden on the service desk, and

regular training sessions were

initiated to train staff and add current

issues to the knowledgebase.

A translator was hired to deal with

the language barrier.

The ticket backlog was drastically

reduced.

Simple tickets can now be dealt

with onsite. More complex tickets

can be sent to the experts working

at the service desk in India.

The knowledgebase can be

continually updated because of

the time freed up by the reduction

in ticket backlog.

Three small fixes made huge

differences that demonstrated

immediate, measurable

improvement that was visible to

the business.

The importance of prioritizing initiatives and identifying quick wins

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Insurance

Ravi Singh


Step 5 – Build continual improvement action plan


• Use the CSI Roadmap tool to build your action

plan.

• Service Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO



• Action Plan Roadmap for the Continual Improvement Plan

4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment

of your

service desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

1 32


Use the Deming cycle to improve the performance of the service desk and consolidate your gains

Continual service improvement

embraces Deming’s four-step cycle:

Plan, Do, Check, Act

Plan:

• Develop a plan for improvement.

• Collect data to inform the

improvement cycle.

Do:

• Plan improvement solutions and

implement actions.

Check:

• Analyze data and evaluate results.

• Determine what went well and what

didn’t.

Act:

• Reflect on the process.

• From the evaluation, implement

changes to the CSI process.

• Complete cycle and begin the next

improvement cycle.

How does the continual

improvement cycle work?

Time

Qu

alit

y

Imp

rove

me

nt


The Deming Cycle is embedded in this five-step CSI model

Clearly understand the business vision, strategy, goals, and objectives to ensure that the CSI initiative will support them.

Perform an initial assessment of availability and/or performance of services to establish a baseline.

Set measurable targets for improvement based on business vision (e.g. a new maturity level for processes).

The approach to continual improvement that this blueprint follows is based on this five-step CSI model, which is in line with

the Deming plan, do, check, act approach and the ITIL seven-step continual service improvement process.

Compare current

state to desired

state to identify

priorities and

objectives for CSI.

Build an action plan

with specific

projects and

timeframes.

Conduct another

assessment

using appropriate

measurements to

determine if

improvements

have been

achieved.

1. What is

the vision?

2. Where are

we now?

3. Where do we

want to be?

4. How do we

get there?

5. Did we get there?

6. How do we keep the

momentum going?

Ensure the changes will be

sustained.

Repeat the CSI process;

improvement should be

continual.

Yes

No

Step 6 & 7

Step 5

Step 4

Step 3

Step 1 & 2


Create a specific action plan to guide your improvement activities

For each action, identify:

• The problem.

• Who will be responsible and

accountable.

• Metric(s) for assessment.

• Baseline and target metrics.

• Action to be taken to

achieve improvement

(training, new templates,

etc.).

Choosing timelines

• It is important to have firm

timelines to keep the

project on track.

• One to two months for an

initiative is an ideal length

of time to maintain interest

and enthusiasm for the

specific project and

achieve a result.

The continual improvement

process must:

• Define activities to be

completed.

• Create roles and assign

ownership to complete

these activities.

• Provide training and

awareness about the

initiative.

• Define inputs and outputs.

• Include reporting.

Every organization is unique in terms of its services, processes, strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and

the expectations of its end users. There is no single action plan that will work for everyone. The

improvement plan will vary from organization to organization, but the key elements of the plan (i.e.

specific priorities, timelines, targets, and responsibilities) should always be in place.

As part of the continual improvement plan, it will be important to identify

specific actions to be completed, along with ownership for each action.


Use the CSI Roadmap tool to build your action plan

2.5 Break down your CIP initiatives into tasks and timelines Time Allotment: 60 minutes

1. Open the Continual Improvement Roadmap tool and

navigate to Tab 3.


• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• Service Manager

• CSI Manager


Document as you go:


roadmap in the Continual


2. The four opportunities selected from

Tab 2 (the CSI register) will be imported

into Tab 3 of the tool. For each initiative,

list all of the specific corresponding

tasks that will need to be completed.

3. Identify an owner and manager for each

task to ensure accountability.

4. Prioritize the tasks in the spreadsheet

in terms of start and end date. For each

task, clearly mark the start month with

an “S”.

• Each task listed must have a

start date for the tool to work

properly.

5. Go to Tab 4 to view the sunshine

diagram representing tasks to be

completed over the improvement cycle,

and share with relevant stakeholders.

Continual

Improvement

Roadmap



After the service desk team at

CERN identified that the support

function of their service manager

and service desk agents needed

to improve, they identified a CSF,

KPIs, and metrics to track and

measure.

The next challenge was to

prioritize the initiatives based on

the questions: what can we

measure in an easy way and how

can we achieve it?

Essentially, the team sought to

identify quick wins in their CIP.

The team decided to focus on a

few key metrics:

1. Number of open and closed

requests per service

2. Weekly number of open and

closed incidents per service

3. Number and percentage of

those tickets solved by each

support level

4. Ticket solution time

The service desk team was able

to quickly put their plan into

motion because they selected a

low effort, high impact

opportunity.

With the help of the ServiceNow

tool, they were able to choose

tasks that could be automated

and easily extracted and

analyzed.

The analysis and measurement

component of their metrics

contributed to the success of the

efforts of the monitoring and

reporting of their CIP.

Build the continual improvement plan

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Scientific Research

Journal of Physics


The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

1.5

2.4

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-

Tech analyst team.

• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to

Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email

[email protected] for more information.

Our analysts will walk you through the results of our diagnostic programs to give you

a data-driven assessment of your Service Desk to help focus your continual

improvement plan.

Review the results of your diagnostic programs to inform your current

state assessment

Our analysts will help you prioritize initiatives so you can plot quick wins and major

projects to build an effective continual improvement plan.

Use the CSI Roadmap tool to build your action plan







PHASERun the Continual Improvement Plan

3



PHASE

321

Phase Run the Continual Improvement Plan 3


Phase 3 outline



Guided Implementation 3: Run the Continual Improvement PlanProposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 3.1: Monitor Progress Step 3.2: Measure Outcome


• Review the details of the draft service desk continual

improvement plan.

• Discuss best practices.


• Review progress of communication plan.

• Discuss progress of project.


• Communicate the benefits of improvement initiatives to key

stakeholders.


• Evaluate success of each improvement initiative where

possible.

• Reflect on each project to identify key lessons learned.


Continual Improvement Plan


Continual Improvement Plan

Phase 3 Results & Insights: To be effective, your CIP requires open and honest feedback from the service desk team. Knowledge

exchange should continuously occur between all levels of the Service Desk to keep the projects on track, and thoughtful evaluation and

reflection on completed projects will ensure that lessons learned will improve both the service desk and the continual improvement process

itself in the future to keep the momentum going.




Step 6 – Monitor progress


• Create your communication plan • Service Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO



• Communication Plan

4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment

of your

service desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success

factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

1 32


Regularly monitor progress to ensure improvement is proceeding according to action plan timeline

• Pick a schedule and stick to it.

• A lack of commitment can make service desk

improvement difficult to implement and hard to sustain.

• Commitment is often the most difficult obstacle to

overcome, as change is a very difficult concept for some

teams to adopt.

◦ New habits are notoriously difficult to adopt, and old

habits are equally as difficult to shake.

◦ A new habit can take a little over two months to be

embraced.

• Provide updates through regular reports or newsletters to

“rally the troops” and maintain enthusiasm for the project

across the service desk team, company, and end users.

• Regular monitoring keeps the process proactive and not

reactive.

• Consider holding a team meeting every week to

discuss improvement and challenges, and

implementing daily, weekly, and monthly reports to

highlight key areas of improvement.

o Automate reports based on key metrics if

possible.

• Make these meetings engaging and short.

• Encourage contribution and thought leadership from

all levels to make every contributor feel valued and

engaged.

• Knowledge exchange should be the top priority.

The success rate for continual improvement efforts is

less than 60 percent. A major – if not the biggest – factor

affecting the deployment of long-term continual

improvement initiatives today is the fundamental change

taking place in the way companies manage and execute

work.

(Deloitte, 2014 )

Establish regular meetings to increase

service desk team commitment.

Embed the change into

the culture. Change is

often negatively

received because it is

dictated instead of

massaged into the

service desk culture.

http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/process-and-operations/us-cons-continuous-improvement-052714.pdf


Communicate effectively with staff and end users to maintain enthusiasm

Throughout the improvement process it’s important to share information about both

the status of the project and impact of the improvement initiative(s).

Communication among team

members ensures that

everyone is on the same

page working together toward

a common goal.

The most important thing is to get

the support of your team. Unless

you have their support, you won’t

be able to deliver any of the

solutions you draw up.

The end users should be kept in the loop so they can feel that their contribution

is valued.

In order for end users to feel their concerns

are being taken into account, it’s important

to communicate the findings in a way that

they will understand the impact of their

contribution.

End users who call into the service desk

will not be able to make the distinction if it’s

the service desk that’s providing a poor

service or some other part of IT.

1

2

Info-Tech Insight

To be effective, CSI requires open and honest feedback from IT staff. Debriefings work well for capturing information

about lessons learned. Break down the debriefings into smaller, individual activities completed within each phase of the

project to better capture the large amount of data and lessons learned within that phase.

Encourage a collaborative

environment across all members of

the service desk.

Motivate every individual to

continue moving upwards and take

ownership over their roles.


Empower your staff by giving them ownership for their role

Core compensation is one thing;

forward-looking incentives are

another. Some forward-looking

service desks are providing

incentives and rewards for

tangibles such as “Knowledgebase

Article of the Week.”

Build team meetings and one-on-

ones into your process. This will

help you identify pain points before

they arise – both personal and

technical. Team meetings will also

accelerate the process of

developing solutions.

Allow employees to develop a skill

set that complements their

professional goals and carries

benefits beyond the service desk

to the whole organization. This will

align their goals to your success

as a service desk.

Rotate Reflect Reward

An effective service desk not only satisfies end users, it also satisfies employees.

A lot of companies don’t realize the true cost of losing someone. While they may say “we’ll train someone

else,” in reality they’ve invested a large amount of time and training into someone and when they go out the

door, that loss is difficult to quantify.

Don’t dictate change, delegate it.

Assign improvement initiatives to various members of your team; have them take ownership in the continual

improvement process by making them directly responsible for the improvements.

Consider recognizing or rewarding staff to keep motivation high.

For example, if your goal is reduce the number of level one tickets by implementing a more effective knowledgebase

(KB), have a rewards system in place for employees who take the initiative to write KB articles.


When tracking progress and analyzing metrics, data is easier to gather, share, and

measure if it is gathered in small teams.

Monitor progress effectively by using small teams

If you measured the performance of your service desk as one group, it would

be harder to accurately measure performance.

For example, let’s say your goal is to decrease the average ticket through-put

time by 25 percent in three months.

After one month’s time, you notice that your average time has only decreased

by 5%.

However, if your service desk was broken into small groups and analyzed as

such, you could identify that three of your five level one technicians are

struggling with ticket escalation, despite the fact that the single group data

showed that level two technicians were processing tickets effectively.

The multiple small group approach allows you to break up the service desk system and

employ a systems-based approach to make more accurate measurements of performance.

Individual process

components are easier to

identify, and multiple

instances of the same

process performed by

different individuals allows

managers to pinpoint what

obstacles are in place.

A mistake detected in one

team doesn’t provide

compelling evidence for a

correction unless there is

another team in your

organization to compare it

with.



With automated data being

gathered by ServiceNow, the

service desk team at CERN

needed to communicate and act

effectively.

Not only was proper monitoring of

the data deemed crucial, but

implementation of corrective

actions needed to be done.

The service desk team mandated

weekly service meetings in order

to facilitate the exchange of

knowledge between various

levels of the service desk.

Data for tickets processed were

analyzed each week and any

novel solutions or obstacles

encountered were shared with

the service desk team.

Lessons learned were regularly

shared, and the team worked

together to formulate solutions.

The percentage of tickets solved

by level two technicians

increased from 25% to 43%; an

increase of around 1,000 tickets.

Ten training tutorials were given

in the second year of the

continual service improvement

plan.

Fifty new FAQs were written for

the knowledgebase, which

originated from discussions in the

weekly service meeting.

Monitor progress regularly to create measurable change

CASE STUDYIndustry

Source

Scientific Research

Journal of Physics


Create your communications plan to anticipate challenges, remove obstacles, and ensure buy-in

Technicians

Management

End users

Why: What problems are you

trying to solve?

What: What processes will it

affect (that will affect me)?

When: When will this be

happening? When will it affect

me?

Who: Who will be affected? Who

do I go to if I have issues with

the new process?

How: How will these changes

manifest themselves?

Goal: What is the final goal?

How will it benefit me?

Provide separate communications to key stakeholder groups.


Communicate the benefits of improvement initiatives to each group of key stakeholders

3.1 Build a communication plan for each group of affected stakeholders

Group Benefits Impact Communication Method Timeframe

Service desk

IT

End users

Business

1. Identify the groups that will be affected by any improvement

initiatives as those who will require communication.

2. For each group requiring a communication plan, identify

the following:

• Benefits of the improvement for that group of

individuals (e.g. more efficient processes).

• The impact the change will have on them (e.g.

change in the way a certain process will work).

• Communication method (i.e. how you will

communicate).

• Timeframe (i.e. when and how often you will

communicate the changes).

3. Complete this information in a table like the one below and

document in your continual improvement plan.

Recommended Participants:

• CIO/IT Director

• IT Manager

• CSI Manager

• Service Manager

Document as you go:

Document your

communication plan in the


Plan, Section 4.1.


Step 7 – Measure outcome


• Measure progress or success of each initiative.

• Reflect on lessons learned.

• Service Manager

• IT Manager

• CIO



• List of lessons learned to apply to future continual improvement projects.

4 5 6 7

Determine

goals &

objectives

Conduct a full

assessment of

your service

desk

Prioritize

improvement

initiatives

Identify critical

success factors

Build continual

improvement

action plan

Monitor

progress

Measure

outcome

1 32


Measure changes in selected metrics to evaluate success

Outcomes of the CSI

process should

include:

• Improved efficiency,

effectiveness, and

quality of service and

processes.

• Services and

processes more

aligned with the

business needs and

strategy.

• Improved maturity of

service and

processes.

Measuring and reporting are key components in the improvement process.

After a change has been implemented, it is important to regularly monitor and

evaluate the CSFs, KPIs, and metrics you chose to evaluate whether the

change you implemented has actually resolved the issue or achieved the goal

of the critical success factor.

• Establish a schedule for regularly reviewing key metrics that were identified in

Step 2 and assessing change in those metrics and progress toward reaching

objectives.

• In addition to reviewing CSFs, KPIs, and metrics, check in with service desk staff

and end users to measure their perceptions of the change once an appropriate

amount of time has passed.

• Ensure that metrics are telling the whole story and that reporting is honest in order

to be informative.

Make sure you’re measuring the right things and considering all sources of information. It’s very easy to put

yourself in a position where you’re congratulating yourselves for improving on a specific metric such as FCR,

when in fact tickets are being closed before they’re resolved and customer satisfaction has not increased.

Did you get there?

Part of the measurement phase should include a review of CSFs, KPIs,

and metrics determined in phase one. Some may need to be replaced.


Reflect on lessons learned to drive change forward

Evaluate

the

differences:

are they

different

than

expected?

Compare expectations versus reality

Compare

the EC

(expected

change)

to the AC

(actual

change)

If the difference is small, things are

on track and the issue could have

simply been an issue with timing of

the improvement.

If the difference is large, more

reflection is needed. Perhaps it is a

gap in understanding the goal or a

poor execution of the action plan.

Regardless of the

cause, large

differences

between the EC

and the AC provide

great learning

opportunities about

how to approach

change in the

future.

What did you learn?

Ultimately, continual improvement is an

ongoing educational program.

By teaching your team how to learn better

and identify sources of new knowledge that

can be applied going forward, you maximize

the efficacy of your team and improvement

plan effort.

As you learn, you can use that learning to

improve your processes.

What obstacles prevented you from

reaching your target condition?

If you did not reach your target goals,

reflect as a team on what obstacles

prevented you from reaching that target.

Focus on the obstacles that are preventing

your team from reaching the target state.

As obstacles are removed, new ones will

appear and old ones will disappear.


Avoid pointing fingers when addressing corrections to the CIP

Be hard on issues, but soft on people.

If someone isn’t completing a task on time, it may be because their workload is too high; thus

the process needs to change rather than the person.

Normally a person is not the problem, but a person is doing something they

should or shouldn’t be going. Therefore it’s a fault with the process or a behavior.

Understand why that person isn’t doing something – perhaps they don’t have the

time, there is no clear prioritization scheme, the processes they’re running need

reviewing, or they just need additional coaching or training.

When undertaking CSI in an organization, don’t assume that people are the root

of all problems. Gain the mentality that if something isn’t running well, you are

failing people, people aren’t failing the organization.

1

2

3


Celebrate and share success to demonstrate the value of the improvement initiative

• Highlight the successes as it relates to your service desk agents; demonstrate that successes

were due to their efforts.

• Demonstrate the value of the project to the business organization.

• Highlight the realized benefits of the project that you identified at the beginning to the business.

• Even if not every aspect was successful, be sure to celebrate the small successes, and continue

to learn and improve.

i) Visually appealing graphs and charts of trends in metrics ii) Quotes from end

users iii) A newsletter or bulletin iv) Regular meetings

Demonstrate the Value

i) Service desk staff/IT ii) Business leaders iii) Key stakeholders

iv) End users

i) Quantified metrics ii) Qualitative comparisons of current versus previous quality

of service iii) Positive end-user feedback

i) Improvements ii) Benefits achieved through improvements iii) ROI

iv) VOI (extra value created by benefits)Share:

Via:

Using:

With:


Reflect on improvement initiatives to identify lessons learned

Some questions to consider:

1. How did the data compare to

our expectations? Was the

project successful?

2. What obstacles, if any, were

present that impacted the

project?

3. How can we apply lessons

learned through this project to

other projects?

Date, step,

& metric(s)What did you

expect?

What

happened?

What did we

learn?

1 2

Imp

lem

en

t s

tep

3 4

5

Reflect

Apply

Select Expect Impact

Next Project Cycle

• By reflecting on lessons learned, new knowledge is identified and shared with the continual

improvement team.

• The ongoing process of continual improvement not only improves processes, but the knowledge

gained about them.

• This knowledge can often be transferrable to separate projects in the future, so organizations

can gain significant value from each new initiative undertaken in their CIP.


Discuss project success and obstacles to identify key lessons learned

3.2 Reflect on lessons learned Time Allotment: 60 minutes

1. Select a project that was undertaken in your

CIP from your CSI Register. List the date

started, what the project entailed, and the

metric(s) used in its measure.

2. Drawing from your CSI Register, list your

expectations for the project.

3. Once the project has reached a stage of

completion, list the impacts in a separate

column.

4. Reflect on and discuss what lessons were

learned and how they can be applied to the

start of the next cycle of the project.

5. Apply the lessons learned in the reflection step

to push the project forward into a new cycle.


• IT Manager

• CSI Manager

• Service Manager


Document as you go:

Document measured outcome

and lessons learned in the


Improvement Plan, Sections

4.2 and 4.3.


Be proactive with continual improvement, not reactive

CSI is something you continually

do; it is not something you do

only because you’re in trouble.

Because of the poor preparation and rushed nature of reactionary

improvement initiatives, they are often Band-Aid solutions that are not

sustained.

As a result, most improvement

initiatives undertaken are

reactionary.

Many organizations only approach service improvement when they

recognize that they’re in trouble.

Set a target state that reaches beyond business as usual. Continual improvement is not only

about avoiding negative outcomes, but achieving new outcomes beyond what you already

know you can achieve.

Even if there is no pressing issue facing your organization, a true CSI

state of mind should constantly spur your organization to dig for problems

to solve, or search for good processes that can be turned into great ones.

1 2

3 4

To be proactive and have an effective continual improvement process in place:

1. Put CSI initiatives and processes into the annual budget.

2. Revise job descriptions of certain employees to include time to brainstorm CSI initiatives.

3. Make someone responsible for ensuring the change sticks.


Think long term to sustain changes

Ensure that there is a

continual commitment from

management.

Regularly monitor metrics as

well as end-user feedback and

feedback from service desk

staff after the initial

improvement period has

ended. Use this information to

plan the next improvement.

Everything can be improved, even CSI itself.

As part of the evaluation process, gather and evaluate feedback on the process employed for continual

improvement, and consider improving the process moving forward if necessary.

The continual improvement process is ongoing. When one improvement cycle ends, the next

should begin in order to continually measure and evaluate processes.

The goal of any framework is steady and continual

improvement over time that resets the baseline to the

current (and hopefully improved) level at the end of

each cycle.

Have processes in place to ensure that the

improvements made will remain in place after the

change is implemented. Each completed cycle is just

another step toward your target state.

CSI is a combination of

attitudes, behavior, and

culture.

One improvement initiative is

but one of many steps in the

journey to the target state. It’s

important to recognize that

CSI is not only the process

highlighted (to the right) by the

green circle, but the blue oval

and beyond.


Insight breakdown

Phase 3 Insight

Phase 2 Insight

Phase 1 Insight

• Continual improvement must demonstrate its worth to the organization before the process can begin. By focusing the plan

around organizational goals, you will generate support from within in order to effectively deploy the continual improvement

plan in the future.

• When you build out your continual improvement plan, it is crucial to have your priorities in order. The best approach is to

select “quick wins” that can demonstrate immediate benefits for the business, assisting with organizational buy-in for the

CIP. Once these quick wins are implemented and buy-in is established, major projects that require more effort can be

undertaken.

• To be effective, your CIP requires open and honest feedback from the service desk team. Knowledge exchange should

continuously occur between all levels of the Service Desk to keep projects on track, and thoughtful evaluation and

reflection on completed projects will ensure that lessons learned will improve both the service desk and the continual

improvement process itself to keep the momentum going.

1. Lean into incremental improvements. Mature service desks with the capacity for change are ideally situated to respond

to shifting business priorities.

2. It’s easier to climb Mount Everest than to stay there. Without continual service improvement, sustained service desk

quality will be temporary. Organizations need to put in place an ongoing process to audit, enhance, and sustain the

performance of the service desk whatever its process maturity.

Overarching Insights


Research contributors and experts

Marko Jäntti

Head of Research

University of Eastern

Finland

Dave Smith

IT Trainer

Quanta Training, Ltd.

Vince Jennings

Technical Project

Manager

Alcatel-Lucent New

Zealand

Brian McKenna

ITSM Consultant &

Trainer

Self-Employed



Attila Révfalvi

Senior Associate

Amgen

Joseph Philpott

Acting Director Service of

Assurance

Australian Dept. of

Defence

James Monroe

Computer Support

Specialist

Werner Enterprises

Gerry Veugelaers

Service Delivery

Manager

New Zealand Defence

Force



Dave O’Reardon

Founder & CEO

Silversix

Ravi Prakash Singh

MS IS Student

Stevens Institute of

Technology

Gautam Bangalore

Business Analyst

Sydney, Australia

Karen Clark

CIO

OrthoTennessee



Denish Haripal

CIO

Eqstra Holdings

Kathy Campbell

Technology Support

Services Director

Anne Arundel Community

College

Mike Wass

Help Desk Manager

Minto Group, Inc.

Rangesh Prasanna

Infrastructure Process

Consultant

Nextera Energy



Rick Hamilton

Support Services

Manager

Soaring Eagle Casino &

Resort

Jay Lentz

ITSM Manager CSI &

SLM

Southwest Airlines

Marc Fransen

Service Desk Technician

Gemeente-Eindhoven


Related Info-Tech research

Standardize the Service

Desk

Provide timely and effective

responses to user requests

and resolutions of all incidents.

Extend the Service Desk to

the Enterprise

Position IT as an innovator.

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/standardize-the-service-desk

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/extend-the-service-desk-to-the-enterprise


References

Cabral, Fatima, Gary Case, and David Ratcliffe. “IT Service Desk Health Check & Action Plan.” Pink Elephant, 2003.

Case, Gary. “Continual Service Improvement: Bringing It to Life.” Pink Elephant, August 2009.

“Continual Service Improvement: The Catalyst for Service Desk Excellence and Enterprise Productivity.” Pomeroy, 2012.

“Continuous Improvement: A MOF Companion Guide.” Microsoft, June 2010.

Gerke, Kerstin, Konstantin Petruch, and Gerrit Tamm. “Optimization of Service Delivery through Continual Process

Improvement: A Case Study.” INFORMATIK 2010 - Business Process and Service Science, Proceedings of ISSS and

BPSC. 27 September - 1 October 2010, Leipzig Germany.

ITIL Continual Service Improvement. London: TSO, 2007.

Jäntti, Marko, and Terry Rout. “Improving IT Service Operation Processes.” Product-Focused Software Process

Improvement. J. Heidrich et al. (Eds.). PROFES 2013, 2013. 359-362.

Jäntti, Marko, Anup Shrestha, and Aileen Cater-Steel. “Towards an Improved IT Service Desk System and Processes: A

Case Study.” International Journal on Advances in Systems and Measurements. 5 (2012): 203-215.

Jones, Dave. “Continual Service Improvement - So What's It All About?” Pink Elephant, 11 September 2014.

Kozina, Melita, and Emilija Tomičić. “Planning to Implement Continual Service Improvement Processes.” Central European

Conference on Information & Intelligent Systems. September 2010.


References continued

Linch, David, and Jason Bergstrom. “Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement in an Age of Disruption.” Deloitte

LLP, 2014.

Lithgo, Joe. “Top Ten Reasons to Apply Continual Improvement Out of the Gate.” Burlington, ON: Pink Elephant, 2008.

Orr, Anthony. “Focus On: ITIL® Continual Service Improvement.” BMC Software, 2012.

Probst, Jack, and Gary Case. “Integrating Six Sigma and ITIL® for Continual Service Improvement.” Pink Elephant,

2013.

Rance, Stuart. “Building a CSI Culture.” The ITSM Review. 23 July 2014.

Rumburg, Jeff, and Eric Zbikowski. “The Seven Most Important Performance Indicators for the Service Desk.”

MetricNet.

UCISA. “Chapter 12: Continual Improvement.” UCISA Information Security Management Toolkit Edition 1.0. 2015.

Van Bon, Jan, Arjen de Jong, Mike Pieper. “The Power of Six Sigma for ITIL Continual Service Improvement.” IT Service

Management - Global Best Practices. van Haren Publishing, 2008.

Veihmeyer, John. “Global CEO Outlook 2015: The Growth Imperative in a More Competitive Environment.” KPMG

International, July 2015.