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Discussion topic Secrets of the IT department service management

Secrets of the IT department – Part 4

Secrets of the IT department - Part 4 - Measure and improve
Secrets of the IT department - Part 4 - Measure and improve

Like them or loathe them, all employees will need, at some point, to interact with the support services offered by the IT department. In this series of short articles, we uncover some of the secret workings of the IT department, finding out what is jargon and what is just common sense that can apply to all of us, regardless of our role, work, or profession.

Measure and improve

After exploring incident, change, and problem management, it’s time to delve into how IT departments ensure that all these components work together harmoniously. Think of service level management as the local council that ensures the UK’s National Health Service, rubbish collection, and local schools operate efficiently and meet the community’s needs.

What is service level management?

Service level management involves defining, managing, and tracking the quality of IT services. It sets expectations, measures performance against them, and suggests improvements to ensure IT services meet business needs and objectives.

Why service level management matters

The quality of service provided is crucial for any organisation. It can significantly impact customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and profitability.

Key elements of service level management

These include:

  1. Service level agreements (SLAs) – contracts that outline the quality of service expected
  2. Experience level agreements (XLAs) – these focus on the quality of the user experience, rather than just the technical metrics
  3. Key performance indicators (KPIs) – metrics used to measure and evaluate service quality
  4. Regular reviews – periodic assessments to check if services are meeting the defined expectations.

The benefits of doing this well

By employing strong service level management, organisations can realise several significant advantages, including:

  • Competitive advantage – by consistently delivering high-quality services, your organisation stands out in the market.
  • Risk mitigation – SLAs and ongoing monitoring help you identify and rectify issues before they escalate, reducing financial and reputational risks.
  • Strategic alignment – well-defined service levels help align IT operations with your organisation’s broader objectives.
  • Enhanced scalability – effective management provides the framework for scaling services up or down based on demand, enhancing operational flexibility.
  • Data-driven decision-making – metrics and KPIs provide actionable insights contributing to the organisation’s long-term success.

Example: Train services

Imagine service level management as the body that ensures UK trains run punctually, are clean, and offer good customer service. They set the benchmarks, measure performance, and implement improvements.

Example: A busy café

In a café setting, service level management would monitor how quickly customers are served, the quality of the coffee, and customer feedback. Remedial action is taken to improve the service if any of these metrics fall below the defined standards.

Your thoughts

Now that you’ve learned how service level management impacts the quality of services you interact with daily, what are your thoughts? Feel free to share your stories and insights.

This article is the fourth in our ‘Secrets of the IT Department’ series, aiming to demystify the essential elements that keep IT running smoothly. Keep an eye out for our next insightful piece.

Categories
Discussion topic Incident management Productivity Secrets of the IT department

Secrets of the IT department – Part 1

Secrets of the IT department - Part 1 - Crisis, what crisis?
Secrets of the IT department - Part 1 - Crisis, what crisis?

Like them or loathe them, all employees will need, at some point, to interact with the support services offered by the IT department. In this series of short articles, we uncover some of the secret workings of the IT department, finding out what is jargon and what is just common sense that can apply to all of us, regardless of our role, work, or profession.

Crisis, what crisis? The art of managing incidents

Incident management isn’t just industry jargon; it’s an essential process that aids organisations of all sizes swiftly and efficiently resolving unexpected issues. Picture it as the hospital A&E department for any problems that crop up, from glitches in a computer network to a broken kettle in the staff room.

What is an incident?

Simply put, an incident is an unexpected interruption or a decline in the quality of a service or process. Incidents can vary from minor inconveniences to major disruptions, impacting anything from your home Wi-Fi to a multinational firm’s data centre.

Why incident management matters

Employing a structured approach to incident management ensures that any issues are rectified in the fastest, least intrusive way possible. This not only pleases customers or employees but also preserves the organisation’s reputation while conserving time and resources.

The incident management life cycle

The life cycle of incident management typically consists of four stages:

  1. Identification – spotting the issue
  2. Classification and prioritisation – assessing its impact and urgency
  3. Investigation and diagnosis – finding out what’s wrong
  4. Response and recovery – fixing the problem and restoring normal service.

Example: The broken kettle

Picture arriving at your workplace only to discover the kettle isn’t working. In incident management, this is categorised as a low-priority incident, and someone gets tasked to sort it out.

Example: The inaccessible company website

Next, imagine if your company’s website crashes. This is a high-priority incident as without it, your company’s customers cannot buy new insurance policies or administer existing ones. A team would be hastily assembled to diagnose and remedy the problem, minimising the outage duration.

The benefits of doing this well

Implementing a top-notch incident management strategy yields many advantages:

  • Rapid recovery – effective incident management ensures that disruptions are contained quickly, limiting any negative impact on business operations.
  • Customer retention – swift resolution of issues enhances customer experience and contributes to customer loyalty.
  • Streamlined communication – a well-defined incident management process improves internal and external communication, providing timely stakeholder updates.
  • Regulatory compliance – many industries have standards for incident response times; efficient incident management helps you meet these regulations and avoid penalties.
  • Data-driven improvements – analysing past incidents can offer actionable insights that drive ongoing improvements in the IT environment and broader organisational strategy.

With excellent incident management, organisations can maintain high service quality, even when things go awry, building trust and long-term success.

Your thoughts?

Now that you’re acquainted with the fundamentals of incident management, we’re eager to hear your views. Have you ever had to manage an incident in your workplace? What approach did you take?

Does this small secret from your IT department make what they do make more sense? Does it explain why you have a good or bad impression of your IT department when you contact them for support? What do they do well? What infuriates you?

Categories
Automation Digital Transformation Employee experience Productivity

SMEs’ path to efficiency and cost reduction

Service Management: SMEs' path to efficiency and cost reduction
Service Management: SMEs' path to efficiency and cost reduction

Service management isn’t a tool for big corporations only. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can also harness service management principles to minimise costs and maximise efficiency. But what does service management entail for SMEs, and how does it contribute to improved business performance? Let’s explore.

Understanding service management and its importance

Service management represents a strategic approach to designing, delivering, managing, and improving how an organisation uses information technology. For SMEs, it encompasses every process and policy to provide customer value and maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. The results span far and wide – from enhanced customer satisfaction to improved internal processes and cost control for SMEs.

The role of service management in minimising costs

How does service management keep costs down? Operational efficiency and resource optimisation hold the key. Effective service management ensures that SMEs productively deploy their human, technological, or financial resources. 

Consider incident management, for example. A well-defined process to handle IT incidents can dramatically reduce downtime, ensuring business continuity and preventing loss of revenue. Likewise, robust problem management can reduce recurring issues, saving the time and cost of repeatedly dealing with the same problems.

How service management maximises efficiency

Service management isn’t only about cost reduction. It’s also about maximising efficiency and delivering value. Effective service management allows SMEs to streamline their operations, leading to quicker service delivery, improved service quality, and, ultimately, happier customers. 

For instance, the change management process ensures that any modifications to the IT infrastructure occur systematically and efficiently, reducing the risk of disruptions. Service level management assists SMEs in setting, managing, and meeting their customers’ expectations, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Implementing service management in SMEs

The journey to service management may appear daunting, especially for SMEs with limited resources. However, the right approach can make the benefits outweigh the costs. Start by defining your service management strategy, ensuring alignment with your business goals. Next, identify the fundamental processes that require attention – anything from incident management to service level management. 

Invest in a service management tool that matches your needs and budget. This tool should help you automate, track, and manage your service management processes. Lastly, make sure to train your team. Everyone should understand the new processes and their roles within them.

Final thoughts from GWIT

Implementing service management in SMEs might take time, but it’s a journey that can yield significant cost savings and increased efficiency rewards. Where can service management make the most important difference in your operation as an SME? How can you start integrating service management principles into your business processes? Consider these questions as you evaluate your current operations and plan for the future of your business.

We’d be delighted to help, even to facilitate a conversation between SMEs to spread awareness of the benefits and some sharing of the challenges.

Categories
Discussion topic Productivity

Your secret weapon on the IT battlefield

Your secret weapon on the IT battlefield
Your secret weapon on the IT battlefield

Whether you’re the lone tech guru in a small start-up or a part of the sprawling IT landscape in a multinational, you’ll agree that we’re constantly in the trenches, solving problems and quelling IT uprisings.

But, ever thought how much easier it would be if we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time? That’s where knowledge management enters the scene.

We often stumble upon the same issues, and without an efficient knowledge management system, we’re forced to solve them from scratch, like a hapless mouse stuck in a maze, repeatedly trying to find the exit. How about that pesky printing issue Mary from Marketing had? John from HR faced the same thing just last week. But, in the absence of shared knowledge, Mary’s solution took two hours, which could have been just a few minutes if somebody had documented John’s experience. 

Let’s look at five key benefits of effective knowledge management, each serving as a guide to get us out of the chaos maze, saving time and money, and significantly improving the service experience.

The continuity chronicle

Knowledge transfer isn’t just for when a team member moves on. Indeed, you’ll save countless hours not having to play detective with a former employee’s cryptic code, but what about holidays, sick days, or when specialists are in back-to-back meetings? Knowledge management can be the user manual ensuring business as usual, even when key players are unavailable.

The time travel advantage

Remember how the last system upgrade took ages because the team was learning as they went? With knowledge management, you don’t need a DeLorean to travel back in time. Recalling previous upgrade protocols can slash the learning curve and project timeline dramatically. 

The customer service champion

Imagine a frantic client calls about a lost file. With knowledge management, the support team can search the database, find a similar past issue, and restore it in minutes. The client is thrilled, your team shines, and your coffee is still warm. That’s the power of knowledge management in elevating the customer experience.

The innovation incubator

Innovation isn’t just about ideas; it’s about effective execution. By documenting the what, how, and why of past failures and successes, teams avoid past pitfalls and build upon previous achievements, freeing up resources to pioneer new solutions to new issues instead of repeatedly retracing old steps.

The risk mitigation maestro

Say a misconfiguration caused a system downtime last month. Without knowledge management, a team member could unknowingly repeat the same mistake. But, with an updated knowledge management system, this risk is significantly reduced or, ideally, removed. 

Sounds fantastic. But how does it translate into actual savings?

Well, consider this – Gartner estimates that a well-implemented knowledge management system can reduce information search time by up to 75%. Let’s say your IT team of 10 spends 20 hours a week on information search and troubleshooting. That’s 800+ hours a month. A 75% reduction means 600+ hours saved. Time that can be redirected to critical projects. If we conservatively estimate the hourly cost at £50, that’s a whopping £30,000 monthly saving, every month.

As for service experience, Aberdeen Group states that companies with a formalised knowledge management initiative achieve an 85% greater customer retention rate. Happy customers equate to repeat business, positive reviews, and referrals – invaluable gains in today’s digital marketplace. 

So, IT comrades, it’s high time we embraced knowledge management – not as a buzzword but as a trigger for efficiency, innovation, and growth. Yes, it demands an initial investment of time and effort. But once in place, knowledge management is the gift that keeps giving. From seamless continuity to stellar customer service, from nurturing innovation to mitigating risk – the realm of knowledge management benefits is boundless. 

Turn those battle cries into victory roars with the power of knowledge management.

Can GWIT help you develop this secret weapon in your IT team and realise its benefits?