Help desk / incident management system João Carlos Cardoso Director of IT Tribunal de Contas, Portugal 19 de Abril de 2007
Introduction Context Project Implementation Benefits and improvements in communication between IT and Users Next steps
Context Why do we need a Help desk / incident management system? Opportunity to improve: Establishment of responsibilities Standardization of problem solving, escalation and resolution processes Documentation, communication and measurement of methods and procedures Inventory and control of hardware and software infrastructure Knowledge management Information sharing
Phased approach Definition and management of service levels Pilot Full roll out
Definition and management of service levels Definition of a framework wherein it promotes the definition of formal service level agreements availability reliability Levels of support provided to users restrictions Users and IT have a written agreement which describes the service level in qualitative and quantitative terms This agreement defines the responsibilities of both parts
Pilot Representative Department Develop training Found out how the system worked
System architecture (non-exhaustive) IT Team Intranet Help desk users Hardware / software Inventory rdbms
Full roll out Phased approach with departments and users Integration with automated tools for user management MS Active Directory MS System Management Server Develop and publishing of measures and analysis Create and conduct online surveys in the area of quality
System architecture (non-exhaustive) IT Team Active Directory SMS Intranet Help desk users Hardware / software Inventory rdbms Training Dept. BI Dept. Managers
Measure progress over time Reduction in the elapsed time from initial symptom report to problem resolution Reduction in unresolved problems and incidents Reduce the time lag between identification and escalation of high-risk problems and incidents Reduction of repetitive inquiries on solved problems Better percent of problems resolved at first contact
Collect information and knowledge Share information and knowledge Allocate resources Plan training
Benefits and improvements Working more efficiently and consistently Faster identification and access to relevant informational knowledge Information reuse and, thus, time saved Better management of increasing volumes of information and knowledge Better knowledge sharing The user have access of his past incidents and actions taken by IT team More collaborate working between the IT team and the users
Benefits and improvements Helps to determine technological direction Better definition of hardware life cycle Better alignment between user needs and the performance and the capacities of the hardware/software infrastructures the IT function update regularly the technological infrastructure plan in accordance with the data collected and analyzed from incidents and user inquiries Manage human resources Helps providing orientation on the education and training programs of the IT personnel Identification of training needs in a timely manner Improvement in employee optimization of IT resources to maximize business value
Next steps Key issue: Cultivate the problem management process as a forward-looking and proactive one Up-to-date and easily accessible FAQs and their answers are becoming available Incorporation of e-learning Metrics published via Intranet