SERVICE DESK CRITICAL USER PROCEDURE Approved by : () Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 1 of 6
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Scope To establish a standard, documented, and approved policy regarding the proper handling of nominated Critical Users who contact the ITS Service desk for assistance on Incident resolution. All service delivery staff involved in the receipt, resolution or delivery of assistance on Incident resolution. 1.3 Benefits Provides a formal documented procedure to allow senior management customers to receive an enhanced response with regard to Incident resolution. This should lead to an improved relationship between ITS and its senior management customers further improving the view and perception of ITS Services and Operations. 1.4 Equality Screening This policy have been screened for equality implications as required by Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and for compliance with human rights and disability legislation. Documentation to evidence the screening has been produced and is publicly available. Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 2 of 6
2. PROCEDURE 2.1 Setting up a Critical User Service with a customer organisation 2.1.1 A Critical User service arrangement can be set up for a customer organisation upon agreement between the customer representative and BSO ITS. The inclusion of a Critical User Service will be formally documented and included in the Service Level Agreement between BSO ITS and the customer organisation. 2.1.2 An initial list of Critical User job titles and post holder names will be provided by the customer organisation representative and agreed with BSO ITS. 2.1.3 The list of critical users will be subject to change control going forward and any subsequent change to the list must be communicated and agreed with BSO ITS. 2.2 Implications of the Critical User service 2.2.1 Normally, the priority of an Incident will be determined by a combination of the Impact and Urgency below. Impact relates to how many people are affected by a particular Incident. The Impact levels are: Individual 1 user Group e.g. a hospital ward, a Team or GP Practice Site e.g. a Hospital or a Health Centre Organisation e.g. a whole Trust or Agency HSC wide -everybody Urgency relates to how quickly the incident is likely to cause serious interruptions to services. These are set as: Low minor effect on non-routine aspect of service Normal minor effect on a routine aspect of service High major effect on a service Critical the service is inoperable Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 3 of 6
Urgency / Impact Low Normal High Critical Individual Low Medium Medium High Group Low Medium High High Site Low Medium High Critical Organisation Medium High Critical Critical HSC wide Medium High Critical Critical Therefore under the standard service level an incident that impacts a single individual can only have a maximum priority of High. The Critical User service provides the senior management customer with the ability to use an enhanced Service Level when they wish an incident to be treated under the terms of the Critical User Service arrangements. If an incident has been identified for the Critical User service then it will receive an enhanced response times. The Service Levels expressed in terms of goal Response and Fix times for an incident with the Critical User service are shown below, along with the associated ITS Escalation Paths: Escalation Path Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Goal Response Time Goal Fix Time Service Manager Service Delivery Manager BSO ITS Asst. Director Critical User Service Level 1 Hour 2 Hours 4 Hours 8 Hours Month End The Goal Response Time is the time between the initial notification of an Incident to ITS and users being put in contact with someone deemed capable of resolving the Incident. The Goal Fix Time is the time between initial notification and the Incident being resolved or an appropriate work-around applied. Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 4 of 6
The Escalation Path defines the internal escalation that will automatically occur and when it will occur if an incident fails to meet its target fix time. Times are based on elapsed working time (9am-5pm Monday-Friday excluding HSC holidays). 2.3 Process for invoking and implementing the Critical User service for an incident 2.3.1 An incident is logged with the Service Desk by, or on behalf of, a designated critical user. During the logging process the user indicates that they wish the incident to be treated under the enhanced service level. The Service Desk operative will choose the Critical User SLA and the target times will default according to the grid above. 2.3.2 See the flowchart below for more details: A user initiates a call to raise an Incident. Is the user a designated VIP in Infra? Yes Has the user requested the Critical User service for this incident? Yes Select the specific Critical User SLA which will automatically set the target times to those defined above. No No Log the incident as normal with the usual priority defaulting. 2.4 Monitoring the usage of the Critical User Service for a customer organisation 2.4.1 All incidents logged where the Critical User Service has been initiated will be monitored and the usage of the Critical User Service will be reported back to the Customer as part of the ongoing Service Level Reporting Regime. 2.5 Risks associated with the Critical User Service 2.5.1 Too many designated critical users impact the ability to deliver. - In order to maintain the enhanced service associated with Critical User service level an initial list of designated critical user s will be agreed and this will be subject to change control going forward. Additionally the user will have to specifically state that they wish to initiate the Critical User Service when the incident is logged. 2.5.2 Critical User Service used to escalate minor issues. - Service level reports will identify the number of times that the Critical User service level has been used during the reporting Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 5 of 6
period. Additionally if minor incidents have been expedited via the Critical User Service this will be highlighted and addressed as part of the ongoing Service Level Reporting Regime. 2.5.3 Critical User Service issue conflicting with other Critical priority issue for resource. In the event of a conflict for resource between multiple Critical priority issues then the incident Impact will be used to determine the order in which they will be resolved. Version 1.1 (March 2011) Business Services Organisation Page 6 of 6