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Highlights from The Service Desk Show

Exhibitions, Social IT, Technology No Responses »

Apr 262012

Having just got back from the Service Desk Show (aka SDITS12) at Earls Court after a great couple of days I thought I would share a few personal highlights:

I was involved! I presented a talk “Social IT Support can Compliment your Service Desk” to a packed theatre and (apart from the guy on the front row who was struggling to stay awake) the audience seemed interested – at least they were nodding in all the right places. I had the same observation as James Finister in his session – the audience seemed reluctant to ask questions at the end. Maybe it was the environment, or having to use a microphone, or people were blown away by the sheer awesomeness of our presentations?!

I also ran a couple of round-table discussion sessions on Social IT, which I thought were a great way for people to share practical thoughts and ideas about how they can implement this stuff in their businesses. A couple of people in particular left one session all fired up and ready to go and implement Social IT in their organisation which was great to see! More of these sessions next year please.

Networking: It was a great opportunity to catch up with lots of people I’d either met online or in person, and some that I’d not met at all! I also had some really interesting chats with other Service Management tool vendors. Considering the highly competitive market we’re in, I was really pleasantly surprised at how people would take the time to speak to me, even though IT SmartDesk is a potential competitor. I saw some really great products, some innovative mobile apps, and heard some interesting takes on the industry.

The event was Social, and by that I don’t mean the drinks afterward (although it was great to meet and hang out with some of the itSMF UK team). There was a really big interest in Social IT this year, and it cropped up in a lot of sessions, particularly as potential solutions to issues faced around BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and building a successful Knowledge Base (I’ll write about my thoughts on that shortly).

Banter: Finally I got to take part in the ITSM Weekly Podcast which was really interesting and a really good laugh! I’ve been listening to the podcasts over the past year or so, and it was great to be involved. There was a lot of energy and awesome ideas coming from the group, and I’ll share the link once the podcast is published.

Overall an awesome couple of days, and I can’t wait to return next year! See you there? Check out the Service Desk Show website and follow them on Twitter for updates about SITS13.

Email vs. Social Media – which one will win?

Social Media, Technology No Responses »

Mar 052012

Email vs. Social Media - fight to the death?

Back in December 2011, Atos CEO Thierry Breton announced that internal email would be banned from the company by 2014 – a move that caused a whole lot of speculation and debate within the business world. A huge advocate of using Social Media technologies such as Instant Messaging and Community-based communication, Breton believes that email is an outdated and inefficient form of communication.

The reasons Mr Breton gave for his no-email decision were:

Atos employees received on average 100 emails per day
Only 15% of these emails were actually useful
Employees were spending 15-20 hours per week answering internal email
New graduate recruits were not familiar with using email for communicating

There are 2 separate areas the email ban is attempting to address – embracing the changing trends in communication, and improving operational efficiency.

The changing trends in communication are undeniable – people growing up in the era of socially connected technology are more comfortable with Facebook walls and Tweets rather than emails and phone calls. Introducing new ways in which people can communicate within a business environment must happen if a company wants to stay relevant; imagine how quickly you would go out of business if you insisted on sending letters when your competitors send emails!

However, whilst Mr Breton’s quest for operational efficiency makes perfect sense (a company with 80,000 employees such as Atos wastes somewhere in the region of 1.3 million hours per week on the 85% of emails that aren’t useful!), it is less obvious if a solution based on Social Media will improve this efficiency or simply add noise to the problem.

There are some positives associated with the use of Social Media over email:

People take more care when posting something in a Social environment, because anyone can see it
People have more control over their participation – they can opt-in or out of conversations in the Social environment much easier than with email
Transparency of communication promotes honest and respectful discussion

However there are also some negatives associated:

Social Media is still relatively new to a lot of people, and businesses don’t yet have fully defined rules of engagement for such an environment
Some employees will be intimidated by interacting within the Social environment, preferring the 1-1 methods of email – this could hinder communication
Occasionally, discussions can become heated in Social Media environments, and when they do everyone witnesses the fallout!

So – will Social Media replace email?

In my opinion, Social Media will reduce the use of stand-alone email solutions both internally and externally to an organisation, but will not fully replace it for a long time to come. Social Media within business is still in its infancy, and people are not quite sure how they should behave in this environment. However, as Social Media platforms mature and our understanding of them improves, the efficiencies they offer to businesses will increase dramatically.

What is the difference between an IT Helpdesk and IT Service Desk?

IT Helpdesk, IT Service Desk, ITSM, Service Management Tools, Technology No Responses »

Nov 252011

Remember - Customer is King...

No it’s not a bad joke (though I’m sure some people would disagree) – there is a difference between the two, and this often leads to confusion. Here’s my take on the two descriptions:

First off – whether you’re talking about a Helpdesk OR a Service Desk, remember these are both business functions and not pieces of software. The software you can buy/rent/steal/build helps you to do the function, but in themselves they are not the solution. Whilst it is possible to run a Service Desk or Helpdesk function without a software platform in place (using scraps of paper, white boards, knots in handkerchiefs), it is not possible to run a Helpdesk or Service Desk function without the people.

Helpdesk

The Helpdesk is an external facing function. It allows external customers to contact your organisation with questions or problems, and it gives you an opportunity to manage these communications in an efficient manner. The Helpdesk is usually managed by the Customer Support team, who handle the first line of communication with the customer. They can escalate internally if needed, but will always remain the single point of contact for a customer (for example if there is a question about an invoice, the Finance team would need to advise on the appropriate action).

Service Desk

The Service Desk is an internal facing function. It allows internal customers to log questions or problems, and again it gives you an opportunity to manage these in an efficient manner. Suppliers and partners would also use the Service Desk to log/communicate also.

Traditionally we often think of the Service Desk as being purely a function of the IT department (i.e. you have a problem with the printer you should call the Service Desk). However in reality, any department or team within your organisation can run their own Service Desk function. Think about it – each team or department provides a service, and they all have their own (often different) sets of internal customers with questions and problems regarding that service. It makes perfect sense for them to have their own function for dealing with these internal customers.

This adds a little extra complexity into the mix – how do you make something like that efficient? That’s probably a topic for another blog post I think…

Summary

So in summary – the Helpdesk function is an external facing function which provides a single point of contact for your customers, managing their questions and problems. The Service Desk function is an internal facing function, providing a single point of contact for internal customers of any specific team or department within your organisation.

Social IT – what is it?

ITSM, SaaS, Social IT, Social Media, Technology 3 Responses »

Nov 152011

Facebook is down again mum...

There’s lots of talk about Social IT, and like ‘cloud’ or ‘SaaS’ before it, the term itself is in danger of becoming confused, misunderstood, and misused! That would be a great shame, because I believe Social IT is transforming how we work in ways we never imagined possible only a few years ago!

So – what is Social IT?

First of all let’s start with the question ‘what is social?’ This is the ‘social’ part of ‘social media’. Social is people collaborating. Social is being part of a community. Social is creating and sharing content. Social is communities of people, collaborating to create and share content.

Now the next bit – ‘what is IT?’ IT is quite simply the technology we use to manage and process the information that allows us to do whatever it is we do. We use IT for business, we use IT for pleasure; we all use IT in some shape or form to enhance our lives on a daily basis!

So what happens when you put the two together?

Social IT takes the concepts and ways of working from Social Media, and incorporates them into how we use technology within the working environment. This enables us to work in a community-based and collaborative way with our colleagues, customers, suppliers and partners.

For the IT organisation, Social IT enables us to pro-actively engage with the users of our IT services rather than being the re-active gatekeeper of technology. We can enable our customers to use IT services in the ways they have become accustomed to, and we can all reap the benefits of increased efficiency and motivation.

The challenge however, is that large organisations may find the Social IT methods of working much harder to embrace. Social IT leans much more towards an ‘edge of chaos’ style of working, and as such it is much more suited to small, loosely structured organisations rather than large, highly structured organisations.

In organisations that actively embrace an ‘edge of chaos’ culture, there is a fine balance between order and chaos which generates the optimum conditions for maximum innovation and creativity. The benefits of an ‘edge of chaos’ culture within an organisation include:

Leadership arises through the recognition of knowledge and expertise, rather than through hierarchy and tenure.
Teams tend towards being self-forming and self-organising
Innovation is encouraged amongst a dynamic and highly motivated workforce
People exist within cross-function, fluid teams where they can take on multiple roles
People work faster and more efficiently

By design or by chance (I’m still not sure which) these are also some of the key benefits associated with the use of Social IT ways of working!

At IT SmartDesk we’re embracing Social IT big-time! We’ve built the IT SmartDesk platform from the ground-up based upon the concepts of Social Media and Social IT: real-time information flow, openness and transparency, sharing and collaboration, simple and intuitive interfaces. By putting the user experience at the heart of IT Service Management, we’ve created a platform that enables the IT organisation’s customers to work in the way they want to!

IT Service Management software – then and now…

ITSM, SaaS, Service Desk, Service Management Tools, Technology No Responses »

Sep 232011

IT SmartDesk - IT Service Management software

The good old days...

I remember my first IT Support system – Outlook Express. It was an awesome piece of software – you received emails from people, and then replied to them too. It could cope easily with the 5 or so support emails I would get every day; it didn’t require a server, configuration, and technical consultancy which cost the earth – great days!

The company I worked for was a small startup of about 30 people. We built and ran a music download platform in a time before iTunes (yes there was a time before iTunes). Life was great. Then the business started growing. This was followed swiftly by the growing pains…

As the number of customers grew, so did the volume of support. We had to bring in more people to manage the support workload, and we had to bring in processes to ensure maintain the quality of our service. In short, we needed some Service Desk software!

The thing is, back then there was very little choice in the IT Service Management toolset world for small companies. We just needed to manage the basic processes (i.e. Incident Management) and had very little cash. You either had the full-blown ITSM solutions such as Peregrine, Remedy, Heat (which not only were way above our budget, but were far too advanced for what we needed!) or you had the solutions that were so cheap and cheerful that they didn’t fill you with the confidence you needed to give them your cash.

So I did what any other innovative (or is that “naïve”?), technically proficient IT professional who likes a challenge would do in my position – I wrote my own! It worked as well as could be expected for something that was thrown together in a couple of weekends, and served us well until we migrated to a better (again, developed in-house) incident management system. However, we found ourselves in a constant catch-up mode where the business needs were always one step ahead of what our system could do…

So what’s with the trip down memory lane? Well it’s a rather long-winded introduction so I can make this point – the range of IT Service Management tools that small and growing companies have at their disposal now is astounding! It has never been simpler, quicker or cheaper to get started with an IT Service Management solution of any shape or size – especially with the recent surge of SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions that are springing up almost weekly. There’s no large up-front licensing costs, no long-term contracts to tie you in, no infrastructure or hardware investments; you can try before you buy and you can grow your subscription as your organisation grows!

This is all fantastic news for small, growing businesses, and if you’re in the position I was 10 years ago then life is (relatively…) easy!

The hard work now lies with the toolset vendors who are operating in an increasingly crowded marketplace which is moving at a much faster pace. Customers demand high quality, immediately available systems that deliver the flexibility, agility and usability that they are becoming accustomed to – and they will leave your platform or service in an instant if they believe they’re not getting what they need.

So I did what any other innovative (or is that “naïve”?), technically proficient IT professional who likes a challenge would do in my position – I wrote my own!

IT Service Management is the new Rock and Roll!

ITSM, Social IT, Social Media, Technology 1 Response »

May 022011

Now how do you play this thing again?...

IT Service Management is the NEW ROCK AND ROLL! Sounds cool doesn’t it? I’ve always wanted to be in a band, tour the world, receive endless adulation from my legions of fans, and finally I can achieve this through IT Service Management! OK maybe not. IT Service Management is not quite as cool as that, and it is most definitely not the new rock and roll. However, as IT Service Management professionals we are in danger of making the same mistakes that the music industry has made over the past 15 years, and all because of two words – Social Media. Let me elaborate…

A few weeks back I attended the Service Desk and IT Support Show at Earls Court, London. I had a great time – the event was jam-packed with demos from ITSM toolset vendors, interesting presentations from ITSM professionals, and panel discussions involving some of the most highly regarded ITSM experts in the industry. Social Media was of course a big topic for discussion in a lot of these sessions, and the discussions tended to focus on ‘what is it?’ and ‘what does it mean for IT?’. By the end of my 2 days it had become apparent that Social Media has split the IT Service Management world into two camps. The first camp is one that views the rise of Social Media as something to be weary of – it cannot be controlled and doesn’t fit into the IT Service Management world as we know it, and hopefully it’s just a passing fad that will go away soon. The second camp views Social Media as something that should be embraced – we need to pay close attention to it and how people are using it, and work out how to support it within the business.

Here’s my view. The rise of Social Media and its impact on our society cannot be ignored. It represents a fundamental step-change in communication behaviours and attitudes, allowing a plethora of ways to share information about ourselves and the world around us. The kids of today (i.e. our IT consumers of tomorrow) are more literate with Social Media than most grown-ups could ever wish to be. Social Media is not a fad, it is here to stay, and we need to understand and embrace it! Yes clearly I am in the second camp…

So, here’s where the rock and roll bit comes in. We have seen a disruption very similar to this towards the end of the 90s with the emergence of filesharing networks – all of a sudden people had access to free (albeit illegal) music or films at the click of a mouse button. The music industry split into two camps (sound familiar?) – one that tried to shut down filesharing sites and prevent people using this new technology, and the other that attempted to understand this new technology and derive value from it. Over the past 10 years the music industry has suffered massive decreases in revenues, huge drops in profits, and falling physical sales. Technology has revolutionised the way people consume music, filesharing has not gone away, and the record labels that tried to cling to the old values and close down the filesharing sites are now the ones clinging on for survival.

Now let’s come back to the dilemma about Social Media and the impact it has had on the way people use IT. You should ask yourself a simple question:

Which camp am I in?

How to obtain value from technology

ITSM, Service Management Tools, Technology No Responses »

Apr 102011

We are all individuals (according to the process handbook...)

I recently saw this short video from Dr Eliyahu Goldratt called The Reason For Technology (thanks to Charles T. Betz for sharing this on Twitter). I really like Dr. Goldratt and the way he explains operational processes from a scientific perspective, and so I watched his video with interest.

In this video he essentially says that as humans, we develop coping mechanisms for the limitations that surround us. An example of such a limitation in the context of IT Service Management might be the lack of an established ticketing system, and our coping mechanism would be an email-based support solution and frequent walk-ups to the support desk. These are not perfect coping mechanisms as emails are not the most efficient way of dealing with the flow of information, and walk-ups are at best disruptive.

At some point we implement technology to help us overcome our limitation (bring on the Service Desk!) and everyone expects this magical technology to improve the efficiency of our support process, cut out the walk-up interruptions to our support desk, and reduce the chaos of our email inbox! However, the crux of Goldratt’s argument is that the technology will only deliver a benefit if we change our behaviours from those we exhibited before the technology was introduced. I.e. we must stop the email support process and the walk-ups to the support team.

For as long as I can remember, this has been cited as one of the biggest barriers to overcome when implementing ITIL processes within an organisation – the need to change culture and behaviours, and the challenges this presents. However, I remain a firm believer that if you change the culture and behaviour of an organisation you risk losing what has made that organisation special in the first place. Imagine a real-life remake of Orwell’s 1984 happening in your office (probably a little less epic, and most probably without the rats…) - sounds bleak doesn’t it?

So I’m not really sure what the answer is – how can you obtain value from implementing technology if you need to change organisational cultures and behaviours, which causes you to lose value as a result of changing them? Some kind of middle-ground is needed where you can keep the essence of the organisational culture and spirit, whilst introducing complementary toolsets and processes to allow the organisation to work smarter and become more efficient.

I would be really interested to hear Dr. Goldratt’s thoughts on this (and if it was possible it would be great to hear Orwell’s thoughts too!). What do you think – can we change organisational culture to obtain value from technology without losing what makes that organisation tick?