A couple of years ago we started an implementation of a help desk it jobs for a company in the finance industry. They had had a Service Desk for several years, but could not bring it to the level they needed; they lacked relevant measurements, suffered from high staff turnover, low quality services… In short, it was a Service Desk that simply did not meet the expectations of the business or users. Amid despair, they decided to tender the service with external providers and our company was selected as the new provider.
When implementing new services, we usually start by evaluating the operation as we find it. During this evaluation we analyze indicators, documentation and sit down to talk and take notes with personnel involved in the operation of the service to be implemented. On this occasion, the documentation seemed to be correct and complete, some of the causes of the deficiencies were not evident until the interviews.
As I sat down to talk to the service manager I noticed that the service was not suffering from lack of interest on his part or negligence. On the contrary, he seemed to be a very professional person and interested in the success of his area. He had a lot of frustration built up as he felt that no matter how much effort he put in, things were not going as the business expected and all the pressure from the IT department's results tended to fall on his area.
He explained to me that management hoped that, as the leader of the Service Desk, he would be able to align the rest of the organization with best practices for service deliveries (whatever this meant). However, no matter how hard he tried, he had not been able to advance. The resolution areas did not pay attention to services, were not concerned with user satisfaction, and generally did not see the Service Desk as an ally, but rather as an enemy.
As I talked about the different scenarios that he came to experience over the years, I began to understand what was one of the main causes of the low success of the Service Desk: At the organizational level, the responsibilities of the roles exceeded the authority they had.
THE MOST VALUABLE “P” IN IT: PEOPLE
ITIL tells us that every service is made up of 4 elements called: The 4 P's of Service design (or the 4 P's of ITIL). These are: Products, Process, Partners and People. Of the 4, People are recognized as the most valuable element in an organization and its services.
People refers to human capital, which is also the only organizational asset that has both concrete and abstract capabilities. Concrete because they can physically interact with other elements such as computers and abstract because they support and apply organizational knowledge.
Unfortunately, despite being the most important asset of any organization, human capital tends to be poorly managed in many IT organizations where our primary focus is on technology. Service Management best practices help us establish the relationships that human capital has with the technological services offered by IT departments .
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