The Help Desk as a Pivot Point for

The Help Desk as a Pivot Point for IT Agility Mark Sheehan ECAR Fellow 2007 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference Chicago, Illinois March 18, 2008 © 2008 EDUCAUSE. All rights reserved.

See the full ECAR study report: On the Front Line: The IT Help Desk in Higher Education • Report released December 3, 2007 • Initial distribution to ECAR members • Publicly available July 2009 • Key Findings and Roadmap publicly available now at: http: //www. educause. edu/ecar 10/2/2020 2

Respondent Demographics • Report based on survey • Limited to institutions with one or more central IT help desks • 454 institutions in all • 27. 5% response rate • About half CIOs • Doctoral 24% 10/2/2020 Masters 27% Bachelors Associates 19% 14% 3

Agility • “[Ability] to move quickly and with suppleness, skill, and control. ” –Encarta • “[Ability] to move quickly and easily. ” –Compact Oxford English Dictionary • Agility depends on situational awareness, balance, and poise. – Where did you come from? – Where are you going? – Where are you now? 10/2/2020 4

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 5

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 6

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 7

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 8

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 9

Help Desk Ecology Help Desk Client Community Central IT 10/2/2020 10

Service Desk Ecology Help Desk Central IT 10/2/2020 Pivot point 11 Client Community

The IT Infrastructure Library • Developed in the 1980 s by the UK government • Goal: To ensure service quality as patterns of IT use and support changed during the “PC revolution” • Now the de facto standard for IT service management worldwide • Most current implementations are of ITIL version 2; version 3 was released in 2007 10/2/2020 12

ITIL Processes Service Delivery book Service Support book Service Level Management Financial Management Capacity Management Service Continuity Management • Availability Management • Incident Management • • • Problem Management • Configuration Management • Change Management • Release Management • Service Desk – an overarching “function” 10/2/2020 13

Help Desk vs. Service Desk Help Desk Service Desk • Incident Management • Often one of several points of contact with central IT • Single point of contact for all central IT services • Speaks for itself, not always for the whole IT organization • Speaks for the entire IT organization • Not just an early recipient of information about central system changes, but • Sometimes “the last to know” about central system changes 10/2/2020 • An integral player in central system decision making 14

Adoption of IT Service Management Practices 10/2/2020 15

Number of Four Basic ITSM Activities in Which Help Desk Staff Are Adequately Included 10/2/2020 16

Overall Quality of Help Desk Services 10/2/2020 17

Inclusion of Help Desk in Central IT ITSM Activities, by Service Quality 10/2/2020 18 Overall mean: 2. 54 activities

Help Desk Maturity (Derived from the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model) • Initial – Services are usually provided ad hoc and rely on individual efforts; past successes are often not repeatable. • Repeatable – Service responsibilities are formally assigned, success is usually repeatable, and basic project management techniques are used. • Standardized – Service quality standards are in place and used, consistency of services is a priority, and process improvement is a goal. • Managed – Quantitative performance goals are in place, service performance is measured, and service quality is predictable. • Optimized – Services are closely aligned to business strategies, services are easily changed to meet emerging needs, and process improvement is continuous. 10/2/2020 19

Help Desk Maturity (Derived from the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model) • Initial – Services are usually provided ad hoc and rely on individual efforts; past successes are often not repeatable. • Repeatable – Service responsibilities are formally assigned, success is usually repeatable, and basic project management techniques are used. • Standardized – Service quality standards are in place and used, consistency of services is a priority, and process improvement is a goal. • Managed – Quantitative performance goals are in place, service performance is measured, and service quality is predictable. • Optimized – Services are closely aligned to business strategies, services are easily changed to meet emerging needs, and process improvement is continuous. 10/2/2020 20

Help Desk Maturity (Derived from the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model) • Initial – Services are usually provided ad hoc and rely on individual efforts; past successes are often not repeatable. • Repeatable – Service responsibilities are formally assigned, success is usually repeatable, and basic project management techniques are used. • Standardized – Service quality standards are in place and used, consistency of services is a priority, and process improvement is a goal. • Managed – Quantitative performance goals are in place, service performance is measured, and service quality is predictable. • Optimized – Services are closely aligned to business strategies, services are easily changed to meet emerging needs, and process improvement is continuous. 10/2/2020 21

Help Desk Maturity Findings 10/2/2020 22

Inclusion of Help Desk in Central IT ITSM Activities, by Help Desk Maturity 10/2/2020 23

Overall Service Quality, by Help Desk Maturity 10/2/2020 24

Take Home Messages • The help desk plays a pivotal role in the agility of the IT organization • Inclusion of the help desk in central IT ITSM activities is associated with help desk maturity and overall quality of service • Migration from help desk to service desk may be a fruitful path • The help desk has a lot to contribute, and a lot to gain, from an ITIL implementation 10/2/2020 25

Mark Sheehan msheehan@educause. edu 10/2/2020 26