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A Study of Service Desk Setup in Implementing IT Service Management in Enterprises

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Technology and Investment, 2013, 4, 190-196
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ti.2013.43022 Published Online August 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ti)
A Study of Service Desk Setup in Implementing
IT Service Management in Enterprises
Xiaojun Tang1, Yuki Todo2
1Enterprise Key Account IT Service Department, Shanghai Wicresoft Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
Email: tony_txj@hotmail.com, yktodo@se.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
Received May 13, 2013; revised June 13, 2013; accepted June 20, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Xiaojun Tang, Yuki Todo. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li-
cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) provides a framework to provide IT related services and the in-
teraction of IT staff with users, and is often related with the British Government’s Information Technology Infrastruc-
ture Library (ITIL). ITIL offers a set of “best practices” for managing IT services and is one of the most widely ac-
cepted approaches to IT service management in the world. Recently, more and more enterprises implemented a central-
ized IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. However, even by adopting ITIL, most of the enter-
prises didn’t improve their IT service management level. Some factors become the barriers to the success of ITIL and
ITSM implementation. In some cases, enterprises paid more attention to IT infrastructure setup and operation but ne-
glect the importance of Service Desk. In this study, we first review ITSM, ITIL and Service Desk. Second, we identify a
full function of new Service Desk and how to set up a good Service Desk. Enterprises should take proper measures in
building a mature Service Desk to ensure successful implementation of ITSM.
Keywords: Information Technology Service Management (ITSM); Information Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL); Service Desk
1. Introduction
In today’s demanding world, IT plays a pivotal role in
creating new opportunity and delivering competitive ad-
vantage to enterprises. Business focused approaches on
managing IT resources are highly valued in today’s en-
terprise. As IT departments and organizations transition
from technology to service based management models,
investing in a credible, best practice framework such as
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is
becoming more important [1].
An important aspect of the new legislation is the re-
quirement for enterprises to have consistent and formal-
ized application controls as well as general controls across
all IT functions, including areas outsourced to external
partners. To achieve these goals, organizations are adopt-
ing ITIL to provide a framework and implement IT ser-
vice management in enterprise [2].
According to the previous research about the ITIL/
ITSM application status concluded in Taiwan, the major
challenges of implementing ITIL as listed in Table 1.
The top five challenges are culture, integration with cur-
rent process, ITIL/ITSM related knowledge, appropriate
management tool, and clear measurement target [3,4].
After reviewing the top five challenges, culture shift,
appropriate management tool and clear measurement tar-
get are all directly related to Service Desk. Also, Service
Desk, as the single point of contact, will be very useful
for culture shift and ITIL/ITSM related knowledge popu-
larize. Thus, a good Service Desk is very important in
successfully implementing ITIL/ITSM in enterprises [5].
Table 1. Major challenges of implementing ITIL (Source:
KPMG 2007).
Major challenges Percentage
Culture shift 17.2%
Integration with current process 15.5%
ITIL/ITSM related knowledge 13.8%
Appropriate management tool 10.3%
Clear measurement target 10.3%
Project within budget 8.6%
Insufficient internal professional staff 8.6%
Project on time 5.2%
Managing consultants 1.7%
Incapable and inexperienced consultants 1.7%
C
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X. J. TANG, Y. TODO 191
Usually, the Service Desk concentrates on incident
lifecycle management and performs the following pri-
mary functions [6]:
Customer Interface.
Business Support.
Incident Control.
Management Information.
Service Desk is the primary point of contact for all in-
ternal and/or external customers. It will be the function
which users are most easily perceived. Users’ impres-
sions of Service Desk impact the image of enterprises’ IT
service a lot. A good image of Service Desk can help IT
department obtain more support for senior management
board and business department, which will be very help-
ful to propel ITSM implementation and get higher cus-
tomer satisfaction.
In the past, the goal of a traditional Service Desk is
only to restore the service as quickly as possible, manage
the incident life-cycle (coordinating resolution) and gen-
erate reports, communicate and promote. It handles calls,
questions, requests, complaints and remarks [7]. But now,
enterprises need a Service Desk with more functions and
stronger capabilities. A good and integral Service Desk
will be very important in implementing ITSM. In this
article, we first offer a review of ITSM/ITIL, and the de-
finition of Service Desk, present the importance of Ser-
vice Desk, then, discuss the new functions of Service
Desk. Finally, some suggestions about how to set up a
good Service Desk via three different perspectives, proc-
ess, people and tool, are discussed.
2. Literature Review
2.1. ITSM
IT service management (ITSM) refers to the implemen-
tation and management of quality IT services that meet
the needs of the business. IT service management is per-
formed by IT service providers through an appropriate
mix of people, process and information technology. The
following represents a characteristic statement from the
ITSM literature [8]:
“Providers of IT services can no longer afford to fo-
cus on technology and their internal organization; they
now have to consider the quality of the services they pro-
vide and focus on the relationship with customers.”
Therefore, the providers of IT services should shift
their focus on technology and internal organization to the
quality of services they provides and the customers’ sat-
isfaction. If the IT services providers cannot provide pro-
active and value-added service to client and end users,
we can say the IT service level is low, although the IT
services provider have a huge infrastructure with latest
technologies.
IT department must try to attain the proactive level of
IT service management process maturity (see Figure 1)
and successfully deploy these emerging ITSM technolo-
gies [9,10].
2.2. ITIL
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL),
which was developed by OGC (Office of Government
Figure 1. IT service management maturity model.
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X. J. TANG, Y. TODO
192
Commerce) of UK government, offers a detailed descrip-
tion of “best practices” for IT service management [11].
The goal of ITIL is to provide a framework of best prac-
tices that organizations can use as a guideline for man-
aging their IT organizations. Five core titles are included
in ITIL v3, which are:
Service Strategy.
Service Design.
Service Transition.
Service Operation.
Continual Service Improvement.
2.3. The Definition of Service Desk in ITIL
Service Desk is a primary IT service called for in IT ser-
vice management (ITSM) as defined by the Information
Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It is intended
to provide a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to meet the
communication needs of both Users and IT employees,
but also to satisfy both Customer and IT Provider objec-
tives. Service desk handles incidents and service requests,
as well as providing an interface to users for other ITSM
activities such as:
Incident management.
Problem management.
Configuration management.
Change management.
Release management.
Service-level management.
Availability management.
Capacity management.
Financial management.
IT service continuity management.
Security management.
Mission of Service Desk is to be a central point of
contact between the User and IT Service Provider [11].
2.4. The Definition of Service Desk in COPC
In COPC’s view, the main responsibilities of IT Service
Desk are:
Accept customer request (via telephone, e-mail, fax
and etc.).
Record and track incident and users’ feedback.
Update users the current status and progress about
their request in a timely manner.
Primarily evaluating users’ request according to the
Service Level Agreement, try to resolve it or assign to
the related persons.
Monitor the implementation of policies according to
the Service Level Agreement, propose to revise poli-
cies if necessary.
Manage the life-cycle of each service request.
Communicate with users if Service Level Agree is
adjusted.
Coordinate 2nd tier and 3rd tier support team.
Provide management related information and sugges-
tion, improve service quality.
Discover the problem in IT Service operation from
users’ feedback.
Discover users’ requirement of training and educa-
tion.
Terminate incident and confirm resolution with users.
3. New Service Desk Functions
3.1. Benefit of New Service Desk
A traditional Service Desk only plays a contact point in
IT service organization, but enterprises expect it brings
more value and benefits. A good Service Desk provides
the following benefits to enterprises:
1) Direct Benefits
a) Reduced cost of incident resolution
b) Reduced self-inflicted incidents via integrated and
reliable change
c) Increased productivity of IT staff
d) Improved asset utilization, life cycle management
and accurate software licensing costs
e) Reduced service cycle times
f) End-to-end service cost optimization
2) Indirect Benefits
a) Reduced peer support
b) Standardization
c) Consolidation
d) Non-IT staff more productive
e) Improved availability
f) Managing appropriate expectations
g) Improved efficiency of security and business conti-
nuity planning processes
h) Improved IT governance
i) Drives continual improvement
Thus, when implementing ITSM in enterprise, the re-
sponsibilities and goals should be adjusted to realize the
above benefits.
3.2. New Service Desk Functions
With the development of technology and service require-
ment, the position of Service Desk is changed. It plays an
important role in Service Operation (see Figure 2).
Service Desk needs not only accept the service request
reactively, but also discover the problem proactively [12].
The suggested functions of new Service Desk are:
Filter and categorize service requests.
As the SPOC of IT service, Service Desk accepts all
the service requests from end users. Most of the service
requests are only to request related information or re-
solve easy problems. That’s to say, most of the service
request will be resolved and closed by Service Desk at
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X. J. TANG, Y. TODO 193
Figure 2. Position of service desk in organization.
the first contact. Usually, more than 60% service requests
are resolved by Service Desk directly, then they catego-
rize the rest requests and assign to the appropriate 2nd
tier or 3rd tier support team. Service Desk plays the most
important role in IT department, they handle most of the
requests from the end users, and also be the interface to
contact with the backend team [13].
In charge of Incident Management process
Incident management can be defined as an unplanned
interruption to an IT Service or a reduction in the Quality
of an IT Service. The objective of incident management
is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible
with the least possible impact on either the business or
the user, at a cost-effective price [7,8].
Service Desk should be the owner of Incident Man-
agement process, they are primary focus to ensure a
prompt recovery of the system, supervising and directing
the internal or external resources.
Knowledge Base Maintenance
Knowledge Base (KB) is a special kind of database for
knowledge management. A knowledge base is an infor-
mation repository that provides a means for information
to be collected, organized, shared, searched and utilized.
It can be either machine-readable or intended for human
use.
Service Desk is the key user of Knowledge Base. In
daily work, they can easily know which KB article is
useful, which one is out of date and which one has very
low resolve rate. With such information records, Service
Desk should proactively maintain KB. For example, they
can promote a KB article due to its high resolve rate,
propose to update or expire an article due to it is out of
date or quite low resolve rate. With a strong KB, Service
Desk can improve their work efficiency and resolve the
issue for end users more effective.
Initiative Problem Management process
Service Desk also should play an important role in
Problem Management process. Problem can be collected
from incidents. Service Desk should have the awareness
to define a problem in a timely manner. For example, if
Service Desk received a lot of incidents with similar
symptom, they should consult the senior technical staff to
conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA) process as soon as
possible. Once a problem is defined timely, incidents can
be linked to the problem, and then, Service Desk can
inform end users timely about the resolution or work
around [7,8].
Coordinator of Change Management Process
The objective of change management is to ensure that
standardized methods and procedures are used for effi-
cient and prompt handling of all changes to control IT
infrastructure, in order to minimize the number and im-
pact of any related incidents upon service. Usually, change
requests need to be reviewed and approved by several
peoples for impact and risk analysis, roll back plan, CAB
confirm and etc. Urgent change request also has its dif-
ferent approval process [7-9].
From Service Desk view, they are not only responsible
to log the change request, but also need to track and push
on the progress, ensure the standardized methods and
procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of
all changes.
Coordinate onsite service and VIP support
For that part of the incidents and service requests where
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194
the Service Desk is not able to execute the service re-
motely, On-site Support Services will be used to execute
the service onsite, such as hardware replacement. In this
case, Service Desk should still be the primary contact
point of end users. They are responsible for giving end
users an expectation about when the onsite staff will ar-
rive and when the issue can be fixed. Moreover, a lot of
enterprise has VIP support process to ensure the high
service level for VIP. Service Desk also needs to com-
municate with VIP timely for any information updated
and collects feedback.
Event Management (Proactive Monitoring Service)
Event Management is the process that monitors all
events that occur through the IT infrastructure. It allows
for normal operation and also detects and escalates ex-
ception conditions.
Service Desk cannot only accept request reactively,
another function for them is providing proactive moni-
toring service. Service Desk can choose appropriate tool
to monitor the status of servers, network devices, storage,
UPS and etc. If any alert is received, Service Desk gen-
erates an incident, problem or change timely and process
into the related ITSM process, fixes the potential issue
and ensures the IT infrastructure work in a healthy status
[9].
Responsible for Reporting Service
Reporting Service reflects the status in IT service op-
eration. An accurate and timely report is very important
for IT operation service review and forecast. A good Ser-
vice Desk is able to handle the reporting service, as they
handle almost all requests and know which need to be
emphasized [14]. They make sure the report reflect the
actual status and help to find the weakness to be im-
proved.
Customer Satisfaction Survey
Currently, most of the ITSM tool has the function to
conduct customer satisfaction survey automatically; this
did save time and improved efficiency. However, the same
questionnaire cannot collect the different voices from end
users, even not to mention how many end users will com-
plete the template survey carefully. Service Desk should
have a process to pick up some service requests and call
back the end users to learn their feedback. Such straight-
forward way is very useful to understand our customers’
real needs, which direct IT department to improve their
service [15].
4. Setup a Great Service Desk
Obviously, a traditional Service Desk cannot meet the
new requirements of enterprises. When implementing
ITSM, we should consider setup a Service Desk with full
functions. When setting up the new Service Desk, we can
consider from three different perspectives, process, peo-
ple and tool.
4.1. Process
Process is the most important part in Service Desk, this
ensure everyone work in the same guideline and using
the same language. When designing the process, we should
focus on the ability to efficiently provide clients and end
users with services that meet their expectations, also fo-
cuses on the mechanisms to quantitatively evaluate, main-
tain, and improve these processes to ensure they function
effectively and efficiently [16].
There are 14 key service desk processes including:
service desk dashboard, operate service desk process, com-
municating with customers, promote and market service
desk, managing costs and recovery process, preparing re-
ports process, monitoring process, optimize service desk
process, determining outsourcing requirements, optimiz-
ing staff levels process, optimizing staff skills process,
optimizing technology process and reviewing and opti-
mizing monitoring and reporting [11].
When designing the process, the following parts need
to be taken into consideration [17].
How to implementing new services, programs, clients,
and requirements
Process must design to ensure Service Desk imple-
ments new services, programs, clients, and requirements
efficiently meet client and end-user requirements and tar-
gets.
Process capability
Process must ensure Service Desk is capable of con-
sistently achieving targets. Process needs to be adjusted
if Service Desk failure to achieving targets in continuous
evaluation periods.
Corrective action and continuous improvement
Service Desk should use a structured approach for iden-
tifying and resolving the root cause of poor performance
or the performance metrics not consistently meeting re-
quirements and targets. The approaches should be re-
corded to track the effectiveness and for further usage.
Transaction monitoring
Service Desk must have an approach for monitoring
transactions that is designed to meet client, and end-user
requirements and targets. This approach must focus on
identify and correct program-level issues that cut across
multiple Service Desk agents at the process level [17].
Data collection, analysis and action
Service Desk must have a process to collect, analyze,
and use performance data to achieve its customer satis-
faction, service, quality, cost, and employee performance
targets, also the process must ensure that the data are col-
lected, usable, integrity, known by appropriate personnel
and also lead to actions if results fall below the targets.
End-user privacy
The process must protect end-user sensitive and pro-
prietary data and information.
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4.2. People
Meeting performance targets and improving performance
levels requires a workforce that is appropriately skilled
and motivated. Service Desk should have people man-
agement approaches that enable all staff to effectively
and efficiently deliver quality services. When managing
the Service Desk staffs, the following points can be taken
into consideration [18,19].
Defining jobs, recruiting and hiring
Service Desk must have clear, written definitions of
the minimum skills and knowledge required for Service
Desk jobs, job definition can refer to the Service Desk
functions, and those jobs that include training delivery
and monitoring transactions. Service Desk must acquire
staffs which have a high probability of successfully per-
forming their jobs.
Training and development
Service Desk must provide the training and develop-
ment that all staff performing jobs needs to acquire and
maintain the skills and knowledge required for their posi-
tions. Trainings need to be adjusted by considering dif-
ferent attendees’ level, positions and capabilities.
Verifying skills and knowledge
To ensure that all staff has maintained the necessary
skills to successfully perform their jobs, Service Desk
should verify the skills and knowledge of all staff on a
yearly basis. Only qualified staff can continue to serve
customers. This also should be included in performance
appraisal.
Staff performance management
Service Desk must have a performance evaluation sys-
tem to monitor and encourage staff. Analysis also should
be conducted in order to work out follow-up action items
to continuously improve performance [18,19].
Managing staff feedback
Service Desk must use a structured approach for pro-
actively soliciting, evaluating, and taking appropriate ac-
tion on feedback obtained from individuals.
4.3. Tool
The tools for Service Desk should be designed for col-
lecting consistent, time sensitive, and documented ser-
vice request report data. Currently, many of Service Desk
products include features to automate the approval proc-
ess of an incident report or case investigation. These
products should also have the ability to collect real time
incident information such as time and date data. Addi-
tionally the tool should automatically send notifications,
assign tasks and escalations to appropriate individuals
depending on the incident type, priority, time, status and
custom criteria. Currently, a lot of products provide the
ability for administrators to configure the report forms as
needed, create analysis reports and even set access con-
trols on the data.
For most of Service Desk functions requirement in en-
terprises, Remedy from BMC software is widely used. It
has been used by more than 90% of TOP500 companies.
It enables comprehensive, best practice based incident
management and problem management processes via in-
tuitive, easily adopted, enterprise scale technology.
As for the proactive monitoring service requirement in
Service Desk, Microsoft System Center is also widely
used in enterprises. System Center Operation Manager
(SCOM), as one of the most important component of
System Center, provides deep visibility into the health,
performance, and availability of IT infrastructure—across
applications, operating systems, hypervisors and hard-
ware—through a single interface. When choosing the
appropriate tool for monitoring purpose, it is highly re-
commended to choose a centralized system monitoring
platform that’s flexible and cost-effective, helps ensure
the predictable performance and availability of vital ap-
plications, and offers comprehensive monitoring for in-
frastructure.
General speaking, when implementing ITSM in enter-
prise, IT department needs to find the most suitable tool
according to the functions of Service Desk. The capabil-
ity of the selected tool must meet all the requirement of
Service Desk and another important thing is, easy to use.
4.4. Case Study
Here is a case study in Nanjing, China. Before 2010, the
service desk applied a traditional process and functions.
They received service requests reactively, and then cate-
gory the service requests into different genres and dis-
patch to the related team. However, the result is not good
due to the following reasons:
Service Desk engineers’ skill cannot be improved by
handling real tickets, which caused high attrition rate
and higher training cost.
2nd tier technical engineer spent a lot of time in re-
plying easy questions and inquiry, cannot focus on
the technical part, the work efficiency is low.
There is no a centralize method to manage and update
knowledge, the resolve rate mostly depended on ex-
perience.
Service desk didn’t have the awareness to be involved
in the Problem/Change management process.
VIPs’ requests cannot be addressed timely.
Cannot proactively find the potential issues
To improve the service level of service desk, the ser-
vice desk was restructured in 2010. The major change
was responsibilities. Besides Incident Management proc-
ess, the new service desk was assigned to be involved into
more of ITIL process, such as: Problem Management,
Change Management, Event Management, Service Level
Management and etc. With about 6 months’ efforts, the
restructured was completed successfully. After 2 years
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196
Table 2. Service Desk KPI Improved.
KPI 2009 2011
Customer satisfaction %71 %81
VIP satisfaction %60 %90
Average handle time 15 min 12 min
Call abandon rate %10 %3
SD help resolve rate A/N %60
Staff attrition rate %20 %8
Problem identify 4 7
Knowledge base usage %30 %80
Change execute time 8 days 5 days
operations, the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) had
been improved apparently (Table 2).
5. Conclusions
As several key successful factors to succeeding in ITSM
implementation, we suggest that enterprise attach impor-
tance to Service Desk. Service Desk can be implemented
in many different ways [3]; however by following the
best practices outlined in ITIL, it should meet the most
important need of the end user and enterprise. In addition,
by following the best practices, the Service Desk will
enable the enterprise to have a foundation for the IT de-
partment not only to meet the increasing needs of the end
user, but for the IT department to link into strategic areas
within the company [6].
A good Service Desk allows enterprise to be less de-
pendent on specific technology and enables them to eas-
ily connect with business partners by switching the ITSM
implementation focus on the infrastructure delivers value
adding to the corporate users and customers. A good Ser-
vice Desk improves a company’s customer satisfaction
by allowing the company to implement their ITSM even
business plan. A good Service Desk communicates effec-
tively and efficiently with each end user. There are many
more things which a good Service Desk can do well, so
let’s pay more attention on Service Desk when imple-
menting ITSM.
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... The ITSM-MS can be used to measure the performance of IT service support processes. The ITSM-MS was developed in cooperation between MaISSI (Managing IT Services and Service Implementation) research project and an IT service company in Finland (Tang & Todo, 2013). Neničková (2011) stated that find and analyze the most critical success factors (CSFs) for implementation of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) was the best practices into the managing and delivering ICT services in large companies. ...
... These would certainly be valuable things to know but does not show how well problem management has been working, because so many other factors could have contributed. In additional, based on the study done by (Tang & Todo, 2013), Problem Management in Mesiniaga is more focusing on the Root Cause Analysis (RCA), however this does not actually deliver any benefit since it is just a technique that they use in problem management. ...
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Problem Management (PM) is one of the components in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Support area. The primary focus of Problem Management is to identify causes of service issues and commission corrective work to prevent recurrences. To address this practice and make it more effective, the project tends to identify the specific Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for    Problem Management process in a Malay owner company named as Mesiniaga Berhad. The identification of Problem Management KPI is based on the previous research which is using ITIL as a framework. The interview session has been conducted in Mesiniaga with Problem Manager working at that company with more than 10 years’ experience in Problem Management process. The method of    interview is using qualitative approach which is using the design question with the lists of KPI. The expert will select or decide which KPI are related with the current report in Mesiniaga. The result showed that 6 KPIs are related and come out with analysis on how the outcome of KPI behavior matched with the Incident report in Mesiniaga. To enhance on how the identification of KPI, instead of using manual to capture the Problem Management KPI, the automation of selected KPI from Incident to Problem Management can be       implement in the systems. Most technologies are intelligent enough for data analytic to decide which suitable KPI of Problem          Management follow the current business and client environment. Â
... When these services are delivered online through government organization portals, they are referred to as e-service desks. eservice desks offer a range of benefits, including increased efficiency among organizational staff, optimized utilization of the organization's resources, reduced service waiting times, minimized rework, standardization of procedures, and enhanced availability of services and information to various organizations, including medical sciences universities [9]. ...
... The findings indicate that among the 5 components measured in the study, the designers of the electronic service desk of the Vice-Chancellor for Treatment Affairs paid more attention to compliance with component 1 (access to service through the electronic service desk) and least attention to compliance with component 5 (receive users' comments electronically). It should be kept in mind that ignoring the users' point of view towards the electronic services provided, the electronic service desk is far from its goals [9]. ...
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Introduction: As a key custodian of public health, the Vice-Chancellor for Treatment Affairs in medical sciences universities plays a pivotal role in delivering healthcare services to the citizens through electronic service desk. In this study, we conducted an evaluation and ranking of the e-service desks managed by the Vice-Chancellor of Treatment Affairs at Iranian medical sciences universities.Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in Iran between 2022 and 2023 assessed e-service desks in medical sciences universities. The study included 51 desks categorized by their electronic service methods. Subsequently, e-services were evaluated and scored based on components, which are provided by the national administrative organization for employment. The evaluation components encompassed a) use of an e-service desk to provide services; b) provision of an information package; c) availability of a flowchart outlining the service; d) clarity of the service recipient; and e) electronic collection of user opinions. The total points and the average of each desk were calculated to rank them.Results: The assessed e-service desks were categorized into three groups based on the method of providing electronic services: service provider, service recipient, and not categorized. After evaluating each e-service desk, the highest and lowest points of e-service desks were 708 and 2. The result indicated that only 31 e-service desks achieved an average score of 50% or above.Conclusion: It could be concluded that electronic government (e-government) has been partially implemented in the field of treatment throughout a developing country. However, the absence of a unified model to serve as a guideline for designing e-service desks has resulted in an undesirable diversity in the services offered and their delivery methods. It is recommended that medical sciences universities adopt and adhere to a unified model when designing e-service desks for the provision of healthcare services electronically.
... The telephone-based support system provided by the Danish healthcare services in Marie's case offered an alternative to the personal, social network of assistance. However, telephone-based support services come with additional challenges, including problems for people with hearing disabilities, limited access for the support work to access and overtake the updating of the computer, and so on (Tang & Todo, 2013). Additionally, the individuals in the two cases in this study possess a relatively high level of digital literacy and feel confident with using computers. ...
... ITSM offers a framework to provide IT-related services and the interaction of IT staff with users and is often related to the British Government's Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL is one of the most popular frameworks for ITSM, including evaluation (Tang & Todo, 2013). ITIL was ranked first (47% of 261 IT leaders) among the top five most used ITSM frameworks (Ruiz et al., 2018). ...
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An increasing enrolment of students and demand for flexible delivery modalities in higher education calls for an urgent digital transformation in this sector. In addition, emerging global wicked challenges demand the appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to address them; for instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital teaching, learning and transformation of educational services in higher learning institutions (HLIs). This study assessed ICT infrastructure, systems and services at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania using the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. This qualitative study used desk reviews of data obtained from interviews, system walkthroughs, document reviews and consultative meetings. The study used data from an assessment conducted between February 2017 and August 2021. The assessment found that MUHAS provides various ICT infrastructures and services, with a rapidly increasing demand for ICT services. A total of 84 ICT services at MUHAS were mapped and grouped as "Customer-facing" or "Supporting". The services were also categorised as "Core", "Enabling", or "Enhancing". The ICT services were at different maturity levels depending on the duration of their demands, requirements, capacity, usage, and availability of the required resources. Various educational technologies such as an eLearning platform, video conferencing systems, student management and assessment systems were used to enhance teaching, learning and progress tracking. This paper presents the experience of using the ITIL framework in assessing ICT infrastructure, systems and services at a university in Tanzania. It provides information on the services catalogue and its organisation as well as strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities for using ICT in transforming university functions. In addition, this study informs other HLIs on similar assessments and strategic organisation of their ICT services in resource-constrained settings.
... Tingkat maturitas = Total bobot / Jumlah responden RACI adalah sebuah matriks yang menggambarkan peran dari pihak-pihak dalam penyelesaian suatu pekerjaan. Matriks ini sangat berguna dalam mendefinisikan peran dan tanggung jawab masing-masing bagian dalam suatu proyek atau proses bisnis (Tang & Todo, 2013). RACI merupakan akronim dari empat peran yang dalam matriks ini, yaitu responsible, accountable, consulted, dan informed. ...
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Bank XYZ adalah bank swasta nasional yang beroperasi lebih dari sepuluh tahun dan melayani nasabahnya seluruh Indonesia menggunakan sistem online untuk seluruh cabang dan semua perangkat layanan elektronik bertanggung jawab melayani transaksi semua nasabah dengan tingkat akurasi dan keamanan yang tinggi. Bagian Pusat Data Bank XYZ menyediakan layanan berupa infrastruktur dan jaringan yang disini disebut supporting service, dalam rangka mendukung pelayanan transaksi finansial dan nonfinansial untuk nasabah. Penulis menemukan adanya masalah operasional bank yang penting yaitu belum sempurnanya kebijakan tentang manajemen layanan Teknologi Informasi sehingga mempengaruhi nilai layanan, juga kemampuan sumber daya manusia dibidang Teknologi Informasi yang masih belum memadai. Keterbatasan sumber daya dalam mengoperasikan tugas dan fungsi yang telah ditetapkan manajemen mengakibatkan Bagian Pusat Data Bank XYZ belum maksimal dalam menjaga keberlangsungan sistem operasional bank. Komitmen manajemen sangat dibutuhkan untuk meningkatkan kualitas layanan kepada nasabah. Untuk mengetahui kondisi pengelolaan layana nasabah ini perlu dilakukan evaluasi tingkat maturitas terhadap layanan pada infrastruktur Bagian Pusat Data. Evaluasi ini menggunakan ITIL Framework pada domain Service Operation yang hasilnya akan direkomendasikan guna meningkatkan manajemen layanan Teknologi Informasi. Pada saat proses evaluasi berlangsung penulis melakukan pengambilan data dengan studi dokumen, wawancara, dan kuesioner sehingga didapatkan analisis maturitas pada tingkat 1,79 (initial), yang artinya masih terdapat proses-proses pengelolaan layanan infrastruktur Bagian Pusat Data Bank XYZ yang belum berjalan serta fungsi manajemen layanan belum terdefinisikan dengan jelas.
... Diversos estudios apuntan a que los proveedores de servicios de TI deben centrarse más en la calidad del servicio y en las relaciones con sus clientes que en la tecnología y en su organización interna [17,11]. Cuando se mejora la productividad y la eficiencia de las actividades de los procesos, la organización puede desarrollar, mantener y prestar servicios de alta calidad, cumplir los objetivos de negocio y obtener una mayor satisfacción del cliente. ...
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Hoy en día, los servicios digitales cada vez son más com-plejos y numerosos, por lo que se les exige una mayor calidad en su prestación. Son el resultado de una cadena de organizaciones que traba-jan juntos para proporcionar dichos servicios, pudiendo ser vistos inter-namente como una cadena de servicios digitales (IT Service Chains). Por un lado, la problemática de las cadenas de servicios de TI es distinta de los desafíos de las cadenas de suministros (Supply Chain), dada la difer-encia entre servicio y producto. Las cadenas de servicios empiezan a ser un elemento de estudio novedoso que están cobrando recientemente gran interés entre la comunidad investigadora, debido a la creciente transfor-mación digital de las empresas y su movimiento paulatino a la nube. Por otro lado, se ha probado conéxito en la industria que la adopción de las buenas prácticas de ITSM mejoran la prestación de los servicios digitales. Este artículo describe un modelo formal sobre las cadenas de servicios digitales tomando como base un servicio público digital de la Administración de la Junta de Andalucia y se analizan las ventajas de este modelo. Con esta publicación se abre la puerta a nuevas líneas de investigación que afrontan muchos desafíos y mejoran la prestación de los servicios digitales.
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This research aims to clarify the role of strategic flexibility in its dimensions (competitive flexibility, productivity flexibility, human skills flexibility and market flexibility) in the quality of information technology infrastructure services in the General Company for Copper Industries and Mechanics using the analytical method. The study was conducted in the General Company for Copper and Mechanical Industries affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, where the size of the intended sample amounted to 217 managers. The number of distributed questionnaire forms 180 as the number of forms valid for analysis was 157. Using the SPSS analysis program the study led to the most important conclusions: The company seeks to anticipate competitors in the face of sudden changes in the environment in which it operates, in addition to working on diversity in the markets by providing new and advanced products compatible with the needs and desires of customers.
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J.N.Warfield identified and classified the mindbugs (cognitive barriers), and put forward the process-based work program of complexity, and argued that the complexity could be managed through design. The eleven kinds of common mindbugs are figured out among the twenty five kinds of mindbugs with questionnaire. The relationship between the six root risk factors of implementation of the information technology service management (ITSM) project and these common mindbugs are also identified. It is found that the influence of mindbugs of habit is most serious in the ITSM project because the implementation of ITSM project would change the original work habits and methods of people. Finally, some recommendations are put forward to mitigate the root risk factors.
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Though analyzing the IT service management framework and associated processes of KM company, this paper determines various indicators of IT service management process. The weights of each indicator are calculated with analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and the evaluation was executed in KM company. And the suggestions are proposed with consideration of both the evaluation results and the real situation of KM company’s IT service management. The case is deeply considered in the views of IT service management objectives and misunderstandings, customer satisfaction model of IT service management, knowledge supporting structure of IT service management. It is concluded that if the organization wishes to successfully implement IT service management’s customer satisfaction model, it should eliminate the misunderstandings of IT service objectives first, while the adoption of knowledge supporting structure of IT service management can play a multiplier effect.
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Chapter
Acting upon the recommendations of a review of information and communications technology (ICT) governance and services at USQ, a major restructure was effected merging ICT units previously scattered across the university. The new Division of ICT Services embodies both CobiT and ITIL principles. To ensure the radical change was managed professionally, a change manager was seconded to the project. The value and importance of this role was underestimated and in retrospect it was removed too early. With the new structure now in place, a single service desk has been implemented and service level agreements have been formulated. This chapter describes the new reporting structure of the Division of ICT Services, the internal structure, the goals of the Division and how they align with the USQ corporate goals. Care was taken to ensure that the new ICT structure was logical and conducive to operational effectiveness, efficiency and sound ICT governance. The new structure provides pathways and opportunities for career progression, reflects a client focus and provides role delineation and functional accountability.
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Firstly,this paper identifies the risk factors which result in the failure of implementing IT service management project, then they are sorted in accordance with the importance degree of risk, and discover the most critical 20 risk factors. Finally, Interpretive structural model (ISM) is applied to determine the causal relationship of 20 risk factors, and ISM model of risk factors of IT service management project implementation is constructed, and 6 root risk factors are identified.
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