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Service Desk Management - Staff

The issues involved in, and criteria for, establishing the appropriate staffing model and levels are discussed in this section. They include the Service Desk Manager, Supervisor, Analysts and, in some organizations, these roles are complemented by business users ('Super Users') who provide first-line support.

The following factors should be considered when deciding staffing levels:

  • Customer service expectations
  • Business requirements, such as budget, call response times, etc.
  • Size, relative age, design and complexity of the IT Infrastructure and Service Catalogue - for example, the number and type of incidents, the extent of customized versus standard off-the-shelf software deployed, etc.
  • The number of customers and users to support, and associated factors such as:
    • Number of customers and users speaking a different language
    • Skill level
  • Incident and Service Request types (and types of RFC if appropriate):
    • Duration of time required for call types (e.g. simple queries, specialist application queries, hardware, etc.)
    • Local or external expertise required
    • The volume and types of incidents and Service Requests
  • The period of support cover required, based on:
    • Hours covered
    • Out-of-hours support requirements
    • Time zones to be covered
    • Locations to be supported (particularly if Service Desk staff also conduct desk-side support)
    • Travel time between locations
    • Workload pattern of requests (e.g. daily, month end, etc.)
    • The service level targets in place (response levels etc.)
  • The type of response required:
    • Telephone
    • E-mail/fax/voice mail/video
    • Physical attendance
    • Online access/control
  • The level of training required
  • The support technologies available (e.g. phone systems, remote support tools, etc.)
  • The existing skill levels of staff
  • The processes and procedures in use.

All these items should be carefully considered before making any decision on staffing levels. This should also be reflected in the levels of documentation required. Remember that the better the service, the more the business will use it. A number of tools are available to help determine the appropriate number of staff for the Service Desk. These workload modelling tools are dependent on detailed 'local knowledge' of the organization such as call volumes and patterns, service and user profiles, etc.

Other ITIL Processes

In order to have a good understanding of ITIL and the importance of configuration management, we first define what ITIL is: ITIL is literally a collection of documentation.

This documentation can help IT organizations implement the best practices. The documentation grows and grows as more successful techniques are documented and guidelines established for what can make others successful. The latest ITIL resources are published by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

Integrated service delivery refers to the need for Configuration Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management and Release Management processes that are linked together in a meaningful manner. For example, the process of releasing components to the live environment (the domain of Release Management) is also an issue for Configuration Management and Change Management whilst the Service Desk is primarily responsible for liaison between IT providers and the Users of services. This section highlights the links and the principal relationships between all the Service Management and other infrastructure management processes.

ITIL processes fall under Operational Layer or Tactical Layer, as follows:

Operational Layer: Configuration Management - Service Desk Management - Incident & Problem Management - Change Management - Release Management
Tactical Layer: Service Level Management - Availability Management - Capacity Management - Continuity Management - Financial Management