What Should A Closer At A Service Desk Do?

If you continue hearing near the concept of "shift-left" within Information technology service management (ITSM), and for the IT service desk in particular, then this weblog is for you lot. Information technology breaks down what it is and how all-time to successfully shift your Information technology service desk to the left.

Shift-left for the It service desk-bound is the movement of IT support closer to the operational frontline and the end user/customer. It'due south an ITSM strategy that requires changes to people, procedure, and technology – with knowledge management, self-service, and automation playing significant roles.

Shift-left doesn't just apply to the It service desk, but it'southward one of the best ITSM employ-case scenarios for explaining what it is and how it works. For instance:

Some Level 2 work can be shifted-left to Level 1 support, or
Some Level i piece of work tin can be shifted-left to Level 0 (an Information technology cocky-service adequacy), equally could some Level 2 piece of work.

Still unsure on what the Shift-Left concept is within #ITSM? Then this blog by @Joe_the_IT_guy is for y'all. Click To Tweet

Shift-Left Is an IT Service Desk Strategy, Non a Tactic

Shift-left should exist a conscious effort to improve It service delivery and back up rather than something designed to salve coin on a piecemeal basis. It'south a strategy that's focused on a number of benefits, including:

Speedier incident and service request resolution
Cost reductions
The ameliorate use of deficient technical knowhow and capabilities
Delivering a ameliorate end-user/client experience

To reach these, however, organizations need to capeesh that driving shift-left change purely to save coin will well-nigh likely do more damage than proficient. For example, an Information technology self-service adequacy that'due south designed and delivered purely to save money will most likely not be used sufficiently to make a real difference to IT support operations or to deliver the expected financial benefits.

Understanding the Unit Cost of It Support

As already mentioned, shift-left can make a significant difference to ITSM and It support operations. In particular, in the unit cost – i.eastward. the toll per ticket – of dealing with end-user/customer bug.

2017 industry-average cost data from MetricNet shows that the cost of Level 0 support is less than 10% of Level 1 costs:

Self-aid (Level 0) – US$ ii
Service desk (Level one) – US$ 22
Desktop back up – U.s.a.$ 69
Information technology support (Level ii) – US$ 104
Vendor support (Level 3) – US$ 599

With Level ane back up one-fifth of the cost of Level two.

Shift-Left (source: MetricNet) Source: MetricNet

Therefore, the more tickets that can be shifted to the left, the cheaper they are to resolve (or provision against). For case, a US$ 22 Level 1 "human" countersign reset versus a US$ two Level 0 automatic password reset.

The Key Elements for Shift-Left Success

Shift-left success is reliant on 4 key capabilities:

Organizational change direction (OCM) . With a need to recognize that shift-left is a change to traditional ways of working and, as such, needs to exist carefully managed from a people perspective.
Information technology self-service. A fit-for-purpose cocky-service capability is the key customer-engagement machinery for delivering shift-left benefits. It will struggle to deliver these without fit-for-purpose cognition direction and automation capabilities though (keep reading below).
Knowledge management. The availability of fit-for-purpose knowledge manufactures and FAQs is a primal factor for winning with IT cocky-service and thus Level 0 support.
Automation. This is key in delivering the benefits related to both increased speed of resolution/provisioning and cost reduction. Plus, a better client experience.

So, a shift-left strategy is bang-up, everyone wins. Or everyone should win – considering there are, notwithstanding, a number of barriers to cross, in addition to sufficiently investing in OCM, for real shift-left success.

Common Shift-Left Enablement Barriers

The biggest barrier to getting cocky-service – and thus shift-left – right is viewing IT self-service as a applied science project rather than an organization change. Self-service is ultimately about driving a new way of working, and thus it over again requires sufficient investment in OCM. You can read more than nearly self-service success barriers here.

Knowledge direction initiatives also commonly suffer from the above bulwark – viewing information technology equally a engineering science project rather than an organization change. Additional barriers to noesis management success include:

Not integrating knowledge sharing with business-as-usual (BAU) activities.
Failing to change performance measures to reflect the new way of working.
Non recognizing that the value of noesis sharing comes from knowledge use, not noesis capture and storage.

You lot can read more on getting noesis management right here.

5 Shift-Left Success Drivers

Shift-left success starts with avoiding, or crossing, the barriers already outlined above. In doing this, there are 5 key drivers for shift-left success:

1. Investing in fit-for-purpose organizational change management, not only to engender the required people change just likewise to review how private and team performance is assessed, recognized, and rewarded.

This will aid to ensure that people buy-in to the modify every bit well equally removing one of the biggest OCM-related issues – the fearfulness of the unknown. Without this, your organization volition struggle to prefer new ways of working related to knowledge direction, self-service, and automation exploitation.

2. Making knowledge direction a BAU activity that's embedded within day-to-solar day operations.

Cognition sharing needs to be part of the day job, and non an addition. Failing to do this volition brand knowledge sharing "something to do later" (and thus probably something that'due south not washed) – whether this is capturing cognition or seeking knowledge as early as possible (when help is needed). So, add together knowledge management activities – where they tin can add value – inside existing, or improved, processes.

iii. Aiming for noesis exploitation over cognition capture and storage – wherever possible leveraging proven cognition management methodologies and techniques such as Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) and Level Zippo Solvable (LZS).

This will forbid "wheel reinvention" and also ensure that your arrangement is benefitting from the successes and mistakes of those that take succeeded with knowledge management (and cocky-service) before them.

4. Focusing on employee wants and needs, not the available technology features.

This applies to knowledge management, self-service, and automation. Information technology'due south not rocket science, it's people science. People are more than likely to use capabilities that brand their life easier or that deliver a better experience or greater value. Thus, if the wants and needs of cease users/customers are overlooked (in favor of delivering a engineering-led solution), there'south a higher probability that new means of working will not take agree.

5. Matching consumer-earth capabilities in terms of ease-of-use and what tin can be achieved.

Every bit with the previous bullet, cease users/customers will take expectations of how they should be working and of the capabilities made bachelor to them. If these seem harder to use, old-fashioned, less reliable, or "less helpful" in other ways, then they are less likely to be used. Plus, at that place's a need to embrace new technologies – as their usefulness is proven – to deliver further customer experience improvements and cost savings. This again applies to knowledge management, self-service, and automation.

Has your organization successfully shifted-left? What learnings would you lot offer to others planning to do the same? Please allow me know in the comments.