F & P in Service Operation - Activities, methods and techniques

Job scheduling

• IT operations executes standard routines, queries or reports that technical and application management teams have handed over as part of the service or of routine daily maintenance task

Backup and Restore

• An organization must protect its data, which includes backup and storage of data in reserved locations where it is protected and if necessary, accessible
• A restore can be initiated from several source, varying from an event indicating data corruption to a service request from a user or customer
• A restore may be necessary in case of:
• Corrupt data
• Lost data
• A calamity plan/ IT service continuity situation
• Historical data required for forensic investigation

Print and output

• Many service provide their information in print or electronic form (output). The service provider must ensure that the information ends up in the right places, correctly and in the right form
• Laws and regulations may play an important part in print and output. Archiving important or sensitive data is particularly

Service desk
Service desk is functional unit with associates involved in differing service events. These service events come in by phone, internet or infrastructure, events which are reported automatically

Service desk Objective

• The primary purpose of the service desk is to resume “ normal service” to the user as soon as possible
• This may be resolving a technical error, but also filling a service request or answering a question

Benefits of service desk

• Improve customer service, better perception of the service on the part of the client and greater client satisfaction
• Greater access through one single contact, communication and information point
• Client and user request are resolved better and quickly
• Improved cooperation and communication
• Less negative impact on business
• Better managed and controlled infrastructure
• Better use of resource through IT support and increased productivity of company associates
• More meaningful management information for decision concerning support

Organization structure
There are many ways to organize a service desk. The most important options are:

• Local service desk
• Centralized service desk
• Virtual service desk
• 24-hour service
• Specialized service desk group

Local service desk

• Local service desk is located at or physically close to the users it is supporting
• Communication are often much smoother and the visible presence is attractive for some user
• Local service desk is expensive and may be inefficient if the amount of service events does not really justify a service desk

Centralized service desk

• The number of service desks can be reduced by installing them at one single location
• Less expensive and more efficient, because fewer associates can deal with the service events (call), while the level of knowledge of the service desk is bound to increase

Virtual service desk

• By using technology ,specifically the internet, and the use of support tools, it is possible to create the impression of a centralized service desk
• Whereas the associates are in fact spread out over a number of geographic or structural location

24/7 services

• Some international organization like to combine two or more geographically spread out service desks in order to offer a 24/7 service

Specialized Service desk group

• Incident relating to a specific IT service are routed straight to the specialized group
• In this way ,incident can be resolved more promptly

Service personnel

• Care should be taken that a sufficient number of associates are available, so that the service desk can meet the business demand at any time
• Determine the required skill level ,weigh the arranged resolution times against the complexity of the supported system
• It is essential that all service desk associates receive sufficient training
• The managers have to engage in efforts to retain the associates
• Appoint a number of so-called super users in the user community, they function as contact persons with the IT organization in general and the service desk particular

Outsourcing the service desk

• Ideally, the service desk being outsourced must use the same tools and processes to enable a smooth process stream between the service desk and the second and third level support group
• The SLA targets for incident handling and handling times must be arranged with the clients and between all teams and department; OLA and underlying contract objectives must be coordinated and in tune with separate groups, so that they support the SLA targets

Source: OGC