service desk functions

 For IT organizations of all sizes, the service desk represents one of the most important core activities, requiring daily management. If you are looking to implement a helpdesk for the first time, the process can seem intimidating, especially if the goal is to follow ITIL® best practice recommendations from the beginning.

Service desks play a key role in ensuring the availability of all the services that the IT organization provides and supports. While a well-implemented service desk can drive efficiency across the organization, a poorly executed one can really hurt the business. Organizations striving to improve and mature service management often begin by establishing customer service that embraces ITIL standards.

ITIL not only offers the best practices for incident management and request fulfillment, two of the main functions of the service desk, but also describes how organizations should assign and share the responsibilities of operating the service desk to ensure optimal efficiency, responsibility and exceptional service

In this blog we will take a more in-depth look at the roles and responsibilities associated with managing and operating an IT service within your organization.

Service Desk within the framework of ITIL

New insiders in the IT world often ask about the differences between ITIL and the service desk, but did you know that the service desk is actually part of ITIL 2011 and will probably remain an integral part of ITIL in version v4? scheduled for 2019? The ITIL framework offers IT organizations a comprehensive path to implement customer service and implement and enforce ITIL help desk responsibilities within the organization.

ITIL 2011 identifies 26 processes and four functions that conform to the five stages of the service life cycle: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continuous service improvement.

In the next section, we review the three main functions of the ITIL service desk and the associated responsibilitie

3 basic functions of the ITIL service desk

The service desk acts as a single point of contact between the IT organization and the business for all incident reports, service requests, change notifications, and any other necessary communication. The ITIL service desk responsibilities revolve around the service desk's role in incident management and request fulfillment along with communications.

Service Desk owns the incident management process

In ITIL 2011, the service desk owns the Incident Management process and is responsible for resolving incidents based on service level agreements with the goal of restoring services as quickly as possible and getting the customer back. to work. The responsibilities of the ITIL service desk that are associated with incident management include:

Incident Management Support - Service desk administrators must ensure that the proper tools, processes and skills are maintained across the service desk team to ensure timely and effective handling of incidents. Without proper support, the efficiency and performance of this ITIL service desk process is significantly reduced.

Incident Recording and Categorization : Service desk analysts are expected to maintain an accurate and up-to-date record of each reported incident, including the category / type of incident. Incidents should be organized and prioritized based on the level of disruption they cause. A service desk must properly allocate its resources for handling the most critical incidents.

Incident Resolution - Service Desk Analysts generally play the first-level support role within the IT organization - they are the ones who answer the phone or respond to your message when you first contact IT, and your goal is always to resolve the incident on the first call and restore service as quickly as possible. In cases where it is impossible for a first-level support provider to resolve the issue immediately, the incident can be transferred to a second-level support analyst or a service desk supervisor.

Incident Resolution - Level 2 : Service Desk Supervisors have responsibilities beyond resolving escalated incidents, such as taking action themselves. External support is sometimes referred to as 3rd level support - a service desk supervisor must be able to understand the problem and find the right expert who can provide a timely resolution.

Handling major incidents - Some incidents are classified as major incidents, which means they cause massive business disruption and must be addressed immediately. When this happens, the service desk must react by quickly escalating the issue, recruiting third-level support if necessary, and issuing timely communications and status updates to users. Again, the main goal of the service desk in a major incident is to establish a solution and restore service as quickly as possible.

Incident Management Reports - If the organization has a problem management process in place, most of the information it receives about problems will be sent to the service desk. When an incident is reported, service desk personnel work on the problem and manage escalations until an alternative solution is found. In cases where a workaround is found, but the error is not fully understood, the service desk team reports the incident to Problem Management, where the PM team will perform a root cause analysis and find a definitive solution for the incident.

IT organizations that want to efficiently comply with these processes and additional ITIL requirements often implement service desk software such  as Cherwell® Service Management. Our ITSM suite of tools meets the requirements of 11 ITIL processes, including incident management and request fulfillment. It also helps automate some of the more tedious tasks associated with ITIL compliance, such as automatically generating incident and request logs.

IT service requests are handled through the service desk

Although the service desk handles both Incident Management and Request Fulfillment, it would be a mistake to think that these primary IT service desk responsibilities are equally important to the service desk analysts. In most cases, service requests are relatively minor and do not reflect a high priority issue. Users may call and request that their password be reset, or for software to be installed on their machine, or they may simply be requesting information.

However, the service desk ensures that employees have one place to turn for the most basic IT service problems that they cannot solve on their own. ITIL Service Desk responsibilities for request fulfillment include:

Request fulfillment support - Similar to the incident management support process, the service desk administrator must ensure that tools, processes, staff and training are properly maintained to perform a request fulfillment process effective and efficient. This includes training helpdesk service analysts on how to serve customers, as well as creating a service catalog and including automated self-service options that proactively reduce the number of service requests and help maintain customer service. agreed service levels.

Request logging and categorization : Service requests, such as incidents, are logged and classified according to their type and priority. Importantly, service desk analysts must include a verification step to validate that the person submitting the service request is authorized to do so.

Execution of the request model : it means fulfilling the requests of the clients in a suitable time frame. IT departments must manage expectations by agreeing with the company on the level of service to be provided and ensuring that requests are fulfilled within the agreed schedule service desk functions  .

Request Closure and Evaluation : The service desk has the same reporting responsibilities for the request fulfillment process as it does for the incident management process. If problems or errors are discovered that require further attention, they should be moved to Problem Management for a root cause analysis. Otherwise, the service desk must generate an Application Record with all the most important information about the application so that it can be documented for further analysis and investigation.

Request fulfillment and incident management can be equally important processes within the IT organization. When customers are unable to access your machine because they forget their password, it is important that a member of the service desk staff is available to offer a quick password reset that can quickly reconnect. At the same time, this is exactly the type of service that can be automated through a service catalog that offers self-service. Service desk staff must continually develop a knowledge base and self-service portal that enables customers to handle IT issues on their own when convenient and reduces the burden on the service desk.