Service Desk Objectives in ITIL Foundation

Mission of Service Desk is to be a central point of contact between the User and IT Service Provider. Service Desk shouldn′t be considered as an ITIL process. In ITIL Foundation Service Desk is considered as function not a process. This may be confusing for candidates trying to get ITIL Certification, however the difference between Service Desk and ITIL processes is easier to understand when we look at the main objectives of the Service Desk.

The main objectives of Service Desk are :

to act as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all IT Customers
to maximize service availability
to restore service whenever possible
to provide business systems support

To meet both Customer and business objectives many organizations have implemented a central point of contact for handling Customer and User related issues. This function is know under several titles e.g:

Call Centre - the main purpose is to handle large volumes of telephone based transactions like telesales or order processing
Help Desk - the main purpose is to manage and resolve incidents quickly and effectively, and to make sure that all requests are followed up
Service Desk - extends the range of services offered by the Help Desk and allows business processes to be integrated into the Service Management infrastructure.

source: ITIL Resources
published: 2008-07-01 11:21:34

HP OpenView Service Desk - software implementation of Service Desk

HP OpenView Service Desk

This article might sound as an advertisement but it′s not. We would like to present you an example of a solution that leverages many ITIL processes in its functionality. This application is the HP OpenView Service Desk which is a part of HP OpenView application suite and can be implemented within organization as a separate, stand-alone applicaiton.

The core objectives that where taken into account during creating HP OpenView Service Desk were as follows:

to have a solution based on best practices
should be easily adapted to changes within an organization and the processes in organization
all service levels have to be managedable in one place
the interface should be open and easily adopable to various requirements

HP OpenView Service Desk provides unique solution to manage different aspects of service. Integrated functionality of Service Desk is able to deal with all problems and challenges that occure in IT environment. It also helps to keep Service Level Agreements (SLA) on an appropriate level by showing which element is dependend on another, which users can be affected by particular services and/or applications, who is responsible for managing and supporting service at a time. With new integration levels deliverd in HP OpenView Internet Services Manager and HP OpenView Service Navigator, HP OpenView Service Desk helps the organization manage services better and more efficient.

Short Characteristic of the HP OpenView Service Desk

Shows relationships between clients, business, it services and levels of services
Creates hierarchical structure for services with multi-layered functions SLA
Presents information throughout intuitive user interface. The interface is pretty much simillar to that from Microsoft Outlook screen.
Has ability to adjust forms, views and fields during the work without any need to restart the application server
The solution has many reporting capabilities, views into database just after running the application. This functionality simplifies integration with external reporting tools like e.g. Business Objects

Modules

It is possible to select how the HP OpenView Service Desk will be implemented. You can start from one module or select the whole solution. The modules are:

HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5 Helpdesk Management module
HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5 Change Management module
HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5 Service Level Management module
HP ITSM Best Practices for HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5

source: ITIL Resources
published: 2008-11-19 02:06:10

ServiceDesk Plus - HelpDesk Software with Asset Management

In this article we will not describe all the features and functionality of a ServiceDesk Plus because this is not or purpose to do it. We decided to write few words about this software as it doesn′t require fat client as HP OpenView Service Desk does. Today more and more services are available through an ordinary web browser and ServiceDesk Plus is a great example of a Help Desk software working via web-browsers. Web interface is much more useful for end clients and supporting groups. In the one hand end users don′t have to install huge applications (clients) in order to send a ticket (it is worth to add that fat clients are very often dependent on 3rd applications / libraries like e.g. Java or visual basic libraries). It is worth to underline that simplicity in ITIL is a key. If the user is not allowed to send ticket because he or she doesn′t have Java runtime installed he might get very frustrated or even aggresive. That′s why accessability via web-browser should be taken into consideration when deciding which HelpDesk software is to be deployed.

In the other hand supporting groups can be sized to minimum because web server can be located in one place / one data center and supported globally by one group. Having thousands of users getting to the system via web-browser the most important is to keep application server running, plus assure connectivity on the appropriate level.

Asset Management

Another advantage of ServiceDesk Plus is Asset Management and Products′ Catalogue / Directory. Today each organization has many different devices, PCs and very often all these devices come from different vendors. It might be very challenging task to properly list all of them in a report. ServiceDesk Plus supports creation of a detailed products catalogue containing all possible devices in a company. Created directory can be sorted by all types of devices available in the directory, also one can add / remove / update products at any time.

Other benefits of ServiceDesk Plus are very simillar to the HelpDesk software and include e.g.: