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In this edition: More than just support: From expense to strategic partner / Client in focus: At the service desk of Ordina Belgium / All about TOPdesk 4.3 / Professionalizing your emails /
Editorial
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Empathy
Last summer I went on holiday to France and, while I was relaxing in front of my tent, I saw two boys walking by holding ice creams - brothers of about four and eight years old. They noticed me watching them, at which point the little one stuck out his tongue and said Weve got an ice cream and you havent. With that, the older boy slapped his little brother on the back of the head and said You cant say that! Startled, the little boy looked up at his brother and started to cry. He didnt understand why he had been slapped. The reason why he was so surprised, I later realized, was that he didnt understand what hed done wrong. Children develop empathy during their early childhood; they learn how to sympathize with others and show consideration for them. They will start doing certain things or not for others, because they realize that it makes the other person happy. Developing empathy, however, is still no guarantee for good behaviour. This applies to both children and adults, as we all saw the adult smash-and-grab culture when the big banks collapsed. These days, a sense of ethical standards and social involvement seems very much alive, especially when we look at the huge interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The message is straightforward: show consideration for the world around you. In this edition of TOPdesk Magazine, you can read more about what CSR can do for your organization and how others put it into practice in their daily activities. But thats not all. In this magazine, consultant Jordi Recasens will explain how supporting departments can contribute directly to profits, you will be taken behind the scenes at Ordina Belgiums service desk and you can learn all about our latest software version: TOPdesk 4.3. Enjoy reading! Niek Steenhuis
The TOPdesk Magazine covers subjects that are topical in the world of professional service desks in IT, facilities and other service providing organizations. TOPdesk Magazine is intended for managers, service desk employees, facilities organizations and electronic city councils anyone who is involved with supporting clients on a daily basis. This concerns both the processes and the technology behind these services.
EDITORIAL
TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk publication Tel: +31 15 270 09 00 Email: editorial@topdesk.com Chief Editor Niek Steenhuis Editors Nienke Deuss, Timme Hos Translators Nicola van de Velde, Clare Donald, Hazel Hollis Contributors Kirsten Crown, Patrick Mackaaij, Annemarie Moeijes, Jordi Recasens Layout Cathy van den Berg, Elise Kerner, Joost Knuit, Dutch Designers Collective Photography Ordina, Ted Erkkila, stock.xchng Website David Blom, Ted Erkkila
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Contents November 10
4 News 6 11 12 17 21 24 28 Trends: From rail card to organic coffee: CSR in practice Column: Were working on it More than just support From expense to strategic partner TOPdesk in the spotlight: All about TOPdesk 4.3 Client in focus: At the service desk of Ordina Belgium Work smarter: Professionalizing your emails Tips + Tricks
News
TOPdesk attends UK Service Management Conference
On 8 & 9 November, TOPdesk attended the itSMF UK Conference in London. This show focuses on the latest Service Management technologies and provides visitors with networking opportunities, informative sessions and exciting keynotes. Members of the TOPdesk team took the opportunity to talk to visitors about the concept of a Shared Service Centre and to showcase the new 4.3 Change Management module, which was very well received. If you missed seeing TOPdesk at this years shows, make sure you attend next years to find out the latest in the world of service management.
4 NEWS
TOPdesk Calendar
United Kingdom
December
Demo Days, London 16 & 17 December TOPdesk Office, London Bridge
The Netherlands
December
Focus on Demand 8th ASL BiSL Jaarcongres 09 December - Spant! Bussum
Germany
January Bonding 18 & 19 January - Technische Universitt, Kaiserslautern
January
BETT show 12-15 January Olympia, London
January
Facilities Business Fair 19, 20 & 21 January Brabanthallen, Den Bosch
February
DiKOM Nord 16 & 17 February - Congress Centrum, Hannover
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NEWS 5
Trends
Mention Corporate Social Responsibility and the first thing anyone thinks about is the environment: saving energy, fuel efficiency and walking or taking public transport to work. Yet CSR is much broader, as two experts in the areas of IT and Facilities explain.
An increasing number of organizations are hearing that, when compiling a tender, they need to meet a number of requirements with regard to Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. Yet it isnt always clear what exactly is being asked of you or how you can best respond. The CEO at our company cycles to and from work each day is that CSR? And organic food is served in the canteen. We also re-use the
heat from our server room to heat other rooms. Is that considered CSR?
own personal stamp. Yet this lack of clarity is not surprising. The CSR concept is so broad that you can interpret it in all sorts of ways. The guidelines drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) mention no less than nine themes on which companies can focus. These range from human rights and the environment, to technology and consumer interests. In summary
6 TRENDS
CSR involves: conducting business with thought for Profit (economy), Planet (environment) and People (individuals within and outside of the organization).
from other organizations. This is possible with CSR, and this has since caught on at many companies. In addition, the growing awareness of social involvement is most likely a response to individualization and the shortterm thinking of society. This is generally seen as the cause of the crisis of two years ago, and individuals were in need of a different outlook on life one that was more geared to sustainability in the long term, tells Mechtild. The crisis has got people thinking. Organizations were forced to review their operational management and to go looking for new, sustainable solutions.
Maybrit also thinks that a practical approach is the only one that works. It is important not to view CSR as too black and white. There is no use in suddenly forcing all employees to begin driving in an energy-efficient company car. Instead, it is better that you make available company cars and public transport passes. Employees can then make their own choices, but you do encourage them to leave the car behind at home every so often.
Practical approach
Certainly remarkable is the fact that most company initiatives are modest by nature. For example, establishing a bike plan for employees, using organic coffee in the coffee machine or asking the boss to sponsor a project youre doing for charity.
This small-scale approach is good, finds the OECD. In the OECD code of conduct, companies are advised not to bite off more than they can chew and are better off beginning with one or two guidelines than trying to change the policy on all points.
But how do you get employees to start thinking about CSR? Mechtild does this by organizing a roadshow at her company. I visit various departments in order to create internal realization of CSR because I want to ensure that there is more discussion on the
8 TRENDS
subject. I give them the required information and encourage them to think critically. I dont want them to just make do with what theyve got, but instead look at what can be done better in their daily work.
youre blowing your own trumpet, which actually has the opposite effect. Moreover, it is no longer so easy to score points with CSR, Maybrit remarks. Were now at the point where CSR is becoming a requisite. You dont necessarily score points if you have a certain attribute, but you are looked upon negatively if your dont do something.
Sharing knowledge
There is still a lot to learn about Corporate Social Responsibility, which is why conferences and knowledge days are organized where companies can share their
experiences and exchange ideas. Sharing knowledge is essential, as Mechtild explains. We often give presentations at schools and universities. As a knowledge organization, you shouldnt be afraid to make your knowledge of CSR public because you always get something back in return, such as good ideas or enthusiastic new colleagues. Knowledge sharing between organizations is also encouraged, but you should be more careful with what you reveal as an organization. The difficult thing with the communication surrounding CSR is that you are split, tells Mechtild. On the one hand, its good marketing if you do business sustainably, then its good for your image to reveal that. But, if you do that too often, it might come across as though
TRENDS 9
agreement is to reduce energy use each year by two percent, explains Mechtild. That will be easy in the first year, but each year, it will become an increasingly greater challenge. Participating is a good way to share knowledge about CSR; we can also learn about initiatives from other companies As an IT service provider, you also help other companies to operate more sustainably, tells Mechtild. Software is of course pre-eminently a means of saving energy. We develop and implement software that helps companies to plan their transport activities more efficiently, resulting in fewer vehicle mileage and empty rides. Wholesalers can also send their invoices electronically using e-invoicing and therefore use considerably less paper. And with network standards like Wake-on Lan, retailers can switch off their cash register hardware which has already become more energy efficient in the past two years or turn off sleeping mode.
to best prepare ourselves for the event and raise as much money as possible. We went to management and told them of our plan, and they ended up sponsoring us.
You dont have to have an established policy in order for CSR to work, remarks Jordi, because everything is open for discussion within TOPdesk, there is room for such initiatives. Every proposal is taken seriously. And if you then put a lot of energy into a project like this, its a good feeling to know that the organization is behind you.
10 TRENDS
Column
TEXT: ANNEMARIE MOEIJES Annemarie Moeijes is a consultant at TOPdesk and has years of experience with implementations and changes within various organizations.
Were working on it
we must give a response. This gives us a few hours to a week to come up with a solution, depending on the request. Are there often times when you dont meet that deadline? I asked. Quite often, actually, they answered reluctantly, because the problems are sometimes really complicated. What do you do in these situations? We send an email which states that we are working on it. Our terms and conditions also include that we must keep our customers informed on the progress of their request at set intervals. Nowadays, its all done by automatic emails; however, our help desk is finding it increasingly difficult. More often, we are getting angry customers on the line, who want to know what the situation is, concerning their request, which, in turn, is something we dont understand, because we tell them that we are working on it, dont we? Without realizing it, these suppliers had not met their own requirements. The fact is that the customer has a right to know how their order or request is progressing, not that youre working on it. Sometimes, it might seem scary to give your customers a look into whats actually going on behind the scenes. They could then see how a certain request is being bounced between various departments like a ping-pong ball. Or that there is a bug in the system. Or that a help desk worker has simply not understood the request properly. But if you let them see whats really happening, customers will at least know where they are at. They can then give feedback, or take action if they see that the offered solution will not be the right one. What if the large online bookstore had not only told me that they were working on my request, but also that they had contacted the seller of the book, and that he had lost it? Then I would have according to their terms asked for my money back a lot earlier. I wouldnt have had to sit on the sofa for weeks, waiting for the book to finally land on my doormat, and Id have happily gone to that second-hand bookstore in town to have a look for it myself.
I was once on an industrious hunt for a second-hand book, which was no longer in print. The search lasted months, until I finally saw the book on sale - a seller was offering it through a large online bookstore. I jumped for joy and ordered the book; undoubtedly an old, crumpled and well-thumbed copy, but I took that as a sign that it was much-loved. I could see online that the book had been sent. Day after day, I waited on the sofa with baited breath, eager with anticipation, until I would hear the thud of a book falling through the letterbox. But the thud didnt come, not in the first week, nor the second. It was time to send the shop an email. It says on your site that my book has been sent, but I havent received anything. I got an email back: We have received your complaint, and were working on it. A week later I received a second email. We are still working on it. Three weeks later: We are still working on it. And one month later: Sorry. The book has been misplaced. Heres your money back. Service like this leaves customers with a bitter taste in their mouth. In the role of consultant, I have often visited suppliers of products or services where this kind of situation despite their best intentions is waiting to happen. This reminds me of the time when a number of people enthusiastically scribbled timelines on a whiteboard. According to our terms and conditions, we have a response time of five minutes for every incoming request, they announced. Within those five minutes,
COLUMN 11
Supporting departments are traditionally seen as an expense and are thus an easy target when cutbacks need to be made. Yet some departments have been successful in making themselves indispensible and end up contributing directly to the operating profits. But how? Below, you will find nine tips to help your department advance from just an expense to a strategic partner.
An IT employee of the National Rail is sitting in the train, when he notices the train slowly come to a halt. He looks up from his paper. The train has stopped in the middle of a field, miles from any station. Around him, people begin mumbling about the National Rail, about delays and about how this is the umpteenth time... They hear an announcement that the train has stopped at a red signal and that they will continue as soon as they have a green light. An old man next to him heaves a deep sigh and shakes his head.
ideas not only for their own department, but also for the organization and its clients.
How can we please these people? the IT employee wonders. Problems and delays can never be entirely avoided, but you can certainly help relieve passengers frustration by offering them coffee or a newspaper or free wireless internet. Then everyone could surf the internet or work during delays and they will be less inconvenienced as a result.
DEPARTMENT FOCUS
With a department focus, you only see those people who are near you.
With a client focus you look towards others on the playing field.
With a clients client focus you can also see the departments shared objective.
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By drawing a parallel with a football team, and comparing the employee to a goalkeeper, one can see that with a department focus, you only see those people who sit near you, i.e. your own team members. With a client focus, however, you look towards others on the playing field and you have a better overview of the rest of the organization. Yet with a clients client focus, you can also envisage your departments shared objective and the rest of the organization, symbolized by your opponents objective: the client that serves your organization.
Jordi Recasens is a consultant and team leader at TOPdesk and, focuses on the role of supporting departments within organizations, among other things.
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BUT HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT THIS? HOW DO YOU CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THE EMPLOYEES OF A SUPPORTING DEPARTMENT CAN BEGIN DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTING
TO THE COMPANY RESULTS? WE VISIT HUNDREDS OF ORGANIZATIONS ON A REGULAR BASIS, AND HAVE GATHERED TOGETHER THE BEST PRACTICES OF COMPANIES THAT HAVE ENJOYED SUCCESS WITH THIS. READ OUR NINE SUGGESTIONS FOR MOVING FROM EXPENSE TO STRATEGIC PARTNER.
An increasing number of supporting departments are making agreements with their clients. This in itself is a good development; however, such agreements are often very one-sided and detailed. Although they may cover what is expected of the supporting service, they often fail to state what may be expected of the client. In our experience, a better strategy is for both parties to agree on a combined objective, and their expectations of one another, without becoming bogged down in details. Also, put down in writing whom to consult when the caller and the service desk employee dont agree. Agreements like these are easy to record in TOPdesks Contract Management & SLM module.
In addition to a good training programme, it is important that employees refresh their knowledge of the organization on a regular basis. Colleagues come and go, and company objectives and processes change. By encouraging employees to spend a day or two looking over the shoulder of colleagues in other departments, they will have a better idea of what is going on and, in this way, remain involved with the organization. At one waste-disposal company, for instance, the IT employees have the opportunity to ride in the garbage trucks and, consequently, they develop more of an understanding of how the organization operates and what it is all about.
Conducting a client satisfaction survey periodically will enable you to find out what clients think of your department. Alternate multiple choice questions with open questions such as: How would you describe the communication with the Facilities department?. An ideal way to measure the satisfaction of your clients is using TOPdesks Survey module. Its essential, however, to show clients that youre doing something with their feedback. You could publish the results or use them in order to compile the collaboration document.
Encourage colleagues to spend a day or two with the supporting department. They can supply valuable information, which the supporting department can use towards improving its service. One medical centre encourages nurses to spend time working with the IT department. The nurses then know exactly what is going on within the medical centre and can make a much better assessment of how important a call from a doctor is as soon as it arrives. There is also the guarantee that the IT department will better respond to what is ultimately important for the client.
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OFFER THE DEPARTMENT AND ITS CLIENTS MORE INSIGHT INTO THE WORK BEING DONE
Not only employees, but also clients of supporting departments should be given more insight into the state of affairs. Simply giving clients the opportunity to see the progress of their calls can boost the cooperation between department and client, and the Self Service Desk is the ideal platform for this. In this way, clients can track the status of their calls themselves you can also make a services catalogue available for them. Your clients will always know what they can expect from the supporting department.
The welcome page of the Self Service Desk offers clients a clear overview of the available options.
However, you also have a number of other opportunities to log the time spent. While this can take place automatically for the logged in user, you can now also log the time for another operator. If required, you can even correct these registrations yourself at a later stage.
TOPdesk lite 4
TOPdesk lite is now entirely web-based and, due to the new look and feel, the user-friendliness of this TOPdesk version has improved considerably. A free field has been added and reporting options have been improved. What is more, you can now also set up the columns of the personal to-do lists yourself.
When an individual logs the time spent, you can look up exactly on which date and at which time it was logged in TOPdesk.
TOPdesk version 4.3 is equipped with an online Help & Support feature; here you will find Getting Starteds, manuals, FAQs and tips.
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Close to the motorway stands an office building with company Minis lined up in front of it. The illuminated lobby presents a welcoming feel and an austere design. The Ordina office breathes IT. Various types of workspaces offer flexibility and room for every occasion. There are hotspot desks for a short stay at the office, or to quickly check your emails, lounge areas for informal meetings or brainstorming sessions, focus booths for tasks that demand concentration and privacy, and meeting rooms of all shapes and sizes for teamwork. No one has a set workspace. This setup illustrates perfectly what is meant by Ordina gives you room: room for ideas, creativity and solutions.
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ORGANIZATION: Ordina Belgium NV WORKS WITH: TOPdesk Enterprise 4.2 FOR: Internal IT help desk and clients CALLERS: 2100
CLIENT IN FOCUS 21
22 PERCENT OF ALL CALLS ARE REGISTERED THROUGH THE SELF SERVICE DESK. THE NUMBER OF PHONE CALLS HAS DECLINED DRAMATICALLY
For every call, the operater can log how much time he or she has spent on it. This is automatically transferred through to our time registration system, explains Yves. The monthly SLA reports still require a quick check, while key performance indicators help the coordinators with the monitoring and follow up of the queues by their team members
Service Management and ITIL, choosing TOPdesk was logical. TOPdesk supports the best practices of ITIL, and because of this, we can set up our service management processes according to the recommendations of ITIL
Streamlined Implementation
In June 2007, TOPdesk was launched at Ordina. Together with a TOPdesk consultant, we assessed whether our processes are in keeping with the software, and vice versa. We set up our processes all over again, and at the same time configured the application together with TOPdesk. Between the sessions with the consultant, we did our homework and prepared for the next one. In this way we gained in-depth knowledge of the tool and we are now able to carry out the managment and configuration ourselves. When TOPdesk went live, the service desk and the operators certainly had to get used to it, but the advantages of using TOPdesk soon came to light, Yves explains. Copy-pasting is now a thing of the past thanks to the automatic mail import. Calls are now read out automatically through email and set up as incidents in the service desk queue. Operators follow a very straightforward process, and log the action taken. Subsequently, callers are kept informed via automatic emails and, most importantly, they can follow the calls themselves in the Self Service Desk.
WITH NEARLY 1000 CALLS PER MONTH, ITS CONVENIENT THAT SLAS ARE VIRTUALLY GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY FROM TOPDESK
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Ordina set up a connection between the reports in TOPdesk and the time registration system themselves. The operator logs the time he or she has spent on a call in TOPdesk, which is then passed through a background connection to the time registration system, and subsequently to the billing department, he explains.
coffee machine is reported to the facilities managment in TOPdesk. Our HR department also receives calls about staff details which need to be updated.
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CLIENT IN FOCUS 23
The ability to send customized emails is one of the most powerful and popular features in TOPdesk. But are you really getting the most out of what TOPdesk has to offer?
TOPdesk enables you to create professional, standardized messages using fixed details.
When you examine this template, would you say that the information needs of the email recipient have been taken into account? Is the recipient able to click through to the relevant cards in TOPdesk? Is the font easy to read, and is it in keeping with your house style? Can the user quickly process the emails in the way they want?
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TOPdesk enables you to create professional, standardized messages using a template feature which incorporates fixed details. As a result, paying a bit of extra attention to detail when composing these messages will ensure a smoother communication flow, and work will less frequently grind to a halt. The tips in this article will give you the boost to get to work on your own; however, you could also invite a consultant to help you, and, in doing so, make great progress within just a day.
Most of our customers have access to the Events Management module, which enables you to professionalize your emails. This module can also initiate HTTP requests, carry out file commands and take care of additional logging. Although the module is not available for TOPdesk lite, you can still professionalize your emails in TOPdesk.
from TOPdesk, you can add a reference to relevant cards so that these cards can be opened directly from within the email, via both the Self Service Desk and the operators section. In addition, you can attach
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WORK SMARTER 25
content from the card itself to the email; for example, information retrieved from the Request field of an Incident Card.
You can refer to these specific fields from within the emails, which are summarized under System > System fields. You can easily change the address of the TOPdesk server by calling it up in the same way. This is useful if you use an acceptance and production environment for TOPdesk.
In TOPdesk you can send an email from various cards; you can set up these standardized emails yourself.
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To view the layout options for a field, first left-click on the name of the merged field. Subsequently, right-click the mouse and choose Layout. Its possible to do more; the presentation of date stamps in memo fields in TOPdesk, starting from version 4.2, can be adjusted in this way. In addition, you can display merged fields entirely in either lower case or UPPER CASE. To do this, encase the merged field with \a and \A or \A and \a respectively. To ensure that emails are in keeping with your house style, you can incorporate a logo. Technically speaking, you can make the logo available via a server on the internet, and then create a reference to it from the HTML layout in the email. You can also send the image as an attachment with the email, and refer to it as follows: <img src=cid:[ image name ]> Upon receipt of an email, most email programs display at least the name of the sender and the subject heading. If you wish to display not only your own email address, but also your company name (for example TOPdesk Support), under your email, you can set the senders address as follows: TOPdesk Support support@TOPdesk.com.
Do you use TOPdesk SAAS? Very soon, you will be able to fine-tune your emails yourself. Until then, its a good idea to prepare for the adjustments, and to then implement them together with a TOPdesk consultant on location.
ENSURE THAT EMAILS ARE IN KEEPING WITH YOUR CORPORATE IDENTITY BY INCORPORATING A LOGO
WORK SMARTER 27
tips + tricks
A festive Self Service Desk!
The holiday season is fast approaching, and to celebrate this merry occasion, TOPdesk has designed a wintry look and feel for your Self Service Desk interface. You can download this bespoke work for your Self Service Desk from the TOPdesk Extranet.
TOPdesk UK limited t +44 (0)20 7803 4200 e info@topdesk.co.uk w www.topdesk.co.uk TOPdesk Germany GmbH t +49 (0)631 624 00 0 e info@topdesk.de w www.topdesk.de
TOPdesk Belgium t +32 (0)3 292 32 90 e info@topdesk.be w www.topdesk.be TOPdesk Netherlands t +31 (0)15 270 09 00 e info@topdesk.nl w www.topdesk.nl
TOPdesk France t +33 1 4222 2314 e info.topdesk.fr w www.topdesk.fr TOPdesk Hungary t +36 1 301 0190 e info@topdesk.hu w www.topdesk.hu
Copyright 2010 TOPdesk UK limited. Although this magazine has been produced with the utmost care and attention, the writers cannot be held responsible in any way for any damages that may occur due to errors and / or deficiencies in this publication.