HDI Motown March 2009 Chapter Meeting Presented by David Morgan from Ajilon Consulting

1. Reducing Incidents and Support Cost
3-2-1-0 Approach
“Delivering flexible IT
solutions & services to help
you be more successful.”
June 25th , 2008

2. Agenda
The Catalyst
What is the 3-to-0 Initiative?
Objectives
Establishing a Basis
Identifying Candidates
Determining the Appropriate Point of Service
Implementation Pre-Requisites
Results
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3. The Catalyst
Increasingly we’ve seen the Service Desk challenged to prove its value to the organization. We
needed a simplified approach to improving the Service Desk whilst proving it’s value.
Born out of necessity for survival … and common misconceptions
Business perception that the Service Desk is purely an overhead cost
Lack of understanding of the value of the Service Desk
Arbitrary cost-cutting - the Service Desk is one of the first places companies look when cutting
costs
We needed a program that would fall into the Service Desk’s sphere of
authority, control and influence
We needed a program that would highlight and reinforce the value of the
Service Desk as tool to drive improvements throughout IT
We needed a way to measure the savings generated by the Service Desk
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4. What is the 3-2-1-0 Continuous Improvement Initiative
The 3-to-0 Initiative is a combination of processes, people and tools working together to push incident
and request resolution to the closest feasible point of service with the Customer using a structured
approach and objective analysis.
Feasible
Does it make financial sense? Will there be measurable benefits?
Will it result in “as good as” or better quality?
Does it make business sense? Regulatory/Compliance?
Structured
The approach is easily understood and communicated.
The approach operates with limited administrative overhead
The approach can be institutionalized into the Service Desk and our resolving partners.
Objective
Analysis is based on reality, not perceived issues, politics posturing and roadblocks
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5. The Basis
Using data from the ITSM toolset, organizational model, customer surveys we established a basis for
analyzing potential improvement opportunities
Level Organization Skill Sets Cost Time
Developers,
App Dev,
Desk Side Techs, $$$$
Level 3
Desk Side Support
Engineers
Developers,
2nd Level Remote,
Desk Side Techs $$$
Level 2
Level 1.5
Expert Analysts
Level 1 Service Desk Service Desk $$
Analysts
Self-Help Customers $
Level 0
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Eliminated
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6. The Objectives
Introduce a sustainable Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) driven by and supported by the
Service Desk. The primary goals of the continuous improvement program is to deliver:
Faster End-to-End Resolution Time
Move the point of resolution to the closest feasible point to the customer
Decreased Support Costs
Proper alignment of resource skills and experience to incident and request type – higher
paid resources reserved for more complex activities
Improved Customer Satisfaction
Less customer down-time, improved confidence in IT through improved IT Support
Show Measurable Value Provided by the Service Desk
Have an accepted method to show the hard and soft cost savings contributions of the
Service Desk to both the business and IT organizations
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7. The Process – Identifying Opportunities
Data for the initiative is primarily sourced from the IT Service Management toolset (ticketing system),
but may also come from any location in the support model including Service Desk experience,
Customer Surveys and Support Partner feedback.
ITSM Toolset – Ticketing System Data
Choose a manageable set of data based upon your analysis resource capacity. Suggestion: look at
items routed from the Service Desk first.
Service Desk Experience
Analyst experience is a goldmine of improvement opportunities. Ask the team for suggestions on
incidents and requests that they feel they could solve, or that could be moved to self-help or
eliminated.
Support Partner Input
Query your support partners for requests and incidents they feel could be resolved by the Service
Desk.
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8. The Process – Identifying Opportunities
Essentially, any incident or request that doesn’t require a desk side visit has the potential to yield both
cost and time-to-resolution savings.
What you need to know – Requests and Incidents
Who does it now? (resolving group)
How long does it take? (time-to-resolve)
How many are there?
Is the Incident or Request type able to be segregated for measurement?
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9. The Process – Analyzing Improvement Opportunities
Each category of incidents or requests is reviewed to determine if the current point of service is
appropriate, or if an opportunity for improvement exists.
Eliminate
Could this category of incident be eliminated entirely?
Could improved Customer education, procedural changes or defect removal eliminate the incident
category completely?
Level 0
If elimination is not feasible, could the resolution of this category of incident be moved to Self-Help?
Could this request type be automated?
Level 1
If Self-Help is not feasible (or not feasible in a large percentage of cases), could this category of
incident be moved to the Service Desk?
Level 2
If using the Tier 1 Team (1st Level Service Desk) is not possible, could this category of incident be
moved to 2nd level or Expert Service Desk Team?
Level 3
This item must be resolved by a 3rd Level Team due to complexity, specialized skills, compliance, etc.
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10. The Process – Analyzing Improvement Opportunities
Once it’s determined that an incident or request can be moved, we examine what Knowledge,
Training or Capabilities are required to move the solution closer to the Customer.
Level Organization Resource Type Cost
App Dev, Developers, $$$$
Level 3
Desk Side Support Desk Side Techs, C
A
Engineers K
T P
N
R A
2nd Level Remote, Developers, $$$
Level 2 O
A B
W
Level 1.5 Desk Side Techs I I
L
N L
E
Service Desk Service Desk $$
Level 1 I I
D
N T
Analysts G
G I
E
E
Self-Help Customers $
Level 0 S
N/A N/A 0
Eliminated
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11. Managing the Improvement Opportunities
Candidates are placed on the appropriate CPI lists based on the decisions outcomes. We typically
maintain four lists or plans; Elimination Candidates, Self-Help Candidates, Service Desk Candidates ,
and Non-Candidate Items. The lists are maintained and added to throughout the initiative to gauge
improvement impact over time.
Elimination Candidates
The Service Desk provides incident/request data and technical experience information to our Support
Partners.
Level 0 – Self-Help Candidates
The Service Desk provides incident/request data, technical experience information, solutions and
validation support to the knowledge content owners and managers.
Level 1 & 2 – Service Desk Candidates
The Service Desk provides incident/request data, technical experience information, solutions scripts,
validation support and training.
Non-Candidate Items
Non-Candidate Items are those items that must remain at Level 3 for justifiable business or technical
reasons. For example, desk side support for hardware relocation.
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12. Implementation Pre-Requisites: Knowledge Management
An effective, efficient process and procedures must exist for creating, updating and retiring
Knowledge Content
Have an efficient Knowledge Management Process
Establish a knowledge content format that is Analyst-
friendly
Build liaison Relationships with key Support Partners. K
They will be instrumental in providing knowledge N
content and/or initial training O
W
L
E
Implement a mechanism to notify Analysts of knowledge D
content changes G
E
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13. Implementation Pre-Requisites: Training
A repeatable training methodology must exist for the Service Desk. The methodology must include
mechanisms to track training delivery and retention.
Have a well-documented Training Program
Use an incremental or modularized training approach to
allow for efficient integration of changes
Employ train-the-trainer, self-learning or CBT to reduce
T
resource loading on your Support Partners R
A
I
N
I
N
G
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14. Implementation Pre-Requisites: Capabilities
Management must have an understanding of the skills, experience, aptitude and tolerance for change
of the Analysts.
Understand the real and perceived capability limits of your
Analysts
Understand Analysts aspirations and tolerance for change
C
Have 1:1s first! A
P
A
B
Build relationships with the groups that will support you in I
new capabilities – e.g., Info Security L
I
T
I
E
S
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15. Implementation Pre-Requisites: Measurement
Establishing an accepted measurement method is critical to showing your success.
Progress Measurement
Establish a series of milestones to checkpoint each opportunity (Identified thru Post-
Implementation Measurement).
Hard Cost Savings
Establish accurate resource costs to demonstrate the hard cost savings.
Soft Cost Savings and Time-to-Resolution
Establish a metric to represent soft cost productivity savings.
Establish a mechanism to measure time-to-resolution improvements (entire incident or
request lifecycle)
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16. Implementation Pre-Requisites: Project Management
Before beginning the 3-to-0 initiative establish the fundamental best practices for knowledge, training,
communications and project management.
Change Management
Change Management processes must exist, and be followed.
Marketing Plan
Have a Marketing Plan that sells your the capabilities, skills and experience.
Communications Plan
Have a Communications Plan that details the implementation and expectations of the 3-
2-1-0 Initiative.
Implement a vehicle to communicate your successes.
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17. Implementing 3-to-0: Communications and Logistics
Communications is key to a streamlined, sustainable and structured initiative. Avoid an ad-hoc
approach by first building the communications and logistics infrastructure to support the initiative
Define and Assign Key Roles and Responsibilities
Define clear roles and responsibilities for training, knowledge, and technology.
Establish a Standard Work Repository
Implement a straight-forward tracking mechanism with that allows for easy status reporting.
Excel, Access, MS Project
Schedule Recurring Analysis Review Meetings
To keep momentum, meet on a regular basis. Meet weekly or every other week.
Establish Liaison Meetings with Key Support Partners
Establish open dialog with your partners to ensure open and objective communications.
Test the Change Management Process
This Initiative is designed to introduce constant change. Effective change management is
paramount
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18. Results
Significant gains have been realized as a result of the 3-to-0 Initiative.
Incident Volume Reductions of > 20%
Customer Satisfaction Improvements from high 80% to mid 90%
Reductions in end-to-end resolution times – often measurable in days!
Significant improvements in category-specific resolution rates.
Note: The overall Resolution Rate or FCR should not be used a metric for this Initiative.
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19. Contact Us Account Management Team
Dave Morgan, Practice Executive, ITIM Service Desk (610) 517-6979
Ajilon Consulting
Suite 5025
1400 North Providence Road
5th Floor
Media, PA 19063
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20. Next Steps ?
“Delivering flexible IT
solutions & services to help
you be more successful.”