CIS3008

ITSM

NSI Service Desk

Executive Summary

The present report provides an overview regarding the importance of IT service management in the organization and related standardisation required so as to ensure benchmark for the IT services required in the organization. The major focus for the report would be to ensure service desk requirements for the IT related infrastructure in NSI and establishing certification related with ISO 20000 so that proper processes and policies required for the IT service management are in place for the organization.

From the below report it has been established that IT service management processes are important part of overall IT infrastructure for the organization and managing IT service desk would enhance customer satisfaction (Rovers and Haren, 2012). It is highly recommended to manage outsourced service desk in the organization so that better focus can be done on the core activities of the organization and cost efficiencies can be established with help of outsourced service desk. Further outsourced service desk in the organization would demand for better control over business function and requirement for higher level of information security in the organization. Also it is recommended for the NSI to obtain ISO 20000 Certification in the IT service management field so as to develop higher level of standardisation for the IT related processes. In addition to standardisation ISO Certification would ensure consistent service delivery for the IT processes and policies.

Part-1 Importance of ITSM at NSI

Explain why is it important for NSI to have effective processes in place to manage IT services.

ITSM for any organization working in business or other domains can be defined as the processes and functionalities which are essential in order to manage the IT infrastructure in the organization. ITSM acts as the oil which is necessary for the wheel of IT machinery implemented in the organization.

§  To implement consistent delivery: For NSI major role for information technology service management is in terms of ensuring the consistent value delivery for the activities performed (Van, 2002). Consistent value delivery not only ensures the delivery process but also would ensure the quality standards which needs to be comply through IT services and processes.

§  Improved quality and efficiency: Aim of ITSM is to enable the IT service through improved quality and efficiency in IT services management. Processes followed for ITSM are business centric and helps in improving quality by close monitoring not only in terms of the delivery but from the business point of view as well (Czegel, 1998).

§  Adding business value: ITSM not only helps in enabling IT services for the NSI but it would help NSI to add business value for the organization. Adding value means that the value addition process in terms of economic as well as strategic benefit as well. In terms of strategic benefit value added would be to enhance customer satisfaction through development of effective IT services in place which would give NSI chance to enhance business revenues as well.

§  Governance for information technology: For any organization IT governance is of prime importance and for NSI which is a premium institute IT governance are of vital importance as these would help in order to manage IT services effectively and creates long term strategic advantage for the organization which can be leveraged upon by the NSI in order to have effective IT services for the students ().

§  Goal alignment: Another major objective of the ITSM is to enable IT infrastructure for the organization with such power that it can be aligned with the business goals set up by the organization. In case any organization has proper processes for IT service management then there can be synchronization among the various business activities and processes which are driven with help of IT processes. Appropriate level of IT service management would enforce reliability among the business processes which are dependent upon the IT services so that business processes have higher level of accuracy with them.

§  Faster problem solving: IT service management processes in place for any organization would help so as to resolve the IT issues at much faster pace in comparison to the organization without ITSM processes (Dugmore, 2006). Further establishing IT services in place would provide entire organization a platform for reporting their issues related with the IT implementation and resolving them. Faster problem resolution would not only help in creating higher level of efficiency in the organization but also would induce the confidence for the human resource working in the organization towards IT processes and policies.

§  Long term strategic strength: Implementing IT services & processes in organization can create long term strategic advantage for the organization but implementation of any new processes in organization would depend upon proper support and infrastructure in place. IT service management processes would allow support for the business team and employees so that any new processes implemented in the organization can survive for longer term without any hurdle being faced by the users of the IT application (Rovers and Haren, 2012). Once the IT services are implemented successfully in the organization then these acts as the source of long term competitive advantage for the organization.

Part-2 Service design

In the current design model of IT service provision at NSI, the service desk function is provided in-house by TAFE employees. Consider the option of outsourcing the service desk. Discuss the roles and responsibilities associated with IT support and the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the service desk.

Role and responsibility for the IT support function

Presently the IT support function has been provided in house by the TAFE employees for NSI and considering outsourced function for the service desk for NSI there would be various roles and responsibilities which needs to be played by the outsourced IT service team such as the IT champion, service manager, operation manager, business owner, training manager and change manager. Roles would be assigned by to the entire IT service team in order to manage the IT services in effective way so that overall IT processes can be managed effectively and supports the IT infrastructure for the organization.

IT champion role would be assigned to the very senior person having wide experience into information technology and implementation field who have worked with the various organization into their IT department and is well aware of the IT infrastructure of NSI (Clifford, 2008). Entire responsibility for managing IT service part would be on IT champion as entire business functions for service management would be handled directly by the IT champion. IT champion would work as the bridge between the IT service management team in the organization and management of the organization there by inculcating management values into the IT team for the organization.

IT business owner in the organization would be having role as the owner of entire business function where in entire processes related issues would be handled by IT business owner. Another major responsibility for the business owner would be in terms of assessment of business needs for the customers and designing the IT system so as to accomplish the customer’s business needs for the IT solution. Starting from the role of need assessment for the customers, designing systems which can fulfill customer needs and delivering appropriate solution so as to accomplish business goals for the customers would be the major responsibilities for the business owner working in the IT. Business owner would be the major part of the entire business service design and would be held responsible for the value delivery and customer satisfaction enhancement so that overall information technology processes are designed in such a way that business goals can be realigned with the IT system implemented (Czegel, 1998).

Service manager as the name suggest would be the person who would comply with the actual service requirements of the customers related with the IT processes. A service manager would directly act as the bridge between customer and solution provided thereby communicating the service needs of the customers for IT related processes so that business needs for the customers can be included in the service design. Service manager reviews the entire service delivery for the IT related processes and obtain customer feedback on the services and would communicate IT team so that same can be revised and aligned as per the customer’s needs.

Operation manager has the role to deliver on the operational part for the management of IT services. Operation manager handles day to day functioning concerning with the IT service delivery part and ensures that IT services are going as per the decided quality and reliability. Operation manager supervises the entire operation related issues such as IT infrastructure, compatibility for service delivery and other operational delivery issues so that entire service delivery system does not get affected due to the operational issues being encountered in the service delivery of the IT system. Operation managers are liable to review operational performance of the system implemented for delivering IT services and recommend changes in the design of the operational infrastructure so that better service infrastructure can be designed in the organization for quality service delivery system implementation (Hlvey and Melby, 2005).       

Training manager has the role to supervise and fulfill training needs for the staff involved in the IT service delivery process. IT services required in the organization involves human resource through different sphere of people such as technical, non technical and voice staff. It is important to assess the training needs for the staff and arrange proper training for the people involved in the service delivery for the IT related services in the organization. Every now and then there are several modification and additions in the IT services which needs to be communicated to the line team and accordingly users needs to be educated about the changes in the IT systems. Hence training managers are being given responsibility to train people for their technical and non technical expertise so that overall service delivery for the IT system can be made smooth.

Change manager implements the change in the organization which inculcates through change in any IT related system or processes. At initial stage in the organization people take changes with adverse perception and are not ready to understand & work as per the new processes and system. Role of change manager in the organization is to understand the reason for resistance created by users so as to accept the new systems and processes implemented in the organization. Post understanding of the system & processes for which users has resistance, it is the prime responsibility for the change manager to communicate benefits of the current systems to the users so that users can understand benefits of new system and adopt the implementation of new system which is of immense importance for ensuring smooth service delivery and employee benefits as well (Click and Duening, 2004).

Advantages & disadvantages of outsourced service desk

Outsourced service desk for the servicing of IT systems and processes in the organization can have several benefits and limitations in the organization which can be given as below:

Advantages

Advantages of the outsourced service desk include managing human resource; focus on key working areas, cost reduction and managing business risk. Human resource management has become a tuff task in the current age where there is high rate of churn for the IT human resource and outsourcing service desk would allow management of human resource through external agencies for the purpose of service desk and hence would reduced the burden. Another major advantage for NSI through outsourced service desk would be to focus on the key working areas which are the key strength of NSI. Outsourcing service desk function which is not the core function area for NSI would allow them to have deeper focus on their key business strength leaving aside service desk functionality which would be managed through external agencies.

Cost reduction would be the key benefit which NSI would be seeking through outsourced service desk as service desk is not their strength area and there are chances of higher expenses being made by NSI in comparison to the outsourced agency which has expertise into service desk management (Atwell, 2012). Hence through creation of higher level of competition among vendor NSI can reduce their overall cost to manage the service desk. Business risk can be managed by NSI through outsourced service desk as multiple vendors would allow continued services for service desk without any halt being created into the services hence there would be lesser chance of any contingency pertaining to service desk which would avoid risk pertaining to service desk.  

Disadvantages

Major disadvantages of managing outsourced service desk by NSI would include lower control on service desk, issues of confidentiality of data and uncontrolled expenses. By managing outsourced service desk NSI would be having inherent risk for the confidentiality of data being used in the organization. Hence higher level of tracking mechanism would be required to ensure that data security is not at stake which may enhance the cost as well as risk for the organization. Further any business function which is not managed in house by the organization creates the problem of lower control on that business function and similar issue would arise for the NSI as they would not be able to have higher level of control on the service desk which might create problem for them in future. Finally there would be concerns for NSI in terms of the higher level of expenses being levied for management of service desk as monitoring would become a key issue as NSI would have to monitor whether or not outsourced business function working in synchronization with the business goals of the organization (Eric, 2007).

Part-3 ISO/IEC 20000 Certification

NSI is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and is now considering ISO/IEC 20000 certification. Ms Christie has asked you to advice on the decision. Provide a brief of why NSI should or should not seek certification for ISO/IEC 20000. Identify the benefits and drawbacks of certification.

In addition to the present certifications i.e. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 obtained by NSI, they are seeking ISO 20000 certification which is especially for establishing IT service management through international standards. There are sub divisions done for the ISO 20000 certifications which are in terms of the designing part of the service delivery, improvements in service delivery, customer satisfaction enhancement and procedure established for the service management requirements in the organization. Implementation of ISO 20000 certification helps an organization to achieve international standard best practices in terms of the IT service management where in organization is committed towards regular review of the service design and improvement process.

In the first part of ISO 20000-1 which is mainly focused towards review of design for the service management and recommending various improvements in the service design process for the IT infrastructure setup in the organization. ISO 20000-1 has the major objective to create high level service management practice so that customer satisfaction through service management gets enhanced and higher business value can be created through service management function. Role of ISO 20000-2 is to ensure that proper policies and procedure are into place to carry out service management functionality in the organization. Procedure for the service management regarding IT infrastructure in any organization include below mentioned four steps:

o   Collecting knowledge regarding usage of IT services and requirement

o   Implementation of ISO 20000 certification

o   Following best practice as cited into ISO 20000

o   Implementing practices which helps in maintaining certification

Some of the major benefits for having ISO 20000 Certification include consistency in service delivery, international benchmark and synchronization in business goals along with IT services. Implementing ISO 20000 Certification would help in ensuring consistency in the IT service management processes as best practices would be followed for the delivery of IT services required for managing business functionality. Consistency would be in terms of lower contingency, higher level of business support and well managed services. ISO 20000 would establish a benchmark for the organization where in best practices which are followed into the service management domain worldwide would be followed for the management of IT services. Finally ISO 20000 Certification has the business policies and processes which help the organization to align their business goals with the IT service processes being followed in the organization (Malcolm, 2010).      

Limitations of ISO 20000 Certification for NSI would include lower flexibilities in processes, cost inefficiencies and inconsistency with the other ISO certifications. Implementing ISO 20000 would restrict any organization to become flexible in their processes and policies being followed for the service delivery as strict adherence is ensure for the policies which would reduce flexibility in IT processes which are required many a times to manage smooth business operations. Another limitation for NSI would be in terms of cost inefficiencies as gaining ISO 20000 would be a costly affair for the organization as many a business processes and policies would have to be realigned which would require high cost. Finally there would be chances that business processes being followed for ISO 20000 Certification might clash with the existing business processes followed in the ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 availed by the NSI.

Part-4 Conclusion and Recommendations to Managing director

Recommendations

Some of the key recommendations regarding IT service management for NSI can be given as below:

      Looking at the business processes and IT process synchronization in business it can be recommended that NSI has need for the IT service management policies and procedure which should be managed properly to generate effective results in the organization (Sharon and Ivor, 2005).

      Considering benefits and limitations for the outsourced service desk in the organization it can be recommended that NSI should manage outsourced IT service desk so as to save cost and focus on their core strength areas.

      ISO 20000 Certification would provide international standardization for the organization where in processes and policies followed for management of IT function would be rescheduled.

      NSI should give high emphasis to the IT service management processes through inculcating the service management processes into their mission and vision so that employees in the organization can get significance of the IT service management for the organization.

Conclusion

From the present analysis of the IT service management requirements for the NSI it can be concluded that NSI should have outsourced service desk in order to manage its IT service management process. From the discussion of benefits & limitations related with the service desk it can be clearly highlighted that there are numerous benefits for the outsourced service desk management in the organization and it is always advisable to have well managed service desk for the IT services so that consistent service delivery can be ensured in the organization. Further ISO 20000 Certification would prove advantageous for the organization in terms of establishing international standards for the IT service management in the organization where in higher service delivery consistency and lower number of breakdowns would be encountered in the IT services.  

References

§  Van Bon, J. (2002). The guide to IT service management. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-73792-2.

§  Sharon Taylor and Ivor Macfarlane (2005). ITIL Small Scale Implementation. The Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-330980-5.

§  Malcolm Fry (2010). ITIL Lite. The Stationery Office. ISBN 97801133121225 

§  Eric J. Feldman (2007). "The Eight Essential Elements of an IT Service Lifecycle". ITSMWatch.com.

§  Atwell Williams (2012). "A Practical Guide to Service and Service Models". BMC Software.

§  Click, R and Duening, T (2004). Business Process Outsourcing: The Competitive Advantage. John Wiley & Sons

§  Hlvey, J and Melby, B (2005) Information Technology Outsourcing Transactions: Process, Strategies, and Contracts. John Wiley & Sons

§  Czegel, B (1998). Running an Effective Help Desk. Wiley, 2nd Ed.

§  Clifford, D (2008). Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification: The Roadmap. Van Haren publishing

§  Rovers, M and Haren, V (2012). ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011: A Pocket Guide. Van Haren Publishing.

§  Dugmore, Jenny (2006). Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 - The Differences Between BS 15000 and ISO/IEC 20000. BSI Group [1]. p. 124.ISBN 0-580-47348-1