November-20179GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKover IT support was, "What service levels can I expect?"Our response was consistent, "What is your service level now?"Whether doing business in public or private industry, the answer is often similar, "It's good," or, "We simply don't have time to gather that information."In both the private and public sector, the organization needs to be able to monitor performance progress against service goals. If technology leaders are not tracking "Fundamental Data" then decision makers must rely on intuition, perception, or simply, what they want to believe. There are a multitude of IT Service Management (ITSM) tools that can assist in evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the work getting done. Unfortunately many are simply used as a workflow tool and the analytics are either rudimentary or nonexistent. At some point, managers must learn to collect driven metrics to define successful customer service, and they do this by analyzing indicators and trends. This is the key to improving a level of service. Exceeding Customer ExpectationsResponse time and first call resolution are often the deciding factors between a good and bad customer support experience. Fortunately, the State of Nebraska is moving towards a single Enterprise ITSM tool to assist the agencies in tracking and measuring this valuable information. Sample information gathered by using an ITSM tool would be:· the customer's preferred contact channel· the total number of incidents and service requests assigned during a time period· the requests sorted by category· the number and types of requests that are assigned to a particular resolving group or agency· the average time to "resolution"· survey resultsManagers can use ITSM to easily look back at data and gain awareness as to how their customers want to interact (portal, phone call, etc.) and how they were handled by the support team. Not having the structure in place to track these data points is a road block to any organization's improvement and results in lost opportunities due to misconceptions. Here are the top three reasons to buy into ITSM:· Gain back lost Opportunities: An ITSM tool helps business managers identify the gaps in service, analyze data trends, and eliminate the root cause of issues. Not only does actionable data improve the overall support of your customers' needs, any issues that might otherwise go unnoticed get highlighted before they become unresolved.A Service or Help Desk typically handles hundreds of tickets per day. There are frequently a significant number of recurring tickets, meaning that efficiency and productivity are both lost in solving the same issue repeatedly.· Set Customer Expectations by your Proven Standards: Structured data in the form of metrics help frame your Service Level expectations both internally, and with your customers. An ITSM tool can provide real-time service level updates allowing you to plan confidently within a timeline. We already know that good customer service revolves around quick, accurate communication. Setting accurate expectations up front empowers both sides of the business to prepare for the unexpected. · Data changes perception into reality: From determining what actually happened with a particular incident/service request, to managing a level of service for an agency, department or team--fundamental data gives managers the ability to analyze service levels objectively.There are numerous reasons and purposes for utilizing a Service Management tool to gather information on incidents and service requests. The primary reason can be found in simple economics, specifically the cost of lost productivity. The structure and process that is required to be able to input useful data and obtain meaningful metrics. In Nebraska, we communicate what is important by measuring trackable data and then by analyzing the story told by the metrics. The result is not only enhanced customer service, but a continued desire to improve the level of service provided to our customers.
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