25 Questions for Measuring Service Desk/Help Desk Maturity

This 25 Question Assessment Excel developed by Giva Partner, CDC Global Services, provides a simple and quick method for gauging the maturity level of your Service Desk/Help Desk.

This Service Desk/Help Desk Assessment Excel tool has 5 sections:

• Processes & Best Practices-How well defined and documented are the Service Desk/Help Desk processes?
• Organizational Integration-Is the Service Desk/Help Desk a valuable contributor to organization success?
• Technology Optimization-How mature are technology solutions?
• Staff Development-What is the professional level and commitment of the Service Desk/Help Desk staff?
• Information Management-How well does the Service Desk/Help Desk utilize metrics for customer satisfaction, call reduction, root cause and self-improvement?

To determine the maturity level of your Service Desk/Help Desk, compare your score with the information found on the Maturity Index tab. The Maturity Index is scaled from a high of "Actualized" which operates in a fully proactive mode with clearly documented processes and full integration with the rest of the organization, to a low of "Nonexistent."

Click "Download White Paper" to obtain a copy of this Service Desk/Help Desk Assessment Excel and instructions for using it.

Quickly Determine the True Character of Vendors

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate customer service and IT help desk software vendors?

This white paper discusses ten groups of penetrating questions to ask Customer Service and IT Help Desk software vendors to determine their true character. A software vendor is like a spouse. Understand while you are "Dating" what life may be like after the "Honeymoon" is over. Ask these questions early in your qualification process to focus on the vendors that will be there for you long after they have your company's money. Use these questions to poke and prod at your list of vendors and then listen very carefully when they speak. What you learn will save you a great deal of time and money. Make sure to get their responses in writing!

Some topics covered include:

• What happens if we have a disagreement? Will we have to litigate?
• What's the price of modules that we may use in the future?
• What's the price of new licenses we may purchase in the future?
• Can we set up independent service desks/databases for other departments such as Human Resources so that it is private and segregated?
• Are there license options other than Fixed/Named so large groups can use the system part-time?
• Can you provide case studies documenting business results you have helped customers achieve?
• How will you obtain my company's evolving feature requirements?
• Will my company have an Account Manager (i.e. one neck to squeeze) or do we have to navigate through your organization on our own?
• Will you provide a thirty-day supported production trial without obligation?
• How often does your company provide new releases?

Click "Download White Paper" to read more about the ten tough questions to better qualify customer service and IT help desk vendors.

Easy-to-use Change Rejection Reason Report-Giva eChangeManager

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The Change Manager rejects RFCs based on many reasons. For example, the request may be a duplicate. Typically, rejections should be the exception. The purpose of the Change Rejection Reason Report is to provide information about the various reasons for rejections so that process improvements will reduce the rejection volume and reducing the Change Manager workload. This report queries all rejected RFCs. In addition, you can further define the search by Service Group(s), Priority(s), Scope(s), Change Category(s) and date range.

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Quickly Determine the True Character of Vendors

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate SaaS customer service and IT help desk software vendors?

This white paper discusses twenty groups of penetrating questions to ask SaaS Customer Service and IT Help Desk software vendors to determine their true character. A SaaS vendor is like a spouse. While "Dating" it is better to understand what life may be like after the "Honeymoon" is over. Ask these questions early in your qualification process to focus on the vendors that will be there for you long after they have your company's money. Use these questions to poke and prod at your list of vendors and then listen very carefully when they speak. What you learn will save you a great deal of time and money. Make sure to get their responses in writing!

Some topics covered include:

• Uptime service level agreements
• Support service level agreements
• How to qualify a Data Center
• Access to your data & rights
• Source code escrow
• Termination clauses, contract lengths, discounts, hidden fees
• What if my company is dissatisfied?
• What if my company finds better technology?
• Deployment "out-of-box" or at what cost?
• Preparing a TCO and comparing it to other alternatives
• Vendor product roadmaps and commitment
• Post implementation customization/configuration
• Routine support vs. professional service fees

Click "Download White Paper" to read more about the twenty tough questions to ask to better qualify SaaS customer service and IT help desk vendors.

Quickly Determine the True Character of Vendors

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate customer service and IT help desk software vendors?

This white paper discusses ten groups of penetrating questions to ask Customer Service and IT Help Desk software vendors to determine their true character. A software vendor is like a spouse. While "Dating" it is better to understand what life may be like after the "Honeymoon" is over. Ask these questions early in your qualification process to focus on the vendors that will be there for you long after they have your company's money. Use these questions to poke and prod at your list of vendors and then listen very carefully when they speak. What you learn will save you a great deal of time and money. Make sure to get their responses in writing!

Some topics covered include:

• What if my company is dissatisfied?
• What if my company finds better technology?
• Deployment "out-of-box" or at what cost?
• Preparing a TCO and comparing it to other alternatives
• Most overlooked critical details about software maintenance
• Vendor product roadmaps and commitment
• Post-implementation customization/configuration
• Routine support vs. professional service fees
• Service level agreements to manage the relationship
• Termination clauses

Click "Download White Paper" to read more about the ten tough questions to ask to better qualify customer service and IT help desk vendors.

RFC Need Planning-Giva eChangeManager

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Change needs planning.  Sometimes RFCs are submitted early without detailed planning to get the RFC into the change queue. The change description usually identifies these changes. The Change Manager simply notes the change and moves the status to “PLANNING.”

Cost Savings of First Call Resolution (FCR) Improvement

Techniques to Improve First Call Resolution

First call resolution (FCR) is one of the standard help desk metrics to evaluate performance because resolution timeliness is a major factor in customer satisfaction. It is an important metric to measure the success the help desk is having resolving routine requests.

This white paper contains a case study of a client who engaged on-site help desk services with CDC Global Services. The client was receiving 3,000 calls to their help desk per month due to a desktop, server, and messaging migration and their FCR dropped as low as 35%.

CDC Global Services provides a detailed description of each phase of their process for achieving an FCR of 80% including the metrics they used to assess individual and overall help desk performance. In addition, a method for calculating the direct monetary impact of an improved FCR is shown using industry analyst estimates of the cost to resolve service requests at different levels.

Click Download White Paper to read about how to improve help desk first call resolution and how to estimate the direct cost savings.

Quickly Determine the True Character of Vendors

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate customer service and IT help desk software vendors?

This white paper discusses ten groups of penetrating questions to ask Customer Service and IT Help Desk software vendors to determine their true character. A software vendor is like a spouse. Understand while you are "Dating" what life may be like after the "Honeymoon" is over. Ask these questions early in your qualification process to focus on the vendors that will be there for you long after they have your company's money. Use these questions to poke and prod at your list of vendors and then listen very carefully when they speak. What you learn will save you a great deal of time and money. Make sure to get their responses in writing!

Some topics covered include:

• What happens if we have a disagreement? Will we have to litigate?
• What's the price of modules that we may use in the future?
• What's the price of new licenses we may purchase in the future?
• Can we set up independent service desks/databases for other departments such as Human Resources so that it is private and segregated?
• Are there license options other than Fixed/Named so large groups can use the system part-time?
• Can you provide case studies documenting business results you have helped customers achieve?
• How will you obtain my company's evolving feature requirements?
• Will my company have an Account Manager (i.e. one neck to squeeze) or do we have to navigate through your organization on our own?
• Will you provide a thirty-day supported production trial without obligation?
• How often does your company provide new releases?

Click Download White Paper to read more about the ten tough questions to better qualify customer service and IT help desk vendors.

Create a Win/Win Partnership

How can you select the best outsourced contact center that will meet your requirements?

An outsourcer must support your core objectives of decreasing costs and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

You want to reduce the number of calls and call time, and you want your outsourcer’s people, process and technology to help you do this. However, your costs are revenue to the outsourcer. You will probably have a contract where you pay based upon the number calls and length of each call. There is great potential for your organization’s goals to not be aligned with the outsourcer’s goals. Your objective is to select an outsourcer that can bring the right mix of capabilities to meet your core objectives. You want to show the outsourcer how and why to accept some of the risk, which will give them a vested interest in meeting your goals.

This white paper examines the process of selecting the best contact center outsourcer to meet your requirements with a focus on people, process, and technology, and shares industry best practices and expert recommendations.

Some topics covered include:

• Needs Assessment
• Customer Service Industry Best Practices
• Reporting
• Dashboards
• Self-Service Tools
• Agent Effectiveness
• Outsourcer Culture
• Training
• Pricing Analysis
• Risk Sharing
• Rewards & Penalties

Click Download White Paper to read more about how to select the best contact center outsourcer to meet your needs.