Support Strategies: Mastering Help Desk Excellence

Request for Change Definition: What is an RFC?

In IT Service Management (ITSM), and according to ITIL® practices, a Request for Change (RFC) is a formal, budgeted request to implement changes.

In most cases, an RFC is outside of any standard, minor-level changes. RFCs are part of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Change Management processes, as defined in previous iterations of the ITIL framework and the current one, ITIL v4.

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Change Management is a constant for ITIL and ITSM. Changes are often necessary, whether software or hardware roll-outs or systems upgrades. Regrettably, as every IT professional and team leader knows, mistakes can happen.

Not every change management plan goes smoothly, and when you hit bumps in the road, you need control of the complete end-to-end process. Part of ensuring you have that control is to have contingencies in place for rolling back some of the changes that have been made.

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The best IT services look for ways teams can work more effectively and efficiently to resolve issues and improve customer satisfaction. This can often include collaboration among IT specialists, including the service desk, technical support, and development teams. Leveraging their collective knowledge and skills can lead to faster and more effective ticket resolution. One such support methodology is called Intelligent Swarming.

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Every IT and ITSM (IT Service Management) leader must closely monitor Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance metrics.

SLA metrics are a measurable way of demonstrating that your team or department is hitting or missing key performance indicators (KPIs) within an SLA.

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For any IT organization, the management of change is a challenging process to implement.

Over the years, the process of implementing change has become codified around a core best practice concept known as Change Management.

For IT leaders, CIOs, and IT professionals trained using ITIL® methodologies, the concept of Change Management has been replaced with a new, more dynamic framework known as Change Enablement.

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IT support leaders often need to decide the best service approach for their entire organization. Forcing themselves to ask the question: "Which is better, an IT help desk, service desk, or IT service management?"

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The 80/20 Rule is the principle that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It's often used in business to help identify how to operate more efficiently. It can be applied to almost every area of business, including IT Service Management (ITSM).

IT service organizations and teams are focused on providing the best possible service to their internal customers. Efficiency has always been integral to ITSM. Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and dashboards, and adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is essential to producing successful outcomes in ITSM.

But how do IT service managers and IT leaders know how and where to focus the team's resources and time?

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In the IT sector, internal and external relationships are often governed by legal or quasi-legal documents. In IT and ITSM, the terms "Master Service Agreement" and "Service Level Agreement" are often used interchangeably. 

However, there are differences between the two kinds of agreements that can impact how you want to use them in your organization. While both can be used for similar purposes — such as establishing clear expectations for internal IT service providers or external vendors — what separates them and how they're used are sufficiently different that it's worth taking the time to understand why this is important.

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So, what is the meaning of an SLA, or what does SLA stand for, anyway?

The term Service Level Agreement (SLA) is basically self-defining: two parties (service provider and customer) officially agreeing on the level of service by which they both are willing to abide. However, defining and creating an effective SLA between an ITSM team and the rest of the organization, or between a third-party provider and a business isn't always that easy.

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