Giva recently launched a new User Interface for our Giva eChangeManager.  See a demo at Hosted Change Management Software.

A hosted change management solution offers a lower total Cost of Ownership.

Giva eChangeManager starts with a simple home page.

• Submit a new change request, by clicking on “Create New RFC”
• Search for RFCs by typing in keywords or an RFC number in the “Find RFC” tab or use the mini search in the main navigation on each page.
• RFCs Waiting For Approvel by the Change Manager and others are quickly accessed.
• Recent and Upcoming RFCs 30 days in the past or scheduled for 30 day into the the future are quickly accessed.
• Optional Knowledgebase tab is also available for more advanced organizations where standard documents and files such as Implementation, Test and Backout Plans are stored for easy reuse.
• Giva’s outstanding Reports are quickly accessed from each page in the main navigation.

The Gartner Group published a report several years ago that stated that 87% of calls into a typical company's helpdesk were the result of change-related failures. The Help Desk Institute determined that the support industry standard cost per contact is between $15 and $30. If your support organization averages 1500 service requests a month, using Gartner’s 87% figure and $25 per contact, the cost of change related failure requests is an astounding $391,500 annually!

Furthermore, today, the primary communication vehicles used by IT professionals for requesting and managing IT changes are paper, email and voicemail. People generate and forward these vehicles around the organization, but often the key people and departments are not aware of important changes. Often, no central authority prioritizes very important IT requests for changes or makes escalations in a timely manner. At Giva, we understand the importance of a sound change process.

Giva also knows that the key person to making a change process work is the IT Change Manager and we know that this job is very demanding! It requires the balancing of priorities between reviewing all new requests for change (RFC), chairing the Change Advisory Board, prioritizing, approving, scheduling and conducting post-implementation change reviews. In order to help manage such a demanding and important job, the Change Manager needs a way to document the change flow and automate the tasks.  Giva’s eChangeManager^SM was designed by a team of product managers using extensive customer feedback and “best practices” as defined by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and IT Service Management (ITSM). Unlike most change management applications, eChangeManager was designed to be first a stand-alone application and then integrated and, most importantly, simple to configure and easy to use.  One person on the team won the prestigious Help Desk Institute Help Desk of the Year award in 1998 and was a runner-up in 1997 not only for his helpdesk but for his design and implementation of IT change management processes and tools.

See more at https://www.givainc.com/change-management-software/

The follow are the high level steps where a good SaaS hosted change management software application will assist in the change process workflow:

• Step 1:  Request for Change (RFC) Submission:  Users and Customers submit requests into the SaaS hosted change management software.  Requirements include the reason for change, customers affected, estimated cost, impact on existing services and other relevant factors.  Documents can be attached to the RFC such as business and project plans and ROI analysis.

·         Step 2:  Change Manager Acceptance:  The Change Manager is notified by the SaaS hosted change management software of a new RFC. 

o        Change Acceptance:  This means the actual receipt, recording and documentation of the RFC.

o        Filter RFC:  The Change Manager filters out inappropriate requests, and informs the RFC initiator of the acceptance or rejection and the reason.

• Step 3:  Establish Priority:
  Urgent Priority:  The Change Manager may classify the initial priority as Urgent. The SaaS hosted change management software automatically notifies CAB or CAB/EC of an urgent meeting.  If the CAB approves the change, then the Change Manager updates the change record and implements the urgent change process.
• Priority:  The Change Manager decides the category (initial impact/resource estimate) and/or use of standard (minor) change model.
  
  
• Step 4: Classification

• Minor Change:  The Change Manager has the authority to approve or reject a minor change.  The Change Manager schedules the change based on resources and other changes scheduled in the change management software.  This action automatically notifies the CAB.
• Significant Change:  If the Change Manager assigns the priority as “Significant”, then the SaaS hosted change management software automatically circulates the RFC to CAB members.  CAB members then confirm impact/resources estimate and priority, approve/reject changes and schedule changes.
• Major Change:  If the Change Manager assigns the priority as “Major”, then the SaaS hosted change management software automatically circulates the RFC to CAB members AND to senior management/board level.  CAB and senior management approves/reject changes on the grounds of financial, technical or business reasons.  Next, the change is scheduled.
  
• Step 5:  Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC):  This is a schedule that contains details of all the Changes approved for implementation and their proposed implementation dates.   Once approved, the responsible Service Group communicates to Users and Customers any planned or additional downtime arising from implementing the Changes.
  

• Step 6:  Change Builder Input:  Approved changes have a responsible builder party that builds the change in the development environment, creates the back out and testing plans.  The Change builder updates the RFC with all this information.
  

• Step 7:  Change Implemented Documentation:  The RFC is updated after the change is successful implemented with actual change data, costs, time to implement and realized benefits.  Also, the RFC is updated if the change did not work. The update includes what went wrong, impact on customers and the business, lessons learned and recommendations to avoid the same mistakes in the future.
  

• Step 8:  Change Closed:  The Change Manager closes the RFC.  He verifies that the record has all the required information entered according to the established change processes.

·         Step 9: Reporting Metrics:  The Change Management process' key metrics include the following:
1.  Cost and benefit information.
2.  The source of and reasons for change. For example, corrective vs. innovative, business vs. technical.
3.  Number of successful or unsuccessful changes.  For example, how many changes had to be backed-out and how many problems arose.
4.  Status metrics. For example, the number of changes in progress or the number of new changes in backlog.

Throughout the change process, SaaS hosted change management software has all the current information for all of IT. However, more specifically it has this information available for the help desk.  When anything out of the ordinary comes to the help desk, a simple click of the SaaS hosted change management software hyperlink will allow a User to access all recent changes. Valuable time is not required for diagnosing an issue that is the result of a change.  If necessary, the help desk can create a ticket with a cause code of “Change” and immediately assign it to the responsible change implementation person. 

Giva eChangeManager is integrated with Giva eHelpDesk. There is also a standalone edition of Giva eChangeManager. This can be integrated with other problem management systems.

For more information see https://www.givainc.com/change-management-software/

Change Management is first and foremost a process. It is a process involving all of IT. It must have the highest management support. The following are roles and responsibilities that need to be in place before embarking on a Change Management process. These must be in place before a change management process can be successfully implemented.  Consider SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) to make getting up and running faster, easier and less expensive.

• Change Manager
  • Ensures the Change Process Is Followed
  • Approves Low Risk Changes
  • Issues Future Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC)
  • Coordinates Change Building
  • Reviews All Implemented Changes
  • Closes Change Records
  • Produces Management Reports
• Change Advisory Board (CAB)
  • Reviews All Submitted Request for Changes (RFC)
  • Attends Relevant CAB or CAB/EC Meetings
  • Advises the Change Manger
• Emergency Committee (EC) (Subset of the CAB)
• Makes Decisions on Urgent Changes
  

Please see https://www.givainc.com/change-management-software/ for more information.

Benefits of Change Management

• Better alignment of IT services to actual business needs
• Increased visibility and communication of changes to both business and service support staff
• Reduced negative impact of change on IT services by improving the assessment of business and technical risk
• Improved assessment of the cost of proposed Changes before they are incurred
• Improved Problem, Supplier, and Availability Management through the use of valuable management information relating to Changes
• Improved productivity of Users through less disruption and higher quality services
• Improved productivity of key IT personnel due to reduced repair of Changes
• Greater ability to absorb a large volume of Changes

Benefits of SaaS Hosted Approach to Change Management:

• No Upfront Costs — No servers, Software or IT resources
• Quick Setup & Maintenance Free
• Low TCO — Higher ROI vs. Purchasing and Maintaining Software

See https://www.givainc.com/change-management-software/ for more information

The objective of Change Management is to help maximize the benefits of making changes to the IT infrastructure while minimizing the risks involved in making those changes.

The implementation of a Change Management process represents a major milestone for an IT organization on the road to stabilizing its IT infrastructure. It is probably the most difficult process to establish because it requires the support of everyone involved in IT provisioning and support.

The Gartner Group published a report several years ago that stated that 87% of the calls into a typical company's Help Desk were the result of change-related failures. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the successful implementation of the Change Management process should lead to significant improvements in the overall stability and quality of IT services.

The Change Management process does not guarantee that changes to the IT infrastructure will not cause problems, but it reduces the probability.

See https://www.givainc.com/change-management-software/ for more information

Help desks and customer service organizations that have successfully journeyed from being reactive to being strategic generally follow a similar path. Often the steps include the following:

> Develop a call reduction strategy. The most common approach to call reduction is root-cause analysis; a process designed to eliminate the source of key problems. Root-cause analysis, which ought to be undertaken monthly, categorizes calls by type and technology and then discovers common causes for those calls. Next it acts to diminish the number of future calls by refining user training or the development of new online help screens. For example, one help desk found that new employees called the help desk an average of four times per month, while those who had worked at the company for a year or more averaged only one call per month. By providing a half-hour IT orientation to all new employees, the help desk reduced call volume from new users by 60 percent. But don't overlook the obvious. Another help desk reduced incoming calls by nearly 5 percent just by informing callers how their problems had been solved. The next time users encountered the same problem, they were able to solve it without the help desk.

> Free agents to work on call abatement projects. Since abatement projects are the heavy-lifting task of call desk centers, they need to be undertaken well out of earshot of ringing phones. The most common excuse for agents being unavailable for planning is they are trapped in 911 mode. To release agents for call abatement, try to assign additional resources to staffing on the phones or else be prepared for a short-term increase in the call volume can be reduced. Contractors can be particularly useful as a stopgap resource for answering telephones while regular agents focus on call reduction efforts.

See the following link for a great White Paper on the topic:

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers/

A lot of software licenses are not used and become "Shelfware" because the needs of the purchaser changed or the software never delivered what the purchaser expected.  Often, the purchaser thinks that they know what they need as far as feature requirements, but after implementation they can not get their employees or customers engaged to use the application.  Also, in time their needs change and the product the bought has not evolved to meet their changing needs.

In summary, there is a lot of risk in purchasing software. Consider if the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model may help your organization minimize risk and decrease the lifetime TCO of an application.

Request a Free Needs Assessment your Help Desk or Customer Service Software Requirements

Giva provides some valuable tools to help you better understand the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of owning software applications and comparing it to the SaaS approach.

The purchase price of software licenses and annual maintenance fees you pay a vendor are a very small component of the true TCO.

Hardware, databases and related purchases are important to consider, but they are not as large as the actual labor required to manage and maintain the application and the infrastructure. Gartner Group estimates some of these costs and Giva will provide them to you in an Excel spreadsheet if you request a TCO analysis.

Labor is an enormous component that is always over looked and universally underestimated due to human bias. It's often hard for IT people to admit that an outside vendor can do a better job and be more cost effective. The fact is that SaaS vendors have enormous scale and efficiencies of building, managing, maintaining and hosting an application for 100,000s of users vs. your company trying to do the same for your IT department which is of course many many orders of magnitude smaller.

When your CIO says, "we have plenty of IT people to do all this work", respond by saying, "Let's look at your list of IT projects for the last 12 month...are you ahead or behind schedule?" Invariably, you will find that they are significantly behind schedule on many key revenue impact projects because the IT dept is spending a lot of time just to keep the infrastructure up and running instead of focusing on strategic projects that impact/generate revenue to the company.  As you well know, a help desk/customer service organization does not generate revenue for a company.

Request a Free TCO Comparing Your Help Desk or Customer Service Software vs. Giva