AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT

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1 MEMBER REPORT INSPIRING SERVICE DESKS TO BE BRILLIANT AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT MAY 2016

2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR CONTENTS The author of this report is SDI s Industry Analyst Ollie O Donoghue. Ollie is dedicated to providing insightful and practical research to the service desk industry. Ollie s work at SDI involves working with a wide range of service teams around Europe, providing him with a great deal of experience in a variety of businesses. You can find more of Ollie s work on the SDI Blog and can follow him on Introduction ESM and the Service Desk Areas of Impact Benefits and Challenges Summary About SDI Contact SDI While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this report, the results, estimates and opinions stated are based on sources which, while we believe them to be reliable, are not guaranteed. No liability can be accepted by SDI, its Directors or Employees for any loss to any person acting or failing to act as a result of anything contained in or omitted from this report, or conclusions stated. 2

3 INTRODUCTION ESM AND THE SERVICE DESK In many organisations there are a variety of business services, such as IT, HR and Facilities Management, that employees consume to be productive. As each of these business units has evolved separately over time, their processes, toolsets and practices differ considerably. Enterprise Service Management (ESM) is an approach to sharing the best practices from these different business units, most commonly frameworks from ITSM, to boost performance. The benefits of this approach can be considerable, ranging from an improved collaboration between business services to a onestop-shop approach to all business service delivery. ESM is also an opportunity for ITSM to reposition itself as central to the success and best practice of an entire organisation. For many service desks, taking on board what ESM has to offer regarding service improvements and business reputation is becoming integral to the strategic future of their organisation. In 2015 SDI conducted research 1 into a new approach to service management which at the time had been titled Shared Service Management or SSM. The research probed the industry to understand the extent to which organisations were merging service desks and combining business services. Compellingly, the results revealed a widespread movement in the service management industry to merge desks with 55% of respondents advising they were already planning for SSM (see chart one). Chart one: Is it on the agenda to merge services from other desks? No current plans Within the next three years Within the next twelve months Already have Within the next six months 1. SDI conducted research into the emerging Shared Service Management trend in conjunction with TOPDESK. The report Merging Desks Shared Service Management revealed some telling insights into the new trend and have laid the groundwork for future research into its evolution Enterprise Service Management. 3

4 The report went on to recognise the potential scale of the impact SSM would have on the industry, with 90% of organisations advising that they have more than one service desk. Today, SSM and ESM have evolved into two conceptually similar approaches but with significant differences. SSM seeks to deliver value through economies of scale by merging business services together to offer a combined service, often resulting in a considerable change such as co-location, multi-skilled teams, and joint processes. Chart two: Do you have more than one desk within your organisation (i.e. facilities or human resources)? To put this into context, where SSM would seek to combine IT and HR into one team offering a single service, ESM seeks to export the most effective processes and tools of IT to HR or vice versa. Separating the two approaches out allows for greater clarity on the extent to which both are being adopted in the service desk industry. Chart three: What stage are you currently collaborating on service management with other departments? Nothing shared Shared service management tool Shared processes across business Have a shared service desk team Yes ESM, on the other hand, focuses considerably less on the physical or organisational merging of teams and instead seeks to leverage greater business value through the adoption of proven service management best practices to other services. No Indeed, a closer analysis of the 2015 research reveals that over 20% of service desks currently share processes across the business (see chart three). As a percentage of the service desk industry, 20% comprises a significant impact to established working practices. Furthermore, the conclusion of the 2015 research was that the adoption of this approach was accelerating. 4

5 AREAS OF IMPACT The research went on to argue that the sharing of processes across the business was considered to be the first step of a shared service management initiative, with subsequent steps increasing the extent to which the services shared resources such as tools and technology. The ESM trend has altered this view considerably with evidence suggesting the initial step of sharing processes may, in fact, be the only step of real business value for some organisations and as a result, the step at which they end the process. It is notable that a large proportion of respondents advised they also share a service management tool, a prospect that is becoming increasingly popular with the ESM trend due to innovations in both features and implementation options for current ITSM tools. ESM can impact an organisation in many ways. For example, it may be that an organisation will only share and adopt best practices or will stretch the initiative further to sharing tools and technologies. Some of the key areas of impact will be discussed in greater detail below. Best practices and frameworks Synonymous with ESM is the sharing of working practices and frameworks that have proven successful in other business services. Often, the mature frameworks and practices of ITSM are spread across business services to extend the benefits and the value they create. Frameworks such as ITIL are frequently used to display the benefits of this approach. On a more granular level, specific processes such as incident management which have driven efficiency and consistency in IT are exported to other areas of the business that would follow a similar workflow, Facilities Management for example. From a business customer s perspective, there is relatively little difference between a broken chair and a faulty printer. Both rely on the delivery of a specific outcome from a business service. Often, however, both of these issues are handled completely differently by the respective departments, each with a separate set of processes. Working to rationalise these processes by adopting the one that offers the best outcome can considerably improve the quality of the service on offer. 5

6 Tools and Technology To some extent, the ESM trend has been driven by service management vendors seeking to extend the value of their tools to other areas of a business. As processes are shared across the business, it makes sense for tools and technology also to be shared to ensure consistency. As a result, many tools now deliver shared or enterprise service management offerings, such as bespoke HR modules that are hosted with their IT counterparts but remain, from a user perspective, very separate. Indeed, the success of ESM is reliant on the collaboration of the people that make up the different business services. The project can only be successful if there is a willingness to break down traditional silos and build an improved service. As tools and technologies evolve to deliver increased business value from merged business services, the trend is likely to increase. In the experience of the Service Desk Institute, the features and functionality of ITSM tools often rival the technologies available to other business services. Correspondingly, there is evidence of business services proactively approaching IT functions to take up a similar toolset rather than IT approaching the business services to recognise a greater economy of scale. People ESM can have a profound impact on people and the environment of business services. Primarily, the way employees interact with each other is likely to change. Shared processes and technologies will undoubtedly lead to closer working and collaborative relationships between business units that would have otherwise remained separate. ESM offers the opportunity for communication channels between different teams to open up and further refine the services they offer. 6

7 BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES In the 2015 report on SSM, a raft of potential challenges was identified ranging from people factors such as change aversion to resource pressures. Many of these challenges were linked to the large-scale project that would be necessary to form a shared service and, as a result, are not always applicable to ESM. Nevertheless, sharing processes and technology can comprise a considerable change for some organisations. However, as reviews often take place regularly as processes become inefficient and technologies obsolete, it is often the case that aspects of ESM will be considered at regular review stages and rarely comprise a significant overhaul of multiple business areas. ESM, as a result, is not subject to the same influential factors such as organisational politics to the same extent. As described in the previous section, ESM capabilities in tools are now developed to the extent that many business services may share them, recognising the benefits, but seeing few of the downsides. Indeed, the returns can be considerable, with many boosted further as more is shared. Improvements to customer satisfaction, as an example, can be increased through the improved service delivered by the adoption of shared best practices. It can be increased more as customer facing portals, particularly self-service, offer them the opportunity to request services from multiple business areas at once. Some of the key benefits associated with ESM are: Increased Customer Satisfaction One of the greatest and arguably most important benefits of ESM is the potential to drastically improve the customer experience. Business customers consume a range of services to remain productive. These services, however, are often disparate and need to be engaged in different ways. ESM seeks to build a serviceoriented culture that focuses on the needs of the customer first. Perhaps the best example of this in action is through a shared self-service portal. In this portal customers can request services from multiple providers from one single point. At the same time as reporting an IT fault they can report issues with facilities for example. This approach not only boosts the customer experience but, by building a central resource, it can considerably reduce the amount of time and effort customers expend when seeking to secure business services. Streamlined Support Structure Improved customer experience is not the only benefit organisations can expect from ESM. A shared approach to providing support services will substantially streamline structures, providing tangible savings in cost and resources. Perhaps the best example of this in practice is the service journey of a new employee. In many organisations, a new employee, or their manager, would be expected to engage separate business services to get them set up in the respective area. IT for access and a laptop, HR for employment checks and records and Facilities Management to get the workspace set up. 7

8 SUMMARY Approaching each of these services independently is not only time consuming for the requestor but is also inefficient for the disparate back office functions. The separate workflows could be more efficient if they were approached from a shared process perspective. To illustrate this new journey, a requestor need only approach one business unit, perhaps through a shared portal. This request then sets off a series of concurrent workflows IT begin to set up the laptop while HR is getting employee records set up. This smoother process ensures employees are productive faster but allows for the removal of unnecessary processes that deliver little value. Increased Transparency and Governance The improved transparency that ESM can bring to the organisation is another considerable benefit. It is possible, with several processes in scope to have increased control and ensure they deliver the most value collectively. Furthermore, reporting and analysis can reveal issues in processes and services in general, such as bottlenecks or areas of poor performance, allowing for their improvement. Enterprise Service Management offers service desks the opportunity to extend their value across the business. ITSM working practices have been developed and refined to deliver greater business value, and now, business units outside of IT can benefit by adopting tried and tested processes and tools. If done correctly the benefits can be enormous. Organisations can make savings as business services and support structures are streamlined to deliver a joined-up and efficient approach. Improvements to customer experience can be realised as users consume services from a broad range of providers from a collected resource. Organisations that wish to recognise these benefits can do so without facing many of the challenges associated with the wider sharing of services associated with SSM. Beginning this process by collaborating with other business services and then moving on to establish efficient processes underpinned by innovative toolsets is a viable strategy, and one that will support services in realising the full potential of ESM. Considering the collective performance of multiple business services with a service-oriented focus will drive continual improvement as the value provided is magnified as it is spread across the business. 8

9 ABOUT SDI CONTACT SDI The SDI company mission is to inspire service desks to be brilliant. To achieve this mission SDI has developed a set of goals by which it aims to inspire service desks to: Embrace: To raise the quality of service delivery by valuing best practice Engage: To create an inspiring and engaging customer experience Invest: To empower their teams to be inspired, take action and be better Service Desk Institute 21 High Street Green Street Green Orpington Kent BR6 6BG +44 (0) servicedeskinstitute.com Shine: To demonstrate and deliver exceptional business value SDI sets the globally recognised best practice service desk standards that provide clear and measurable benchmarks for service desk operations and professionals. The standards are designed to encourage service desks to embrace and value best practice in order to raise the quality of service delivery. For more information about SDI please visit