Enterprise service desks are hectic – the hub of interactions between customer and service providers. Add in managing multi-vendor relationships, and the pressure is turned up several degrees. Availability and capacity aside, it is very difficult for enterprises to have the right skills and knowledge across their service desk teams for their entire IT estate. What criteria is there for prioritizing the skills required? Which applications are more important than others? The picture soon becomes extremely perplexing.
To add to the complexity, different vendors have different levels of service and, where operating internationally, different languages. You can see why it is increasingly difficult for enterprises to join the service dots. When a problem occurs or an application change is required, for example, it may end up being far more difficult to carry out than at first anticipated. Primarily because there is no centralized view, and it may necessitate engaging several vendors with differential technologies, process and service levels that may sit across different time zones.
This is where Multisourcing Service Integration (MSI) service desk and monitoring tools come in, managing various support models through a single point of contact and monitoring quality of service – providing a unified picture of the enterprise's ecosystem. At the same time, cost savings can be made through economies of scale and initiating standard interfaces and processes.
The importance of help desk activity on service policing and restoration requires end-to-end monitoring systems to be put in place to guarantee that the health of services is being addressed with minimal business disruption. The Orange Business monitoring solutions are uniquely created to ensure that the customer's business outcomes are achieved. This is governed by end-to-end process monitoring and technology level monitoring coupled with differential options, application or end-user experience monitoring. These solutions provide the fundamental de facto enablers to power and support the service desks.
MSI – one stop shop for service
MSI can provide a scalable one-stop shop for an enterprise's 24/7 service desk requirements. It can also be created bespoke to requirements. Orange Business, for example, can offer an MSI service desk tailored to individual customer needs. Staff utilize support, analytics and monitoring tools that conform to processes and reporting deliverables. Key performance indicators (KPIs) at all stages ensure that customer business targets are met.
People, however, are still important to the service desk facility in an MSI scenario to run processes. But by utilizing an MSI's team to run the service desk powered by the right monitoring and reporting services, you can switch staff to concentrate on business-focused objectives instead, bolstering the bottom line.
The service desk acts as a central mechanism for all vendors' processes, recording issues and their resolutions. MSI can simplify this multiple-issues complexity, however. At Orange Business, we provide a "carrier grade single point of contact" based on our decades of experience of managing multiple vendors as a telco operator. We use our own standard set of processes backed by best-in-breed tools. This helps to define exactly how the MSI service desk will work with vendors and the enterprise.
The conventional service desk has to evolve in the right way to meet user needs in a multi-vendor environment. This is why it is imperative to carry out due diligence before deploying MSI to cover the service desk. It helps to quantify and assess in detail exactly what the business and user requirements are for support as part of its digital transformation strategy.
Re-thinking the service desk
Transferring responsibility of the service desk, which is core to supporting daily business activities, is a big move for any enterprise and requires a change in mind set. But with a better quality of service, continuous improvements and an enhanced customer experience to be gained, it has to be a no brainer.
Discover more about Multisourcing Service Integration from Orange Business.
Daniel Bigagli has held management positions at various international IT companies throughout his career, managing strategic customer projects and developing business in multiple sectors. As a VP at Orange Business, he is currently managing the Enterprise Services business unit, developing the value of Orange Professional and Integration Services.
When not working, Daniel participates in sports, particularly rowing, and enjoys family activities.