Service Desk Effectiveness In 5 Steps – Part 2

STEP #2: Build a Plan for Automation

This is part 2 of a 5-part series on achieving service desk effectiveness.

Click Here to Review Part #1 on Achieving Service Desk Effectiveness

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we will be posting steps for your company to enhance your service desk. So, let’s push on.

IT service providers are being slowed by strict processes and the absence of automation. Tools may also be tricky to adapt and expand. Break away from what’s no longer working anymore. This is essential to gain momentum and flexibility. Leading your company through its digital transformation voyage demands it.

The Fact of the Matter

When you get jammed doing routine or tedious tasks, you get left with much less time for more important work. Password resets being an example. But these are factors that generate results to run your business faster.

Automation provides the assurance of improved efficiency and greater freedom. But it can be a huge task. Standardizing complicated processes and identifying complex workflows are not simple. Neither is taking the automated approach to multiple approvals. Workflows for requests, such as change requests and releases can be difficult. They frequently rely on tribal knowledge and many dependencies. This results in new failures and stoppages.

Additionally, automating ineffective or processes of minimal importance may lead to fresh problems. Also, attempting to automate too many can strain your automation endeavors. Even worse, it grinds them to a stop.

The Clever Solution: Automate Mundane Tasks and Processes

Draw up an automation plan, but employ discretion, especially at first. Choose straightforward but regularly used processes, to begin with. Learning from your missteps and get more innovative as you go. Bear in mind that automation won't fix a process that’s broke to start with. Make sure that your processes are solid prior to automating them.

Personnel

• Get with your service desk staff to find manual, mundane tasks that take up a lot of time. Check to see if automation can take place with minimal effort.
• Find opportunities to enhance and automate current processes. Urge staff and end-users to assist.
• Step outside the confines of IT.

Processes

• Focus on the automation of straightforward tasks. Straightforward tasks like password reset, standard, and pre-approved changes.
• Pinpoint repetitive manual tasks for automation. An example of a repetitive manual task is sending status emails and responses. Automate approvals wherever possible, like delivering notifications and handling approvals.
• Examine any process or task prior to automating it. Automating incorrect or broken processes will generate more work and impede productivity.
• Create performance metrics to ensure automation is saving time and improving outcomes.

Tech

• Avail yourself of the built-in automation within the ITSM solution. As well as constructing a library to share and re-use. Ensure it enables service desk staff to automate. It should allow them to create and configure custom automation quickly. We will cover this more in post #4.
• Leverage out of the box integration with endpoints. Integrations with Active Directory for a password reset, or AWS or Azure for a cloud VM for example. This can save time.
• Utilize APIs to broaden and incorporate in workflows outside the service desk.

Conclusion of Part #2 on Achieving Service Desk Effectiveness

Stay tuned for Part 3 of 5 in this series. You should see it in about 3 days.

Click Here to Review Part #1 on Achieving Service Desk Effectiveness

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