The Help Desk Audit: Blueprint for Success at Dominant Systems Book Store

Excellent topic really targets what Help Desk management needs to know. --Dorth Kirsch, SSCE 2002, May 2002

Customer Reviews & Comments
If you manage help desk or service desk operations this book is an essential tool for achieving the best possible level of efficiency and customer satisfaction. I recommend also getting the companion CD titled, "The Help Desk Audit Toolkit" (ISBN 0974080810), which contains the forms and other artifacts used in this book. The author approaches help desk process improvement through an audit process that examines key process areas (or lack thereof), and leads you through the audit to determine at which level of maturity your current operation is at - and what is required to get you to the optimum level based on your budget and organization. The audit process itself is a straightforward five-step process that consists of:1 - Assess2 - Compare3 - Plan4 - Implement5 - Assess (adjust is a better way of looking at this step) The areas covered are thorough and address all of the key aspects of help desk operations. These areas are divided into blocks and specific areas, which are: BLOCK 1 - Foundation. Mission/Vision, Structure and Products and Services Provided.BLOCK 2 - People. Staff, Performance Metrics, Training and Staff Development.BLOCK 3 - Process. Call Handling, Problem Management and Problem Escalation.BLOCK 4 - Tools. Tools & Technologies, and E-Support and Knowledge Management Enhancements.BLOCK 5 - Customer Management. Service Level Management, Customer Satisfaction Measurement, and Customer Communication Process. The cycle in each block's specific area is to gather information, determine where on the maturity scale you are (immature, emergent, mature or advanced), and devise an improvement strategy. The aggregate of results from each block is used to determine your overall maturity rating. If you are implementing ITIL, trying to improve your help desk operational efficiency, or just want to benchmark your operation against best practices, this book is the primary resource to which you should turn. Also, BLOCK 5 is applicable to call centers of companies that are implementing ISO 9001:2000 because of that standard's emphasis on measuring customer satisfaction. Finally, if ITIL is important, the key areas and approach align nicely to service desk operational areas.

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