The good news? The Lean philosophy of eliminating waste – anything that doesn’t add customer value – makes your IT service management more efficient and customer-centric.

A brief history of Lean

Lean is a philosophy that concentrates on cutting the so-called waste in your daily work to focus on what truly matters: delivering customer value. Anything that doesn’t add customer value is considered waste.

A good example of a Lean approach is McDonald’s Speedee Service System. Back in 1948, McDonald’s redesigned their kitchen to maximize efficiency. The end result? Hamburgers served within 30 seconds.

Currently, car manufacturer Toyota is the leading Lean exemplar in the world, thanks to the Toyota Production System (TPS), invented in the fifties to eliminate waste in Toyota’s manufacturing and logistics processes.

The benefits of Lean Service Management

The Lean approach also works outside of hamburgers and cars.

Even though Lean doesn’t offer any specific guidance for IT service management, its philosophy works well alongside other ITSM frameworks. In fact, ITIL 4’s introduction of the Service Value System relies heavily on the Lean mindset and terminology.

Lean Service Management’s focus on customer value helps you step into your customers’ shoes and think from their perspective. This makes adapting your IT services to meet increasing customer expectations easier. And eliminating steps in your processes that don’t add customer value makes delivering IT services more efficient, ultimately lowering resolution times and increasing customer satisfaction.

Remember: Lean is a philosophy, not a rigid, unchanging set of beliefs and methods.

The 5 principles of Lean Service Management

A Lean process is based on the following 5 principles:

1. Identify value

Specify the value your customer is looking for. What do they want or need? What problem do they have that needs to be solved?

2. Map the value stream

Identify which process you need to deliver this specific value to your customer. This is called a value stream. Challenge the steps within this process: do they help deliver value? If not, try to eliminate them.

3. Create flow

Make sure the value stream runs in tight sequence so the value will flow smoothly to your customer.

4. Establish pull

Deliver the value when your customer requests it.

5. Seek perfection

Repeat the process, striving to make it perfect. Note that the goal here isn’t perfection itself, as that’s unattainable, but rather the pursuit of perfection – also known as continuous improvement.

Use Lean Service Management flexibly

These Lean principles provide you with great tools to start improving your IT processes. But remember: Lean is a philosophy, not a rigid, unchanging set of beliefs and methods. It can change or look differently, depending on the context and on the unique needs of your organization. So, pick and choose the elements from Lean that work for you and start there.

This attitude is part of a little something we at TOPdesk call service flux: embracing change and using philosophies and frameworks flexibly to make iterative improvements to your services. All so you can adapt to a constantly changing world.

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What is sustainable growth in business?

Let’s get our terms straight first. Inc. defines sustainable growth as “the realistically attainable growth that a company could maintain without running into problems.”

But, in recent times, sustainable growth has taken on a new meaning beyond purely business success.

Nowadays, customers and employees alike expect companies to be more socially and environmentally aware as well as accountable and responsible for their impact in society. This has led to a new definition of sustainable growth. As Forbes now describes it, sustainable growth is growth that’s repeatable, ethical, and responsible to, and for, current and future communities.

What does sustainable growth look like in practice?

These definitions are great, but what does repeatable, ethical, and responsible growth look like in practice? Let’s illustrate this with an example of a company that most definitely does NOT commit to sustainable growth.

You’ve guessed it – we’re talking about Amazon.

Amazon is one of the top companies in the world: it has held the No. 2 spot in Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies for six consecutive years. While Amazon’s numbers and its focus on customer experience might be impressive, its business model isn’t.

According to Forbes, Amazon’s net profits increased by 84% in 2020, with sales hitting $386 billion. Yes, billion. At the same time, Amazon was systematically shortchanging workers on their paychecks and refused to pay corporate tax. Not to mention its enormous and growing plastic footprint, which increased by a third during the pandemic .

It’s clear that instead of committing to sustainable growth, Amazon simply focuses on maximum growth, with minimal regard for its workers, suppliers, or the planet.

But luckily, there are also a lot of companies that do commit to sustainable growth. To mention a few: Patagonia, which is “in business to save our home planet”; Gravity Payments, whose CEO raised the minimum wage in the company to $70,000; and Intersolve, who started talking about sustainable growth before it was cool – back in 1994.

How TOPdesk approaches sustainable growth

Now that we have a good grasp of what sustainable growth is (and isn’t), let’s hear from TOPdesk’s CFO, Rob Haaring, to find out how TOPdesk approaches sustainable growth.

“Sustainable growth is one of the four guiding principles of TOPdesk. Instead of doing whatever it takes to maximize our profit, we think about the long-term future. This has been the case ever since our CEO Wolter Smit first founded TOPdesk in 1994. We believe we can grow, make a profit, and positively influence our employees, customers, suppliers, and the planet – all at the same time. That’s what sustainable growth means to us,” Rob explains.

But how does this long-term vision translate into daily life? Let’s take a look at what TOPdesk does to commit to sustainable growth.

1. We use our own funds

Most organizations use external investors to maximize growth. TOPdesk doesn’t.

“Ever since TOPdesk was first founded, we’ve used the funds we generate ourselves to grow. We made a conscious decision to do it differently,” Rob shares. “When you’re working with external investors, it can be more difficult to stick to your principles – what if they have a very different approach to growth, for example?”

Of course, we never say never. But one thing’s for sure: if TOPdesk does decide to work with external investors in the future, they have to share our vision on sustainable growth. Rob believes that shouldn’t necessarily be a problem, though:

“Luckily, the market is changing: Corporate Social Responsibility and true sustainable growth are becoming increasingly important, for organizations and external investors alike. I’m very happy with this development,” Rob says.

2. We don’t skimp on research & development

Our software is our baby. Naturally, we want to keep it close. So, while some organizations slowly scale down their investment in research & development after a while to maximize profit, TOPdesk heavily invests in our software – no matter what.

Rob explains: “Our developers are crucial to continuously improve and innovate our software and make it as user-friendly as possible. We value our people and their expertise and never outsource development – even though that’s a lot cheaper.”

We believe we can grow, make a profit, and positively influence our employees, customers, suppliers, and the planet – all at the same time.

3. We invest in our people

At TOPdesk, we value the well-being and happiness of our employees over rapid growth or a quick profit.

Ways in which we focus on employee experience include bringing in temporary reinforcements to lessen the workload of our support heroes during busy periods or giving TOPdeskers the time and money (10% of their gross salaries) to invest in their own personal and professional development – and so much more.

We believe that if our people are happy, our customers are happy. It’s no wonder that some of our customers have been with us for almost 20 years.

Rob shares: “I am proud of how well TOPdesk takes care of both its employees and customers. It’s something we will never compromise on.”

4. We prioritize Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR isn’t just a box to tick off for us.

We know we’re not perfect yet, but we hold ourselves accountable and try to do better. By looking critically at TOPdesk’s footprint and finding ways to make it smaller. And by giving TOPdeskers the freedom to take initiative when it comes to doing things for a good cause.

Read more on employee experience

Read more about employee experience at TOPdesk to find out what we’ve been doing to become more socially responsible so far – and how we want to do better in the future.

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And it’s not all about adopting the latest tech. In fact, new research from the Service Desk Institute shows that so-called “soft skills” like emotional intelligence and communication are becoming increasingly valuable for today’s IT teams, while previously sought after technical skills are becoming less relevant.

5 soft skills IT departments need

Because technology is now changing at such a rate that technical skills can quickly become outdated and likely won’t retain value in the long term. And with artificial intelligence (AI) changing everything about how we work, it’s worth investing in uniquely human skills that can’t be replicated by machines.

1. Communication

Sure, your service desk employees should have the right technical know-how to understand a customer’s problem and help them find the solution they need. But effectively communicating that solution to them is another skillset entirely. Set yourself up for success by sourcing IT professionals with strong customer communication skills.

2. Emotional intelligence

According to the SDI survey, 73% of IT professionals see emotional intelligence as the most valuable skill for an IT professional to have over the next 2-3 years. And is it any wonder? Working at the IT service desk often means helping customers in stressful, emotionally charged situations. And nobody wants to be treated like a number. Making sure your employees can empathize and ask the right questions to get to the bottom of the problem won’t just save time – it’ll make for a much better customer experience.

3. Failing forward

You can’t innovate without making mistakes. And the same applies at the IT service desk. Your employees should feel empowered to take initiative and try to help customers without fear of failure. Foster a safe corporate culture where experimentation, failing and learning from mistakes is encouraged and you’ll be sure to see results in the long run.

4. Continuous learning

Your employees should always be learning – whether it’s their first week on the job or they’ve been part of the team for years. Encourage and facilitate learning and development opportunities and actively source employees with an intrinsic desire to learn – your organization will only benefit from their continuous growth.

5. Agility

Agile isn’t a buzzword – it’s a mindset. Done right, agile working can make your IT department more flexible, reduce response times and eventually create more value for your customers. When looking for new additions to your team, seek out people with an agile mindset, who actively embrace change and can think on their feet.

Help your IT team reach their full potential

If you want an IT team that consistently delivers great services, you’ve got to start by creating an engaging environment for your employees to work in. Check out these 5 tips for creating a better employee experience for happier customers.

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But what is service automation? And how can your team make the most of it? Here’s everything you need to know about service automation.

What is service automation?

Let’s start by getting our terms straight. ITSM (IT Service Management) is the set of systems and processes organizations use to improve the way IT services are delivered to end-users.

Service automation means automating some of these processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual tasks for service desk employees, freeing up time for the work that requires a human touch. Simple as that.

Some examples of processes that can be easily automated are creating and tracking incidents and providing automated answers to simple requests via a self-service portal.

By automating easy tasks like password resets, you enable IT professionals to focus on higher level issues and more demanding requests. This can decrease service desk calls by more than 40% and reduce end-user downtime.

What are the benefits of service automation?

As well as making life easier for service desk employees, service automation also has several benefits for your organization, including:

Fewer repetitive tasks

Service automation also means you can reduce the number of simple, repetitive tasks that your service desk employees have to perform on a daily basis. By automating easy tasks like password resets, you enable IT professionals to focus on higher level issues and more demanding requests that require a human touch. This can decrease service desk calls by more than 40% and reduce end-user downtime.

Are password resets draining your IT department? Learn how to save time and money by automating these processes.

Smoother incident management

When a customer logs a request, it’s important that it gets to the person with the right skillset to help the customer solve their problem. makes the process of assigning incidents to the correct person easier by identifying the properties of incidents and service requests within a specific category.

It can also provide service desk employees with suggestions for other fields in the incident and service request forms, making them easier to complete.

Discover the benefits of service desk automation.

Improved customer experience as a result of automation

Your customers expect a seamless, personalized experience with your services. But they also expect it to reflect the positive experiences they have with B2C technology in their daily lives. Chatbots and conversational AI with Natural Language Processing (NLP) can answer customers’ straightforward questions by analyzing their written texts and interpreting their meaning.

This means customers don’t have to spend time searching for an answer or waiting for a response from IT. And the conversations between your customer and the chatbot can already provide a lot of helpful insights for IT, so you can get straight to work on the incident.

Find out what chatbots can do for your service desk.

How to get started with service automation?

All of this sounds good, but where should you begin when it comes to automating your service management processes? And which tasks should be prioritized? Here are a few tips:

Look at the kinds of requests your service desk gets most frequently, day-to-day. Go down the list and, for each item, ask: Do we always perform the same steps to complete this process? Can we determine rules for performing these steps? And, finally, does resolving this request add value for the organization? If so, then this task is a prime candidate for automation.

Take our service automation Quick Scan

Are you a service automation beginner, pro, or wizard? Our Quick Scan assesses your service automation maturity and gives you insights into how to future-proof your service desk with automation.

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As opposed to ITIL, agile service management doesn’t provide you with extensive process descriptions you can implement in detail. Agile is a philosophy and based on it you determine how you want to set up your work. There is of course much to learn from other organizations. According to the agile service management principles by Dolf van der Haven, I’ll give you 6 practical examples on how to make your service management more agile.

1. Make sure everything you do adds value for the customer

IT departments too often put a lot of work into things that have little value for their customers. I recently visited an organization where the IT department had written an extensive manual for a new smartphone they offered. Sounds useful, but most of this information was already available on the internet. And the next OS update is going to make their manual outdated.

A more agile way of documenting is to keep the information in your manual limited to what is strictly necessary and first give these instructions to a small test group. Only describe company-specific information, like how to synchronize your work email with the new smartphone. Do you receive questions from your test group? Update the documentation before you officially start supplying the smartphone.

2. Always work closely with your customers

When designing services or processes, service organizations make a lot of assumptions about the needs of their customers. An example: for years, a facilities organization encouraged their customers to log a call when something was wrong with in the office building. They recently discovered their customers found it quite annoying to receive five to six status update emails after they logged a call. That was the reason many customers decided to stop logging calls altogether.

In agile service management, you involve your customers often and as soon as possible with everything you do. This way, you avoid working based on assumptions. The organization from the example has come up with a solution together with their customers. When customers log a call, they can tick a box saying they want to receive status updates. One question and a single checkbox could have spared five years of frustration.

3. The right people in the right place

Many IT organizations lean heavily on processes. The goal of working with processes is to guarantee a consistent quality of services, no matter who supplies the service. Sounds good in theory. In practice, it does matter who supplies the service. An unmotivated service desk employee probably leaves a less positive impression on the customer than a happy, motivated employee. You can’t cover this difference with a process.

An important part of the agile mindset is having enough time and attention for your team members. Your team only functions well with people who are good at the work they do, and when the work they do makes them happy. Is a team member no longer motivated? Talk to him or her. Maybe they’re happier in a different role.

4. Make your processes as flexible as possible

ITIL processes are usually not flexible. Take change management. A Request for Change needs to go through a set number of predefined steps. The only choice you have in the process is approve or decline. There is no room to change plans. If you want to change them, you need to stop the process, make a new plan and get approval.

Make sure that the processes you design are flexible enough to deal with ever-changing demands. This however doesn’t mean you need to implement every single change during the process. It does mean that you leave room for your team to deal with the processes as they see fit.

5. Design, implement and improve your services step by step

New software or services implementations can take up months, years even. When the implementation is finally done, you’ve gained so many new insights you probably want to change everything. But by that time there’s no more budget left, the project team members have moved on and it’s up to the application manager to process all the feedback on her or his own. Delivering new services in an agile way means you deliver something workable as soon as possible, collect feedback, and use this feedback to improve the product.

At TOPdesk we do software implementations step by step. We first set up a basic version of the call management process, and as soon as it’s operational, we go live. The process isn’t perfect, but we’re okay with that. While we continue working on the next process, we receive feedback to improve call management.

6. Keep your services and operations straightforward

Request process often contain a lot of unnecessary management authorizations. The IT department assumes that management wants control over every individual request. Or the IT department doesn’t carry any responsibility. This makes for a process full of authorizations and a manager who gets loads of emails with authorization requests.

The process shouldn’t be this cumbersome. It works better when the IT department asks the managers how much control they really want or need. They usually don’t really want to receive all those emails. An alternative solution: requests don’t need to be authorized, and managers receives a monthly overview of the costs. This way, the manager still has control over and an overview of the costs, but he or she doesn’t have to process a lot of emails. And the employee is helped quicker.

Tip: just get started and keep it small

I sometimes get the question: where do I need to start when I want to work more agile?

To be honest, that differs per organization. Take a close look at your current services and compare this with the agile principles. Where’s the friction? And what improvements are easy to implement? Start there. Make a small improvement. Ask for feedback. And move on to the next improvement. And read our Agile e-book

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If your organization is moving to a shared services model – consolidating various support capabilities into a single entity that serves the whole organization – then you’ll need a shared services manager role. But what does this entail? What will their day-to-day responsibilities be? And which personal qualities should your organization look for in potential candidates?

The difference between a service desk manager and a shared services manager

For example, could an existing manager from one of the service departments that’s now part of the shared services organization take on the new role? This could include employees from HR, facilities, finance, IT, procurement, security, and other business functions that serve the whole organization. Or does the role include such additional tasks and responsibilities that you need to find someone with additional experience, skills, and knowledge?

The answer is very much “it depends”: it could be a variety of roles in your shared services organization. For example, a senior role that spans functions – with overall responsibility for service and support across the traditional business-function areas of HR, IT, facilities, etc. For the sake of this blog, this definition is assumed.

A shared services manager must have an ongoing focus on providing improved capabilities that contribute to better business operations and outcomes.

The 7 responsibilities of a shared services manager

1. Designing and delivering the shared services vision

A shared services manager is, likely in conjunction with other shared services colleagues, responsible for designing and delivering the shared services organization’s vision. Of course, this is far from a one-time event – it requires ongoing evolution. They are also responsible for executing this vision via a long-term strategic roadmap and delivering against the associated strategies.

2. Meeting the expectations of key business stakeholders

A shared services manager needs to make sure that the services the shared services organization provides are in line with a number of key business stakeholders’ expectations. The key business stakeholders are:

• the executive board
• the business function leadership teams (i.e. Head of HR, Head of Security, Head of Legal)
• the employees that they serve

This responsibility doesn’t only involve obligations related to service level agreements (SLAs) and the associated performance targets and metrics. It also has to do with factors such as the availability of suitably skilled resources, either internally or outsourced, as best fits business needs. This also includes effective communication, although some may see this as a separate responsibility.

3. Providing effective governance

A shared services manager (and their appropriate team members) must ensure that there are suitable governance practices in place to protect the business. This ranges from ensuring legal and regulatory compliance all the way to robust business continuity planning and management.

4. Leading and managing people

Optimized processes and technologies alone don’t make for a successful shared services organization: its operations will struggle without capable and motivated people. With the right leadership and management, employees are encouraged to be the best versions of themselves – not only in terms of day-to-day productivity, but also when it comes to their personal development.

A shared services manager needs to expertly lead and manage their teams and is responsible for employee retention and recruitment. They set the tone for all teams, creating a working environment that attracts and fosters employees of the highest caliber.

5. Ensuring the effectiveness of day-to-day operations

What’s the goal when you consolidate various business function support capabilities into a shared services model? To deliver higher quality and better value services. That’s why you need someone to find the optimal blend of skilled employees, best practice processes, and enabling technologies that meets the needs of the various key business stakeholders. Importantly, for the transition to a shared services model to truly be worth it, the new day-to-day operations and outcomes have to be superior to the previous status quo.

6. Providing effective financial stewardship and demonstrating value creation

This might seem like a “boring” responsibility that should be left to the corporate finance function. But we all have a responsibility for effective financial stewardship – no matter our role or whether or not we have direct control of or responsibility for a budget.

A shared services manager does have some form of budgetary responsibility. But in modern organizations, there’s also the need to look beyond costs to see the value perspective. The cheapest option isn’t always the best and return on investment is important for all spending decisions, not only for CAPEX projects.

7. Driving continual improvement

The great thing about continual improvement in a shared services model is that any improvements will make a bigger impact thanks to consistent operations and scale. As such, especially in ensuring that they consistently meet the needs of the key business stakeholders, a shared services manager must have an ongoing focus on providing improved capabilities that contribute to better business operations and outcomes.

Importantly, this continual improvement needs to cover a range of shared services attributes – for example people’s capabilities, service levels, service offerings, and technology exploitation – and not just the employed processes. For some organizations, the shared services team plays a key role in digital transformation efforts, showing the “art of the digital possible” and the associated benefits.

The personal characteristics of a shared services manager

You can’t expect all people who fill the role to be exactly the same. Still, there are various personal characteristics that make the role a success. In many ways, these traits map directly to the seven responsibilities outlined above.

A shared services manager has:

• A focus on delivery and results. This might relate to planning and executing agreed-upon strategies, consistently achieving shared services goals, or the ability to look beyond the symptoms of operational issues to see the root causes.
• Relationship, collaboration, and communication skills. These skills are crucial – whether they’re for internal team dynamics, dealing with other business functions, or communicating with the executive board. They also need to effectively manage a variety of supplier relationships.
• Strong leadership and management capabilities. As outlined above, a shared services organization ultimately relies on its people and them doing the right things well, no matter the quality of the enabling technology.
• The ability to drive change, including influencing skills. This goes all the way from the initial “birth” of the shared services organization (if appropriate), through the ongoing need for continual improvement, to the inevitable organizational changes caused by both internal and external factors (such as regulatory or legislative changes). Importantly, this also includes the ability to facilitate people change when the current ways of working are affected.
• The desire to improve performance, services, and outcomes. In many ways, this is an “umbrella” trait atop the other personal traits – with improvement being a shared services manager’s ultimate raison d’être.

The list above is far from complete. But it’s a good starting point when looking for a suitable candidate.

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Here are a few of the funniest requests IT support professionals have received from end-users.

1. The “broken” printer

On the surface, this looks like a normal request to receive while working at the service desk. But when you realize that the caller has failed to take the paper out of the bag it was shipped in, you might struggle to keep a straight face.

2. False sense of security

Everyone knows that having a secure password is crucial in order to keep company data safe and sound. But in practice? Not all users take this as seriously as they should.

When you help an end-user with a request and you discover that their password is the same as their username, you might wonder why you spent all that time educating your colleagues on security best practices. (Bonus points if they’ve added a helpful hint that tells you this).

And when you learn that the device belongs to an IT manager? If you don’t laugh, you’ll probably cry.

Don’t be like this IT manager. Discover 6 ways to boost your organization’s IT security.

3. Incident #212

Subject: “Myspacebarisbroken”

Description: “CanIpleasehaveanewkeyboardsoIcanactuallywork?”

We’ll just leave that there.

4. Where’s the “Any” key?

This is a classic. There’s always at least one end user who calls in a panic when prompted to “Press any key”, unable to locate the mysterious “Any” key on their keyboard. Legend has it they’re still searching for it to this day.

5. The unattended laptop

Who doesn’t enjoy a good office prank now and again? But sometimes they get out of hand.

We heard a story about an end-user complaining that he had been “hacked” because whenever he booted the computer, the theme song from Game of Thrones would play. In fact, he had just left his laptop unattended, giving one of his colleagues the opportunity to adjust his sound settings.

Lesson learned: always lock your laptop before you get up to grab a coffee!

6. You can run but you can’t hide

There’s nothing better than watching a caller – who apparently has “no idea” why their network drive is full – trying to quickly delete all their movie bootlegs and music files.

Helpful hint of the day: If you share your screen with IT, we can see what you are doing.

7. USB driving me crazy

We heard that a user once complained that their USB thumb drive wasn’t working when it was plugged into their laptop (are people still using USBs these days?)

Turns out they had plugged it into the ethernet port instead. Oops.

8. Everyone needs help sometimes

And it’s not only your end-users who are struggling. Every so often, a caller needs help resolving a common issue, so you refer them to a knowledge item… which they actually wrote a few months ago. IT professionals make mistakes, too.

9. “Internet issues”

Another classic. No matter how many emails, intranet updates, and Teams reminders you send out, there’s always at least one person who doesn’t get the memo.

Any time there’s scheduled maintenance, there’s always that one caller whose mysterious “internet issues” turn out to be scheduled network maintenance that everyone else at the company already knows about.

Got a service desk story to rival these?

We’d love to hear about the funny IT support requests you’ve received – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Share your stories in the comments!

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IT professionals are only human. And sometimes, all they want is to be brutally honest.

Here are four things IT professionals really want to say (but, lucky for their end-users, they don’t).

1. “I have better things to do.”

Customer is king. That’s something IT professionals live and breathe by. But let’s be honest: sometimes, your end-users can be kind of demanding. (And no wonder, with customer expectations at an all-time high due to the consumerization of IT.)

So, when end-user X (let’s call her Karen for now) emails you about an issue with her headset as well as logging an incident, calling the service desk and walking by – all within 30 minutes of each other – you kind of want to tell her, “I have better things to do.”

Especially when it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation at the IT department because you’re dealing with major server downtime.

After all, urgency is based on priority – that is, your IT department’s priority, not Karen’s.

When incidents are sprouting up left and right, prioritizing the right incidents can get tricky though. But we have a solution. Download our Priority Matrix to find out how to better prioritize incidents in your organization (and keep Karen happy).

2. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

Work laptops aren’t just used for work. Every IT professional knows this. They might not be very happy with it – for one, it massively increases the risk of cybersecurity attacks, which are already in overdrive due to remote working – but they know it happens.

So, when an end-user accidentally downloads a Trojan horse virus, you know it’s because they were using a dodgy application to watch the latest HBO series. Even though your end-user swears they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.

All you really want to ask in this situation is: “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

IT is always watching. And they prefer it when end-users are honest about what they did or didn’t do, just because it makes maintaining security that much easier.

IT professionals are only human. And sometimes, all they want is to be brutally honest.

3. “If only someone had created a knowledge item about this.”

“How do I request a new laptop?” “How do I connect to WiFi?” “How do I add a shared mailbox?”

IT professionals get these questions on a daily basis. And, if your IT department uses a knowledge base, you’ve probably already answered these questions in a knowledge item.

So, when one of your end-users walks up to the IT service desk with a question like this, you just want to say, “If only someone had created a knowledge item about this”, in your most sarcastic voice.

Of course, you don’t – you politely refer them to the knowledge item instead.

The reason you create knowledge items in the first place is to make your end-users’ life easier. But how do you make sure your end-users actually use them?

Remember: your end-users aren’t going to magically start using knowledge items – especially if they don’t even know they exist. Read this blog to find out how to write better knowledge items – and how to promote them.

4. “Am I being Punk’d?”

Sometimes, keeping a straight face at the IT service desk is pretty difficult. Some end-users are just so clueless when it comes to IT.

They “just aren’t good with computers” so they ask IT to investigate a “suspicious” pop-up, which turns out to be a Windows update. They think their desktop has died and gone to heaven, but simply forgot to turn the monitor on. Or they call the IT service desk to ask where the “any key” is, because the computer said to “press any key”.

When this happens, you kind of want to ask: “Am I being Punk’d?”

But then you remember that not everyone is as tech-savvy as you – and that’s also okay.

Sounds familiar?

We’re really curious about your experiences at the IT service desk. This is a safe space, so share your true feelings in the comments!

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In this FAQ, we answer four of the most frequently asked questions about agile working.

1. What is agile?

Simply put, agile is an approach to software development that helps teams be more flexible and deliver customer value faster. But most importantly, agile is a mindset.

The agile mindset is similar to that of a jaguar: its instinct is to survive. And to survive, a jaguar needs to be agile enough to react quickly to the movements of its prey.

For organizations, it’s just as important to be agile – especially now, in the age of digital transformation. Organizations need to be flexible enough to quickly respond to modern technologies and the ever-changing demands of the customer.

While agile working originated in software development, its mindset is applicable to all fields.

2. What are the benefits of agile working?

The main reason that agile was introduced into software development was to make large organizations more flexible.

For smaller organizations, responding quickly and meeting their customers’ needs is fairly easy. But large companies are typically a lot less flexible. They often use a waterfall approach for projects: a plan or design needs to go through different departments and management layers before it can be executed. The result? An unwieldy organization that’s slowed down by complicated processes and lacks innovation.

Agile working, on the other hand, strives for the least amount of bureaucracy possible. It makes organizations flexible, reduces response times and focuses on customer value rather than on hierarchy.

In addition, agile working empowers employees: the power to take initiative isn’t with the manager, but with the experts. In an agile working environment, you want employees to share knowledge, act on creative ideas, and come up with solutions – not just follow orders.

Agile service management means applying the agile mindset to IT service management. Nothing more, nothing less.

3. What is agile service management?

Agile service management means applying the agile mindset to IT service management. Nothing more, nothing less. To make this work, the original four agile values simply need one adjustment. With agile service management, instead of focusing on software, you focus on services:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software services over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

The idea is that you keep to these principles when designing and delivering services. Sounds straightforward. And in a sense, it is. But how do you apply agile service management in practice?

4. How does agile service management work with ITIL?

At first sight, agile and ITIL look like totally opposing concepts. Agile is all about flexibility and ITIL is an extensive framework that offers guidance and best practices for all five stages of the IT service lifecycle. But it’s definitely possible to pair agile service management and ITIL. You just have to do it right.

Most organizations are still built on older versions of ITIL, which don’t offer much flexibility. This outdated approach to ITIL attaches great importance to everything the agile mindset believes to be less important: individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

But the latest iteration of ITIL, ITIL 4, focuses less on prescriptive processes and more on guiding principles for delivering value. Unlike ITIL v3, ITIL 4 doesn’t tell you exactly which steps to take to deliver a service but focuses more on why you’re delivering that service – to provide value to your customers. A perfect match with the agile mindset.

And, while ITIL does have a reputation for being rigid and unnecessarily complex, that was never the starting point. The idea behind ITIL wasn’t that organizations would implement every aspect of ITIL to the letter. The message of ITIL was always: make sure to apply the framework in a way that best suits your organization. Or: adopt and adapt – a piece of advice that clearly aligns with agile working.

Ready to bring back speed, flexibility, and customer focus to your IT department?

Download the agile service management e-book to learn everything you need to know to make your IT department more agile – from seven common pitfalls of agile transitions to making your Service Level Agreements more flexible.

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So, in no particular order, here are 5 stressful moments that anyone working in ITSM will recognize.

1. Security scare

This is every IT professional’s nightmare. Whether it’s an employee who has taken “working from home” to mean “using a work device to stream the latest HBO show on dodgy websites” or an ex-colleague holding onto their old laptop as a souvenir, any kind of data breach is bound to send the service desk into disarray. (Of course, you’d like to educate your end-users to prevent breaches from happening in the future, but where would you find the time?)

2. Groundhog Day

Working at the IT service desk can feel repetitive, especially when you’re on your 12th password reset before you’ve even managed to grab a cup of coffee. And dull, recurring tasks like these aren’t just annoying when you’ve got more important work to focus on; they’re expensive, too.

3. Demanding end-users

You love your customers – after all, who else do you do it for? But they can be a teeny bit demanding sometimes. (And with the consumerization of IT leading to a rise in customer expectations, it’s no wonder).

While you’d love to be able to resolve every issue for every caller straight away, sometimes that just isn’t doable, especially when you’ve got more pressing incidents to manage first. (Sorry, David from Marketing, but your broken headset issue might have to wait a few moments while we deal with this data breach.)

4. The dreaded walk-up

Let’s set the scene: You’ve got a flawless service desk system in place. Employees lodge requests via incidents and your team diligently works through them. Well, most of them do. Some colleagues are a little more difficult to convince when it comes to using new technology – they’d prefer to speak to a “real person” to help them solve their issue. And, while it’s understandable, there’s nothing more stressful than dealing with a walk-up when you’re already snowed under with incidents.

5. Firefighting

Okay, so this one isn’t exactly a moment, per se. But working reactively and dealing with incidents as they come, without being able to prevent “fires” from happening in the first place, is a major cause of service desk stress. Constantly preparing for the next emergency can take a real toll on your wellbeing and even lead to burnout if left unchecked.

Does this all sound a bit too familiar?

You’re not alone. To keep up with increasing demands, IT departments need to find a new, smarter way of working. But how do you find your first step when you’re working reactively?

Our suggestion: switch to smart. Adapting your way of working to meet customers’ rising expectations won’t happen overnight. But there are small switches you can make tomorrow to help you maximize your time and work more efficiently.

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