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The perils of commoditising IT Support
Posted in IT Support on 02 September 2010
The term ‘commoditisation' seems to rear its head whenever there is a perceived trend for technology to become standardised and, however unlikely it is to become prevalent, there are often many positives that can be identified from its methods. After all, standardisation should mean technology becomes more affordable and reliable in the first instance and easier and cheaper to support once implemented. However, when this trend spills over into IT Support and Service Delivery, then the positives become much more difficult to identify. Its stealthy advance into the marketplace is under...Life after ITIL – creating a culture of Continual Service Improvement
Posted in IT Support on 03 August 2010
Picture the scene: your organisation has decided to improve its IT department through the introduction of ITIL Best Practice. Some external consultants from an IT service provider came in to do a review and mapped out the project. They then implemented the agreed Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes while delivering awareness sessions to various members of staff. Perhaps you even got a few of your people v3 qualified. At last, your Best Practice project has been delivered and has finally gone live. But what now? The Service Management experts are long gone and you...Are you Off-Sure about your IT Service Desk?
Posted in IT Support on 15 July 2010
No matter the economic climate, or indeed within which industry they operate, organisations are constantly seeking to lower the cost of IT while also trying to improve performance. The problem is it can often seem impossible to achieve one without compromising on the other and in most cases, cost cutting will take prevalence, leading to a dip in service levels. When things get tough the popularity of off-shoring inevitably increases, leading many decision-makers to consider sending the IT Service Desk off to India, China or Chile as a convenient solution financially - low-cost labour for h...Mind the skill gap
Posted in IT Support on 12 July 2010
Service Desk efficiency starts from support staff IT Service Desk efficiency is vital for any organisation to conduct successful business operations, regardless of the sector they operate in. However, many IT Service Desks are far from cost-efficient and still have much work to do in order to reach their full potential. Inefficiencies and excessive costs might be the consequence of one or many factors, for instance the various Service Desk software applications do not fully integrate with one another or there are a lack of clear procedures for change management. But purchasing the latest t...Microsoft should fear not – is Apple even in the same league?
Posted in IT Support on 25 June 2010
There has been a lot of hoopla in the press in the last couple of weeks regarding Apple overtaking Microsoft's place in the sun. Various commentators have declared that Apple is now the biggest technology company in the world, implying that whilst it is going from strength to strength, Microsoft has become yesterday's news. The term "biggest", however, is rather ambiguous - what metrics are used to measure it? Most commentators seem to base their claims solely on figures such as their relative Market Capitalisations (or worth). From this point of view, Apple is leader as its Ma...Getting back to work - but with a service provider.
Posted in IT Support on 16 June 2010
IT professionals can learn from the tough times. As the UK officially leaves the recession, although, it must be said, staggering instead of marching triumphantly, the IT job market seems to be coming back to life, but with a substantially changed face. IT professionals looking to get back to work after they were made redundant or to make that career move they postponed while things were tough, should take this opportunity to learn from the past twelve months and make a more informed choice when choosing their new employer. As IT Support and Managed Services acquire larger space in the UK...Doing more with less: an opportunity to learn
Posted in IT Support on 07 May 2010
Budget reduction teaches organisations to prioritise - a lesson to be learnt not only by the public sector. The recently announced budget has not been kind to public sector IT, just as expected. Large cuts mean that most technology projects will have to be shelved, but this does not make the level of performance the sector is craving for impossible to be reached - on the contrary, budget reduction is the kind of incentive that drives organisations to prioritise and to seek efficiencies, focusing more on operational, rather than capital expenditure. This does not apply exclusively t...Sharing the IT Service Desk: sharing cost, sharing quality
Posted in IT Support on 04 May 2010
The importance of IT, just like that of public transport, seems only to be truly appreciated when it stops working properly and stranded users are left to reflect on the value of a more efficient system. The IT quality issue can become particularly important when inefficiencies and disruptions not only slow down the system and create delays, but get in the way of business operations or, even worse, cause losses. As many organisations might have unfortunately already experienced, an extra minute of downtime might lead to money loss, system malfunction can cause loss of data and lack of prope...So, Microsoft outsources IT support – What’s all the fuss about?
Posted in IT Support on 28 April 2010
When a press release was issued a couple of weeks ago announcing that Microsoft's IT help desk, desk-side services, and infrastructure and application support were to be managed on-premise by Infosys for its branches across the globe, it caused a lot of controversy in the media. Outsourcing frequently provokes strong opinions, and whilst it is often accepted that outsourcing catering or cleaning is a sensible move, outsourcing IT is often seen in a different light. There can be a supposition that the company in question has somehow lost control of what it is doing and is embarkin...Do you really want to lose (inter)face?
Posted in IT Support on 15 February 2010
Off-shoring of IT services and especially Service Desks is gaining popularity as Financial Directors continue to reduce IT spend and headcount. But before a decision as crucial as this can be taken it is important to assess the potential short, medium and long term impact on the user community and ultimately the bottom line. Although the Service Desk is just a component part of IT as a whole, it remains the 'face' of IT and in most cases, the measurement point of both user perception of IT effectiveness and impact on the user's ability to carry out his or her job. A good or bad Service Des...Overcome the Freeze
Posted in IT Support on 10 January 2007
With the economic upturn driving increased IT investment, how can organisations overcome inflexible outsourcing contracts or internal headcount freezes to guarantee service levels and avoid compromising business integrity? Co-sourcing is the flexible, cost-effective alternative which enables organisations to flex up or down IT support services in line with business needs.Over the past couple of years, as any IT Manager can attest, costs have been squeezed. The result is that most operations are running at zero spare capacity - support staff illness, for example, can seriously compromise th...T: +44 (0)20 7353 4313 F: +44 (0)20 7353 4314
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