Transitioning your service desk from one provider to another
Posted on 26. Jul, 2008 by Sunit Prakash in IT Service Management
Many organisations think that moving their outsourced Service Desk function from one provider to another is going to resolve all their problems. The new provider is often seen to be the “Knight in Shining Armour”, the incumbent provider is tarred and no matter how hard they try, they can do no right.
Yet, the value organisations seek to realise by changing suppliers is hard to unlock. Very often the problem lies not with the vendor organisation, but on the other side. Unless their own house is put in order, the problem with IT service delivery only moves from one party to another.
Here are some points to consider at a strategic level :
- what are your organisations pain points; what exactly are you trying to resolve or mitigate
- are the issues internal to your organisation, or are they really external
- if the new supplier has promised to change, transform & unlock value, have they done it before and what is their track record
- what concrete steps will your organisation take to embrace change and make a success of it
More often than not, this will involve not only a change in systems, but also cultural and process changes. Before you sign on the dotted line (and unfortunately if you have already signed, but are still to implement), insist on “seeing” the solution end to end; this means :
- visiting and talking to other customers who have the same or similar technical solution implemented
- simulating and walking each major process through from end to end and how the underpinning technical solution supports it
- visualising how it is going to work for your organisation
- assessing your organisation’s ability to handle change and the impact on your organisation if these are going to be significant
Make sure the you the folks from the right level involved. Too high and they will not know enough about the service desk and associated processes; too low and you will get bogged down.
Above all remember that documenting every last step, every detail, and work instruction will not solve any issue; particularly if these are recording the current processes, warts and all. The reason for the change is after all you want your processes to be improved; take the opportunity to base-line your current performance and improve the processes as you move forward.
Depending on your organisations maturity, see if you can allow latitude in the new documented processes for speed, agility and innovation. Simply by allowing these will see your organisation reap the rewards of change.
