TheEuropean Court of Human Rights'
introduction of anITIL-basedIT helpdesk system has
enabled it to both improve efficiency and target its resources more
effectively.
The Strasbourg-based organisation's IT department completed the
roll-out of ICCM's e-Service Desk service management system about
three months ago to help it cope with an increase in staff numbers
from 200 to more than 800 over the past decade. The proportionate
growth in supporting IT systems inevitably saw a direct rise in the
amount of calls to the helpdesk.
John Hunter, head of IT for the European Court, said, "The
system has provided real benefits as it has made us more reactive
and more aware of any problems and issues, which enables us to
provide a better service. We have seen gains in efficiency and
management improvements, and we have now got a very comprehensive
knowledge base of helpdesk issues, which will help us in our
overall IT strategy."
This is because the statistical reporting model built into the
new system makes it easier to identify trends and variables than
was formerly the case when the process had to be undertaken
manually. This information not only enables the IT department to
tackle issues before they occur or grow into a problem, but also to
identify training needs, resourcing requirements or areas that
could benefit from the reworking of business processes.
Users can contact help desk personnel via the telephone, email
or using a customer portal and are now able to view the status of
their query online. The portal can also be used to warn if a
problem has occurred in order to reduce the number of queries in
that regard.
But when implementing such systems, Francis Doherty, the system
manager responsible for "KnowHow" or knowledge management systems,
indicated that it was important to plan thoroughly in advance.
"These are very large and complex systems in and of themselves
so there'll be certain areas that you'll depend on and others that
can focus on in the future. It's also important to customise based
on your own requirements and to ensure that it's set up for your
particular business processes, which will be different for
everybody," he said.
Another key area is to ensure that the system is as easy to use
as possible from an end-user point of view. "Usability is a big
issue because if it's too complex, people won't want to use it. But
it's also crucial to spend time coming up with the categories and
sub-categories of helpdesk information to ensure that reports are
meaningful," Hunter said.