The BOSS Solutions Suite is ranked as a top FrontRunner in IT Help Desk Software according to the latest report by Software Advice, a Gartner Company (view report). Easy to use yet incredibly powerful, the BOSS Solutions Suite includes BOSSDesk a Service Desk on the Cloud, and BOSS Support Central for On-Premise IT Service Management. The FrontRunners analysis is a data-driven assessment identifying products in the IT Help Desk software market that offer the best capability and value for businesses. Products are evaluated and given a score for Usability and User Recommendations.

A new year has begun and with it the annual task of taking stock of your new year’s resolutions, or goals, if you prefer. This time also marks the slower season for the northern half of the continent, where one call ticket management and 811 Call Before You Dig activities drop with the temperature. The slower pace gives us a chance to re-evaluate how we are managing requests and damage prevention programs. If you are managing damage prevention for underground utilities, here are a few good questions to ask yourself: How is your ticket management system integrated with contract locators and/or dispatching to internal locators? Can you view your facility maps in relation to the dig site without running multiple apps? Does your current solution have ways to manage workloads to ensure on-time performance? Are you able to use auto-screening and close tickets where your facilities are not affected in order to reduce cost and save time? Does your current ticket management solution allow you to automate procedures which are currently done manually? Is your current ticket management solution helping you maintain compliance with dig laws? Is your ticketing solution working well with the call center software changes and upgrades? Maybe you don’t have a ticket management system at all, or you’ve built one internally. In that case, you’ll need to ask yourself a different set of questions: Can your existing system automate ticket management? If not, how much time can your team save with automated processes? Are you able to consistently meet the proper notice times, service level agreements, and ensure customer satisfaction with your existing solution? Does your current process or solution support rules-based routing to speed up handling and resolution? Can you currently integrate manifest tools and sketching tools, GIS maps, Google maps, etc. with your existing system or processes to make locating easier and faster? Does your existing system or process allow you to integrate with multiple 811 call centers to facilitate growth? Can your existing ticketing system scale up to meet an increased ticket volume and ever-evolving needs? Is your current ticket management solution equipped to send positive response to the call center? Can your current solution send automatic notifications to excavators throughout the locating process? It may be time to make a resolution that it’s easy to keep by finding a 811 ticket management solution that helps improve your team’s performance, speeds up handling and resolution, improves damage protection programs, and makes locating easier. Happy New Year! BOSS Solutions is a proud partner in damage prevention. About the Author: Kristin Reed is a Senior Support Engineer with BOSS Solutions. Kristin has been part of the damage prevention industry for 11 years. She is committed to helping utilities and locators protect their facilities and keeping excavators safe at the dig site.

For most people, when someone talks about digging, the visual brought to mind is that of a large, deep hole. However, when talking to a person who has been in the damage prevention industry for an extended amount of time, the images brought to mind vary and they may ask follow-up questions to get a better mental picture. This is because we have seen and heard of the strangest things. If you ask us whether you should call 811, be prepared for us to respond with “It is important to call 811 anytime you are penetrating the surface of the dirt for any reason.” Kathrine learned this the hard way. Many years ago, she was putting out decorations for the holiday season. She was pushing the wire stakes into the ground that allowed her reindeer to stand up without blowing away in the winter winds. She was enjoying decking her property with lights. A couple of times she would go to push down a peg and incur a little resistance. Assuming it was a rock or lump of clay, she would give it a little more oomph and get the stake in place. Merry Measures Once her yard was lit up with holiday cheer, she went inside to warm up. Feeling accomplished, she decided to dial a friend and see how their decorating was going. Picking up the home phone and placing it to her ear, she heard nothing. There was no dial tone. This was before the ubiquity of cellphones, so Kathrine grabbed the one she rarely used and called the utility. It didn’t take them long to diagnose the issue once they arrived. At 3 inches deep, one of Kathrine’s wire stakes had cut her phone line. The resistance she had experienced for that peg, wasn’t a rock, but her phone line! She felt guilty and foolish as she was handed the bill for the repairs. Her earlier yuletide joy had slackened. I met Kathrine a few years later. She was calling 811 because it was time to put out her decorations again. She had just always assumed that the utilities were below the frost line and there was never any way that she would hit it with her decorations. After learning her lesson the hard way, she said she now calls 811 for every project in her yard, no matter how minor it seems. Sing we joyous all together With this season of joy getting into full swing, it's never a bad idea to remember to call 811. If you are going to put out decorations that will need to be anchored, or you want to trench those extension cords so they aren’t a hazard, don’t hesitate to get the underground lines marked. Utilities want to protect you and your assets. Wondering who you should call before you dig? Simply dial 811 and you'll be connected with your state's one-call center and the utilities with their 811 ticket management system will take care of the rest... and here's good news, it only takes one call to cover all the utilities. So dig smart this year and save yourself from those holiday blues. Happy Holidays from the BOSS811 team! About the Author: Kristin Reed is a Senior Support Engineer with BOSS Solutions. Kristin has been part of the Damage Prevention Industry for more than a decade. She is committed to helping utilities and locators protect their facilities and keeping excavators safe at the dig site.

If you would have asked me 15 years ago what I wanted to do and was working towards, Damage Prevention would have been the last thing I would have said. I was studying constitutional law and theatre at a small private university in Indiana. I had a 5 year plan that would take me through law school. However, life took a few surprise turns changing the carefully made plans over the following 4 years. In February 2010, I started working for Underground Safety Alliance, the umbrella organization for Indiana811 and Kentucky811 as a Damage Prevention Specialist, taking one call tickets for homeowners and excavators. At first it was just a “job” to make ends meet while I figured out what I wanted as a career. Although I took every call seriously, my heart wasn’t in it. Change comes with a ring Then I took a call that changed my life. I had been at the call center for about a year. “Thank you for calling 811. My name is Kristin, how may I help you?” “We were digging and we hit a gas line,” said a terrified voice on the other end of the line. Processing a damage ticket wasn’t new, I had helped report numerous damages in that first year. Except the voice on the other side was scared and unsure, and there was an odd whooshing noise. This was not going to be a typical damage reporting call. It was two homeowners who had just hit a line, and were standing within feet of the blowing gas. At once I realized what the background noise was, even though I had never heard it before. Immediately, I instructed them to move slowly away from the gas line, at least 100 feet. The last thing these frightened people needed was a random spark igniting the gas filled air. After they were far enough away, I needed to calm them so we could continue and make not only them, but their neighborhood safe. The panicked edge in their voice took a couple of moments to reduce, but the moment it did, I asked if the homeowners had called 911. Unfortunately they had not, so that was our first task to accomplish. After having them confirm again that they were a safe distance away, the one person stayed on the phone with me while the other used their phone to contact the fire department. By this point the initial panic from both of the homeowners had receded. While one talked to emergency services and then the gas utility, the other one and I were able to complete the Damage Ticket. It has been a long time since that call, and while I don't remember if they had called to have the line marked before they started digging, that call stayed with me. It was the catalyst for my dedication to damage prevention. Damage Prevention-my passion! Since that call I have been passionate about Damage Prevention. I threw my whole self into every phone call and resulting locate request. I wanted to protect others from injury due to unsafe digging. I learned everything I could about the 811 process. It wasn’t long until my superiors and others took notice of the dedication developing within me and I was given more opportunities to learn about damage prevention, advancing from taking tickets to working directly with the member utilities, learning every step of the way. Once I started working with the utilities is where I really found my stride. I love helping utilities protect their facilities and keep job sites safe. Without those markings on the ground anyone who disturbs the dirt could get hurt, and I wanted to be a part of a solution that helps utilities get their locating accomplished. That is how I ended up here at BOSS Solutions. Now I am able to help provide support for the utilities to manage their one call tickets. I still adore learning more about damage prevention, and incorporating what I am learning into our BOSS811 solution. I am committed to our customers and how we can partner together to minimize damages. Now if someone asks me what my calling is, the answer is easy: Damage Prevention! BOSS Solutions is a proud partner in Damage Prevention: About the Author: Kristin Reed is a Senior Support Engineer with BOSS Solutions. Kristin has been part of the Damage Prevention Industry for 11 years. She is committed to helping utilities and locators protect their facilities and keeping excavators safe at the dig site.

Damage to underground utility lines is a major problem in the United States. Incidents caused by unsafe digging practices can compromise community safety and disconnect people from critical services. This is why the 811 service remains one of the most important national services available to contractors and homeowners. In this article, we will be discussing what 811 Day is and why it is essential to always call 8-1-1 before you dig! What is 811? 811 is the national call-before-you-dig phone number. Anyone who plans to dig should call 811 or go to their state 811 center’s website before digging to request that the approximate location of buried utilities be marked with paint or flags so that you don’t unintentionally dig into an underground utility line. 811 Day is an annual initiative led by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to ensure that the practice of safe digging is echoed in communities by calling 8-1-1, a nationwide toll-free number, before any excavation project. 811 is an essential service for damage prevention and seeks to eliminate damages caused by digging, which remains the leading cause of pipeline incidents. The 811 service was enacted due to a disaster that occurred in the late ’60s, where there was a major accident on the west coast that caused major gas leakages, fires, and power outages due to improper digging. In response to this, the 811 law was passed. The 811 law required that all companies (including utilities/government agencies) or individuals who undertake an excavation project call 811 prior to the start of the project. It also required lines and markings to be drawn around areas to indicate the presence of pipelines, cables, and/or fiber underneath the surface. Each state has its own unique processes and laws for digging. When an 811 call is received, the call center is required to create a Locate Request Ticket referred to as a One Call ticket. Additionally, it mandated that all the utility companies respond to 811 tickets (referred to as One Call tickets) raised by the excavators with the call centers within a certain timeframe. These call centers have the important responsibility of managing, tracking, and closing these tickets with the goal of minimizing the occurrence of accidents. Why It Is Important To Dig Safely Every six minutes an underground utility line is damaged or destroyed because an excavator did not properly mark the warning lines before digging. The depth and placement of utility lines can vary for a number of reasons including erosion, previous digging projects, and uneven surfaces, which makes planning and preparation very important. Making assumptions about where the utility lines are under your property can be extremely dangerous. Even striking a single line can result in injury, significant repair costs, fines, and inconvenient outages for you and your neighbors. The odds of avoiding disaster during these dig-ins improve by nearly 99% if lines are properly marked in advance. If protocols are not followed and 811 is not consulted, there can be significant damages -- not just to the immediate area, but the entire community. When excavators follow the federal guidelines and ensure they are digging properly, damages and accidents can be avoided. This is what makes 811 so important - it provides a very useful service to mitigate accidents and damages! One of the major organizations promoting safe digging and Damage Prevention is the Common Ground Alliance (CGA). It is a member-driven alliance committed to saving lives and preventing damage to North American underground infrastructure by promoting effective damage prevention practices. Membership in the CGA is open to all stakeholders with a genuine interest in reducing damages to the underground infrastructure. CGA’s top-tier members represent some of the largest companies and organizations in North America. How To Dig Safely Excavators must take a proactive approach to safety by utilizing the 811 One-Call System and adhering to the following steps of a safe excavation: Always call before you dig. Federal and state laws require you to place a locate request prior to digging or excavating. It is also good practice to ensure you know about the area you are going to dig. Wait the required time. Once you call, you will need to wait in order for the call center to determine the details of your site and project. Do not begin excavating prior to your stated start date and time. Confirm Utility Response After the call center has notified member utilities of the pending excavation, you are responsible for making sure each utility operator has responded prior to digging. Respect the Marks Familiarize yourself with the markings and the locations of buried facilities at the site prior to excavation. Dig With Care! Dig test holes to verify the location, type, size, direction-of-run, and depth of the marked facility. Remember - you can never be too careful in these situations! As you can tell, the call centers that handle the one-call ticketing processes play a crucial role in damage prevention. Also, the improvements in efficiency with which the utilities respond to these tickets will result in significantly reduced damages and accidents. BOSS Solutions created an industry-leading cloud-based One Call ticketing solution with this objective in mind. BOSS811 is a cloud-based One Call ticket management solution for municipalities, utilities, and locator companies managing excavation requests. It comes with an award-winning UI and easy navigation. With facility map integration, it provides a visual component for effective management and tracking of dig requests. The powerful ticket screening capability makes it easy to close tickets automatically or alert appropriate locators. BOSS Solutions is a proud partner in damage prevention. About the Author: Kristin Reed is a Senior Support Engineer with BOSS Solutions. Kristin has been part of the Damage Prevention Industry for 11 years. She is committed to helping utilities and locators protect their facilities and keeping excavators safe at the dig site.

When it comes to IT ticketing and workflow, some teams use the terms ‘help desk’ and ‘service desk’ interchangeably. However, there are important differences between these two forms of technical support. These differences mostly stem from the terms’ origins. The service desk is a more recently introduced concept. It focuses heavily on the rising need for excellent customer service. The help desk, by contrast, has been around for as long as there have been internal IT problems to resolve. To help you decide which one is right for your organization, we’ll dig a little deeper into the functions of each option. What is a Help Desk? A help desk, also called a HelpDesk or IT help desk, typically focuses on incident management and problem resolution. The help desk team isn’t necessarily antisocial. However, it is often more invested in solving problems quickly rather than providing friendly service to end-users. Many modern help desks in fact don’t interact with customers. Instead, they focus only on supporting internal IT needs. The help desk tracks incidents, solves problems, performs routing, and generally manages IT ticket workflow. It often is limited to Level 1 & 2 support in enterprise companies with the ability to manage service levels. Help desks handle incidents, which are unplanned interruptions to, or reduced quality of, IT service. This includes things like computers not booting up, trouble logging in, or issues with a network connection. A help desk can provide a quick fix to resolve these issues. When it comes to service requests, such as user requests for information or advice, IT help desks usually don’t have the capacity to meet customer demands. Yet, organizations can’t solely focus on minimizing employee downtime. To ensure positive customer experiences, they must make it easy for users to report issues and provide great customer service while resolving them. This calls for a service desk. What is a Service Desk? Sometimes called ServiceDesk, this support focuses more heavily on providing high-quality care when handling service requests. A service desk communicates directly with end-users such as customers and can also resolve internal incidents. The service desk handles service delivery by walking users through onboarding or provisioning access to software like Office 365, for example. A service desk considers the big picture and the user experience of technical support. It may provide self-service options like articles explaining how to perform certain functions. Some service desk teams even manage online communities and forums where users ask questions and report incidents. The service desk likely uses a help desk to close tickets and perform service request management. It also does much more. The team works proactively across an organization to improve IT management. If an opportunity to increase technical efficiency arises, you can trust the service desk to pursue it. Ultimately, a service desk is more powerful than a help desk and more valuable for organizations with a growing customer base. What About ITSM and ITIL? While learning about help desks and service desks, you may have come across the terms ‘ITSM’ and ‘ITIL’. ITSM stands for IT Service Management. This concept goes beyond even the service desk. ITSM includes everything IT in an organization and the planning and development of new IT services. ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library. The ITIL describes a detailed framework for IT service best practices. It acts as an industry standard in IT, guides organizations in their pursuit to deliver quality services, and increases user satisfaction. Interested individuals can seek ITIL certification through qualified providers. Especially large organizations like enterprise companies may require robust ITSM to manage their complex needs. They may also seek ITIL-certified individuals to include on their IT team. Do You Need a Service Desk or Help Desk? For a new organization, a Help Desk meets internal IT needs. However, as a company grows, it will need a Service Desk. IT is becoming a business enabler that does far more than just resolving technical issues. This is especially true with the increased need to support users who are working remotely. Dependence on integration to third-party tools has also increased. Management teams recognize that it’s more important than ever to enhance the user experience and improve the quality of services with the help of a service desk. If you’re dealing with rapidly growing demand on IT, a service desk is likely the best option. Identifying a solution helps you build ITSM that enables organization-wide efficiency and increases user satisfaction. A solution that helps you get started quickly and easily make changes or improvements as needed lets you implement best practices without costing an arm and a leg. Find the Best Service Desk For Your Organization There are many service desk options available on the market today. However, you don’t want to pay for a system with features that don’t meet your needs. To identify the strongest solutions, here are some key things you’ll want to look for in a modern service desk: Automation. Ticketing, workflow, the service catalog, and more can be automated with bots to enhance service delivery and ease demand on your team. Management. Be sure your solution manages everything: incidents, assets, problems, changes, contracts, and purchases. Compatibility. Ideal service desks are accessible and usable across devices, including tablets and mobile phones for easily tagging and scanning assets. Security. Check to make sure your service desk provider is compliant with IT security and other requirements. Visibility. Robust solutions offer dashboards, reporting, real-time data, and business intelligence you can use to help make better decisions for your company. Versatility. Service desk technology should be able to handle individual accounts as well as make bulk updates and changes when needed, like auto-resolving related requests. Integrations. Does your organization already use warranty check software and other third-party solutions? A service desk that integrates with them means smoother implementation. ITIL Practices. A service desk that uses best practices can be trusted. ITSM Capability. This especially goes for large or growing companies. Whether your organization is small or large, we have the right Help Desk/ Service Desk with advanced capabilities that can grow with your organization . BOSSDesk is a highly-ranked integrated ITIL service solution noted for its ease of use and customizability. With U.S.-based support and affordable pricing, organizations can meet all their Help desk, Service desk, and ITSM needs in one place. Get a free Demo of BOSSDesk Cloud or On Premise today!

A Help Desk is one of those tools that everyone needs but not too many people outside of support think about. But they’re not just for answering basic questions or fielding feature requests. Your Help Desk is a great tool for user retention, research, and acquisition. It’s a direct line to your customers and a fantastic opportunity for everyone in your company to learn from them. No matter how great your product or service is, it is inevitable that eventually there will be a need for customer support systems. It really doesn’t matter whether they have encountered a small error, are having trouble setting up their account, or if they simply have a recommendation - what matters is that the issue is resolved. Not a lot of technical importance is placed on a great Help Desk, but in reality, it is one of the most important ways to maximize customer retention and maintain a great image for your business. Whether for simple customer service or a more in-depth ITSM Service Desk, having a customer support system in place is essential for long-term success. This is the key takeaway - establishing great customer service can set your company up for long-term success and ensure that your most dedicated customers have great things to say about you and understand that you care! While most companies establish this service very early on, it is crucial to have a great Help Desk in place before your business grows to a level where you can’t handle it all on your own. What is a Help Desk and Why Does Your Company Need One? At its simplest, A Help Desk is a tool that provides the first point of contact for tracking, prioritizing, and acting on any issues your customers and end-users have. This is a big task for a single service! There is the potential to receive questions on a myriad of issues ranging from payment issues, profile issues, disputes, and much, much more. While this may sound like a very tall order, there are some very effective tools and strategies that you can employ to organize and effectively handle all of the issues that come your way. One study actually found that as a whole, companies in the US lose about $62B in revenue each year due to poor customer service. Even further, people who have bad experiences are much more likely to tell more friends about them than positive experiences. So as you can tell, a Help Desk is extremely necessary! Your Help Desk can do this and more: Offer a single point of contact When things don’t work, your customers need to know where to turn. Having a Help Desk means issues are organized and easily addressed. Quickly and intuitively answer questions Help Desks should provide answers quickly either through a live agent, chatbot, or self-service. Support your support team A good Help Desk also makes it clear what your support team needs to do. It provides workflows and resources that help them do their job effectively. Help you measure how you’re doing Lastly, your Help Desk should give you opportunities to measure your support efforts and find out where you hit (or missed) the mark for customers. How To Pick the Right Helpdesk For Your Company Whether for ITSM, ITIL, or incident management, customer support services can help you to increase customer retention and improve overall company efficiency. What makes for a great Help Desk? A great helpdesk, at its simplest, should be able to organize and address a large volume of requests daily. This requires an efficient workflow and some intelligent management and software to achieve. Some of the most common features of a great Help Desk include: Email support Storing, organizing, and prioritizing emails sent to your generic support address and converting them into tickets for your support reps to work through. FAQs A resource filled with answers to common questions and best practices that can help to solve issues before they are brought to your attention. Community Forums Some companies create forums where users and agents can answer questions and create easily accessible content around specific issues. Live Chat/Chatbots Many new Help Desk companies are focused on giving “instant” support through on-page chat boxes. Obviously, the downside of offering instant support is that you need someone manning it 24/7 (or close to it), but chatbots can help to free up this load so your agents can focus on pressing issues. Try to outline your own support workflow and see what features you’ll need to maintain and streamline it. Think through the different kind of support requests you’ll get: bugs, questions, technical problems, feature requests, partnership requests, etc. For each scenario map out the process of dealing with them. If you are in the information technology (IT) space, it is important to build a system that aligns business and IT goals. Having an IT Service Management structure in place can be invaluable. IT Service Management (ITSM) is a set of policies, processes, and procedures for managing the implementation, improvement, and support of customer-oriented IT services. Unlike other IT management practices that focus on hardware, network, or systems, ITSM aims to consistently improve IT customer service in alignment with business goals. Having an ITIL framework established is a very popular method to ensure that businesses can pick and choose operational processes that are the most relevant to their goals. Creating a great support system isn’t simple, but with the right Help Desk, like BOSSDesk it doesn’t have to be a headache.

A laptop computer - by itself - provides little value. Think about it. At the risk of stating the obvious, without an operating system, productivity software, network connectivity, anti-virus and security software, web browser, user account, and other enablers, a laptop computer is little more than an expensive paper-weight. But let’s take this one step further. Unless you are purchasing a laptop computer for your personal use, you likely aren’t thinking of all of the various individual enablers that might be needed to make the use of that laptop valuable to you when making a service request. All you have to do is register a service request with your service provider and ask for a laptop computer. As part of fulfilling that request, all of the needed enablers are included. This above scenario is a simple, but great illustration of why Service Request Management (SRM) matters. SRM is all about delivering products and performing service actions that enable service consumers to get things done. Why is good Service Request Management so important? Service Request Management is one of the most visible service management practices within an organization. And whether the SRM practice is formally defined or not, every organization is practicing SRM. The question is “how well is SRM being done?” Done well, SRM is a “satisfier” and drives positive user and employee experiences. Improves efficiency and efficacy, done poorly, SRM is a source of cost-overruns, unmet expectations, needless bureaucracy, and damaged reputations. Yet, in many organizations, SRM is taken for granted. Seven good reasons why good SRM matters In many organizations, SRM could be considered the “store front” for a service provider. Many organizations develop self-service portals that are inviting, well-organized, and simple to use. But good SRM is much more than just a self-service portal. SRM provides a standard, consistent channel through which service consumers and service providers interact. The SRM practice provides a means for accessing and realizing value for both service consumers and service providers. Here are seven good reasons why good SRM matters: Captures and measures the demand for IT products and services. Is IT providing the right kind of products, support, and service actions at the right levels and at the right times? What are the trends in service requests? Are there opportunities for improvement? Good SRM provides the means for finding the answers to these questions and more. Provides the key pillar for automation. Many organizations would like to automate routine actions, but often fall short because of a lack of understanding what needs to be automated in the first place. Simply put, you can’t automate what you don’t understand. Defining request models – the repeatable and consistent steps involved in fulfilling service requests – is a critical first step for enabling automation and orchestration of service requests. Provides the operational fulfillment of organizational strategy. Senior management defines the strategy and the budget for the use of technology within the organization. This strategy then becomes the basis for the design of services and the associated service actions and products for consuming those services. It is the SRM that provides the tangible, day-to-day means for delivering those products and service actions by which the organization realizes achievement of its business strategy. Enables positive user and employee experiences. When users can easily and effectively request and receive the products and service actions that they need to do their jobs, that leads to positive user (UX) and employee experiences (EX). Sets good expectations – and then delivers on those expectations. Often the source of frustration for both service consumers and service providers is that sometimes neither party is clear in regards to what they should expect when it come to service requests. Good SRM practices clearly articulate and publicize what both the service consumer and service provider should expect with every service request. Provides the ability to demonstrate adherence to or compliance with policies. By using the standard products and service actions delivered by the SRM practice, consumers within an organization can be assured that they will be following applicable organizational policies. So, whether it’s a password reset, delivery of a new smartphone or laptop, or any other request, the products and service actions delivered as part of the SRM practice are designed to comply with organizational policies. Provides the basis for effective self-service. Most service requests are well-known and occur frequently. These kinds of service requests are ideal candidates for requesting and fulfilling via self-service – and it delivers a win-win. Not only are consumers empowered to work at their own pace and schedule, but the service provider is also freed up to spend more time and resources on more complex issues or work on other business initiatives. Used right your ITIL Service Desk can really simplify Service Request Management Does your Service Request Management matter? Service Request Management (SRM), done well, makes a huge positive impact on organizations. But if SRM isn’t making a difference in your organization, here are three things to do. Talk to stakeholders. The people interacting with SRM – both from the provider and consumer perspectives – are the best source of information for how SRM can be improved. What is their experience with SRM? Where does friction exist within SRM? Are there any bottlenecks or gaps that providers or consumers are having to work through? Take a look at service requests from the “outside in” perspective. Often, service providers design SRM practices from the “inside out” – only considering what is required for the provider to capture and fulfill requests. Start with the most frequently-occurring requests from the perspective of the requester – and ensure that they are intuitive to use and reflective of the work that needs to be done. Review your SRM measures Are you measuring the parameters that indicate that SRM matters? Yes, there are the foundational SRM measures common to all organizations (time to fulfil, number of requests, etc.), but are you measuring (and publicizing) the parameters that make SRM matter to your organization? For example, are you capturing the measures that indicate realization of organizational strategy, policy compliance, or positive UX/EX? BOSSDesk provides a great user experience making it very easy for users to manage Service Requests About Doug Tedder: Doug Tedder is the principal consultant of Tedder Consulting LLC, a service management and IT governance consultancy. He is a recognized ITSM thought leader and holds numerous industry certifications ranging from ITIL®, COBIT®, Lean IT, DevOps, KCS™, VeriSM™, and Organizational Change Management. Doug is an author, blogger, and frequent speaker at local industry meetings and national conventions.

On April 29, 2021, BOSS Solutions a leading provider of IT Service Management solutions worldwide announced that BOSSDesk the award-winning Help Desk Solution on the Cloud is now available On-Premise. The product is designed to ITIL standards, features a modern User Interface, and a customizable Service Catalog for improved service delivery and user satisfaction. BOSSDesk has won numerous awards and the recognition is due to the high ranking from users, a wide range of features, and excellent customer support. BOSSDesk advanced ITSM capabilities include a comprehensive Help Desk for Ticket Management, a Service Catalog and Self Service Portal to allow easy access for users to request services, Asset Management for total control of the lifecycle of all assets, and comprehensive Dashboards & Reporting for effective management. Click to view press release.

Password reset. Order a new laptop or smartphone. Move a workspace to a new location. Ask a question about the ERP solution in use within the organization. These are all common, everyday interactions between a user and an IT organization, right? These interactions are known within service management as “service requests”. ITIL® 4 defines[1] a service request as “a request from a user…that initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part of service delivery”. The act of making a service request seems to be simple enough. It’s a call to the service desk. Or perhaps, it’s a click or two on a web portal. And soon, that service request has been registered and processed…and perhaps, depending on the nature of the request, it’s even been fulfilled within just a few minutes. Those making a service request may not appreciate what happens behind the scenes. But that is what a well-planned, designed, and implemented service request management practice does for an organization, its service consumers, and its service providers. It makes requesting and managing service requests simple enough. But the importance of an effective service request management (SRM) practice is often overlooked…even taken for granted. Behind the scenes The Service Request Management practice provides a standard way for users to make requests of a service provider to provide resources or take actions that are an agreed part of the normal delivery of a service. SRM is one of the most visible service management practices within an organization. Service requests all follow the same basic structure. First, the requester’s identity is confirmed to ensure that only those that are permitted to make a service request can make a request. The specifics of the particular request are then analyzed. Some requests are quite simple and require minimal effort for fulfillment, while other requests may be more complex, requiring contributions from several teams or involving several systems. As part of that analysis, what the requester is entitled to request is confirmed, along with any needed authorization (from a security perspective) or approvals (from a budget perspective). Finally, the request is fulfilled. For example, a service request involving software may have to confirm that there are sufficient unassigned licenses available for fulfilling the request, and if not, trigger procurement of additional licenses. A service request for hardware, like a laptop or smartphone, may involve third parties to fulfill the request. A request for system access requires that SRM confirm that the requester is in fact authorized to access that system, and if so, provide only the type of access to which the requester is entitled. So, regardless of whether it’s asking for a new smartphone, resetting a password, or asking a question, the basic structure of a service request is always the same. But that’s just the basics. The fact is that not all service requests are the same. How to make it look simple There’s so much going on behind the scenes than what may meet the eye when it comes to service requests. Behind the scenes, even the simplest service requests often involve several steps. What is the key to making it look simple? The answer is request models. A request model is a pre-defined method for fulfilling a specific type of service request. In other words, for any request, there should be a pre-defined and agreed approach, or model, for fulfillment. This means that a request model must: Define the inputs and outputs of the model – What information is needed to fulfill the request? What outputs result from processing the request? Define what information is needed from the requester – In addition to a name and userid, additional information may be required, such as location, manager name, or contact information. Identify what individuals or teams are involved – Who takes the actions required for fulfilling the request? Define the time frames for fulfilling the request – How much time is needed to fulfill the request? What should be done if it’s taking longer than defined for fulfilling the request? Define and design how the request may impact other service management practices, such as supplier management, access management, change enablement, or others – No service management practice can be successful by existing in a vacuum. A service request may trigger an action to order a new laptop from a supplier or cause the execution of a standard change. Performance targets and expectations for SRM should be defined and agreed in Service Level Agreements (SLA). Recognizing how service requests interact with other service management practices prevents unanticipated delays with fulfilling requests. Specifically define how the output will be delivered to the requester – Some outputs can be delivered electronically, like software. Other outputs require a physical installation. Some may require both. Consider if automation can be used to fulfill the request – Many service requests can be fulfilled without direct human interaction. With BOSSDesk you can design forms and set up workflows to simplify and automate Service Request Management. A little planning and design goes a long way Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? The fact is that to deliver the outcomes from a SRM practice that seems simple for the user does require some planning and design. There are a number of benefits that result from planning and designing of request models. Improves coordination between teams – While many requests may be fulfilled by a single technician, some requests actually involve more than one team for fulfillment. Delivers a better user experience – Users have confidence that they will get what they need in a timely, friction-free way. Helps further identify opportunities for self-service and automation – This is a win-win for both the end-user and the fulfillment teams. The end-user gets her requests fulfilled on a near-real time basis. The providing organization, no longer needed to manually fulfill such requests, can devote more time to fulfilling requests that are more complex. Provides measurability – One of the results of defining is that fulfilling such requests becomes consistently measurable. The ability to measure then opens possibilities for continual improvement, as well as the ability to set reasonable expectations regarding fulfillment – for both the end-user and fulfillment teams. Don’t take service request management for granted! It can be easy to take service request management for granted. But SRM is a way to illustrate the business value of the service provider. Here are some things to do to ensure that SRM isn’t being taken for granted, while continually improving the value of SRM. Regularly publish performance reports – Illustrate just how much work is being done by SRM. Capture and publish agreed key performance indicators, or KPIs, such as the number of requests and the average time for fulfillment of requests being managed through the practice. By doing so, both the user community and the IT organization will have a shared understanding of the value that SRM provides. Identify top 5 requests logged by service desk agents – This will help identify further opportunities for improvement and potentially automation. Periodically audit current request models – Do existing request models accurately represent the current criteria for approvals and authorizations? BOSSDesk offers the capability to measure the utilization of Service Catalogs and feedback on services delivered for continuous improvement Service Request Management may seem simple to the user and to the organization. But having a well-designed and effective SRM practice is not only critical for service management implementations, but it is also important for the performance of the overall organization. Don’t let your organization take SRM for granted! [1] ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 Edition, p 195 About Doug Tedder: Doug Tedder is the principal consultant of Tedder Consulting LLC, a service management and IT governance consultancy. He is a recognized ITSM thought leader and holds numerous industry certifications ranging from ITIL®, COBIT®, Lean IT, DevOps, KCS™, VeriSM™, and Organizational Change Management. Doug is an author, blogger, and frequent speaker at local industry meetings and national conventions.

Holt of California is a member of Caterpillar dealers worldwide and sells and services a wide-variety of equipment including Large and Small Construction Tractors, Agricultural Equipment, and Forklifts. Holt provides jobs for approximately 800 employees and consists of 3 companies, Holt of California, Sitech West and Holt Ag Solutions. Holt was looking to enhance their Help Desk Software in order to achieve savings in manpower, improved efficiency and a reduction in response times. They wanted to automate many processes using Bot and App technology including the onboarding of new employees. They were looking for an integrated user friendly solution that would improve service delivery and user satisfaction across the organization. The older BOSS Help Desk was upgraded to the new BOSS Support Central in 2019. The advanced capabilities of this system and integration with Accenture Bot technology enabled the automation of new employee onboarding provisioning which saved significant manpower. In addition Holt was able to reduce the response time for other service requests to under 5 minutes, and the Service Catalog has also been deployed to improve service delivery across the organization. “BOSS has been a great partner and listens to our needs – it feels like a family, and the system works perfectly" said Gail Dryden – Director of Information Technology at Holt of California View the webinar with Holt of CA to learn more: The advanced capabilities of BOSS Support Central combined with the integration with other Bots and Apps provided Holt of California with significant savings in manpower, improved efficiency and enhanced service delivery within the organization. These include: Automating the provisioning and onboarding of new employees. Integrating the service catalog and routing rules with Accenture Bot technology allowed Holt to reduce the time to provision required services for new employees by more than 3 hours per employee. A similar approach was use to remove services for terminated employees. Reducing service request response time to under 5 minutes. Using capabilities including SLA’s, Mobile Apps and scanning capability, Holt created a Fixit campaign that successfully reduced the time to respond to service request to under 5 minutes. Improved performance monitoring and user satisfaction. Customized dashboard, comprehensive reporting and survey capabilities provided Holt with improved metrics to manage the business. Reduced IT manpower required to support third party vendors. Using routing rules, external partners providing support such as printer vendors were able to receive service requests directly from the help desk, thereby reducing the workload on IT while maintaining complete control. Improved service delivery through use by other departments. Holt expanded the Service Catalog to manage service requests for other departments including Facilities, Maintenance and Accounting and improved user satisfaction across the organization. Expansion to other departments is planned for the future. Interested in what BOSS ITSM can do for your organization? Request a free demo.

As an awarded vendor, BOSS Solutions offers TIPS Members the opportunity to purchase products at discounted pricing without the delay and expense of going out to bid. BOSS Solutions provides affordable Help Desk Software Solutions and 811 One Call Ticket Management Solutions and through the TIPS program is able to save agencies both time and money. TIPS Contract #200105. The BOSS Solutions Help Desk Software includes BOSSDesk for Cloud and BOSS Support Central for On-premise. Both have IT Asset Management and other advanced capabilities and are available at an affordable price. BOSS811 One Call Ticket Management is the solution for Municipalities, Pipeline, Utilities, and Locator Companies for managing 811 dig requests. BOSS811 reduces cost with features like auto-close tickets and provides comprehensive reporting that allows for accurate budgeting and management. Click here to find out more.