This issue of HDP Preview features
Char LaBounty and Interactive Intelligence

Reach new levels in service operations performance at the 7th Annual Help Desk Professionals Conference and Expo,
the Leadership Conference for Management of Help Desk Professionals

"Don't miss out. HDP 2005 is only 5 weeks away."

Check out our best-in-class program now.

You may never get to hear this superior line-up of speakers together in one location again.  This group includes the top most recognized industry leaders, expert practitioners, and favored vendors all with a common goal for this event - to educate, motivate, and inspire positive change so your team can deliver superior support at the lowest cost with the highest customer satisfaction levels.

Sign up now to be sure you don't miss this opportunity. It will be a year or more before another event like this will be on the West Coast and none will be right on the Pacific Ocean again for a very long time.

Sign up now.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Would you like to learn how to get started  turning your help desk into a service desk?  Are you ready to gain knowledge that will contribute to advancing your leadership skills both personally and professionally?  Would you like to hear how other companies have successfully advanced their help desks from a real world perspective?

Can we provide you the industry best practices for hiring and inspiring your staff, guide you to define realistic service levels, and advance the use of your technology without spending a lot of money?

In the help desk world, work is about teamwork -- and efforts are made to deliver excellent customer service.  How do groups of support people achieve extraordinary results?  Attend HDP 2005 with your team to find out.

At the HDP 2005 event we will focus on what works--and what works best--in five key areas of support: leadership, technology, industry best practices, innovation, and people.

Businesses are looking for the next generation of leaders and innovators.  Top ranking executives, educators, and industry icons will stimulate discussions to contribute to developing these skills and more.  They will help you address the need to do more work, deliver better service, increase productivity, all with a reduced or limited budget.

If you could go back to the office with tools, techniques and resources to start implementing ideas that will get you results both immediately and long term would that make it worth the investment to attend HDP 2005? If your answer is yes, click now to register.

Hear are a few resources to help you get started before you arrive in San Diego.

• Loads of different resources: http://www.contactcenterworld.com/news.asp

• Total Cost of Ownership: http://www.relativityllc.com/tco-technology-asset-management.html

• Mentoring: http://www.mentors.net

• IT Help Desk to ITIL Service Desk: http://www.infra.com.au/helpdesksoftware.asp

• ITIL People: http://www.itilpeople.com

My personal promise to you:  Just give us three full days for our expert speakers to deliver the material that will contribute to your team becoming indispensable corporate assets and leaders in support services.

If you don't feel you have gotten your money's worth after you attend the entire event over 3 days, I will personally return the total investment you paid for your conference registration, excepting any Pink Elephant courses, special dinner events, or pre-conference sessions.

So what have you got to lose?  Sign up now.

I hope you and your team will join us in San Diego, on October 26th - 28th as we explore how to chart the way forward and prepare for transforming your help desk into a service desk. 

Join us and let's get to work!!

Sincerely,

Ivy Meadors
CEO, High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc.

1. Special Discount for Members of Professional Associations
   Membership in associations such as the ACCE, ASP, ICMI, ITSMF, HDI, SSPA, etc. offer incredible benefits.  In honor of your membership in these and other associations we are offering a very special discount.  Email HDP@hthts.com and ask for the password to access our special discount registration page.

2. Valuable gift from our sponsor, BenchmarkPortal but you must ACT NOW. Take a FREE RealityCheckÔ at BenchmarkPortal.com Don’t guess at the effectiveness of your Tech Support Center performance. Want a fast start to assess your center’s metrics to a ‘benchmark’ of best practice? Here is a way to see results in real-time! Complete an online RealityCheckÔ with 12 data-points BY SEPTEMBER 20th and see how YOU compare at the People’s HDP Conference. *Use Promotion Code DRU when submitting your contact info and get a FREE Quality White Paper from Dr. Jon Anton. Questions? DruPhelps@BenchmarkPortal.com

3. Get your reservations made soon for the special evening events.  There are only 50 seats available for each and over half are sold already.  The USS Midway visit and the San Diego Zoo Prowl will make this a memorable event you will not forget.  Sign up before you get there so we can provide the caters the numbers.

4. Service Starters is a no fee e-newsletter that brings you the same high-quality management information available in the Customer Service Group’s print publications.  Twice each month, you’ll get quick-reading ideas that are sure to spark new thinking, action and improvement in your customer contact center.  Visit http://www.customerservicegroup.com/enewsletter.php to sign up for the Customer Service Group's content-rich newsletter.  Learn ideas for managing your department, your staff and receive special offers on books, training and support material.

    

RESOURCES FROM OUR FEATURED SPONSOR:
Interactive Intelligence / http://inin.com

TIPS FROM THIS WEEK’S FEATURED SPEAKER:

Char LaBounty, President, LaBounty & Associates, http://www.labountyassociates.com

Meet the Speaker:

Char LaBounty is founder and President of LaBounty & Associates, Inc., a service management consulting firm focused on the growing field of customer support services, dedicated to providing quality technology support practices that enhance client’s business initiatives. Char is one of the preeminent experts on the development and deployment of Service Level Management throughout the IT Enterprise and writes and speaks extensively on the subject, throughout the world.

Prior to her current position, she was the Director of the Membership Services Division for the Help Desk Institute. Char joined the Institute from Disney Worldwide Services where she was head of the Business Services Division. As Vice President of the Customer Relations Group for Norwest Corporation, Char was responsible for establishing their two Support Center organizations, as well as managed all disciplines associated with customer training, implementation, marketing, support, and corporate acquisitions.

Char has authored several books and published industry research on Outsourcing and has published many articles on the topics of technology service and support. Char is a much sought after speaker at technology and service and support events around the world, and has dedicated her career to providing sound customer service practices. Char is the past chairperson to the HDI Strategic Advisory Board, and a current member of the HDI Training Advisory Board.

Char shares with the Industry:

There seems to be a lot of accelerated emphasis and interest recently in the support industry on implementing Service Level Management to align the business with IT. While we all know that SLM does introduce accountability for unified service delivery throughout the IT Enterprise, I would like to give you some insight on why Service Level Management fails. Hopefully, this will prevent you from experiencing these mistakes as you begin implementing a Service Level Management strategy in your company.

One of the most common pitfalls is that the OLA/SLA documents are too complex. These documents should be short in length, while very precise in defining the services you provide and the level of service you and your customers agree on. They should not be epic novels, defining every little element in the IS enterprise. If they are longer than 3-5 pages, you are doing it wrong!

Another common pitfall is that the technology and tool sets cannot track and report the timed service events by responsiveness and resolution, and by priority/severity classification. Nor can they provide current state baseline information on system availability, response time, or network performance, as well as monitor established service metrics. Good sound reporting is paramount to ensuring that Service Level Management is institutionalized. Without a continuous feed back process, the loop is incomplete, and the OLAs/SLAs become documents and nothing more.

Management frequently does not acknowledge the amount of time needed to implement Service Level Management, and therefore they do not staff it adequately. This function requires the recognition from management that it must be staffed full-time. Unfortunately, this is not filler work someone can do in their spare time. There are a significant number of responsibilities that need to be assigned to this function to do it successfully.

Another frequent point of failure is unrealistic objectives and goals have been set by IT Management and Customers. This commonly happens to organizations that have not taken the time to baseline their system’s performance as well as their service support performance, prior to beginning to negotiate the SLAs with the customers. One of the primary reasons we baseline is to understand our ability to provide service within the current limitations of staffing and technology available, as well as the economic impact of the existing state. So when a customer asks for more, we are able to quantify the incremental impact in terms of resources and/or cost.

There is not total alignment and buy in at all levels of management. It is important that all levels within the organization understand the value of implementing a Service Level Management culture. Without this commitment throughout the organization, it will be difficult for the line staff to understand it, and want to participate in it.

Some organizations believe they can implement customer Service Level Agreements without first having established their own internal IT Operational Level Agreements. This can be uncomfortable for all participants if the entire IT organization is not closely aligned prior to beginning the process with your customers. In fact, it can be down right embarrassing!

Finally, an organization implementing Service Level Management, must understand that this is a company wide initiative. It will have impacts to staffing, technology, and the company’s culture. This is NOT a project assigned to the Service Desk! This is a new way of viewing how you will work within the IT organization and with your customers on a permanent basis.

So as you begin your Service Level Management initiative, feel free to use the above elements as a guide on “How not to implement SLM”!

Be sure to join us to hear Char present "Improving Services By Implementing Service Level Management".

JOIN US AT THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO

Make a commitment now to improving IT service in your organization and join us at the spectacular Hotel del Coronado for an extraordinary learning experience. We have arranged for significantly reduced hotel room rates.  There are only 50 rooms left at our reduced rate, so hurry and make your reservations so you can stay at the beautiful and historic Hotel del Coronado.

See hotel and travel details at http://www.hthts.com/hdptravel2005.htm

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