The Service Desk

Activities and Functions

The activities of the Service Desk can include almost all aspects of IT Services Management in one way or another. However, its main function is that of managing relationships with customers and users, keeping them informed about all the processes of interest to them.

Some of the key functions a Service Desk should offer are:

Incident Management

Although managing incidents in full requires the collaboration of other departments and staff, the Service Desk must be able to provide a first line of support to help resolve interruptions to service and/or service requests from customers and users.

Its specific tasks include:

• Logging and monitoring each incident.
• Checking that the support service required is included in the associated SLA.
• Tracking the escalation process.
• Identifying problems.
• Closing the incident and obtaining confirmation from the customer.

Information Centre

The Service Desk should be the main source of information for customers and users, informing them about:

• New Services.
• New releases to correct errors.
• Compliance with the SLAs.
• ...

This direct contact with customers should also be used to identify new business opportunities, and to assess customers' needs and their level of satisfaction with the service they are given.

The Service Desk is ideally positioned to provide inside information on all the IT service management processes. For it to do so, however, it is essential that it log all interactions between users and customers properly.

Supplier relations

The Service Desk is also responsible for relations with external suppliers providing maintenance services.

In order to offer a high quality service, it is essential that there be close links between external maintenance providers and Incident Management. This should be channeled through the Service Desk.