A change, any change, can be very stressful, and changes in IT environment are no different. Statistics shows that more than half of the incidents in a given IT environment are caused by changes done by IT staff. A change, if not well planned and executed it can be catastrophic. Fortunately, there are many standards and frameworks out there that can be of great assistance in implementing a successful change management module in your environment.

In ITIL change control process, change management requires CAB (Change Advisory Board) to review change, plan and assist in assessment and prioritization of changes. CAB is typically formed of IT and business representatives working together to support change management team. However, in small environments, change implementer, change planner, change manager, and even CAB are often being carried by one or two people switching hats based on the role they are playing at a particular time. But this doesn’t mean that proper change management process can’t be implemented in SMB, it can and it should. Furthermore, it is almost as important as implementing it in a large and well established organization.

At CIATEC, we are always looking to help make things better within IT departments. In this article we will specify the most important steps to implement a successful change management process.

Change Management Key #1: Plan Change

This is the “blue print” of the change to be implemented. At this level you should ask yourself questions such as:

Answer the what, where and how questions and then answer the “When” question: Set the implementation schedule, choose a proper timing and make sure it doesn’t conflict with any other scheduled jobs that might be running at the same time.

Change Management Key #2: Classify & Record Change

Keeping record of changes is a very important factor in a successful change management approach. The first question that comes to mind after any incident is: “What was changed?”. If a change log exists, it would be easy to identify the change that might have caused the issue. Keeping record starts by filling in a Request for Change (RFC) with all the change details listed below:

Change Management Key #3: Communicate

At this level you should make sure that all stakeholders are notified. Especially if the change might cause a service down time.

First notify the change “approver” (usually change manager or IT manager) and get the change approved and authorized. It is worth noting that change manager usually approves minor and low-risk changes without the need of CAB. CAB is consulted for major and significant changes of high risk.

When all is set, it is important that all potentially affected users are notified, make sure they know the impact and don’t forget to mention a time frame.

Change Management Key #4: Implement Change

When all is set, and the change is approved, you can proceed with the implementation. This is the most critical part of the whole process, where the implementer puts the change management plan into action. It is crucial to keep documenting steps along the way especially if the change is being implemented in phases. Even if a rollback plan is in place, in some circumstances, change implementer might deviate from the original plan in a way that the rollback plan may not apply.

Change Management Key #5: Review Change

This is also another very important phase, it is to asses the change and check if it provided the value as planned. After all changes are done to provide better value to business!

Check, review and asses the change, make a complete health-check to make sure that there were no side effects.

Those were five key steps to execute a successful change management plan in SMB IT environment, but it actually applies for any change, not just within IT. If you have any thing to add, please do share in the comments below, or contact us here.

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Service desk is the highest visible “face” of IT!

Service Desk in ITIL V3

According to ITIL V3 model, service-desk is a function under service operations responsible for coordinating and conducting the processes and activities needed to manage services for business end users and customers based on the previously agreed service level agreement (SLA) terms. Service-desk serves as a single point of contact (SPOC) between organization users and IT management. Service-desk is the first to be contacted for any IT-related inquiry end users have, and that is what makes it a crucial factor in improving the whole corporate strategy.

Service Desk Types

Service-desk can be implemented in various types and forms based on business need. Below are the different types of service desk that could be implemented in your organization. Most organizations mix and match between different types of service desk to come up with a hybrid solution.

• Local Service-Desk: This is the type of service-desk to be implemented in organizations that operates from a single site.
• Centralized Service-Desk: Operates from a single location to provide support to staff in multiple geographical locations. This is a cost effective way of implementing service-desk solution for organizations with multiple sites or branches.
• Virtual Service-Desk: Members of virtual service desk team may be located in more than one location, they utilize various online technologies to provide remote support to users in multiple sites. This is the favorite type that outsourcing service providers use, it allows them to use the same team for more than one customer.
• Follow-the-Sun Service-Desk: This is famous among multinational companies with global presence and requires 24/7 support. Implementing this type of service desk requires at least two service desk teams to be located in different time zones with at least 4 hours of time difference between them.

Benefits of Implementing Service Desk

Now that we went through the importance of service desk in any organization, here are 4 benefits of implementing a service desk solution at your organization:

1. Single Point of Contact: Back-end engineers working on infrastructure level, or writing code for a certain application must operate in an environment that is isolated from end-users, they are not to be contacted directly. After implementing a service desk solution customers will have one-stop solution for all their inquires, requests, and complaints.
2. Customer Satisfaction: Whether service-desk is providing support to customers or to business end-users in same organization, customer satisfaction is a key element for increasing productivity and business growth. A satisfied customer will generate more business.
3. Monitoring, Tracking and Escalation: A well-implemented service-desk solution allows complete monitoring on problem resolution cycle from the moment of opening the case till closure. It allows tracking incidents to measure team efficiency and provides material to improve the service based on incidents history. It also implements issue escalation procedures to higher tier for better resolution timing especially for incidents with high severity.
4. Improving Productivity: Minimizing down time and resolving issues in organized and timely manner will increase efficiency and higher productivity. Thus, providing more value to business.

Read more about IT service management here.

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