Posted on Wed, May 22, 2013
A comprehensive and easy to use service catalog will help to increase your IT department’s efficiency while making the value of your IT work more visible to upper management, giving your department the power to justify department costs with ease and clarity.
Portfolio management must be accomplished with a complete service management tool.
As the nerve center of almost any company, the IT department always has plenty of work to do. From setting up a new email account or installing software for a new employee, or upgrading servers and securing databases, the tasks performed by the IT department and service desk enable the rest of the company to operate smoothly and successfully. High-level management now understands the key role that IT plays in keeping the company’s gears turning, and the importance of ensuring that the IT department itself functions as smoothly and efficiently as possible. A comprehensive and easy to use service catalog will help to increase your IT department’s efficiency while making the value of your IT work more visible to upper management, giving your department the power to justify department costs with ease and clarity.
The use of an effective service catalog has a number of benefits:
- Its ability to facilitate understanding between the user requesting the service and the IT department.
- Each service listed in the catalog includes a service level agreement (SLA) to establish reasonable expectations regarding the time frame of the service, a description of the service and how to fulfill it, who may make a request for the service, and any relevant costs.
- From the perspective of the end user, a service catalog with a straightforward interface allows for the easy submission of work requests and imparts a clear understanding of the path those requests will take and what they should expect in the execution of their requests. They may also have the ability to check on the status or progress of their service request, enabling the user to remain informed and update their expectations for completion.
- For the IT department or service desk employee, a clear service catalog will enable them to ensure that they have all the tools necessary to complete the task, respond quickly and easily to requests, and improve the level of their customer service.
The C2 CATALOG enables your IT department and service desk personnel to justify department costs to management, making it clear that your department is yielding significant savings and even profits for your company.
In your organization, how do you justify the cost of your IT services?
Posted on Wed, May 15, 2013
Information and customer satisfaction is paramount to any organization. It is also important to have the right tools to support this information.
As a function of communication between users and customer service, C2 Profiler allows you to setup interactive polls to make a precise diagnostic or inquire about client satisfaction after an intervention. Fully customizable, these polls can be deployed over the whole service center or specifically sent to the client. For example, on a call to customer service, it enables you to audit a request so as to direct it toward the right resource or rise its priority. Moreover, it helps your support teams be rigorous in their respect of your business or client management processes.
The customer services are unified, whatever the means of communication with your customer support, C2 Profiler offers their homogeneity and undifferentiated service.
Take a look at C2 PROFILER and make benefit your customer service and unparalleled flexibility.
Posted on Thu, May 09, 2013
Private enterprise has raised customer expectations of customer service. This means the public sector is under pressure to offer that same level of service but without higher funding or increase in staff.
Strategic management in the public sector will help you raise the bar on service without raising the tab on taxpayers. By giving you the tools to streamline your work processes you can more efficiently meet the increased service expectations while under resource constraint.
Better performance management for better public opinion
There are other demands you must meet in the public sector that may not be as imperative in private business including:
- Gaining public trust about how tax dollars are spent.
- Meeting higher demand with far fewer resources.
- Making decisions using a large volume of unanalyzed data or late, inaccurate information.
- Balancing better service with reforms, political demands, or cost-cutting measures.
Moreover, public services are expected to remain in business, regardless of the economic or political climate. C2 Innovations brings a wealth of experience and technology to business process engineering and strategic management in the public sector. This translates into evidence-based decision making with more transparency while becoming more efficient with the resources you have.
Measuring Success
The only measure for public service success seems to be how much is spent on it. This measures nothing. A system of performance mesurement that includes outputs, outcomes, or impact of policy objectives serves to show actionable changes and opportunities. These measures can also uncover wastage, corruption, the strength of the rule of law, and more.
How do you establish strategic management in your organization?
Posted on Thu, Oct 18, 2012
C2 Innovations is proud to share this press release:
To view the integral version click here.
SOGIQUE Adds Insight, Intelligence and Personalization to Customer Service Desk Operations with Coveo and C2 Innovations
QUEBEC – October 17, 2012 –
- Today, Coveo announced that SOGIQUE, a division of Quebec’s Health Network, is leveraging Coveo for CRM and Contact Centers to search, navigate and correlate its information assets for better customer engagement.
- By incorporating information from partner C2 Innovations, a leading provider of integrated and customized service desk solutions, Coveo is enabling SOGIQUE’s service agents to access, via a single, consolidated view, all information from within their service requests and multiple knowledge base systems – leading to more efficient diagnoses and resolutions of complex customer service requests
- SOGIQUE uses C2’s service desk solution to efficiently manage, automate and organize its customer service requests. C2’s ticketing system and knowledge base allow agents to document and organize customer service interactions in order to efficiently and intelligently handle similar service requests.
- Coveo’s solutions index information from across SOGIQUE’s knowledge infrastructure, including the C2 solutions, and instantly assemble contextually relevant information within C2’s intelligent database, in addition to a wide variety of health care applications and data sources, such as Lotus Notes databases and emails, websites, file shares and intranets. Through Coveo’s QuickView user interface, information is instantly presented in a web format, regardless of its original form. Permissions-aware security ensures that the instant and role-based access to information is always secure – ensuring proper information delivery to the right individual. SOGIQUE agents have contextually relevant information that is immediately indexed, consolidated, correlated and presented subject to the permissions of each individual user.
- By combining Coveo and C2, customers are able to more intelligently and efficiently handle a high volume of complex customer requests. Through its new partnership with both companies, SOGIQUE is improving information access to facilitate decision making, improve day-to-day efficiencies and operations and cultivate one-to-one relationships.
To view the integral version click here.
Posted on Fri, Sep 14, 2012
Get the Most of Your IT Department
No one needs to tell you the IT Department is necessary in today's work environment. Our computers do crash (sometimes with alarming frequency), and few among us are capable of making more than the most rudimentary repair. This is nothing to be ashamed about; IT people exist for that reason. And their job is not an easy one. Since so much of what we do in enterprise today requires at least some IT input, we can be lost without access to our computers. If several devices go down simultaneously, IT personnel have a lot to do in a short time. We need to respect their function, because without it, all would be lost. The day-to-day operations of many firms depend on IT doing its job correctly. Keep that in perspective when you can’t print out an email or your cell phone answers you with static or nothing.
IT Department Responsibilities
Since few of us really understand what makes IT work, much less what to do when something goes wrong, miscommunication with the IT Department is more the rule than the exception. Even as we labor to make sense of IT problems, explaining the issue to IT workers may only lead to more confusion. Let them do their job, without too many interruptions, or the kind of workplace "curiosity" that too often leads to gossip instead of enterprise. The behind-the-scenes systems' maintenance and repair ensures each of us can email, browse, research, engage integral corporate functions and otherwise communicate correctly. The best strategy for getting the most from your IT-Department is showing appropriate deference to their expertise. Start every call or email to IT with, “Hey, I know you’re really busy, but if you get a spare minute….” You’ll likely get faster service than if you insist that your problems are their most important.
Management and IT: Working Together
Transparency – plain communication between management and IT-personnel about the Department's decision processes and performance -- lead to optimal use of the organization's technology. C2 notes three key areas where clear communication is essential:
- Prioritization – Not all IT-work involves you or your people. Other departments need IT-services as well. Accurate assessment of which projects are most valuable to your organization generates appropriate prioritization of IT-assignments.
- Accountability – Enacting reliable IT-methodologies (ITIL® best-practices?) ensures people understand the purpose of each step of what's been done, with processes assuring everyone's responsibilities are delineated and measured.
- Risk Management – Delivering updated IT services – enhanced system functionality, expanded platforms or mobile devices – entail additional complexity; introduction of newer or nonstandard software or applications impose extra IT-costs and risks. Management needs to understand IT-personnel have a better realization of these drawbacks. Take their advice about potential downsides to upgrades, and allow them to optimize the process as they decide.
Conclusion
No organization will ever rid itself of IT-problems. Although the machines IT-people deal with are unfeeling, they themselves are not, and shouldn't be subjected to your frustration or anger about failed apps or other malfunctioning. Inevitably, that's probably more your fault than theirs. Since they repair the often complicated devices that make your work possible, show them rightful deference. Develop useful personal relationships with them. IT-people must explicitly contend with crashes and other problems an ongoing basis, and require the space to resolve your issue. Even if its takes more time than is convenient, they'll get you running again. C2 has both IT-personnel and policy programs available to help your firm deal expertly with these issues. Please visit www.c2enterprise.com for a good representation of excellent IT services.
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ITIL® is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office. Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office.
Posted on Thu, Sep 13, 2012
48-Hour Ride for Wishes 2012
Goal 2012: $1 000 000 for our wish children
Schedule: From Friday, Sept. 14 at 12:00 pm (noon) to Sunday, Sept. 16 at 1:00 pm.
Place: Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Parc Jean-Drapeau à Montréal
The C2 innovations’ team will take of the sixth annual Ride for Wishes event.
For the sixth consecutive year, motivated cyclists will raise funds by relaying day and night to bring hope to Quebec wish children. Your participation will help Make-A-Wish® Quebec continue its mission of granting wishes to create hope, strength and joy for children with life-threatening medical conditions. As such, C2 would like to thank its generous sponsors who contributed to this initiative, notably: Coveo, Druide, Odesia and Ubity.
All the funds raised in Quebec are destined to grant the wishes of children right here in Quebec.
For more details, please visit Make-A-Wish.
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Posted on Thu, Sep 06, 2012
IT Service Catalogs—Determining Your Audience
Introduction
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) recommends improvement of service catalogue content, as a basic priority of IT Service Management (ITSM) and Service Level Management (SLM). It focuses directly on supporting IT services needed for enterprise applications. Improved content is essential because the catalogue is the only part of an organization's service portfolio published to customers; thus, what it offers needs to be accurately portrayed. And, because the catalogue is used to support the sale and delivery of IT services, determining the audience for these messages is equally important.
Service Catalogue Priorities
The service catalog is a structured document or database describing an organization's live services, including those available for deployment. Because it is the only component of a firm's overall service portfolio accessible to prospective customers, the well-designed service catalogue readily communicates to customers the availability of company IT-services and their performance expectations, according to ITIL standards. Included in the service catalogue is information about organizational
1. contact points,
2. ordering,
3. deliverables,
4. prices, and
5. request processes.
Services are characterized by:
- professional/expert IT resources enabling a business process that
- comply with customer needs, while
- aiding customer’s enterprise strategies, causing
- customer belief that the services provided represent a consistent product.
To this end, the service catalogue is an integral component of the customer relationship, informing corporate processes. It helps organize interactions with customers by defining available services to ensure appropriate identification of their respective audiences in particular, followed by prioritization of their delivery to those customers-users.
Service Catalogue Audiences
The different services provided by an organization may overlap user-audiences, but many are discrete, of importance primarily to specified recipients. Thus, IT-personnel need to determine the intended audience for each service, as well as the appropriate means of presenting the service to them, for their optimal understanding of what it is and how well it can serve their needs. Policy determination follows completion of these tasks. At C2, we provide assistance in developing these aspects of SML for service catalogue management.
C2 also excels on providing audience-determination assistance. In general, audience depends upon service-use:
- End-user services catalogue – the foundation of user self-service. It displays a listing of operational services for an audience of organizational employees, management personnel, administrative workers and contractors. Among such applications are access requests, delivery expectations, desktop software available, facilities' requests, licensing data and pricing information. Aid for automated request fulfillment is also provided, as are opportunities for external service use.
- Technical services catalogue – helps create a standardized, easily-used listing of technical-request processes such as automation or compliance methodologies for business analysts, project or release managers, and support-groups external to IT. Among applications are job scheduling, risk assessment, and storage.
- Business services catalogue – lists IT-services according to business services enabled and the value they deliver to an audience of enterprise leaders such as analysts, division heads, personnel managers and service level administrators. These strategic planning services include entry/warehouse management, product service descriptions, and SLM definition/development.
Conclusion
Your service catalog should be business-oriented, to provide vehicle marketing while communicating IT services beneficial to both end-users and business decision-makers. To do this, it is essential you properly determine your target audience. A visit to the www.c2enterprise.com website provides service desk solutions of the highest caliber. C2's staff is available to help you decide what works best for you, providing the operational agility needed for successful enterprise applications; automated processing of your requests generates unparalleled productivity for service catalogue usage, and for the particular audiences you seek. You can only find the ultimate services from www.c2enterprise.com.
ITIL® is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office. Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office.
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Posted on Fri, Aug 17, 2012
Even Small Companies Can Benefit the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®)
Introduction
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) integrally supports the IT Service Management (ITSM) function. Included are the checklists, tasks and procedures used by a firm to establish a minimum level of IT-capability; these frequently are not specific to the firm, but are more generally used and accessible by the entire business community. ITIL modalities represent the operational baseline for a firm to generate IT-strategies, implement and measure them. If in doubt of how to proceed, a visit to www.c2enterprise.com can provide the support and guidance needed to level the competitive field in your favor. C2 specializes in services for small businesses.
ITIL for Management
ITIL is not intended to provide set-in-stone directives for IT-use; rather it is a framework upon which to base IT-activity. Comprised of 12 service supervision processes, ITIL offers a useful foundation for administrative applications such as change management, incident investigation, trend analysis, and problem management processing. Enacting these ITIL-based procedures serves the organization through transformation from reactive to proactive maintenance. Firms will not only demonstrate compliance to applied best-practices, but also have a basis from which to measure the improvement. Although ITIL has unquestionably acquired a reputation of being more appropriate and effective for big business, it has many uses for small- and mid-sized IT shops.
ITIL for Smaller Companies
Originally, ITIL was used almost exclusively by large corporations, since the concepts and techniques the Library addressed were written with them in mind. Today, however, smaller firms implement their own best processes and practices through ITIL, to improve the value and use of their information systems. Doing so may require some adaptation of the larger-scale standards to smaller organizations. At www.c2enterprise.com., we advise smaller companies to appoint from among IT-personnel a process-owner, to manage the Library's implementation and application. Equally as important, is careful selection of the ITIL processes most applicable to your needs; C2 has the experience to help with these choices. Implementing the entire range of Library concepts and techniques may not be the best strategy; rather, picking ITIL methods most appropriate to your requirements and strategies is suggested. Indeed, selecting only key ITIL processes for implementation allows more rapid adoption for organizational uses.
Thereafter, incremental addition of ITIL works best for the small-to-mid-sized company. Benefits of ITIL for the small organization include:
-
adaptability to almost any corporate culture or need,
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quicker results/reduced costs with fewer people to train,
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standardized knowledge-base for ITIL-applications cuts-across barriers to interaction,
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streamlined IT processing as redundant processes reduced,
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conservation of resources,
-
improved data-resource use,
-
reduced IT-outage time, and
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lower costs for change ordering, maintenance and other support.
Implementing ITIL ensures your organization makes optimal use of your IT infrastructure, by improving operating efficiency while lowering costs. ITIL drives business value in smaller firms, and should be an integral component of each phase of the service lifecycle.
Conclusion
ITIL is a set of best practice concepts and techniques for addressing the effective management of IT infrastructure, service delivery and support. First conceived for use by larger-scale firms heavily invested in IT, its use has broadened to organizations of all sizes. Smaller firms benefit from adaptation of selected ITIL processes to their specific needs; ITIL interfaces with existing IT, lending itself to a wide range of adaptations and combinations that stimulate change management in corporate culture and procedure. Incremental addition of newer processes is recommended; C2 has the expertise you require to successfully launch the ITIL agenda in your firm. Please visit the www.c2enterprise.com website for further details.
ITIL® is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office. Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office.
Posted on Fri, Aug 10, 2012
Many organizations today are improving their Service Catalogue…which is a core artefact required to move to a more mature service provision model…However, has for many ITSM improvement, one critical success factor is to scope very well the improvement of your catalogue, not by selecting necessarily a limited number of services, but by answering the following 4 key questions before you start:
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What is (or are) the business objective(s) of implementing an improved catalogue? *
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Increase revenue of corporation,
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Rationalize cost of services
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Meet legal obligations
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Improve client/user satisfaction
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Fix service provider organizational issues (moral, governance).
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What are your top critical Business Processes that depends on IM/IT services (VBFs)? You should limit to your top 3 to 5 to start with.
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Do you have an up to date (or at least useable) IM/IT organisational chart?
-
Does your client pay for their IM/IT services (could be notional charging)?
The following 4 questions should be answered before you embark in an improvement initiative for your Service Catalogue…
By answering these questions, you will first ensure the catalogue is built in meeting a business objective that will bring value to the organisation. Second, it will be linked to critical business process and will ensure you can assign service ownership. Finally, the last question will define the level of details you will require to make the catalogue of significant business value.
For more details on interpretation of ITSM concepts please contact C2 Enterprise ITSM Mentors.
Yves St-Arnaud,
Vice President, Service Management Practice
C2
*P.S.: The 5 reasons specified previously are the only 5 reasons why you should be improving any ITSM capabilities…
Posted on Fri, Aug 03, 2012
Interesting interpretation of ITIL® V3
The industry has now adopted ITIL V3 to help them improve management of IT Services. However, if I ask the following question; how many processes do you find in the Service Strategy Phase? You would be surprised at the number of different answers you would get. For instance, many will say four (4) as documented in the book. Another answer would likely be ten (10). Want to know why? The issue is about making the difference between the processes documented in the books and the actual processes you need for a specific phase.
It should be understood that each of the five (5) core books in ITIL® are separated in the main parts: The first is an explanation of the service life cycle phase, the second which is in no way related to the phase itself, are the processes document in the particular book (and not associated with the phase). To see an interpretation of processes for each phases of the Service Life Cycle has documented in the ITIL framework, review the ITIL V3 2011 Model here.
The moral of the story is to be careful how you interpret which process is required in each phase. The real answer should be as many processes you need to be the most efficient and effective in the phase you are improving.
For more details on interpretation of ITSM concepts please contact C2 Enterprise ITSM Mentors.
Yves St-Arnaud,
Vice President, Service Management Practice
ystarnaud@c2enterprise.com
C2
ITIL® is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office. Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a registered Trademark of the Cabinet Office.