1. Build a Right-Sized Service Desk for Small Enterprise
Strategy
Infrastructure
Applications
Security
For small and medium enterprises
Build a Right-Sized Service Desk for Small Enterprise
Keep sustainability front of mind to develop a service desk that suits your needs.
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2. The service desk is the backbone of IT
The service desk is the backbone of IT. Small enterprises with constrained resources need to look to designing a service desk that optimizes the use of standardized processes and self-service tools to allow technicians more time to work on time-consuming incidents, requests, and projects.  
Improving service support is an exercise in organizational change. The goal is to work toward establishing a single service-support team across IT and supporting it with a cooperative, customer-focused culture. Focus on building standardized workflows for incident management and service requests one business unit at a time until everyone who touches a ticket embraces the same set of processes and technologies.
Sandi Conrad
Senior Director, Infrastructure Info-Tech Research Group

3. Service Desk Invest in light tools and processes that you can sustain.
Situation
Service managers in small and medium-sized business (SMB) IT shops are generalists who provide a full suite of IT services with limited resources. They know that an effective and timely service desk is consistently ranked as one of the most important services by business stakeholders. They work hard to provide service that empowers the organization to achieve its strategic goals.
Complication
SMB IT shops lack the staff, tools, and budgets to deliver the quality service that end users expect. They often rely on , spreadsheets, and homegrown solutions to manage IT requests and resolve device and system issues. They struggle to get out of firefighter mode, to provide effective service support, and to retain talented staff.
Resolution
SMB IT departments need to build light processes to improve the effectiveness of the service desk without eating up the department’s limited financial resources. They need to empower users to address issues on their own, handle requests and incidents effectively, and quickly generate reports to track performance and demonstrate the value of IT to business leaders.
SMB IT shops must develop a plan that aligns the service desk with organizational needs, identifies high-priority efforts that address service gaps, and adapts best practices into light, sustainable processes. The goal is to implement initiatives that improve the service desk’s time to resolution, cost to serve, and end-user satisfaction within the staff and budget constraints that characterize the SMB space.

4. WALK AWAY FROM THIS BLUEPRINT WITH:
A plan to implement best-practice processes that fit within SMB resource and staffing constraints.
Improved end-user satisfaction with the service desk and IT as a whole.
A strategic plan for future IT service improvements.
Use this research to right-size your service desk
Intended Audience
SMB IT departments that need to review their service desk strategy because of service gaps and misaligned delivery channels.
Service teams that spend too much time addressing emergencies to provide consistent and proactive support.
Service teams with constraints on staffing and resources.
IT managers who struggle with low service desk effectiveness, high time to resolution, and low end-user satisfaction.
This Research Includes
Service desk current state assessment.
Key service desk metrics.
Ticket classification scheme.
Incident and service request process workflows.
IT knowledgebase creation guidelines.
Expected Benefits
Improve customer service and the perception of IT by the business.
Reduce potential negative impacts on the business.
Decrease time and cost to resolve service desk tickets.
Understand and address reporting needs to address root causes and measure success. 2 3 1

5. Is this research right for you?
Research Navigation
Building a sustainable, right-sized service desk is an essential step in satisfying and supporting the business. Each organization needs a service desk to ensure end users are fully supported in their business functions. Use the questions below to help guide you to the right Info-Tech resources that best align with the outcomes you want to achieve..
Question
If you answered no
If you answered yes
Do you have fewer than 15 employees in IT?
Review Info-Tech’s archive of research for mid-sized and large enterprise clients.
Follow the guidance in this blueprint.
Do you need to better understand the internal and external factors impacting IT service delivery?
Small enterprises – Follow the guidance in this blueprint.
Large enterprises – Review Info-Tech’s blueprint Standardize the Service Desk.
We recommend that you undertake a current state assessment using Info-Tech’s Service Desk Assessment tool.
Have you already put standardized processes in place and are now ready to evaluate an ITSM tool that fits your needs?
Large enterprises – Review Info-Tech’s blueprint Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk.
Small enterprises – evaluate your options with Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape for Mid-Market Service Desk Software.
Large enterprises – evaluate your options with Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape for Enterprise Service Desk Software.
Are you in an organization where technical support is viewed as non-strategic and are looking at outsourcing as a cost-effective service desk alternative?
We recommend that you understand the rationale behind outsourcing in order to decide whether it’s the right move for you using Info-Tech’s blueprint Outsource the Service Desk.

6. Table of contents Streamline your search
Use these navigation shortcuts to find the guidance that best aligns with your strategic needs.
Section 1: Assess the current state of the service desk
Activity 1.1 Identify challenges
Activity 1.2 Service desk assessment tool
Activity 1.3 Info-Tech diagnostics
Activity 1.4 Executive presentation
Section 2: Design and build a right-sized service desk for SE
Activity 2.1 Assign roles and accountabilities
Activity 2.2 Incident management stop, start, continue
Activity 2.3 Define common incident process workflow
Activity 2.4 Establish a critical incident communication plan
Activity 2.5 Prioritize incidents
Activity 2.6 Build escalation rules
Activity 2.7 Document service requests
Section 3: Communicate and teach service desk best practices
Activity 3.1 Design a knowledgebase management process
Activity 3.2 Create knowledgebase articles
Activity 3.3 Create a service desk improvement communications plan
Appendix
Additional resources
Guided Implementation outline
Info-Tech Research Group company overview
Looking for quick assessment of service desk maturity?
Conduct an assessment in Activity 1.2
Need to gain executive buy-in for service desk improvement projects?
Draft a presentation in Activity 1.4
Want to improve incident and request management processes?
Work through the activities in Section 2
Want to create metrics to measure service desk performance?
Leverage Info-Tech’s recommended metrics

7. Use our tools and templates to accelerate your project to completion
Executive Presentation
Service Desk Roadmap
Service Desk Standard Operating Procedures
Maturity, Assessment, and Efficiency Tools
Policy and Procedure Templates

8. The service desk is the cornerstone of end-user satisfaction
On average…
End users who were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT processes 36% higher than dissatisfied end users.
End users who were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT processes 34% higher than dissatisfied end-users.
N=63, small enterprise organizations from the End-User Satisfaction Diagnostic.
Dissatisfied was classified as those organizations with an average score less than 7.
Satisfied was classified as those organizations with an average score greater or equal to 8.

9. The real benefit of service desk improvement is increased operational efficiency
SMB IT Staffing Effort Allocation
The value of service desk for SMB
By improving operations through service desk improvements IT can achieve efficiency gains of:
$40,800*
*Model Assumptions:
Effort allocation. The average small IT shop spends about a third of its effort on service and support.
Efficiency improvement. By improving the service desk, operational efficiency has the potential to increase by up to 40%.
Overall budget. Assume an average IT budget of $1.5 million and 80% of overall budget is operational.
Cost savings. 40% improvement on 30% of effort applied to 80% of $1.5 million.
Data. Source: Info-Tech, MeasureIT Budget and Staffing Benchmark Reports ( ), N=16/11

10. For additional support, have our analysts work with you as part of an Info-Tech onsite workshop
Standardize the Service Desk Workshop
SMB IT shops often lack the staffing, capacity, and time required to implement service desk processes and projects.
Info-Tech provides an innovative approach to consulting that will pair our analysts with your IT team to complete the majority of your service desk improvements in four days.
Contact your Account Manager to find out how you can work with Info- Tech’s analysts onsite at your location or in Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office.
Pre-Workshop
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Module 0: Gather relevant data.
Module 1: Lay service desk foundations.
Module 2: Design incident management.
Module 3: Design request fulfilment.
Module 4: Build project implementation plan.
0.1 Interview service desk management team.
0.2 Identify service desk challenges.
0.3 Conduct CIO Business Vision Survey.
0.4 Conduct End-User Satisfaction Survey.
1.1 Assess current state of the service desk.
1.2 Review service desk structure and staffing.
1.3 Conduct agent skills gap analysis; identify agent roles and responsibilities.
1.4 Identify service desk metrics, benchmarks, and reports.
2.1 Build incident and critical incident management workflows.
2.2 Build incident identification and logging processes.
2.3 Design ticket categorization scheme.
2.4 Design incident escalation and prioritization guidelines.
3.1 Prepare for a service catalog project.
3.2 Build request workflows.
3.3 Build self-help tools.
3.4 Build a targeted knowledgebase
4.1 Identify ITSM tool requirements.
4.2 Build a communication plan.
4.3 Build an implementation roadmap.

11. Focus on core processes to build a standardized service desk
INFO-TECH
CASE STUDY
Standardize the Service Desk for SMB Workshop
Focus on core processes to build a standardized service desk
Southwest CARE Center
Southwest CARE Center (SCC) is a leading speciality healthcare provider in New Mexico. They offer a variety of high quality services with a focus on compassionate, patient-centered healthcare.
Service Desk Project
After relying on a managed service provider (MSP) for a number of years, the business hired Kevin to repatriate IT. As part of that mandate, his first strategic initiative was to build a service desk. SCC engaged Info-Tech Research Group to select and build a structure, assign roles and responsibilities, implement incident management, request fulfilment, and knowledge management processes, and integrate a recently purchased ITSM tool.
Over the course of a four-day onsite engagement, SCC’s IT team worked with two Info-Tech analysts to create and document workflows, establish ticket handling guidelines, and review their technological requirements.
Results
The team developed a service desk standard operating procedure and an implementation roadmap with clear service level agreements.
“Info-Tech helped me to successfully rebrand from an MSP help desk to an IT service desk. Sandi and Michel provided me with a customized service desk framework and SOP that quickly built trust within the organization. By not having to tweak and recalibrate my service desk processes through trial and error, I was able to save a year’s worth of work, resulting in cost savings of $30,000 to $40,000.”
Kevin Vigil
Director of Information Technology