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It seems that everyone I know - Business Owner, Business Operations Manager, or IT Executive has the same mandate: Do More for Less.<br>Having spent decades in the IT Industry, I can tell you that there are a number of ways to do this in the IT world, ranging from proactively identifying and eliminating IT problems to the efficient utilization of IT labor resources to the implementation of new technologies. For the purpose of this discussion, however, I think we need to focus on the basics first.
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The Fundamental Tool for IT Service Management It seems that everyone I know - Business Owner, Business Operations Manager, or IT Executive has the same mandate: Do More for Less. Having spent decades in the IT Industry, I can tell you that there are a number of ways to do this in the IT world, ranging from proactively identifying and eliminating IT problems to the efficient utilization of IT labor resources to the implementation of new technologies. For the purpose of this discussion, however, I think we need to focus on the basics first. As you've all heard at some point in your career, "You can't manage what you don't measure." To put an even finer point on it, I would say that "You can't hope to improve what you don't measure." Now, I imagine that you probably have some kind of ticketing system that enables you to capture IT incidents and requests in your environment. If not - you absolutely need one. If money is tight (and I'm sure it is), Google "free open source ticket systems" and check out what's available. Most have user recommendations included. Why is this important? The sole purpose of having a ticketing system is to capture the following information: 1) When a ticket is opened - at the very least the date, but the time is also helpful 2) The entity (person or system) that opened the ticket 3) The type of ticket being opened (trouble ticket or service request) 4) The classification of the ticket (i.e., PC IMAC, Server IMAC, Network IMAC, Server Alert, Network Alert, etc.) 5) The Severity of the ticket (i.e., Critical, High, Medium, or Low) 6) A thorough description of the problem or the service request 7) When a ticket is assigned to a department or person 8) A thorough description of the actions taken to resolve the ticket 9) When the trouble ticket is closed, and the requestor notified 10) An archive of ticket history containing this information that can be used for reporting. The quality of the information captured is also critically important:
1) Ticket classifications must be descriptive with enough granularity to determine where problems are consistently occurring. 2) Severity must be consistently identified to determine what classifications are most critical to your IT environment. 3) It must contain adequate information so that anyone that is assigned the ticket can understand it, pick it up and complete it. 4) All information regarding how the ticket was resolved and closed must be detailed enough that anyone receiving a similar ticket in the future can look it up and resolve it without reinvention. It's extremely important that each and every IT incident and service request be logged and tracked. Once again, at the danger of repeating myself: "You cannot hope to improve what you don't measure." It may take some time and experimentation, but this is where the improvement and money-saving process begins that allows you to DO MORE for LESS. You can now have the data to track what's going on in your world and to make better, proactive decisions rather than reactive decisions. Gary Ayres is a senior IT and IT Outsourcing veteran and Advisor to Small-Mid Tier and Fortune 1000 businesses, assisting them in optimizing their IT organizations, controlling IT spend and improving services.
