IT Services have embarked on a service improvement programme driven by our goal to change the perception of IT services and demonstrate value to our customers, by benchmarking our service against global industry standards. To this end we have started our “Journey Towards Service Excellence (JTSE)” project which includes Service Desk Institute Certification.
The Service Desk Institute’s (SDI) certification programme is the only industry, standards based accreditation programme designed specifically to certify Service Desk “quality”. The globally recognised best practice Service Desk Standard, provides a set of clear and measurable benchmarks for Service Desk operation; some of which may not be found within other frameworks and standards.
The SDI Journey
During February 2018 auditors from the SDI spent 2 days with staff from IT Services. Specific groups of people, including customers and stakeholders were interviewed to obtain a consensus understanding on how the Service Desk conformed to the SDI Standard. Key areas for development were highlighted. In conjunction with the Journey towards Service Excellence (JTSE) these were used as a basis for a service improvement programme.
In December 2018 the SDI spent a further 4 days auditing the entire Service Desk operation using interviews, desk-side observations and a review of our service level metrics Metrics Dec 18 [PDF 1,108KB]. At the end of the review we were rated a ‘Proactive’ Service Desk and awarded a “2 Star – Proactive” rating. The SDI have provided us with an initial report SDC Initial Report [PDF 953KB], the full report with further recommendations will be available at the end of January 2019.
Recommendations from the SDI and the JTSE will continue to be used as a driver for further improvements and staff development. IT Services will now work towards the next level of certification, to be a “3 Star - Customer Led” service which we aim to complete in the next 12 months, December 2019.
ITS progress and SDI journey will be published here to keep a record of our achievement.
Further information on The Service Desk Institute’s (SDI) certification programme can be found here https://www.servicedeskinstitute.com/
SDI Certified Organisations
Below are examples of other organisations who have participated in the Service Desk Certification programme.
2 Star - Proactive: Higher Education – University of the Arts London (UAL), University of Nottingham, University of Aberdeen, Leeds Beckett University, The University of Manchester and now Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)
Other organisations - NHS Lothian, NHS Wales Informatics Service, Cambridge Assessment
3 Star - Customer Led: Higher Education - Bournemouth University, The University of Edinburgh, Canterbury Christ Church University.
Other organisations - Waitrose, Barnado’s, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, US media company NBC Universal International, Air IT
4 Star - Business Led: NTT Data, Leicestershire County Council, NHS Informatics Merseyside
5 Star - World Class: There are only two organisations that have achieved this status - CGI & O2 Telefonica
The steps to becoming certified
Reports & Metrics
SDI Certification Initial Report SDC Initial Report [PDF 953KB]
Metrics for SDI Certification Metrics Dec 18 [PDF 1,108KB]
ITS KPI Monthly Reports KPI Monthly Metrics