The Head of IT Who Reduced Service Orginally posted on the BCS Website on 17 Nov 2008
Now that we are officially in a recession, a lot of organisations will be blowing the dust from their cost-cutting ideas file, and rifling through it to work out the best way to leverage more service for less money.
Which in itself is all well and good, however in large IT shops, the prevalence is always to reach for the outsourcing stick first, when in most instances, other initiatives can be more effective. Outsourcing always rates the bottom line as the most important but this normally only holds true in the short term - in the long run, it always costs more.
Traditionally, the first thing to be outsourced is what used to be called 'first line'. These days it has a plethora of names, be it 'Support Desk', 'Help Desk', or even 'Call Logging Bank'. Regardless what it is called, its prime function remains the same - To resolve a users (or customers) problem as quickly and as succinctly as possible. Unfortunately, as a side effect of outsourcing, this first line of support has been completely de-skilled. When was the last time you called your local IT helpdesk (or whatever), and actually had the issue resolved? More often that not, you find your issue 'logged' and a 'ticket raised' and the assurance that 'someone will call you back'. Meanwhile, your problem is still a problem, and all you can do is sit by the phone and hope that you aren't being bumped down the queue in favour of someone more important in the organisation.
First Line should be restored to its former glory. These guys are on the front, and should be equipped to deal with whatever artillery the customer throws at them. They should have intimate knowledge of the organisation and of the customers/users roles within it, they should be able to resolve simple issues there and then, and only resort to escalation if it’s something that is going to take a significant amount of time. This can-do system worked well a decade ago - the IT guys were part of the organisation, users knew who they were, they knew the users, and overall satisfaction was much higher.
I'm not disputing that it is cheaper on paper to outsource your first line halfway around the world, to a massive call centre, staffed by low income workers, who only know what organisation they are answering the phone for because the name appears on their screens before they pick up the call, but in the long run, your customers will become dissatisfied with the level of IT service they are receiving. They will discuss it both formally in meetings with bosses and informally round the water cooler with everyone else. Eventually, someone will sit up and take notice, and then the guy who was known as The Head of IT Who Slashed Costs is now known as The Head of IT Who Reduced Service. I sure don't ever want to be that guy.
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