Holistic service management
The MSH Service Desk is the central point of contact for all inquiries from customers and for handling incidents, and is an important part of our company's range of services.
More than 4,000 tickets are processed here every month - both in direct user support ("First Level") and in "Second Level Support" (hotline for MSH data center operations).
In order to improve the quality of service, reduce the duration of the solution and increase transparency, MSH has introduced a new help desk system in the past few months - initially as part of the introduction of "First Level Support" for companies of the Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (SWMH) covers the requirements of modern service management geared towards ITIL.
Based on a specification, the decision was made for a product from mIT solutions GmbH: Due to the modular architecture and numerous existing, defined interfaces, the new help desk system could be adapted together with the manufacturer to the specific requirements of MSH and customers.
Essential functionalities
In addition to the classic functions of every help desk system, such as recording and classifying tickets, assigning them to work lists and agents, knowledge base with the help of case recording, etc., special emphasis was placed on the solutions outlined below when selecting and setting up the system.
The customer is the focus of every process
The help desk system is directly connected to the telephone system (ACD system) and has the customer's complete asset portfolio. With each request, which can be made by phone or email, all contact and asset data are automatically assigned and all open tickets of the respective user are displayed:
It is also important to communicate with the requester, who, depending on the problem, may be “sitting on coals” and need information: There is automatic information about the ticket opening and the solution. For complete documentation, all emails, such as interim status or inquiries, are automatically correlated with the ticket.
After the ticket has been resolved, the requester has the opportunity to evaluate the quality of the processing according to various criteria.
„Pacta sunt servanda“ – Integration of contracts
Each ticket has a clear contract and service reference. By mapping the service level agreements (SLAs) and services agreed in the contracts or service certificates, the solution times are automatically monitored and documented in reports. In the event of an impending or completed breach, an email-based automatic escalation takes place to the responsible contact person for each service, both in the MSH and at the customer.
Open communication in every direction
If required, the customer's specialist departments can be directly integrated into ticket processing via a web client - be it for the independent processing of tickets at application level or simply as a source of information. Sometimes there is a need to involve additional manufacturers or service providers in incident or problem management. For this purpose, facilities were created to connect "third-party systems" for the exchange of ticket information, assets and contacts.
Interfaces to the MSH monitoring system (possibility of automatic ticket opening) and the central asset management system serve to integrate all information. Due to the open architecture, a web frontend could be developed and put into operation in the MSH as a “dashboard” for real-time display of essential status information about service and support events