A great way to drive your IT Organization’s maturity to the next level is to separate your standard requests from break/fix type of incident tickets. This helps to free up the Service Desk to better manage Incident types that are not standard low impact changes.
It is not unusual for an organization to start with a simple help desk built on a homegrown problem and incident management solution. The next level of maturity would be a system based on email tickets. This system is hard to measure and is ripe for the next step in IT maturity. If you have taken the next step and chosen an ITIL-ready ITSM incident management solution and have not taken advantage of a service request feature, you are missing an opportunity to deliver better service.
As defined by ITIL v3:
A Service Request is a user request for information or advice, or for a standard change (a pre-approved change that is low risk, relatively common and follows a procedure) or for access to an IT service. A great example of a standard request is a password reset. Requests are usually handled by the Service Desk and do not require an RFC (Request for Change) to be submitted.
So let’s look at our three reasons to separate service requests from Incident & Change:
If you pair service request software with a service catalog or self-service portal, customers will be able to select the exact service they are looking for, pre-filling most of the required information on their form. By making form submission easier, you make it easier for the customer.
Requests can include standard IT changes that have already been pre-approved, which reduces the number of requests that will go to your more complicated change management workflow. This saves your team time and resources, as well.
Whether you are reporting for compliance purposes or for continual improvement, separating service requests from your other service desk modules will keep your reports tidy. It will also allow your team to easily see how many standard requests you are receiving, giving your team insight into where to allocate resources.
By getting routine requests into a Service Request Management solution, you are not only being more responsive to your customers, but you are also taking the next step in maturing your ITSM management processes. If you are ready to improve your service, do it today!
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