2 Service Initiation
Basics
A Service Model informs your IT Department’s work and can improve its efficiency. Departments that don’t follow a Service Model or don’t adopt Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for managing their work can waste time and money, especially when they work on a “first come, first served” basis. The Service Initiation phase has multiple steps, but they can often be completed quite quickly. Some steps may even be automated based on the nature of the request or the campus or department from which the request is initiated.
Terms to Know
You should know the following terms:
- Service Catalog
- Help Ticket
- Service Management system
Information
When a service request is made, either internally from the IT Department or elsewhere within the district, the first decision is to determine whether the request is one the IT Department supports or not. The services your Department supports may be recorded in a Service Catalog. Not all IT Departments will generate a Help Ticket (formal service request) for every request they receive, especially those not in the Service Catalog. However, some IT Departments document all requests that are received in order to review the service they provide and possibly make adjustments to their Service Catalog over time.
Help Tickets, also called a Service Management system, are the backbone of the services the IT Department offers. These ticketing systems are probably most often associated with customer service, like a Help Desk, but can help support the range of work responsibilities for every section of the IT Department.
The Service Initiation phase often kicks off with initiating a Help Ticket. Not all Help Tickets are created equal, so part of this phase is determining the urgency and priority of each ticket that is generated. Tickets can then be assigned to an appropriate staff member or department based on their expertise and current workload. If you are an entry-level IT Technician, someone else in your department may review requests and make all decisions in the Service Initiation phase and then assign the request to you.
Task/Self-Assessment
Complete the following task or self-assessment:
How do students, staff, and others make requests for service to your IT Department? Who makes the decisions about the work your department completes and does not? What decisions are made to help you know which service requests (possibly Help Tickets) you are responsible for? You should understand the process for assigning tickets and your obligations for interacting with the system.