Application of Lean to a Help Desk Essay

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Lean

Overview of the Company

IT All-Stars is a managed service provider targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises. The service desk is the typical point of contact with customers, and a basic workflow begins when a customer has a problem. The customer submits a ticket, and then a technician works to solve the problem (i.e. Internet not working, person forgot password, etc.). The business model is that the company proactively manages the IT function for the client, so also does things like managing the hardware (i.e. replacing it when the warranty expires, servicing, managing domains, etc.).

Justification for Lean

A lean approach in services is utilized in order to streamline the delivery of routine processes. The objective of implementing lean is to ensure consistent service delivery through consistent process delivery, which in turn means that delivery will be faster, and more accurate. Faster response times mean happier customers, and when techs spend less time working on each ticket, the company will need fewer techs, resulting in costs savings. Govekar and Agarwal (2017) note that call centers are excellent candidates for lean because most processes are repeated frequently.

A further benefit in the IT sector is that a lot of client knowledge is relatively specialized. For example, it is often the case that one tech is more familiar with the physical environment of a server room than other techs, so ends up being the go-to tech for handling calls from that client. However, specialized knowledge in silos ends up being inefficient if the customer has to wait for that tech to become available, or has to be served by a tech who is much slower. The managed services business is basically a complex call center where technical help, troubleshooting and problem-solving are the norms, yet most processes are ultimately repeated with some frequency.

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Implementing lean in this environment will break down information silos, will improve call response and resolution times, as well as service desk accuracy. This will lead to lower costs to the company, along with better service and happier customers. The ability to deliver superior service means that the company can charge more, while having lower costs, leading to a company that is much more profitable than its competitors.

Implementing Lean

Implementing lean at the service desk of an IT service provider begins with culture and organizational buy-in, as senior management need to be involved in driving lean implementation in order for others to see the value and commit to this process of continuous improvement (Lean.org, 2017).

The new step in lean implementation is to map out a particular process that has been targeted for improvement. If management is unsure of whether a process is suitable it can ask the perform a certain task how they do it – if they all give different answers, doubtless that is a good candidate for lean implementation. Map out the current process, and understand the workflows that are in place today. From there, identify and eliminate the structural barriers that are reducing performance (Lean.org, 2017). Visualization of the process is important to seeing the roadblocks and constraints that exist. A process of problem-solving should then be undertaken in order to find solutions to overcome the constraints and roadblocks (Netland, 2015).

The Example

In this example, the process is a simple ticket response, say a router reboot. It actually doesn't matter what the problem is – here's the basic high-level flow:

There is no need to outsource delivery here – the provider is actually the outsourced company. There are no purchasing….....

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