'Step Into the Light' - Leicestershire County Council

Editor's Notes

• #2: What we did How we did it How its changed our daily life What benefits we have out of it
• #3: Maxine Work environment – grim AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION – who recognises this? As management, we needed to re-focus From the outset we needed to change how we worked We didn’t want to do a project and then have the good practices fall by the wayside.   We talked about the concepts of the SDI certification We wanted a long alliance with SDI so that we could keep our service improving in line with that standard We knew that all the improvements we made had to be embedded in our day to day business and not done as projects just before an audit.
• #4: Maxine - slide Stuart – talk about the nine concepts 1. Leadership e.g. How we inspire and promote continual service improvement e.g. How we promote the service desk 2. Policy & Strategy e.g. How we have embedded our goals and ideals into our formal policy e.g. How our strategy is reflected in our operational plans 3. People & Management e.g. Our job design and how we value our staff e.g. how we monitor our staff satisfaction 4. Resources e.g. What tools we have e.g. Our environment 5. Processes e.g. ITIL processes e.g. Communications 6. People satisfaction e.g. How we maintain morale e.g. How we develop our staff and help them build careers 7. Customer satisfaction e.g. Business relationships e.g. Customer experience 8. Performance e.g. Collection and understanding of performance information e.g. Use of knowledge to improve service performance 9. Social responsibility e.g. Community integration and ethics e.g. Environmental and health and safety considerations
• #5: Maxine The journey itself was hard We had to firstly understand the standard – SDI do some training courses here such as the Service Desk Analyst and the Service Desk Manager and these are excellent preparation Then we made our plan of all the realistic elements that we could meet We chopped it up and everyone in the team owned a piece We kept it in small chunks so that team members could be motivated by progress We brought in people from wider ICT so that it was a concerted effort Tight deadlines focused the work We communicated well to the team, to IT and to customers We were clear about our deliverables Sustainable processes Reduced waste Better efficiency All aligned with the cash-strapped situation we were in We got buy in at all levels – so our marketing machine did well We had the work project managed so that we could keep track of it We kept the customer in mind at all times And then our first audit arrived
• #6: And so with all our evidence provided Our auditors arrived
• #7: Maxine And like Jamie Vardy here – they miss absolutely nothing!!! They interview the team members Watch them working interview other IT colleagues interview your customers look at your documentation your tools – they do a thorough job. Also like Jamie, they are top of the league
• #8: Maxine When you are operating in a busy IT unit it is hard to fit in this type of additional work It took commitment And some parts of the standard were hard for us We can’t provide bonuses, company cars or vouchers for a job well done. So rewards and recognition is hard for us to gain points in Although we can collect and trend the 100 plus measurements in the standard, it is very time consuming to do And can we use all of those measurements? Hard to justify the time spent. Our organisation does not want customer SLAs One customer worked with us on developing one and we report against it But these are just not wanted Integration is time consuming and expensive. While it has undoubted benefits, it is very hard to prioritise this above customer projects With social responsibility, we cannot release staff, paid for by public money to do community work. Therefore we have had to draw creatively on what else we do: Raising money for our sponsored charities Working with schools and colleges on work experience and sandwich course places Work with apprentices developing them to go on to get full time jobs Being environmental champions So challenges – but over the 9 concepts, not too much of an issue We have continuing budget challenges which means we have got to think carefully about what level of certification we are targeting And we have a huge list of organisational priorities that we have to consider
• #9: For the Service Desk 3 main concepts were in play on this one Leadership Policy & strategy People Management e.g. we promoted the service desk e.g. we ensured our leadership was inspiring and had full buy in to our aims e.g. We ensured that our policy and strategy reflected the authority of the Service Desk e.g. The way we applied the people management concept promoted staff and raised their profile So much so that other teams recognise and respect the service desk And include them in delivering their own priorities We ultimately made the service desk role critical to the organisation
• #10: Maxine People satisfaction and social responsibility concepts played a big part in building a culture of empowerment for the service desk With job design and responsibility we were able to build a service desk career that people could move through if they wanted WE measured staff satisfaction to make sure the basics were being done And we broke down barriers by making sure that we shared our accolades with the rest of IT We used our social responsibility activities to form unlikely alliances across IT and to bring people together And we formed a sense of community by setting up a central sharepoint site that contained all our tools, information and notices about what was happening with services
• #11: Maxine In the performance concept, we needed to get to a stage where we were the early warning of any changes in the organisation We needed to collect the information, understand it and proactively use it for trend analysis We managed this and used the information to bring down our demand – even though we are an organisation reducing in size, we have not seen that so far in terms of IT User head count We also used it to examine our processes e.g. we had information that customers were finding it difficult to use a particular process for starters and leavers So we applied some lean thinking and reviewed the form they were using and made life a lot easier for them and for us And also, we can use the information to boost business cases for investment E.G. we made the case for a self-service product to reset passwords and have made it mandatory And you will see that we have used this information to be able to Improve our understanding of the customer experience Improve our disaster recovery tests And use our business continuity plans in real situations An example of how we have been able to use our information to build a really mature process is our change process Out of 861 changes this year, we have had 6 failures. Stuart Performance – this is the key to success The Performance Results concept requires that you collect an awful lot of data and this can take quite a lot of resource if done manually. Thankfully there are tools on the market available that automates much of this work. Two reasons for metrics – (1) to provide data with which to plan improvements and (2) to provide the business with confidence we are doing what we said we would. By following the requirements of this concept I have all of the metrics I need to plan improvements
• #12: Maxine In the process concept there is a requirement for continual service improvement The improvement plan that we get after each SDI audit forms a set of entries on our annual team service plans These are translated into objectives for the team and lead up to our next surveillance audit In everything we do we have embedded CSI
• #13: Stuart I thought I was being invited to a Snooker tournament today…! As a Service Desk Manager I have no hiding place from angry customers – They will hunt you down and stake you out. I decided long ago to turn turtle and instead of ducking and diving I endeavored to seek out customers, in particular the grumpy axe grinders. This is why I wear these colourful waistcoats – When I walk about the council offices I want my 6500 customers to point and say “there he is – the Service Desk Manager – grab him quick” By becoming recognizable and instantly available to my customers I am able to manage and mitigate developing situations - This approach allows me to set expectations correctly. Maxine So against the customer concept Read from the slide Communications improved Our standards are being used across the organisation – demand management Working better with partners – both customers and suppliers In the 12 weeks leading up to our first audit, we published weekly newsletters to our staff and customers
• #14: Here you can see those newsletters You may notice the name of our IT Service management tool supplier here… They have sponsored our customer satisfaction survey and we can draw prizes each month for customers taking the time to feedback to us this lady here is accepting her prize The newsletters were fun too To get people to read them, we incorporated other competitions such as this one where we hid song names in the articles.
• #15: Maxine So benefits We have been able to improve our consistency The Service Desk Team are the most open team to change in the organisation We have that ready made service improvement plan from our surveillance audits We have a motivated and very enthusiastic team We focus on our core services – supporting end users with their IT needs We have commendations from senior officials and have received certificates for outstanding service, team work and going the extra mile in corporate achievement awards Our vision has been met, exceeded and the team have set the new targets for the next year
• #16: Maxine Use the slide
• #17: And here he is
• #18: Maxine – read from the slide
• #19: Stuart Now LCC have the Standard along with ITIL as guiding and enabling frameworks we no longer need the Certification? Or do we? We still have the same drivers as you can see here The SDI certification is an external independent affirmation of quality It helps us celebrate our success Internationally recognised selling point Quality services – greater reliance on IT
• #20: Stuart Here is my team Very proud Very happy Any questions?