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August 2010, Volume 12, Issue 3

Managing changes Easier than ever!


In this edition:

Trends: The new world of work and Unified Communications / TOPdesk on Tour: 9 cities, 4 countries, over 400 visitors / Everything under control at Oc Technologies /

Editorial
Want to comment? Go to www.topdeskmagazine.com

Work and Play


During the months of May and June, the TOPdesk on Tour bus visited nine football stadiums across four countries in Europe. Over 400 TOPdesk clients attended the event, many of whom were lucky enough to get a peek behind the scenes of the stadium! In this addition of TOPdesk Magazine, David Brown, TOPdesk UK Pre-Sales Manager recaps the highlights of TOPdesk on Tour at the Emirates Stadium in London. TOPdesk clients were also fortunate enough to be given a presentation on TOPdesk version 4.3, including a sneak preview of the new-and-improved Change Management module. But thats not all. In this edition of TOPdesk Magazine, you can acquire an insight into IT support in the New World of Work, learn all about a unique client that uses TOPdesk to register company accidents and another that registers a range of complaints of an environmental nature. These client success stories are just two examples of the diverse ways that clients use TOPdesk on a daily basis to register all sorts of calls. On a more practical level, find out how to measure the satisfaction of your clients, as TOPdesk CRM Manager, Daniel Huijbens, discusses the recent customer satisfaction survey that was carried out among some TOPdesk clients and the effects that it has had upon the organization since. Read all this and more including regular features such as tips and tricks and trends in this edition of TOPdesk Magazine. Enjoy reading! Clare Donald.

The TOPdesk Magazine covers subjects that are topical in the world of professional service desks in IT, facilities and other service providing organizations. The TOPdesk Magazine is intended for managers, service desk employees, facilities organizations and electronic city councils anyone who is involved with supporting clients on a daily basis. This concerns both the processes and the technology behind these services.

editorial
TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk publication Tel: +31 15 270 09 00 Email: editorial@topdesk.com Chief Editor Niek Steenhuis Editors Clare Donald, Nicola van de Velde Contributors Pouyan Daddeh, Claudia Funk, Patrick Mackaaij, Nienke Deuss, Annemarie Moeijes, Olga Reutelingsperger Layout Elise Kerner, Joost Knuit, Dutch Designers Collective Photography Pouyan Daddeh, Olga Reutelingsperger, Ted Erkkila Website David Blom, Erik Pols, Ted Erkkila

Dutch Designers Collective


Part of the TOPdesk group of companies

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Contents August 10
4 6 10 13 14 16 20 24 28 News Trends: The IT side of the New World of Work Client in focus: Everything under control at Oc Technologies Column: Collaboration or discordance Client Satisfaction Survey More than worth the effort Module in the spotlight Managing changes easier than ever! Handling complaints with TOPdesk at the District Water Board TOPdesk on Tour Tips + Tricks

News
Link with SAP Solution Manager
In collaboration with Uphantis, TOPdesk has developed a link with the SAP Solution Manager. As a result, the SAP Solution Manager Incident Management process and TOPdesk are now integrated, offering users the benefits of both software packages. Front office processes are supported with TOPdesk, while SAP issues are dealt with in the back office in the SAP Solution Manager. This link has been developed principally to avoid registering the same information twice, reduce the chance of making mistakes and increase the efficiency of the running of Incident Management. SAP clients are also now obliged to log incidents regarding SAP software via the SAP Solution Manager. The front office can escalate an incident from TOPdesk to the back office in the SAP Solution Manager, and the back office can then escalate it to the SAP Support department. All updates are synchronized in both packages. Once the incident is resolved, it is closed in TOPdesk and then in the Solution Manager. Consequently, everyone can continue working in one application and the entire process, from end user to supplier, is supported. experience in the area of facilities management, drawing management and property management, are an excellent complement to the services that TOPdesk already offers. If clients wish to organize maintenance contracts or drawings, for example, RPS Kraan has the knowledge inhouse to execute and direct this process. The consulting firm can also be called in to carry out building inspections and draw up long-term maintenance plans. The facilities processes can then be recorded and managed using TOPdesk. The possibilities of RPS Kraan offer great benefits for TOPdesks facilities clients.

TOPdesk Help & Support site


TOPdesk is currently developing a site, specifically to assist users in the everyday use of the software, as well as offer additional support in the form of FAQs. The TOPdesk Help & Support site will be launched in the upcoming release of version 4.3 of the software, and TOPdesk users will be able to access the site directly from the application. The site will be particularly beneficial for operators and managers of TOPdesk, who will be able to refer to software manuals, Getting Starteds and tips. All content will be available in Dutch, English and German, and will be updated and added to daily.

Expanding facilities services with RPS Kraan


TOPdesks range of services for facilities clients in the Netherlands is being expanded with the expertise of RPS Kraan Consulting B.V., consultants in the area of real estate and property. Both companies are very enthusiastic about the new opportunities. Our outlook and service match perfectly, comments Renske van der Heide, Facilities Team Leader at TOPdesk Consultancy. RPS Kraan is an independent Consultancy firm that is geared towards the development and realization of corporate real estate and property. The firms knowledge and years of

4 News

Shows & Exhibitions


UNITED KINGDOM
August
Customer Demo Days, London 26 & 27 August | TOPdesk Office, London Bridge

Concept Centre opened


TOPdesks Support department recently reopened as the TOPdesk Concept Centre. Visitors to the TOPdesk office in Delft can now see how these TOPdesk specialists use the software to its full advantage. In May, the entire Support department moved from the fourteenth floor to the eleventh, in the space of a few hours. TOPdesk clients were not affected, however, as the Support department remained open throughout. After the move, TOPdesk CEO, Wolter Smit, reopened the department under the name TOPdesk Concept Centre and toasted to this special occasion. At the Concept Centre, clients can see our Support department at work, as well as an example of how TOPdesk experts themselves make optimal use of the software. What is more, the new training room was reopened at the same time. Now when clients arrive for training, they are first led through the Concept Centre. They can then see how the TOPdesk specialists themselves provide insight into and improve the quality of the service they provide.

September
Demo Days, London 16 & 17 September | TOPdesk Office, London Bridge

October
Demo Days, London 14 & 15 October | TOPdesk Office, London Bridge

November
itSMF Conference UK 8 & 9 November | Novotel London West Demo Days, London 11 & 12 November | TOPdesk Office, London Bridge

GERMANY
October
IT & Business 26 28 October | Messe, Stuttgart

November
ServiceDesk Messe 23 & 24 November | Rheinegoldhalle, Mainz

THE NETHERLANDS
September
IIR Service Desk Forum 29 & 30 September | Madurodam, The Hague

October
ITSMF Jaarcongres Renewal 25 & 26 October | NBC Nieuwegein

November
Tooling Event 3 & 4 November | Jaarbeurs Utrecht

TOPdesk CEO Wolter Smit opens the new Concept Centre

News 5

Trends

The IT side of the

Text: Nienke Deuss

new world of work

In a previous edition of TOPdesk magazine, we discussed the New World of Work, which focussed on working independently of time and place. In this article, Bob Smits, Business Consultant at Imtech, discusses several recent IT developments within the New World of Work.

The hard side of the New World of Work


The New World of Work is often viewed from the HR perspective the soft side where it is said that people should be the focal point, explains Bob Smits. The work is adjusted to the needs of the employee. However,

the New World of Work in particular provides organizations with the opportunity to offer a higher service level at a lower cost. This is the hard side. While this of course is very interesting for managers, because IT plays an important part in the New World of Work, IT departments also look forward to inherent technological developments.

THE DIGItAL NAtIVE GENERAtION KNOWS NO BEttER tHAN tO FIND ALL SOCIAL INFORMAtION ONLINE

Connect, socialize and integrate


At Imtech, the New World of Work rests on three pillars: connect, socialize and integrate, Bob explains. In the past few years, IT developments have been quick to follow one another. Many tools are focussed on supporting one (or more) of these pillars. Consider, for instance, the introduction of tools for Unified Communications (Connect), social media such as Twitter (Socialize) and FMIS (Integrate).

6 tRENDS

Connect
Working together from remote locations is only possible if you are connected with your colleagues and clients. Thus the connect pillar revolves entirely around the availability of a communication channel an infrastructure that allows you to do your job. There needs to be an internet connection, a computer, a phone line, perhaps even video equipment and of course the option to meet each other in person, tells Bob.

clients and employees, allowing you to target specific people and respond to the tweets of clients in your area.

Socialize
In brief, socialize is all about creating a social network, explains Bob. If you want to work independently of time and place, it is vital to know who you are working with, how you can contact colleagues and who is responsible for what. In order to work remotely, but successfully, there must be

WORKING tOGEtHER FROM REMOtE LOCAtIONS IS ONLY POSSIBLE IF YOU ARE CONNECtED WItH YOUR COLLEAGUES AND CLIENtS

Bob Smits, Business Consultant at Imtech

The ability to switch between media types is also very important. For example, if you receive a difficult question through a chat message, you should be able to call that person or start a video conference with just one mouse-click. An example of this is the Microsoft Office Communicator, in which all communications media are linked in one interface. This is one of the current Unified Communications tools. Another example of integrating (communications) technologies is the new iPhone application called Layers, tells Bob. This tool combines GPS and Twitter by scanning the surrounding area, which immediately displays all those who are located within a certain radius and what they are twittering about. This could become a new method of researching important issues among

tRENDS 7

Going green
The New World of Work is often linked to Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS), because smart technologies help us to stay green. Using IT can help save significant amounts of energy, explains Bob Smits. For a while now, IBM has been working according to the motto A Smarter Planet, and has successfully completed various projects such as intelligent traffic systems in Stockholm that have helped reduce traffic jams. IBM has also developed a smart building for the Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn, where smart electricity networks (smart grids) are linked to sensors, enabling them to keep track of energy flows and, furthermore, have networks turn themselves on or off.

8 tRENDS

mutual trust, which is difficult to realize while working in a virtual team. Hence the introduction of digital work environments containing employee profiles, internal social networks and environments for sharing knowledge, such as company wiki pages. Developments in this area began primarily with personal profile sites like Facebook and MySpace. In the meantime, however, the business world has also discovered the online possibilities of social media, which focus mainly on sharing knowledge, connecting

processes should be attuned to one another, and, these days, this has to be achieved entirely digitally. Consider the way that TOPdesk is used to support processes, where IT is integrated into the current workflow. The integration of company processes is developing rapidly, as more and more software, hardware and information is integrated into smart devices. Just imagine a car that gives you updates on maintenance, informs you when the oil needs to be changed and recharges automatically as soon as its parked in the garage, says Bob. These are all developments in the foreseeable future.

BEFORE INVItING A POtENtIAL CANDIDAtE FOR A JOB INtERVIEW, YOU CAN LOOK At tHEIR LINKEDIN PROFILE, SO YOU KNOW WHAt tO EXPECt

Smart thinking
We have seen an exponential growth in IT usage and possibilities, explains Bob. We should now be focussing on using the current technology to its full potential, and new developments are always around the corner, such as customer-focussed marketing through social media. By using online information retrieved from a LinkedIn profile, for example, organizations can specifically target potential clients. Because these individuals have filled in their preferences and interests online, you can address them accordingly. This is what makes present-day marketing so personal.

with others and personal profiles. Before inviting a potential candidate for a job interview, you can look at their LinkedIn profile, so you know what to expect, Bob explains. The digital native generation know no better than to find all social information online.

The challenge
We have to ensure that tools are attuned to the user in such a way that they are barely aware of using them, says Bob. The IT specialist will also have to support communication technologies, VoIP, knowledge-sharing environments and document management systems. Henceforth, the goal is to offer better and more personal service using advanced technology. The challenge, however, is to deal with this in the best possible way.

Integrate
It is more important than ever to integrate company information with current applications, explains Bob. You should integrate IT into the company processes, in order to measure, monitor and manage them. Bob also explains the importance of this development. Company

tRENDS 9

Client in focus

Everything under control at Oc Technologies

TOPdesk for risk management of environmental and safety incidents


Henk Siebers and Ren Weinand of Oc Technologies

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Text: Pouyan Daddeh

An employee has cut himself on a machine, a fork lift truck has toppled over or a visitor is feeling unwell from eating the soup in the canteen. These types of calls may not sound familiar to the average TOPdesk user; however, for the employees of the Health, Safety and Environment department at Oc Technologies, such incidents recur daily.

Most TOPdesk consultants are aware that nine out of ten customers will use TOPdesk for their IT and/or Facilities department and, due to our experience in these areas, we never question whether TOPdesk would fit the needs of these departments. However, on occasion, we do hear of clients who use TOPdesk for entirely different purposes. A good example of such a client is the Health, Safety & Environment department at Oc Technologies, a Dutch organization that supplies document management and printing. This department handles calls on accidents and dangerous situations within the organization.

tHE PROCESS IS SIMILAR tO tHE REGIStRAtION AND COMPLEtION OF IT-RELAtED CALLS


incoming calls and handle them appropriately. In particular, these specialists research the cause of incidents, so that they can advise the organization on taking preventive measures. Risks are calculated by looking at the chance of recurrence, the exposure and the subsequent effects of the incident, tells Henk Siebers, Safety Specialist at Oc Technologies. In addition, the safety specialist will contact any victims to keep track of their recovery. Before the implementation of TOPdesk, the safety specialists worked in an outdated DOS application. When an incident occurred, they would print out a form, fill it in, hand it in and manually import it into the old system. Once Oc started to realize that they could improve this process, they began looking for a new application. Although not the most logical choice at first thought for logging calls for risk management, Oc chose TOPdesk

Minimizing risks
Oc has employed four safety specialists to keep track of

Client in focus 11

because other sections of the organization already had a lot of experience with the software and the package generously met all their needs. The process is also very similar to the registration and completion of IT-related calls, explains Ren Weinand, Project Leader during the implementation.

If you aim at less than 10 percent of the calls being risk class 4 or higher, for example, then you will want TOPdesk to display the number of received calls and their corresponding risks. Especially for this purpose, TOPdesk has created optional fields. These are available by default and, if used well, they can expand the information flow and reporting options of TOPdesk considerably. Oc uses approximately 20 optional fields divided over four groups. The details that callers fill in on the form then automatically appear in the right fields.

they do not always log minor incidents, Emergency Response Officers seem to manage more incidents than are actually logged in TOPdesk. Thats a shame, because these are incidents that you can learn from, comments Henk. The most frequent users of TOPdesk are the safety specialists. For them, the biggest advantage is the added efficiency because they no longer have to type out the details of each individual call. Henk explains, Now, I dont spend as much time registering a call, which gives me more time to investigate the cause of the incident. Another significant advantage is the possibility to inform managers and others involved by email, which in turn enables you to save all the correspondence. Prior to the implementation, you would save forms, photos and research reports in large files, while you now have them in digital form. You can now find everything in TOPdesk, including attachments, and managers can look at their departments calls through the Self Service Desk. In this way, they dont have to call or email their colleagues with questions about the status of a call.

How does it work in TOPdesk?


To start with, you need to acquire sufficient details concerning the call such as the location, the items, processes and people. The safety expert should also

COLLEAGUES FIND tHE REGIStRAtION OF CALLS VIA tHE SELF SERVICE DESK EASY AND ACCESSIBLE
establish whether gases have been emitted and what the scale of the damage is. He or she then registers information about the risk, including the most important risk factors and the scale of the risk. To ensure that these details are all included in the call, a special form has been developed for the caller. You could add this information to the request and action fields in TOPdesk, but this will limit your reporting and selection options. Reporting, however, is essential. Especially concerning risk factors and classes, it is important to report on the frequency of certain situations. Once you are aware of this, you can improve your service.

More calls but less pressure


Since 1 December 2009, the safety specialists at Oc have worked solely in TOPdesk and the responses have been positive, according to Henk. Our colleagues have experienced the registration of calls via the Self Service Desk as easy and accessible. And the figures appear to confirm this: after only four months they had already received 55 calls compared to a total 120 calls in 2009. However, not everyone at Oc necessarily thinks to log a call in TOPdesk, even though they are aware of the possibility. Because

Take advantage of optional fields


This implementation has demonstrated that TOPdesk not only supports IT and Facilities customers, but can also be used for risk management. And this is only one of many possibilities for using optional fields in TOPdesk.

12 Client in focus

Column Collaboration or discordance


TEXT: ANNEMARIE MOEIJES A friend of mine recently moved and so had to find a different general practitioner. Her new GP naturally wanted to take a look at her patient file and so my friend called her old practice to request that they send over her file. Im afraid we cant do that madam! But you only have to stick it in an envelope, said my friend. No madam, we really cant. Then we would be licking envelopes all day. We just cant. You can come and pick up your file. Could we arrange a time and a date that you can have the file ready for me? No madam, we cant do that. Then we would have piles of paper on our desks. Eventually, my friend who has a fulltime job had to take a morning off to pick up her file in person. It wasnt ready for her; instead it was filed in the back of the filing cabinet under the wrong name. That cant be normal? she asked me. Did I understand wrongly by thinking that they were service providers? Although this is one individuals experience, it does sound familiar, doesnt it? Just imagine that you have a contract with a supplier. Can you imagine that they wouldnt handle your request if you didnt fill in the right request form? And what if you make an appointment to have your printer repaired and they tell you they will be there between eight and twelve oclock, but eventually dont come until one? There is only one ground rule concerning the relationship you have with your supplier: you get what you pay for. You should really think about what is important to you as a paying customer. Do you consider it important that a supplier is always on time or that he occasionally surprises you with Wembley tickets? Would you like a personal point of contact or is the expertise of the help desk more important, regardless of who you speak to? In the end, you get what you pay for. However, within the margins of a contract, you can shift your priorities. Too many organizations sign expensive contracts that cover all the service options; however, when you think about it, do you really need that 24-hour service with supplier X? Or can you manage with slightly less? Instead, you might want your supplier to communicate more efficiently regarding current orders. Your supplier alone does not determine the way you communicate; you also play an important part in this process. Once you realize this, you can collaborate more efficiently with your supplier in a way that suits both of you. Your supplier knows what is expected of him and might get new ideas with which he can support other clients, and you as client get more value for money. To summarize: be clear about what you want and dont allow yourself to be given the brush-off. Your supplier will most likely be able to supply what you need, and, if not, find a new one. The same goes for your GP.

Annemarie Moeijes is a consultant at TOPdesk and has years of experience with implementations and changes within various organizations.

Client Satisfaction Survey More than worth the effort


TEXT: Claudia Funk

Every day, we are bombarded with cheerful people recommending certain products, full of persuasion. Theyre satisfied and they want to tell you all about it. But seldom do you know whether your clients are happy with the services your organization provides. So how do you find out? Conducting a client satisfaction survey is an effective way of determining just how satisfied your clients actually are.
Daniel Huijbens

Discovering trends
TOPdesks Survey module is an effective way to reach your clients. You can run advanced reports and analyze the responses, enabling you to draw conclusions. By conducting a survey of your clients, you can discover trends, explains Daniel Huijbens, CRM Manager at TOPdesk. Have the measures we took to improve our services been effective? What do we now need to work on? In an era where good service often means the difference between successful and less successful companies, such information is vital.

Evaluating TOPdesks services


At the beginning of this year, TOPdesk conducted its third client satisfaction survey and asked clients to rate the services provided. Eleven thousand contacts were asked for their opinion. Based on the SERVQUAL model1, we posed the following questions to our clients: What is your experience concerning the expertise and willingness of TOPdesk staff to assist you directly? How would you rate the knowledge and skills of our employees? Did TOPdesk deliver the promised service accurately and with confidence? Did you receive sufficient attention? How do you regard the rooms, facilities and staffs appearance?

BY CONDUCtING A SURVEY OF YOUR CLIENtS, YOU CAN DISCOVER tRENDS: HAVE tHE MEASURES WE tOOK tO IMPROVE OUR SERVICES BEEN EFFECtIVE?

The widely accepted SERVQUAL model offers a means to measure the perception of clients compared with the quality of the service (Parasuraman et al, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994; Zeithaml et al, 1990)

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My experience of the expertise of TOPdesk staff is very good.

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86

STRONGLY AGREE 371 711 AGREE NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE

WHILE YOU WILL ONLY SEE PROFItS IN tHE LONGtERM, YOU WILL RECOVER DOUBLE tHE INVEStMENt

departments. Each department then looked at how it can improve in certain areas.

Thinking ahead
Putting the required measures in place to carry through such a large-scale investigation demands energy and costs, which can put off some companies, acknowledges Daniel. While you will only see the profits in the long-term, you will recover double the investment.

Over 1000 clients took the time to give us feedback. At 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, TOPdesk can validly claim its clients regard its service as very good.

Feedback worth incorporating


TOPdesk not only values the opinions of its clients, but also follows up on it. And theres always room for improvement; indeed, to find out more about rather more sensitive issues that certain clients had mentioned, we followed up by calling those who critiqued us. First, we gathered all the feedback together and then passed it on to the relevant

Interested in how your clients rate your service? Find out more. Call us on: +44 (0) 207 8034200.

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Module in the spotlight

Managing changes easier than ever!


Text: Nienke Deuss

There are certain things you only want to have to think about once. What needs to be arranged when a new employee commences work? Which activities need to be authorized for a software upgrade? In the up-and-coming release of TOPdesk 4.3, Change Management has been rigorously improved. Henceforth, users have their own intuitive work environment and you can easily keep track of the progress of both small and large changes. You will always be able to follow the status of that CRM upgrade and check whether everything has already been organized for your new colleague.
Catering to every user
Functional Designer in TOPdesks Development team, Willem Bottema, explains how Change Management has been revamped. During the development of the processes and features, everything revolved around the user. First, we established the various types of users and their needs and then we looked at how best to improve their individual work methods. The outcome is a practical work environment for every user, in which they can carry out their individual tasks quickly and with ease.

Figure 1. Immediately see whats going wrong in the Change Explorer

16 Module in the spotlight

Publish your services in the Change Catalogue


Once youve recorded your changes in templates, you can publish them in the Change Catalogue. Your clients will then have an overview of your entire range of services and can easily submit a request. Authorization procedures then start automatically and the request is forwarded directly to the right person. This is an excellent example of how we have listened to our clients wishes, explains Willem. Many clients had indicated their desire for a Change Catalogue, as one client commented, It would be great to be able to choose change templates in the Self Service Desk. It is then easier for the end user to see which standard change he or she can choose.

Figure 2. Coordinate activities in the planner

Anticipate amendments with the planner


Changes do not always go as planned. What should you do if, when moving offices, the carpet is delivered a week later than expected? Or when the testing of a software upgrade is suddenly rejected? Using the interactive planner, you can easily anticipate amendments to the change route. The planner is the pivotal force of the coordinators tasks, as it shows you how the change is structured, explains Willem. As soon as a change request is logged, the planner should easily be able to schedule this, adjust the planning accordingly and monitor the progress. The new planner is orderly and comprehensible, enabling you to see, at a glance, which activities

are dependent on one another. The project coordinator can easily modify the planning by adjusting the duration time, nominating a different operator, or adding, deleting or even grouping activities. Amendments to the planning often have consequences for other activities, and these will be immediately visible in the planner. When you adjust the duration of one activity, you may need to move

others accordingly. TOPdesk will notify you if the changes you make affect the deadlines already in place. You will then be able to see exactly where the problem lies, as Willem explains. TOPdesk wont adjust things automatically for you, but will help you with planning, enabling you to better anticipate and respond to amendments.

DURING tHE DEVELOPMENt OF tHE PROCESSES AND FEAtURES, EVERYtHING REVOLVED AROUND tHE USER

Module in the spotlight 17

Handle activities efficiently with the checklist


If your to do list is filled with numerous straightforward tasks, then you will want to deal with them in as few steps as possible, and you certainly wont want to have to open a separate card for each one, acknowledges Willem, Which is why weve created the checklist. With one click, the user

IF YOUR tO DO LISt IS FILLED WItH NUMEROUS StRAIGHtFORWARD tASKS, tHEN YOU WILL WANt tO DEAL WItH tHEM IN AS FEW StEPS AS POSSIBLE
been rejected or has expired, for example, because the activities will appear in red. You can drop down these changes to any level, enabling you to keep an eye on the progress of each project. The icons show you exactly which activities are currently being carried out and which projects will not make the deadline. Certain changes have an enormous impact on the operational management and are, consequently, often discussed during the CAB meeting. In order to make grounded decisions, clear overview reports are essential. You can easily print such overviews in the Change explorer. Weve put an enormous amount of work into this overview, tells Willem, and one should be able to understand it at a glance. If meeting attendees do not understand a certain sheet, then we have not done our work properly.

Figure 3. View all activities in a list

can begin, skip or mark his or her assigned tasks complete. He or she also has the option to enter the duration or add comments. For every change, different departments are responsible for carrying out different tasks, whether it concerns moving offices or a new employee commencing work. The checklist makes retaining an overview easier than ever. You no longer need to open an endless list of tasks and then filter what is and is not important. Instead, everyone

has their own checklist, listing their responsibilities.

Anticipate problems with the Change Explorer


Managers need a clear overview of everything that is going on. If you are responsible for managing dozens of changes, you will want to find out quickly where things are going wrong. In the Change explorer, you can see all the changes, clearly listed and one after the other, as Figure 1 shows. You can see whether a change activity has

Standard, but customizable changes


When a new employee begins in your department, you wont want to have to think about what needs to be done each time, which is why you record the change using a template. Yet not everyone has

18 Module in the spotlight

the same needs. What if the new employee prefers to use her own laptop? Or doesnt need a lease car? Change Management enables you to respond to situations like these, quickly and efficiently. One of the many benefits of using a template is that you can indicate whether each activity is relevant.

Dont just update!


Installation

Consequences for your TOPdesk

Grant authorization on the go


In the updated version of Change Management, we have spent a lot of time on the development of authorization moments, tells Willem. Now authorizations can be scheduled for both change requests and (components of) changes. As a result, you have more control over the process and can check whether your new employee does actually require a new computer or whether the software has been tested properly. The authorization activities are listed in the to do list of the individual who needs to authorize it. It is easy to give authorization, either by ticking the relevant boxes in the Self Service Desk or by granting permission in an email, explains Willem. In that way, you know for certain that an activity or request has been approved by the right person, before getting started.

A large number of technical and functional amendments have been carried through in this new-and-improved version of Change Management, some of which will affect the set-up of the module and/ or the procedures your employees are used to following. Of course, the TOPdesk team has done its best to ensure that the update will take place with as few issues as possible. However, in order to prevent any unwelcome surprises, you are always advised to test the update extensively first in a test environment.

Option 1: Update Change Management yourself


Perhaps you already use TOPdesks Change Management module, but dont yet take advantage of all that it has to offer or perhaps you have purchased the module but have not yet installed it. In any case, the update is very straightforward. At the end of September, TOPdesk will publish information on the Extranet about how you can update your TOPdesk installation. This documentation will help you to carry out the update securely. Please take the time to consult this documentation when updating.

Option 2: Support from TOPdesk


If the change process is crucial to your service, then you will want to be certain that the update goes as smoothly as possible. In a similar case, it can be a good idea to enlist a TOPdesk consultant to advise you on the update process. He or she will be able to determine where issues lie and how these can best be resolved. If you use Change Management, TOPdesk will contact you shortly to discuss your unique situation. If you would like more information, dont hesitate to contact your TOPdesk Account Manager or TOPdesk Consultancy on +44 (0) 20 7803 4200 or info@topdesk.co.uk.

Additional network authorization within three clicks


Registering a change should require as little energy as possible, acknowledges Willem. Creating phases and activities every time additional rights

need to be granted would create unnecessary work. For this reason, a distinction has been made between simple and extensive changes in the new Change Management module. You can then decide how much detail you

wish to include in the change. In just a few clicks, you can organize a request for extra permissions using a simple change, or schedule an entire reorganization, including dependent activities, using an extensive change.

Module in the spotlight 19

Handling complaints with TOPdesk at the District Water Board


Text: Patrick Makaaij

Water Board Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden, in the Central Netherlands, regularly handles a range of complaints, from sewer blockages and blue-green algae, to high water levels. At the beginning of this year, the Water Board established a Client Contact Centre, especially for handling these and similar complaints. The employees use TOPdesk to effectively streamline their complaints-handling process.

20 KLANT IN BEELD

Water Board Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden is one of 27 Water Boards in the Netherlands and looks after the local and regional water management in much of the province of Utrecht and a small area of the province of ZuidHolland a total 82,000 hectares. The Water Board is responsible for ensuring safe dykes, clean surface water and flood control.

weve been receiving a lot of complaints about sewer blockages, which can lead to serious problems. We transfer such complaints to the relevant department to resolve.

Murky water and blue-green algae


In order to register the complaints of citizens and authorities, the employees at the Client Contact Centre use TOPdesk. Specifically, the team uses the application to record detailed information, which in turn helps them to handle each complaint efficiently. What is more, the information that the Water Board records is rather different to the average IT or facilities department. Calls are categorized into Dykes, River Banks, Water Pollution, Water Systems and Sewage Treatment Plant and these categories are divided further into subcategories. Water Pollution, for instance, is divided into murky water, oil film on water, rubbish in water, blue-green algae and decay. These categories enable the Water Board to recognize trends in reports more easily, and act accordingly. The Water Board also records geographical information for each call or complaint; however, calls do not always concern the callers registered address. To resolve this, a number of freely definable fields are used in TOPdesk, such as X/Y coordinates, cadastral data and the relative location.

Client Contact Centre


The Water Board regularly receives calls, complaints, wishes and suggestions, but more recently wanted to begin tackling the complaints in particular more comprehensively. In January 2010, the Water Board established the Client Contact Centre, a central service desk where they log, forward and track calls. Dealing with complaints is one part of the secretarial services, explains Margaret Verweij, team member of the Client Contact Centre. Calls arrive by phone and email. Five of us work there, and we take it in turns to handle the complaints; at least, thats the rule, but in practice, it actually seems to work better when just one or two people deal with these tasks. The person responsible then doesnt have to refresh his or her knowledge of the processes of dealing with complaints each week. Calls range from water levels that are too high or low, to polluted streams and street litter, tells Margaret. More recently,

CALLS RANGE FROM WAtER LEVELS tHAt ARE tOO HIGH OR LOW, tO POLLUtED StREAMS AND StREEt LIttER

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BEFORE WE BEGAN USING TOPDESK, WE KEPt tRACK OF CALLS USING LIStS AND EXCEL. YEt, tHE BUSIER It GOt, tHE MORE DIFFICULt It WAS tO KEEP tRACK OF EVERYtHING

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WHEN YOU SEE tHAt A CERtAIN CALL StILL REQUIRES AttENtION, YOU CAN CONtACt tHE COLLEAGUE RESPONSIBLE tO ENQUIRE ABOUt tHE StAtUS

relatively straightforward process. Yet this particular Water Board supports 750,000 callers, so it is vital that the link is secure. This possibility is currently been investigated.

Feedback to citizens
TOPdesk and the Water Board have also carefully considered the feedback to citizens, and callers can trace the progress of their calls in TOPdesk. If the caller has not provided an email address, then the Water Board simply creates a letter in TOPdesk, and prints it. Employees can also log any additional information about the callers. In order to cater to the individual needs of citizens, the Water Board registers whether the caller wishes to receive feedback. With this in mind, those calls for which other authorities are responsible are taken and forwarded to the relevant authority.

Improving efficiency
The implementation of TOPdesk took place in just five weeks, during which the application was adjusted to facilitate the unique needs of citizens and offer them optimal support. Together with TOPdesk, the Water Board also investigated the possibility of linking the TOPdesk software with the administration of the local authorities. The objective was not only to improve efficiency, but also because, since the beginning of this year, authorities are now obliged to call up citizens details internally, instead of having to ask the individual each time. For the average municipal council, establishing a link with the local authorities administration is a

Manageable
Using TOPdesk, the Water Board is better able to assist citizens, explains Margaret Verweij. Before we began using TOPdesk, we kept track of calls using lists and Excel. Yet, the busier it got, the more difficult it was to keep track of everything the system was far from perfect. Keeping track of calls in TOPdesk makes everything more manageable. When you see that a certain call still requires attention, you can contact the colleague responsible to enquire about the status.

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TOPdesk on Tour
9 cities, 4 countries, over 400 visitors.
tHE StADIUMS WERE PARtICULARLY APPROPRIAtE FOR tHE tHEME

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This spring, the TOPdesk on Tour bus visited nine stadiums across Europe, during which TOPdesk clients were given the opportunity to listen to presentations and take part in debates. The theme of the tour was The Road to Success, the focus of this years TOPdesk on Tour being collaboration throughout any organization as the key to its success.

Organizer Arjenne Bastiaansen looks back on a rewarding experience. The locations were fantastic the football stadiums were particularly appropriate for the theme and we have since received a lot of positive feedback. One client summarized, The day matched TOPdesk the organization entirely it was both very accessible and user-friendly. TOPdesk UK Pre-Sales Manager, David Brown, reports on not only a triumphant, but also immensely enjoyable day, in the Diamond Club at the Emirates Stadium in London. Following previous events at the Imperial War Museum and the HMS Belfast, the TOPdesk UK team embarked on its customer focus day on 22 June 2010 the last stop of TOPdesk on Tour. On this sunny summers day, our intrepid team arrived bright and early to set up the TOPdesk brand in Arsenals premier corporate function suite, designed in an Art Deco style that gave a modern twist to the footballing traditions of the 1930s. What TOPdesk is to service management software, Arsenal is to English

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football, and the trophy cabinet, set in the heart of the space, shimmered in reflection of our own award-winning software that has reaped not only accolades for TOPdesk, but also for many of our loyal customers. Further endorsement of our home for the day came in the form of Michelin-starred, self-taught, French Chef Raymond Blanc who, the TOPdesk team were thrilled to hear, would be overseeing the lunch arrangements for our visitors in his role as Consulting Chef. Set in the feng shui-inspired bar lounge and restaurant area, the view across the pitch and auditorium was spectacular. The grass glistened as the awardEnthusiastic TOPdesk users from across Britain arrived as early as an hour in advance, and the ever-jocular TOPdesk CEO Wolter Smit and UK Branch Manager Leontine Dekker were raring to get proceedings started. The newest TOPdesk version the 4.3 was the hot topic of conversation amongst guests as they were treated to a sneak preview of the new and winning groundsmen went about their pitch maintenance, a fusion of British Engineering and Dutch supply, the grass pitch and technology for its upkeep is cited consistently as the best that the premier league has to offer.

THE DAY MAtCHED TOPDESK ENtIRELY It WAS BOtH VERY ACCESSIBLE AND USER-FRIENDLY

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TOPdesk to streamline their processes in practical terms. Meanwhile, TOPdesk UK Sales Manager, Douglas Breeuwer, on behalf of Reliance Security, produced a sterling description of how the organization has won national recognition for its Lone Workers Project using TOPdesk. As our customers stem from one-man help desks to multi-national corporations, it was fitting that guests had the opportunity to discuss their unique current considerations during the smaller break-out sessions. A grand tour of the inner workings of Arsenals stadium allowed guests and TOPdesk employees alike to sit in the dug out and changing rooms, and imagine what it is to be a modern-day footballer. This action-packed day was capped with drinks and the presentation of a TOPdesk truck and bottle of wine for Tim Woodcock of Atlas Elektronik UK Ltd., who managed to score 100 percent in the TOPdesk quiz. A successful day that was hugely satisfying improved Change Management module. Indicative of the close working relationship that we have with our clients, IT Specialist Sandie Nicholsen from Arts Institute Bournemouth expressed her desire to get involved from a customer perspective. Alongside TOPdesk Account Manager, Robert Goldsworth, Sandie gave a detailed overview of how departments across the Arts Institute have benefited from using for all involved.

WHAt TOPDESK IS tO SERVICE MANAGEMENt SOFtWARE, ARSENAL IS tO ENGLISH FOOtBALL

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tips + tricks
Advanced search queries on the process page
TOPdesk Professional/Enterprise version 4.2 Do you regularly use the process pages (also known as bumper or overview pages)? Then you may want to be able to search directly from these pages. You can do this by adding shortcuts. At the bottom of the process page, click on the link Customize this page; Open the Shortcuts tab; Add a new shortcut, using /tas/secure/[card]? action=initsearch for the URL. In order to find out what you need to replace [card] with, go to the process page. Hover your mouse above a link to this card, for example under New card or Recently Opened Cards. In the status bar in the bottom-left-hand corner of your browser, you will see a URL. Note the word that you see in front of the question mark, such as incident or hardware and replace it with [card] in the URL. When Fuzzy searching, you are no longer impeded by different writing styles or spellings. For example, when you want to search on printer, and you accidentally type pinter or prrinter, TOPdesk will still find the relevant incidents; You can still search literally. To do so, you need to use inverted commas. If you search for printer, then TOPdesk will only show those incidents in which that word appears; You can use and and or. For instance, you can search for printer OR printing. Without AND/OR, however, TOPdesk will simply look for cards in which both words appear, as you are used to; Above the results of your search query, TOPdesk might also suggest Do you mean? These and a number of other useful features have been introduced in TOPdesk version 4.2. In TOPdesk 4.2 a new search query system is available. TOPdesk uses the existing technology Lucene that Wikipedia also uses. Several advantages for the user are listed below:

Search query tips


TOPdesk Professional/Enterprise from version 4.2

TOPdesk UK limited t +44 (0)20 7803 4200 e info@topdesk.co.uk w www.topdesk.co.uk TOPdesk Germany GmbH t +49 (0)631 624 00 0 e info@topdesk.de w www.topdesk.de

TOPdesk Belgium t +32 (0)3 292 32 90 e info@topdesk.be w www.topdesk.be TOPdesk Netherlands t +31 (0)15 270 09 00 e info@topdesk.nl w www.topdesk.nl

TOPdesk France t +33 1 4222 2314 e info.topdesk.fr w www.topdesk.fr TOPdesk Hungary t +36 1 301 0190 e info@topdesk.hu w www.topdesk.hu

Copyright 2010 TOPdesk UK Limited. Although this magazine has been produced with the utmost care and attention, the writers cannot be held responsible in any way for any damages that may occur due to errors and / or deficiencies in this publication.

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