HDI

HDI Launch—"Support Center Maturity Assessment" Program

By Ron Muns, Founder & CEO, HDI

It is with much pride that I am able to announce an often asked for service, and one that has been years in the making, the "HDI Support Center Maturity Assessment." To announce this incredible industry changing program, I have asked Pat Albright, HDI Support Center Assessment and Certification Manager, to answer a few questions. Pat, as she will explain, is a long time HDI supporter and professional in the IT service and support industry.

Pat, tell our members about your involvement in the IT service and support industry and your involvement with HDI prior to coming on board.

I became involved in IT service and support in a round-about way back in the early 80s when technology started to show up in business use. I was a business manager in the transportation industry back then and technology was simply dumped into my lap to implement and support. (Remember the TRS-80 and the early dumb terminals?) In the late 80s, I moved to a private higher education institution where I was involved in replacing stand-alone PCs with a real network and implementing video-conferencing for distance learning. That was before smaller organizations realized that new technology also came with support requirements that required additional resources.

In the mid 90s, I realized that implementing and supporting technology was much more exciting to me than managing budgets and day-to-day business activities, and I made the switch to information technology. I joined a law firm of 1,500 users in multiple offices across the United States, and was tasked with creating a new firm-wide help desk. I was lucky enough to work for a CIO who said, "Get a membership to HDI and start going to their local meetings." I was involved with HDI first as a member for the purpose of learning, and then became a local chapter officer because I wanted to be able to give something back to the industry that I had become a part of.

I became so passionate about the IT service and support industry that in late 2000, I founded my own firm to provide assessments and consulting services because I knew I could bring value to more than just one organization. My corporate vision was to 'Be recognized as a quality provider of innovative consulting services for help desks and support centers.' My mission was to: 1) Provide services that produce measurable value; 2) Promote awareness of and support for open industry standards, certification, programs, events, and awards; and 3) Encourage and facilitate networking among support professionals. My overall strategic goal was to encourage professionalism in the industry. In 2003, I became an HDI-Certified Auditor and added the Support Center Certification Audit as a new line of business. I also served on HDI committees at the national level, including the HDI Member Advisory Board and the HDI Support Center Manager Certification Standards Review Committee. In July of this year, as you know, I joined HDI as a full-time employee to manage the existing Support Center Certification program and to lead the development of a very exciting new service—the HDI Support Center Maturity Assessment.

Why is it important for HDI to offer this Support Center Maturity Assessment service?

HDI is member-focused and remains vendor-neutral, which means the assessment is not sold as a lead-in to consulting or outsourcing services, and I think that is really important. Support centers should be able to count on HDI, the world's largest membership association for IT service and support, to offer a vendor-neutral assessment service that provides validation of their current level of maturity and guidance for further improving their operations.

Another important factor is that the new Maturity Assessment service is based on the HDI Support Center Certification Standards and the HDI Support Center Maturity Model, proven industry standards that are known worldwide. As a practitioner, I called on HDI ten years ago for this service because I wanted validation for what I was already doing right, and guidance to help me improve my support center that was based on industry standards. Knowing what I knew from being an HDI member and my involvement in the local chapter, I couldn't believe that HDI didn't offer this type of service. I was disappointed and had to turn to a vendor to purchase an assessment for my support center. Because the assessment was performed by a consulting company and some of the recommendations were to develop or enhance areas for which they provided consulting services, I had to wonder what the recommendations were really based on. Finally, as an HDI-Certified Auditor, I have been asked many times, "Why doesn't HDI offer this type of service?"

How will the service work and what will be the deliverables?

Once a customer engages HDI to perform a Maturity Assessment through their HDI account manager, HDI will assign an HDI-Certified Auditor to work with the customer throughout the assessment process. HDI will gather the logistics data necessary to plan for the onsite to ensure the customer is prepared for the auditor's arrival. A kick-off meeting will be held by HDI with the customer and the auditor, and then key individuals will be asked to complete pre-assessment surveys and return them to the auditor. Once these are received and reviewed, the auditor will go onsite to perform interviews, observation, data collection, and a review of documentation. After these first two phases are completed, all of the data collected will be analyzed offsite and the findings will be organized into a comprehensive report including recommendations that consider the organization's environment, constraints, culture, goals, and objectives. Finally, the report will be reviewed by HDI and then delivered to the customer. The report will define the support center's maturity level and provide recommendations for improvement.

I know this is a lot of detail, so to recap, the deliverables are provided in four phases: 1) planning, 2) data collection, 3) analysis, and 4) delivery. More information can be found on the HDI Web site at http://www.thinkhdi.com/resources/scma.aspx/ or by contacting an HDI account manager. As I mentioned already, the new Maturity Assessment service is based on the HDI Support Center Certification Standards and the HDI Support Center Maturity Model, so customers will be able to reference the recommendations provided in the delivery phase back to proven industry standards that are known worldwide.

Conclusion

Wow, thanks Pat! You, your team, and the many HDI volunteers have really put together a valuable program. This will deliver huge value to participating organizations. Not only will they gain an objective opinion, but they will receive concrete and specific recommendations to make improvements.

Best of luck in your journey to support excellence!

Assessing Your Current State of Operations

by Robert S. Last  for HDI®

Organizations fail for three principle reasons: a failure to adapt, a failure to anticipate, and a failure to learn.* The successful organizations are the ones that make a conscious effort to be on the lookout for failure by using tools that alert them to a potential problem. In the technical support world there are several such tools, with the best known being the HDI Support Center Certification Self-Evaluation (http://www.ThinkHDI.com/certification/siteCertification/).

First introduced in 2000, the HDI SCC program is the only open, globally recognized certification program created specifically for support centers. HDI Support Center Certification is designed to improve the effectiveness of the support services industry and support organizations by providing a reference quality model, industry standards that are recognized worldwide, and an accompanying certification program. Evaluation is based on 66 standards statements, each with four levels of maturity to evaluate the support center. In order to become an HDI Certified Support Center, the center must successfully complete an onsite audit and achieve minimum scores as defined by the standards committee.

The program has been designed to conform to existing international quality standards, such as the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management), the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, and ISO9000, with modifications to the standards to meet quality requirements of support center organizations. The SCC v.4 standards further incorporated ITIL® (IT Infrastructure Library) terminology to continue to encourage common language use within the industry; in addition, the v.4 standards include "Overall Comments" from the standards committee, which further explain the standards and provide additional guidance to meet the standards. A Glossary of Terms is a new addition to the v.4 standards document.

The HDI SCC Self-evaluation highlights areas where improvements may be needed, pinpoints areas of excellence, and is a barometer of readiness for companies or organizations interested in considering the formal audit and certification process. Even if you do not intend to move forward with certification, completing the self-evaluation, reviewing the results, and doing the proper follow-up can significantly affect the overall quality of operations, strategic planning, and service delivery while increasing profitability, customer satisfaction, and technology optimization. This process can also help communicate the business value of the support center to executive management.

HDI has released the 2006-2007 SCC standards. The free, online self-assessment tool contains all 66 SCC standards and enables you to determine company readiness for certification. The features of the tool include the following:

    * An online questionnaire which you can return to at any time for completion, updates, and revisions.
    * Improvement tracking through multiple saved versions of the self-evaluation.
    * Comparison reporting that will allow you to compare results of multiple saved versions.
    * Password-protected area and secure results.
    * A self-evaluation summary that can be e-mailed to co-workers, management, SCC auditors, or vendors.
    * Scores shown in report and graphical format.
    * Scoring maps to official SCC audit scoring.

Performing the HDI SCC Self-evaluation provides you with a customer service, process-oriented, and technical support-focused assessment of your current operations. When the assessment has been completed, you should be in a position to consciously and fully understand the current, as-is state of operation for all of the support centers that will be combined.

* Eliot Cohen and John Gooch, Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War, (New York: The
Free Press, 1990).

To read more about assessing your support center, see HDI's focus book, Techniques for Help Desk and Support Center Consolidation by Robert S. Last. This book is available on the HDI eStore at www.thinkhdiestore.com.

HDI® Support Center Analyst Certification and Microsoft

By Ron Muns, Founder & CEO, HDI

For those of you that have not heard, HDI and Microsoft have agreed to work together to develop what Microsoft is calling a "New Generation of Certification.” More information is available at http://www.thinkhdi.com/microsoft/.

What Our Members Have Been Telling Us
At HDI, we know “soft skills." We don’t teach or certify technical skills. It is quite refreshing to have the largest software vendor in the world acknowledge our strengths and step forward to develop this New Generation of Certification. Just to emphasize the value of non-technical skills, I have pulled summary comments from prior HDI Annual Practices Surveys:

For many years, the results of our annual practices surveys have shown that “soft skills” are more important for a support analyst than technical skills. Microsoft’s New Generation Certification recognizes individuals who have both Microsoft certified technical skills and HDI Support Center Analyst Certification. This Muns Report will focus on why these customer service and IT support management skills are so crucial.

2006 - Soft skills are still the most coveted skills for a support professional (98 percent view them as very important). In comparison, technical skills were chosen as runner-up to soft skills (66 percent view them as very important).

2005 - As with prior surveys, you rated help desk/customer support “soft” skills as more important than technical skills. These include listening skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, telephone customer service skills, and the ability to work under pressure.

2004 - As with prior surveys you rated help desk/customer support “soft” skills as more important than technical skills. You continue to rank listening skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, telephone customer service skills, and the ability to work under pressure as the most important skills for support analysts.

2003 - As with prior surveys, you rated help desk/customer support “soft” skills as more important than technical skills. You ranked listening skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, telephone customer service skills, and the ability to work under pressure as the most important skills for support analysts. The top five varied somewhat from the last survey, however, the general area of soft skills is still considered vital.

2002 and back to 1990 - …same … same … same.

What Microsoft Says

Bill Wall, director of certification at Microsoft explains it this way: “The evolving support industry demands that IT service and support professionals be not only technically qualified to solve problems, but also have the customer service and IT service management skills necessary to satisfy the customer. Microsoft recognizes that delivering high quality service and support requires more than just technical abilities and understanding. Customer service and IT service management skills are also vital. Selecting a certification to meet these requirements was done with careful consideration. In HDI we chose a recognized global industry leader that was focused on service management skills and that was technology neutral. HDI Certification combined with the MCITP Certification meets the needs of the support industry.”

What Do Your Customers Want?

Your customers (end-users) contact you when they have to, not when they want to. They contact you then things are not going right. They often times feel inadequate. They want their issue resolved, they want to learn from it, and they want to feel good after the interaction is complete. Most of the time, but not always, this is at the end of a phone call.

The best technical person or the best technical organization sets its priorities on facts and answers and not necessarily on the customer. The customer can feel stupid at the end of a call with a technically smart analyst, and the result will be low customer satisfaction. Customers tell us over and over they would like to interact with someone that makes them feel good and solves their issue.

Customers want consistent, quality service management processes. If the focus is just on technical skills, then processes can be inconsistent and poor. There is a proper rhythm to support interactions that involves interpersonal skills, process skills, technical skills, and knowledge. The customer wants the support analyst to have it all.

Conclusion

We have matured a lot in our industry. Not only have we acquired a lot of technology to help us do our jobs, but we have recognized and codified the skills needed for our support analysts, leads, managers, and directors. It only makes sense to see to it that your staff understands the skills and learning objectives expected of support professionals. I would like to say thanks to Microsoft for stepping up and recognizing what most of us have known for a long time. Soft skills and professional support skills are both unique and important!

Best of luck in your journey to support excellence!

Achieving Support Center Excellence

By Ron Muns, Founder & CEO, HDI

A number of years ago a committee of HDI members came together to design an industry certification for support centers. STI Knowledge also offered a similar certification known as CORE 2000 Site Certification. The agreement reached last year for the exclusive rights for maintaining and delivering STI Knowledge’s Individual Certification also included the exclusive right for maintaining and delivering their site certification. As with the individual certification, we have reviewed both certifications and have combined the HDI standards with the STI best practices in order to combine the best of both into the current version of the HDI Support Center Certification program. Additionally, the standards have been updated to be compliant with the ITIL® Process Framework. This Muns Report will discuss the standards and introduce an initiative that is underway to help members assess their performance, identify weaknesses, set priorities, and embark on a plan for improvement.

The HDI Standards are structurally similar to the Malcolm Baldridge Awards and the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management). More about that later…but one thing we have observed over the years is that obtaining a certification designation is not enough. Many of you are asking for guidance to develop plans to increase the quality and performance of your organization.

The Model Structure

There are eight model areas, the first five of which represent characteristics or elements that enable an organization to deliver high performance/high quality results. The last three model areas are the measure of results. There are approximately seventy standards each with four levels of maturity or results. The ratings are as follows:

Enablers

Organizations are evaluated for each standard in the Enabling areas to determine their level of maturity:

Just started—Some good ideas on a topic or issue, the beginnings of plans for improvement, and a clear recognition that an issue(s) needs to be addressed.
Some progress—Some evidence that something is really happening, occasional reviews resulting in improvements and enhancement, and islands of successful implementations or results.
Considerable progress—Clear evidence that this subject is being well addressed, regular and routine reviews and upgrades, some concerns that the implementation is not universal or being applied to its full potential.

Fully achieved/optimized—An outsourcing approach or result that is universally implemented, ideal solutions or achievements, continuous improvement efforts exist, and it is difficult to envision significant improvement.

Results

The level of success the organization has had is defined in achievement of meeting its stated objective. As above, a 1 to 4 rating scale is employed:

Measured—Performance data is routinely collected.
Comparisons to goals—The organization collects data and routinely compares performance to organizational goals or targets. Data has been collected and compared to goals for at least three months.
Trending to goals—The organization collects data, routinely reports performance, and compares results to goals or targets. Data has been collected and compared to goals for at least six months. The results show performance trending to goals.

Consistently meeting goals—The organization has met performance goals for several reporting periods and trends indicate consistent results for at least one year.

I suggest that you review each of the eight model areas from the Web site. This will give you insight into why each is critical to enabling or measuring quality/performance. The standards are open for all members; we also have a free self-evaluation program. http://www.thinkhdi.com/certification/siteCertification/

How to Apply the Standards

The process begins with an objective evaluation of your current situation. This evaluation should include:

• Documenting your organization’s operations in comparison to the HDI standard.
• Identifying weaknesses or gaps that exist in:
• -  Elements that enable performance/quality (Leadership, Strategy and Policies, People Management, Resources, and Process and Procedures) and
• -  Elements that measure performance/quality (People Satisfaction, End-User/Customer Satisfaction, and Performance Results).
• Developing and prioritizing recommendations for changes in the people, processes, and technologies used within your support organization.
• Gaining agreement for changes within your support organization.
• Developing ROI justification for changes recommended.

Once approved, formally implementing the changes with proper project management and change control procedures.

So, How Can HDI Help...Beyond the Standards

This is where I need your help. HDI continues to maintain its objectivity in that it continues to remain independent of vendor concerns and biases. However, this third party objectivity is very valuable when assessing where a support center is currently performing and where it may need some improvement. You have turned to us and requested that we provide you with an unbiased, objective determination of your current performance with recommendations in order to improve the maturity of your support organization. We are considering the introduction of a new service that would include the following:

• Review of operations in comparison to the HDI standards
• Observation of the support center operations
• Interview personnel from all levels within the support center
• Develop graphs and charts showing the organization's performance in comparison to the standards and to peers
• Develop a visual of the support center's maturity level based upon the HDI Maturity Model
• Develop conclusions and recommendations for change
• Report on findings to support center and IT management
• Jointly prepare an action plan for changes in enablers and measurements that will allow for improvement
• in performance/quality

What HDI Will Not Do

HDI will not execute on the agreed upon plan or be involved in the actual implementation or performance of the identified recommendations. We believe this should be left to the organization or consultants of their choosing.

Conclusion

Our thought is that you sometimes look to us as the guiding body to help you mature your organization. We recognize that you value our independence but would like to leverage our objectivity in assisting you with a formal assessment of your situation and the development of actionable and defensible plans. I would like feedback and your thoughts on the development of this HDI initiative, your agreement or disagreement with our approach, or your level of interest in this type of service. Please send me an e-mail.

Best of luck in your journey to support excellence!

HDI Announces New Training Faculty

HDI has announced several updates to its industry-leading training and certification offerings for IT service and support professionals. In addition to updating its international certification standards to incorporate STI Knowledge’s best practices, the release of new courses and certifications, and new bundled training and certification options, the association is announcing an impressive new training faculty.

The new HDI faculty comprises some of the most well-known and respected HDI instructors and support industry experts, including Tommy Barnett, John Custy, Paul Dooley, Rick Joslin, Deb Kowal, Mia Melanson, Ric Mims, Eric Rabinowitz, Kristin Robertson and Virginia Scuderi.  Also joining the HDI Faculty are former STI instructors, including Gary Bishop, RaeAnn Bruno, Randy Celaya, Katherine Lord, Pete McGarahan, Fancy Mills, Deborah Monroe and Mike Rabinowitz.

On October 1, 2006, HDI discontinued its Authorized Training Partner (ATP) program in the United States.  HDI has introduced a dedicated sales team to respond to customer inquiries, and the HDI faculty to deliver all instructor-led courses sold by HDI in the US. 

In a related announcement today, HDI introduced two new courses and announced several other important updates to its training and certification offerings. See below.

HDI Updates IT Service and Support Training and Certification Offerings

HDI announces several important updates to its training and certification offerings for IT service and support professionals: HDI has updated its international certification standards to incorporate STI Knowledge’s best practices. In support of these updated standards, HDI has released two new courses and certifications: HDI Support Center Analyst and HDI Support Center Manager, and retired several courses and certifications, including HDI Help Desk Analyst Boot Camp, HDI Help Desk Manager and STI’s Certified Help Desk Professional, Certified Help Desk Manager and Certified Team Lead. However, HDI will continue to recognize the retired certifications under the new HDI Certification names: Support Center Analyst, Support Center Team Lead, and Support Center Manager.

Additionally, HDI has bundled its training and certification offerings, resulting in a much more economical and efficient way to get trained and HDI-certified. Support professionals who purchase an HDI course, either instructor-led or online, will also receive access to take the certification exam. Individuals desiring to purchase a certification exam only may still do so via the HDI e-store. HDI is also introducing an enhancement to the HDI Learning Center to support online certification exams. Students taking online courses will now be able to take the certification exam online. Students taking the instructor-led Support Center Analysts and Support Center Team Lead will continue to take their certification exams via Pearson Vue test centers. In a related announcement today, HDI announced a new faculty for its training and certification department and a move away from its former Authorized Training Partner (ATP) model.

Register Now for HDI Certification Training in October

As of August 2006, HDI holds the exclusive license to STI Knowledge courseware. Here's a combined calendar reflecting dates for both HDI and STI courses.

Effective October 1, 2006 the following course names will change:

Current Course Names	New Courses as of October 1
HDI Help Desk Analyst & STI Certified Help Desk Professional	Support Center Analyst
HDI Support Center Team Lead & STI Certified Team Lead	Support Center Team Lead
HDI Help Desk Manager & STI Certified Help Desk Manager	Support Center Manager
STI Certified Help Desk Director	Support Center Director

You can register today for any of HDI’s industry leading IT training and certification courses.

Knowledge Management Maturity: The People

by Richard Joslin, Executive Director, Training & Certification, HDI


Who is involved in knowledge management? Ultimately, a person or group must own the responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the knowledge.
In the reactive organization this is often the responsibility of a sole individual. Typically, a support center manager has assigned someone who has demonstrated writing skills the responsibility for the knowledge. If any analyst has a suggestion for the knowledge base, he or she informs this lead person. Unfortunately, if there is ever anything incorrect in the knowledge base, the finger will also point to this lead person.

In the proactive organization, there is a team of people known as knowledge engineers who are responsible for the knowledge base. Support analysts are expected to use it and submit new knowledge to the knowledge engineers. One common mistake companies make is to place quotas on the contributions.

This always results in high quantity and low quality. It also bottlenecks the knowledge workflow and results in a collection of limited value. A knowledge manager may be assigned to own the process and standards for this team with the quality and health of the knowledge base also their responsibility.

In the customer-centric organization, knowledge is captured as a by-product of incident workflow. Every analyst, by definition, is responsible for capturing knowledge. As such, the organization may invest in improving the writing and knowledge skills of the support staff. One such investment is the introduction of knowledge coaches that assist others with the process. Subject matter experts or knowledge engineers may still own the knowledge.

In the business-centric organization everyone has a role in the knowledge management process, as it is integrated into the incident process. Unlike the customer-centric state, the entire support team, and not a subset of individuals, own knowledge. In addition to being responsible for capturing the knowledge, everyone is responsible for fixing or flagging knowledge that they find to be incorrect or incomplete.

In a KCS environment, everyone has a role and helps to maintain the knowledge base. Knowledge is captured as a bi-product of the incident workflow. Ownership is shared by all and every analyst has the responsibility to use the knowledge when it is available, flag it or fix it if it is found to be incorrect, or add it if it was not found. KCS coaches are introduced to mentor the staff and monitor the quality of work. Knowledge champions or knowledge managers are responsible for monitoring the health of the knowledge base. Support managers are responsible for motivating the staff, communicating, and managing performance.

To read more about Knowledge-Centered Support, see HDI's focus book The Knowledge Management Maturity Model: Striving for Knowledge-Centered Support by Richard Joslin. This book is available on the HDI eStore at www.thinkhdiestore.com.

HDI Training & Certification Update

On October 1, 2006 HDI is launching the IT service and support industry’s newest, most comprehensive training and certification programs. View HDI’s course schedule at http://www.thinkhdi.com/certification/trainingCalendar or locate your account executive http://www.thinkhdi.com/contact/usasales.aspx to register.

Here’s a preview of our upcoming courses and locations:

Support Center Analyst – San Diego, Washington, DC, Houston, New York, Orlando

Support Center Team Lead – Dallas, San Jose, Las Vegas, Los Angeles

Support Center Manager – Columbus, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, DC

Support Center Director – Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC

ITIL Foundations – San Jose, Houston, Washington, DC, Orlando

IT Support Professionals—Finally, One Standard!

By Ron Muns, Founder & CEO, HDI

As you may already know, HDI now holds the exclusive license for the education and certification curriculum, online knowledge base, and Mindshare resources of STI Knowledge (STI), a division of Zavata. (See the announcement here.)

How does this impact you? It provides IT support professionals with one certification standard and one source for leading-edge industry training and certification. Over the years, HDI has established a set of internationally recognized standards, determined by an independent committee of global industry experts. At the same time, STI developed a set of "best practices," capitalizing on their direct experience as a provider of support center outsourcing services. HDI will combine our standards with STI best practices to launch a new curriculum October, 2006. We are confident you will be pleased with the new courses and are excited to continue to maintain our "open community" approach to HDI standards.