Chapter 1 Terms
Service desk services that are provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
24/7 Support
A telephone technology that answers a call and routes or distributes it to the next available analyst. if all analyst are busy the ACD places the call in a queue and plays a recorded message.
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
A computer user's representation of himself or herself.
Avatar
A proven way of completing a task to produce a near optimum result.
Best Practice
The practice of using personally own mobile devices to access business applications.
Bring your own device (BYOD)
The skill people need to work successfully in the business world.
Business Skills
A place where telephone calls are made or received in high volume.
Call Center
Telling customer what can do rather what you cannot do.
Can Do Attitude
A service desk ability to communicate that is wants to satify its customers' needs.
Caring Attitude
A route of communication to and from the service desk, such as the telephone, voice mail, and the web.
Channel
Delivering hosted services over the internet.
Cloud Computing
A set of tools and databases for managing IT asset information and linking that information to related incidents , problems, known errors, changes and releases.
Configuration Management System
A generic term used to describe different types of customer transactions such as questions, incidents and service requests.
Contact
A very small text file created by a web server that is stored on the users computers either temporarily for that session only or permanently on the hard disk.
Cookie
Outsourcing a task traditionally performed by a single individual to a large group of people or community
Crowdsourcing
A person who buys products or services
Customer
The difference between how a customer expects to be treated and how the customer perceives he/she was treated.
Customer Satisfaction
A series of questions that ask customers to provide their perception of the support service being offered.
Customer Satisfaction Survey
Services that help a customer understand and benefit form a product's capabilities by answering questions solving problems and providing training.
Customer Support
The separation of a PC desktop environment from the physical machine using the client/server model of computing.
Desktop Virtualization
To send.
Dispatch
A system that enables service desks to manage high volume chat, email, and web form messages.
Email Response Management System
A result that a customer considers reasonable or due to them.
Expectation
A person or company that buys another company's products or services.
External Customer
A service desk that supports customer who buy its company's products or services
External Service Desk
Support service that customers pay for on a per use basis
Fee- Based Support
A service desk staff member who interacts directly with customers.
Font Line Service Provider
Support for customers anywhere in the world
Global Support
A single point of contact within a company for technology related questions and incidents
Help Desk
An international standard for IT service management.
ISO/IEC 2000
A service that is based on the use of information technology and supports business processes.
IT Service
A discipline for managing IT services that focuses on the quality of those services and the relationship that the IT organization has with its customers.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Technology that offers enhanced trouble ticketing and management reporting capability.
Incident Management System
An unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service (ITIL)
Incidents
Data that is organized in meaningful way.
Information
A set of best practices for IT service management.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library
A set of best practices for IT service management.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
A person who works at a company and at times relies on other employees at that company to perform his or her job.
Internal Customer
A service desk that responds to questions, distributes information, and handles incidents and service requests for its company's employees.
Internal Service Desk
A logical database that contains data used by a knowledge management system.
Knowledge Base
Another name for knowledge management.
Knowledge Base Administrator (KBA)
A person who develops and oversees the knowledge management process and ensures that the information contained in the service desk's knowledge management system is accurate, complete, and current; also called a knowledge base administrator (KBA).
Knowledge Engineer
A set of tools and database that are used to store, manage, and present information sources such as customer information, documents, policies and procedures, incident resolutions, and known errors.
Knowledge Management System (KMS)
A knowledge management strategy for service and support organizations developed by the Consortium for Service Innovation. (www.serviceinnovation.org)
Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS)
A problem that has a documented root cause and a work-around.
Known Error
A database that contains known error records.
Known Error Database (KEDB)
A common structure of service desks, where the service desk refers incidents it cannot resolve to the appropriate internal group, external vendor, or subject matter expert.
Multi-Level Support Model
Activities that include day-to-day tasks such as setting up and maintaining user accounts, ensuring the data that the company collects is secure, and performing email and database management.
Network and System Administration
Activities that use tools to observe network performance in an effort to minimize the impact of incidents.
Networking Monitoring
A tool used to observe network performance.
Networking Monitoring System
An agreement between internal support groups that underpins a Service Level Agreement by ensuring that all parties involved in meeting SLA targets understand their respective responsibilities.
Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
To provide services through an outside supplier instead of providing them in-house.
Outsource
The tracking of an incident to ensure that the customer is kept informed about the status of the incident, that the incident is resolved within the expected time frame, and that the customer is satisfied with the final resolution.
Ownership
Systems that allow the service desk to take remote control of the keyboard, screen, or mouse of connected devices and then troubleshoot problems, transfer files, and even provide informal training by viewing or operating the customer's screen.
Remote Control and Diagnostic Systems
The service desk's ability to be available when customers need help and to make it easy for customers to obtain help.
Responsiveness
Customers resolving incidents on their own; also referred to as level zero or tier zero.
Self-Help
A single point of contact within a company for managing customers incidents and service requests.
Service Desk
A work style characterized by a flurry of collective activity by anyone and everyone conceivably available and able to add value. (Gartner, Inc. definition)
Swarming
The skills people need to use and support the specific products and technologies the service desk supports; also includes basic computer and software literacy.
Technical Skills
A wide range of services that enable people and companies to effectively use the information technology they acquired or developed.
Technical Support
An invention, process, or method that enables the creation and enhancement of tools.
Technology
A product or device that automates or facilitates a person's work.
Tool
A person who consumes products or services.
User
The perceived worth, usefulness, or importance of a product or service to a customer.
Value
A concept that emphasizes enabling web users to interact, collaborate, and generate content via, for example, blogs, wikis, and social networking sites, rather than passively view content created by others.
Web 2.0
Refers to a company that has achieved and sustains high levels of customer satisfaction.
World Class
Customers resolving incidents on their own; also referred to as tier zero or self-help.
Level Zero
An incident that is causing significant business impact.
Major Incident
Performance measures.
Metrics
When a supervisor or team leader observes an analyst's interactions with customers in order to measure the quality of that analyst's performance.
Monitoring
A practice in which users bypass the formal support structure and seek assistance from coworkers or someone in another department.
Peer-To-Peer Support
The service desk component that consists of the staff and structure put in place within a company or department to support its customers by performing processes.
People
The cause of one or more incidents. (ITIL definition)
Problem
A collection of interrelated work activities that take a set of specific inputs and produce a set of specific outputs that are of value to a customer.
Process
A collection of personal data associated with a specific user; also called a user profile.
Profile
The skills, such as stress and time management, that people need to complete their work effectively, feel job satisfaction, and avoid frustration or burnout; also includes the ability to get and stay organized and to continuously and quickly learn new skills.
Self-Management Skills
A written document that spells out the services the service desk will provide the customer, the customer's responsibilities, and how service performance is measured.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A formal request from a user for something to be provided. (ITIL definition)
Service Request
The service desk's ability to quickly and correctly resolve customer incidents and service requests.
Skill
The qualities that people need to deliver great service, such as active listening skills, verbal communication skills, customer service skills, problem-solving skills, temperament, teamwork skills, and writing skills.
Soft Skills
A person who has a high level of experience or knowledge about particular subject.
Subject Matter Expert (SME)