ITSM incident categorization ------- For four years I've has been using low-friction data collection to capture hundreds of elements of my life into a repository for search, visualization and analysis. MEDIA and PRESS INFORMATION: http://chrisdancy.pressfolios.com/ Feel free to reach out at chris.dancy@gmail.com, +1-303- 872-0786, or by texting "chrisdancy" to 50500.

1. Designing Categories for ‘Everyone’ ServiceSphere chris.dancy@servicesphere.com Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

2. Introduction Me #CATTHIS Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

3. Overview Taboo, Ritual and Voodoo REAP Benefits of Doing it Right Don’t be So Toolish Speak Performance Make an Example of THIS! Don’t Make Me Pull This Car Over HELP! The End (is near) Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

4. Categorization Taboo Categorization is as close to a Voodoo ritual you can come without a chicken and a swamp. No single authoritative definition is available by vendors, process experts or ITIL. If it were easy or was common sense someone would be selling it to you! Unless you go to http://tinyurl.com/yzazbj5 Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

5. Why do We Categorize (REAP) Routing With Many Offices and Groups, the main purpose of our Categorization is Routing to the Correct Group. Ease of Use The goal should be to quickly and accurately log calls. Analysis Reporting to Leadership is the used to review what we are working on. The reporting SHOULD be actionable. Process We have defined processes that have been in place. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

6. Benefits of Categorization Benefits to the Frontline Ease and flexibility of logging issues Quickly find solutions (workarounds and/or fixes) to Incidents Eliminate redundancy Potential for triggering workflow, escalations, standard operating procedures, and more Benefits to Your Service Desk Team Enable knowledgebase development Enable real-time monitoring Properly route Incidents to the correct support group Strengthen reporting Create consistent terminology Benefits to the Organization Improve trend analysis Enhances Customer satisfactions Create consistency across workgroups and locations Improve monitoring to ensure no customer “falls through the cracks” Enable service level agreement usage Builds maturity toward more proactive operations Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

7. Things to remember Are you attempting to use ITIL Service Request Incident Major Incident Is Categorization Driven or Does it Drive: SLA? Assignments? Configuration Items? Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

8. Things to remember People taking calls, what are they suppose to be doing and what is the priority? Classifying Calls Assigning Calls Prioritizing, Urgency, Impact Calls Closing Calls Reclassifying Calls Taking detailed notes Closing Categories Getting the phone answered as quickly as possible Adding to the KB FCR % Does this list and it’s priority match your business description for Level 1 job duties? Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

9. Step 1:Admit you MIGHT have a problem. Get a print out of your current Categorization Schema. Run Reports on Number of Calls Against each level over the past 3 months Number of levels and branches: How far down in the tree do your agents have to go before they find a meaningful category to use? Are they even using the deeper levels? Do you permit calls to be assigned to higher-level categories, even if there are more detailed choices underneath? Consistency across levels and branches: How many first level categories do you have? Does each branch of the category tree go down the same number of levels? Are levels used consistently across branches? Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

10. Step 1:Admit you MIGHT have a problem. Number of calls in each category: How many categories have less than 10 calls assigned to them? How many categories have over 5% of calls assigned to them? Check this at the lowest level, and also check this based on how categories roll up. Duplicate categories: Do you have categories for “Word”, “MS Word”, and “Word 2000?” Sometimes you need to track multiple versions depending on your environment, but often these duplicates result from infrequent maintenance. Dumping grounds: Most likely, your agents have some favorites categories that they use by default, including the dreaded “other” category. You will need to actually read tickets in these categories to get a feel for what’s going on and why these categories are over-used. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

11. You are Such a Tool Drop Downs (Tiers) Age: Traditional Problem: Too Many Known For: Constraints Could Be: Anything you want Draw Across Age: Contemporary Problem: Drop Down Horizontal Known For: Very Web Centric Could Be: Drawn out Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

12. You are Such a Tool Trees Age: Unknown Problem: Size, GUI Nightmare Known For: Could Be: Very Cool Driver of Process Printer – Drivers Question and Answers Dream Synonym Driven Type ahead Imagine This…..A customer calls and says my Monkey is working! Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

13. Trail of Tiers How many tiers is enough? How many tiers is too many? Depends on what the objective of level one is. Depends on your reporting needs. Depends on the ease in finding and logging these tiers. You need at least one Tier. You should have a closing Tier (Close/Cause Code). Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

14. A Few Best Practices The Infamous Noun, Noun, Verb For Example: Hardware, Printer, Paper Jam. The 1st and 2nd Tiers describe the object where the incident took place, the 3rd Tier describes what when wrong. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

15. A Few Best Practices Categories and Services Get the most from your categorizes relate them to services you are providing. Categories Things for which you provide a service. Services Actions you take to provide the service. Services fall into broad categories such as fixing, answering, request. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

16. A Few Best Practices Service Catalog Define and Implement a Service Catalog Build out definitions of services offered and the routing of the request. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

17. Service Approach Customers should NOT have to understand your language Customers should not have to worry about YOUR METRICS Customers WILL NEVER speak like us, so let us SPEAK like them. Service Areas Help Both The Customer and the IT Dept. Understand Each Other Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

18. Service Approach If you can order, you can classify it! Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

19. ACTION, TAKE 1 GIVE SOME EXAMPLES ALREADY!! KISS SPREAD THE WEALTH IF Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

20. Scenario One “KISS” Goal: To Radically Slim down the process of Logging Calls by Reducing the System to TWO Levels. Details: Two Levels of Categorization Level 1: Required, Service Area Level 2: Required, Item – Drive Work Flow/Process Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

21. KISS Plus & Minus Plus Quicker Logging Customer Speak Minus Detailed Reporting Lack of Verification for Accuracy Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

22. Scenario Two “Spread The Wealth” Goal: To Slim Down logging, while not losing deep reporting Details: Two Levels of Categorization on CALL OPEN Level 1: Required, Service Area Level 2: Required, Item – Drive Process / Work Flow Two Levels of Categorization on CALL CLOSE Level 1: Required, Cause Area Level 2: Non-Required, Sub Cause – Detail Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

23. Spread The Wealth Plus & Minus Plus Quicker Logging Customer Speak Better Reporting and Analysis Minus Additional Time When Closing Call Greater Adoption Time Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

24. Scenario Three “If Nothing Changes…” Goal: To Slim Down logging, while Keeping Current Feel Details: Three Levels of Categorization on CALL OPEN Level 1: Required, Service Area Level 2: Required, Item – Drive Detail Screen Level 3: Non-Required, Sub Item Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

25. Nothing Changes Plus & Minus Plus Quicker Logging Customer Speak Less Adoption Time Minus Possible to Fall Back into Old Patterns Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

26. Other Considerations No Matter What We Choose, We Should Consider: Continue to Improve and Adopt Application Registry for Routing Updating the Assignment Routine to Track Good Routing – Find out WHEN AND WHY things are re-routed. Focus on our Service Area’s – Max 10 Focus on Customer Speak Time To Implement Plan for Impact to other systems – Queries, Rules Change Management Process for Future Updates Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

27. After The Storm Limit who can add to Categories Create a mini CAB for Categories Review Reporting Frequently Don’t be Afraid to Retire, Create a Lifecycle for your Categories Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

28. Conclusion What is Level 1 suppose To Log? Can some work be put on the close? Is it time to use or abandon ITIL for Service Request vs. Break Fix? Is it time to consider a Service Based Structure? What processes will be in place to prevent future outbreaks of categorizitis? Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

29. Help & Support http://store.theartofservice.com/ 5% Coupon CODE=ServiceSphere FREE Download 18 pages http://bit.ly/7Yfren Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

30. Help & Support Download Samples of Categories from ServiceSphere Blog Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

31. Open Discussion Let’s Chat #CATTHIS Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com

32. Thank You. For Additional White Papers, Examples and Help please contact info@servicesphere.com. Confidential, All Rights Reserved, ServiceSphere™ 2008 http://www.servicesphere.com