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How Ferranti uses service automation to save time

In this interview Yoline Neegers, member of the Service Desk team at Ferranti, shares how her team uses service automation to reduce repetitive tasks, save time, and make work less stressful.

Everything you need to know about service automation

What is service automation? And how can your team make the most of it? This blog tells you everything you need to know about service automation.

Everything you need to know about Action Sequences

Service automation can improve customer experience, decrease service desk calls, and reduce repetitive manual tasks. This blog dives into one of the simplest ways to start automating your services in TOPdesk – Action Sequences.

What is Best Practice Service Management?

Best Practice Service Management simplifies IT processes, allowing you to focus on delivering services that meet customer needs.

3 ways to adapt your IT services to meet rising customer expectations

Customers expect more and more from your services. Use these 3 ways to adapt your IT services to keep up with rising customer expectations.

Locating missing Chromebooks: How Asset Management Tracking can help school board IT leaders

School board IT leaders, it’s okay if you don’t know where all the Chromebooks are. Improving asset tracking can help this! Here’s how you can start.

Looking back at our top ITSM blogs of 2022

It’s official. 2022 has been and gone, which means it’s time for a roundup of our top ITSM blogs of the year. Here’s what you’ve been reading, learning, and talking about in the past year.

Best Practice Service Management: A step-by-step guide

The step by step guide to implementing Best Practice Service Management. Read about the 5 steps to simplify your processes and improve your services.

Agile service management in practice? 6 examples

Agile service management doesn’t provide you with extensive process descriptions you can implement in detail. Agile is a philosophy for how to set up your work. Find out more.

Social safety at work: why does it matter?

Social safety at work is essential to success on all levels. TOPdesk speaks with the Sexmatters foundation about why this topic is more urgent than ever.

What is ITSM? Everything you need to know about IT service management

If you’ve worked in IT for a while, you’ve probably heard the phrase ITSM mentioned a few times. But what does it mean? And how can ITSM benefit your organization? Here’s everything you need to know about ITSM.

What can chatbots do for your service desk?

Do your service desk employees perceive chatbots as a threat? Put their minds at rest. Chatbots don’t work under their own steam, but rather in collaboration with people. Keen to learn more? Frank Smit, Chief Innovation Officer at our partner OBI4wan, explains what chatbots are and which processes you can (and cannot) utilize them for.

Tales from the service desk: 9 hilarious IT support requests

From users drowning laptops in coffee, to the one who “deleted” the internet, every IT professional has a funny request story. Here are 9 of our favourites.

The 5 biggest BYOD cybersecurity risks

The rise of remote working means more and more people are opting to use their personal laptops, phones, and tablets for work. For employees, this means more freedom and flexibility. But for IT departments, BYOD (bring your own device) can easily turn into a cybersecurity nightmare.

4 things IT professionals really want to say to their end-users

IT professionals are only human. And sometimes, all they want is to be brutally honest. Here are 4 things IT professionals really want to say.

5 IT tasks you should be automating

Automation is a major trend for IT departments. But what does automation look like in practice? Find out which 5 IT tasks you should be automating.

6 ways to boost your organization’s IT security

Keeping breaches at bay is a major priority for IT departments. Here are our 6 top tips for strengthening your organization’s IT security. 

Why sustainable growth isn’t just about profit (and how TOPdesk does it)

When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, TOPdesk’s in it for the long haul. That’s why we’re 100% committed to sustainable growth. Find out how.

ITSM trends: what is employee experience?

Employee experience has been all the rage in business for a while now. But what is employee experience? And why should service departments care?

Why people will never be replaced by machines

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic. But at TOPdesk, we believe people will never be replaced by machines. Find out why.

Everything you need to know about ITSM automation

More and more IT departments are automating their service delivery – but what exactly is ITSM automation? Read this blog to find out. 

5 System Administrators who Became Superheroes 🦸

Join us in celebrating SysAdmin Day 2022 with our SysAdmin Hero giveaway! Nominate your hero with your personal story of thanks.

What IT departments can learn from B2C organizations

IT departments have nothing to do with B2C, right? Wrong. Find out what IT departments can learn from B2C organizations in this blog.

The cybersecurity risks of remote working

Hybrid working has changed the face of IT security. Read this blog to learn more about the cybersecurity risks of remote working.

Why your change process is too slow – and how to fix it

The change process can be long and tedious, slowing down your organization. Time to reinvent your CAB. Here’s how.

5 steps to improve your employee experience for happier customers

Data shows there’s an undeniable link between employee experience and customer experience. Find out how to keep employees engaged for happier customers in this blog.

What is shadow IT? Answers to 5 frequently asked questions

What is shadow IT? Read the answers to 5 frequently asked questions about shadow IT and find out how to manage shadow IT in your organization.

Why you should use ITIL as a framework – not a set of rules

ITIL is a framework, not a rigid set of rules. Find out why you should be flexible about ITIL and other frameworks.

What is agile? Answers to 4 frequently asked questions

Discover the answers to four frequently asked questions about agile working and find out how to bring back speed and flexibility to your IT department.

Regain control of your service desk with these 8 tips for working smarter

IT department under pressure from rising customer expectations? Regain control of your service desk with these 8 tips for smarter working.

5 stressful moments that anyone working in IT will recognize

Working at the service desk is fun and rewarding... well, most of the time. Here are 5 things that will…

More than just a tool: how TOPdesk’s values are built into our solution

Read this blog to learn about TOPdesk’s values and how they’re built into our ITSM solution and the way we work.

Are password resets draining your IT department?

Is your IT team spending all their time on password resets? You’re not the only ones. Automation deals with those pesky password resets for good. 

Self-service – some common questions answered

Self-service is a hot topic. And no wonder: it has great benefits for IT service desks. But will self-service take away work from the IT team? What kind of work does self-service create? And how does self-service affect IT professionals’ job satisfaction and customer experience? Let’s find out.

Why customers expect more from services and what it means for your IT department

Customer expectations of IT services are at an all-time high. And they’re only increasing. Read this blog to find out why.

Trans Day of Visibility at TOPdesk

Read about TOPdesk’s position and our future plans for better allyship to the trans and gender nonconforming community.

Say goodbye to service desk stress

How can you say goodbye to service desk stress? Our 5 tips help you add value to your organization while making your employees happier at the same time.

Bridging tech’s gender gap: gender diversity at TOPdesk

Women are still underrepresented in the tech workforce. Find out how TOPdesk deals with gender diversity and how we can contribute to bridging the gap.

What a partnership with TOPdesk looks like

At TOPdesk, we take partnerships seriously. Here’s what working with TOPdesk looks like.

What is swarming? And how does it benefit your IT support?

What is swarming? Find out how it compares to the traditional three-tiered support model and why it’s more about culture than structure.

A look at the service desk of the future

The service desk as we know it won’t exist anymore in 2030. But what will it look like instead? Let’s take a look at the service desk of the future.

10 things you might not know about TOPdesk

Find out why we prefer Playmobil over Lego, the humble beginnings of our CEO and why we don’t mind saying no – even to potential customers. And more!

Corporate Social Responsibility at TOPdesk: How we’re going to do better in 2022

Read about TOPdesk’s socially responsible resolutions. Discover what we’re doing to become more sustainable, community-minded, and inclusive in 2022.

Top 5 ITSM market trends for 2022

Discover the top 5 ITSM market trends for 2022, from employee experience in a hybrid workplace and automation to process…

How much should an ITSM tool cost? 

What does an ITSM tool cost? Although this is a complicated question to answer, because there are so many factors…

Finding the right ITSM vendor: 5 questions to ask when shortlisting solutions 

In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of 5 key questions to ask yourself when comparing ITSM providers, to help…

Time for the things that truly matter

Read the stories of 3 IT departments who reduced their workload with TOPdesk's ITSM tool. Now they have time for…

The 3 biggest advantages of modern ITSM tools for your service desk 

Discover the 3 biggest advantages of modern ITSM solutions for your IT service desk. ITSM tools improve efficiency and empower…

6 guidelines for a successful application of ITIL

ITIL is a framework and not a one-size-fits-all application. Here are some guidelines to help you use this framework according…

KCS: reduce IT call volume and service desk workload

How can you reduce the number of incoming calls and the average duration of the calls you do receive? Knowledge…

Knowledge Management best practices

Stop reinventing the wheel with every call: use the collective knowledge of the service desk to solve calls with knowledge management best practices.

4 ways Game of Thrones teaches us about customer experience

It’s been a couple years since the completion of HBO’s hugely successful series, Game of Thrones. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry: We won’t spoil the ending for you! Instead, we’d like to share some surprising wisdom that the series’ characters impart about customer experience.

Digital self-service at your service desk

How can you successfully implement digital self-service at your service desk? Find out what you should – and shouldn’t – be doing.

7 life hacks for your service desk

Life at the service desk can get tricky. Feeling like pulling your hair out? Use these 7 life hacks to feel on top of the world again in no time.

The benefits of knowledge management for your service desk

What are the benefits of knowledge management for your service desk? Read why you should invest in KCS and calculate how much time it’ll save.

The benefits of service desk automation

By leveraging service desk automation, service desk employees can spend their time doing what they do best: using their expertise…

Top 5 Service Management trends for 2021

Wondering what the top 5 service management trends will be in 2021? If so, look no further. Check out this blog to find out our expert predictions.

ITAM vs ITSM – how they differ and complement each other

Industry expert Stephen Mann dives into ITAM vs ITSM. What exactly is IT Asset Management (ITAM) and how does it relate to ITSM?

An example of a simple customer journey map

Ready to start customer journey mapping? Find out what happens when Oliver requests a laptop from your IT department with our simple customer journey map!

What the perfect shared services manager looks like

What does the Shared Services Manager role entail? Stephen Mann shares the 7 responsibilities and ideal traits of a shared services manager.

How to improve collaboration between departments

Industry expert Doug Tedder explains how to improve collaboration between departments and takes away the main barriers.

3 tips for going beyond the perfect digital user experience

How does your organization stand out from the crowd now that digitalization is the new normal? Thought leader Steven van Belleghem reveals his three tips!

A shared services model – the next evolution of ESM

How do you implement a shared services model? Learn how to make the most of the benefits of Enterprise Service Management (ESM).

Find out where you stand with the TOPdesk Maturity Model

Transform the service departments in your organization into business partners and add continuous value with the TOPdesk Service Excellence Maturity Model.

Employee engagement and customer experience: a perfect match

Digitalization is no longer a novelty. Nancy Rademaker reveals why employee engagement and customer experience go hand in hand with digital transformation.

How to simplify your change management process

Change management processes can be overly complicated at times. Find out how to simplify your change management process and make it easier for everyone.

Office social distancing with Enterprise Service Management

Once you get to return to the office, service departments are key in accommodating office social distancing. Use these tips to make the return go smoothly.

Which Sesame Street character at the service desk are you?

Which Sesame Street character at the service desk are you? Take the quiz to find out and download our Microsoft Teams background for your next video call.

Agile ITSM and scrum: how do they work together?

Scrum and agile are hot topics. But how does agile ITSM work? And how can you apply scrum to your IT team?

How to manage panic at your service desk

What causes panic at your service desk? We share 4 scenarios that send your service desk’s panic levels through the roof – and look at possible solutions.

Launching Enterprise Service Management in your organization

How do you launch Enterprise Service Management in your organization? Reap the benefits of working together with one of our three routes to planet ESM.

Why a single point of contact (SPOC) is important

Doug Tedder explains why having a single point of contact (SPOC) is so important for ESM. Discover which 7 steps to take towards your very own SPOC today.

5 SLA best practices for better business outcomes

Discover how to make your Service Level Agreements actually work with industry expert Stephen Mann’s five SLA best practices.

The secret ingredients of successful organizational culture

Find out the secret ingredients of successful organizational culture that’ll make your employees thrive.

What is ESM, and what is its value for your organization?

ESM, or Enterprise Service Management, means working together with service departments such as IT, Facilities, or HR. Read how it benefits organizations.

Why ESM is key in improving your citizen support

Do you work at a municipality and are you responsible for IT or citizen support? Our expert Wouter explains why your two departments need to join forces.

How to maintain security when employees work remotely

Struggling to balance security and employee experience? Check out our comprehensive guide on how to maintain security when employees work remotely.

Go green or go home: Earth Day projects for your service teams

Curious how your service teams can help save the earth? We share 6 tips for Earth Day projects that’ll help your organization go green.

Defining and mapping customer journey touch points

Want to know the secret to improving your customer experience? Find out how customer journey mapping and customer journey touch points can help you.

Service desk KPIs: the low-down

Setting targets for your department. Easier said than done. Where do you start? Service desk KPIs are the answer. Find out the lowdown on KPIs here.

What happened to the ITIL service lifecycle in ITIL 4?

Spoiler alert: the ITIL service lifecycle is gone in ITIL 4. But don’t worry: it isn’t dead and you can still use it. Find out what your three options are.

Using forms in your self-service portal: 4 best practices

Can you improve the forms you use and make them more customer-centric? Find out how to improve your self-service portal with these best practices.

5 ITIL incident management best practices

How can your IT service desk create even more value? Stephen Mann shares five ITIL incident management best practices that’ll improve your IT service desk.

10 methods of obtaining customer feedback

Want to know how your customers really feel about your services? Ask them! Use these 10 methods of obtaining customer feedback to find out.

10 practical ITIL problem management tips to help you get started

How can you justify adopting problem management? Read these 10 practical problem management tips to get started.

Utrecht University: Enterprise Service Management case

An Enterprise Service Management case in action: how Utrecht University embarked on their very own ESM journey – and what good it did them.

How to say no: 4 steps for handling service requests

One of the hardest things for service desk staff is saying no to requests. But it’s necessary. How can you say no and still leave your customer satisfied?

ITIL problem management: can ITIL 4 finally fix the problem?

Many organizations only use ITIL problem management tools and techniques in a reactive way – usually in response to a major incident. And that’s a problem.

26 IT service management terms – from ABC to XLA

What do terms like RPA and SIAM mean? And how can they benefit service delivery? We collected a list of today’s most relevant IT service management terms.

The votes are in: these are the best posts of 2019

Before we dive into this new decade, we’re taking a step back to look at the year that has passed. Here are the top IT Service Management stories of 2019.

What IT organizations can learn from service failure at airports

Your service desk likely won’t be affected by snow storms or a pilots’ strike. But you can still learn from self service failure in the airline industry.

What is SIAM: Service Integration and Management?

Now that IT organizations are outsourcing more services, SIAM is becoming more and more relevant. But what exactly is SIAM? And does it really help?

The top 5 ITSM trends for 2020

How will ITSM change this year? We collected the 5 most relevant ITSM trends 2020 that will change service management.

Inspiration for the festive season? 7 original gift ideas!

Make the most of Cyber Monday and surprise your employees with original festive season gifts. By doing a bit extra you’ll reap double benefits. Read this blog for 7 tips!

ITSM & DevOps: friends or foes?

ITSM & DevOps: Friends or foes? Spoiler: It’s friends. Pacing is the challenge, communication is the key.

The major factor that makes a good service desk employee

Intrinsic motivation is the major factor that makes a good service desk employee. But how do you select team members based on this character trait?

Halloween: 5 IT security nightmares to keep you up all night

It’s October again. It’s time for Halloween, so it’s the season to be scared. It’s probably not a coincidence that October is also Cyber Security Awareness Month, because if there’s one thing that keeps IT departments everywhere up at night, it’s security breaches. Here are five common cyber security fears

Service Desk Bingo: How many squares can you cross off?

We’ve designed a Service Desk Bingo card that contains a number of common scenarios. How quickly can your team chalk up a full house?

Changes in IT: a peek into the future

Why are some companies so much better at embracing the digital era than others? Peter Hinssen gives the answer in less than 3 minutes.

5 Problem Management best practices

Setting up Problem Management can seem like another job to add to your already packed list. Here are 5 Problem Management best practices to help you along.

Increase ROI on your knowledge management initiatives

Knowledge management sounds promising, but you have to do it right. Discover the secret of successful knowledge management in this video.

4 customer satisfaction KPIs for your service desk

Your service desk is customer-oriented, but your KPI is the number of processed calls. Sounds familiar? Here’s 4 customer satisfaction KPIs to track.

Is technology outpacing people?

Trendwatcher and futurist Richard van Hooijdonk thinks technology is changing faster than people keep up. Watch the video for his solution.

Understanding the Incident Priority Matrix

The priority equation ‘Impact x Urgency’ isn’t as simple as it may seem. Here’s how to handle Incident Management with the Incident Priority Matrix.

Artificial Intelligence in service management 101

AI is quite the buzzword, but what will it actually do for your services? Is it that great, or is it a hype that will fizzle out as quickly as it came up?

What does Shift Left mean for ITSM?

The basic idea behind shift left is simple: IT brings solutions they provide closer to the customer. These are the five core benefits of Shifting Left.

System administrators: the #SUPERHEROES of your organization

What’s your sysadmin superpower? Do you solve every problem, are you the protector, the geek or a legend? Test it with our system administrator quiz!

9 soft skills that are indispensable for your IT department

Soft skills are indispensable for your IT department. Do you want to convey technical knowledge in an understandable way? These are the 9 skills to master!

6 articles on silo-breaking with Enterprise Service Management

Delivering great service requires collaboration between various departments. Enterprise Service Management (ESM). When you adopt an ESM approach, you force yourself to look at your services from your customer’s point of view.

How to implement KCS in 6 steps: Training & Coaching

Got your KCS system set up? KCS is more than just a process. Get your teams ready to make KCS successful in your organization. Preparation is everything.

One CX hack your service desk should steal from your sales team

How to improve your Customer Experience without increasing your budget? Here’s one idea you can steal from your sales team.

How to implement KCS in 6 steps – and get measurable results

How to get Knowledge Management right? Based on years of experience, my team and I have made a 6-step plan for successfully implementing KCS.

Improve team collaboration using personality tests

Are personality tests worthwhile? And can they promote teamwork on your service desk? Our conclusion: they are useful, but not the be-all and end-all.

Using Cialdini’s 7 principles on your self service portal

How do you win customers over to use your self service portal? We’re applying Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion to this challenge.

Lean Service Management: the solution to time wastage

Lean is all about optimizing customer value delivery and making processes as efficient as possible. How can Lean help you improve your service management?

The impact of AI on your service desk

AI is becoming important in the service industry. Is AI influencing the role of service desk employees? We asked the makers of ‘digital colleague’ Amelia.

It’s Geek Pride Day! 10 traits that give away our own geek factor

Did you know May 25 is Geek Pride Day? People use this day to acknowledge their geekiness and spread it to other people. In the spirit of Geek Pride, we’ve decided to share 10 things geeky about TOPdesk.

The secret to happy service desk employees

Disgruntled employees complain about their colleagues being unhelpful and many other things. Happy service desk employees do exist. So, what’s the secret?

How AI makes service desk customers more self-sufficient

How self-sufficient are your service desk customers? In this blog post, we explain 3 ways in which AI can help make your customers more self-sufficient.

ITSM trends: VeriSM, one model to rule them all?

What is VeriSM? How do you apply VeriSM in service management? Trends come and go. For every trend, the question is: how will it help your service desk? Service management expert Gunnar Oldenhof explains VeriSM.

Help your service desk employees find new challenges

Are you helping your employees find a new challenge within the company? If your service desk employees have grown, there’s a good chance that they will go to another employer. Don’t want your talents to leave? Help them find a new challenge.

Augmented Intelligence for a smarter service desk

Augmented Intelligence is part of Artificial Intelligence. Augmented Intelligence focuses on software that thinks along with people and can take over small repetitive tasks. Are you worried that AI will take over the world? No need. AI is there to help you.

Retaining your talent by waving them goodbye

It happens. Your best database specialist decides to leave. Or the one service desk employee all your customers love. How do you respond? Are you happy for them? Or disappointed? How you respond makes all the difference for your success in managing and retaining talent in your organization.

Overcoming Knowledge Management Challenges

If you’re looking at better knowledge sharing in your organisation, one of the biggest knowledge management challenges is preparing your service desk for the change in operations. Discover how you can overcome them.

7 inspiring articles on how to improve your CX

Everybody wants to design great experiences for their customers. But how do you do that? To give you some inspiration, I’m sharing some of my favorite articles on designing great Customer Experience.

4 tips for a successful digital service catalogue

How do you apply the Agile principle of ‘working software over comprehensive documentation’ to improve your service catalogue? Here are 4 tips for creating a successful digital service catalogue.

10 steps to map a customer journey for your service desk

Improve your customer experience by mapping out customer journeys to give you an idea of how your customer percieves your service delivery.

Self-service stress at Dr Seuss’ service desk

After a self-service implementation, it’s never easy getting your customers to use your self-service features. Sometimes it’s even harder than getting people to try green eggs and ham. Welcome to Dr Seuss’ service desk.

ITIL 4: the new service management bible?

Last week saw the publication of the first part of ITIL 4: ITIL Foundation. This long read answers all your burning questions. Such as: What’s new in ITIL 4? And does the new ITIL version help you adapt to developments such as agile and DevOps?

How a service catalogue helps you increase customer satisfaction

According to the Agile Manifesto, customer collaboration goes beyond contract negotiation. You can use this principle to professionalize your service catalogue. But how do you go about increasing customer satisfaction through your service catalogue?

Why the digital workforce won’t take over the service desk

A digital workforce is a collection of “software robots” that support and augment the work humans do. Robots can be faster and more efficient. But the digital workforce at the service desk won’t replace service desk staff any time soon. Here’s why.

Creating your team: do you choose personality over skills?

When creating your team, do you choose personality over skills? Hiring the right people is essential for creating a successful organization. But how do you hire the right people? When recruiting new colleagues, it’s essential to focus on their personality, not just their skills.

Agile service desk? Forget about Scrum, start using Kanban

Introducing Scrum is often too rigorous a tool for improving the service delivery of your agile service desk. Instead, try Kanban.

Outsourcing 2.0 – Why IT departments should learn to let go

You don’t get satisfied customers by trying to be the best at everything. Sometimes it’s better to outsource certain tasks. But how much should you outsource if you want to increase customer satisfaction?

An agile approach to your service catalogue

Your service catalogue only has value for your organization when it’s up to date. But how do you ensure that your team actually makes time to regular update the service catalogue? My advice: an agile service catalogue.

The 5 IT service management trends for 2019

What will happen in the ITSM world this year? Which new trends will pop up? And how will current trends develop? 5 ITSM trends from A.I. to ESM.

This should be your #1 priority when merging service desks

Are you about to merge two or more service desks? Perhaps due to a merger of companies, or a centralization within your organization? The key is drafting a service catalogue together. Here’s why.

ITSM Trends: How Bimodal IT helps your organization

Agile is used more and more in other departments as well, including the world of IT. Still, the question at many organizations remains: how? How do we combine Agile with how we’ve been working for years? Bimodal IT is the answer.

Using a baseline measurement to achieve service excellence

Are you planning an improvement project within your organization? Consider performing a baseline measurement first. You’ll increase the chance of success.

What is a service catalogue?

In this video series, we explain an ITSM concept in about 60 seconds. This week: the service catalogue. What is it? And how does it help you do your work better?

Omotenashi: 3 Japanese lessons for service desks

Omotenashi comes down to three core values: anticipate the customer needs, attention to detail and genuinely appreciate that the customer came to you. Try to incorporate each of the three core values of Omotenashi into the service delivery of your service desk.

ITIL 4 is coming. What is it, and is it still relevant?

ITIL 4 has been launched. What will be changing? And is ITIL still relevant or not? We asked Bas Blanken, service management consultant & agile expert.

What is Knowledge Centered Service?

In this video series, we explain an ITSM concept in about 60 seconds. This week: KCS, a.k.a. Knowledge-Centered Service. What is it? And how does it help you do your work better?

Do you want real feedback? Start looking for angry customers

So, you want to use feedback to improve your service department. But where do you start? Gökhan Tuna, customer feedback expert at TOPdesk, has got a tip for you. It sounds counter-intuitive, but you get more out of the feedback you receive if you focus on the negative.

What is shared services?

Shared services is a cooperation between supporting departments. Learn what is shared services and how it improves your service delivery in 60 seconds.

Customer Effort Score as a predictor of customer loyalty

How do you measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty? Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and the Net Promotor Score (NPS) aren’t good predictors of customer loyalty. I’m sharing a method that works well for predicting customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: the Customer Effort Score (CES).

How cloud computing impacts customer satisfaction

What do IT customer satisfaction and the cloud have in common? The cloud enables service providers to achieve better customer satisfaction. By outsourcing the technological preconditions, we’re able to save time and focus on what customers really need.

What is Shift Left and how does it work?

In this video series, we explain an ITSM concept in about 60 seconds. This week, we focus on Shift Lift. What is it? And how does it help you improve your service delivery?

How will AI and Machine learning change service management?

Artificial Intelligence – AI – is a popular topic at service management events. It’s exciting and full of promise for a brighter future. But what are the advantages of AI? How will AI help you improve your service management? Geoffrey Simpson, expert and Product Owner at TOPdesk answers these questions.

10 funniest calls from TOPdesk employees to their IT colleagues

We understand that IT managers get a lot of questions because we get them too. Below are some of our favorite funny questions from our own employees.

Mapping your customer journey – 9 tips for effective interviews

The good news is, working in Service Management, interviews with staff members are often easy to set up. After all, they work at the same office building as you and are often willing to share how they’ve experienced your services. To make sure you maximise this potential, here are 8 tips to help you make the most of these interviews.

Rethinking the ITSM Service Design Process

ITSM is always changing. We’re constantly developing new technologies in a bid to make businesses run more efficiently. While that’s all well and good, we seem to have forgotten why we invest in these advances: to benefit people.

Agile Change Management in practice

We’re continuing our exploration into Agile Service Management – to find ways you can make your Service Desk operations more speedy and less rigid. Let’s continue by exploring Agile Change Management. How does it work in practice?

5 ideas for a better Problem Management process (step-by-step)

In this blog, I’ll go through some nifty ideas for everything from problem detection to logging your problems. It will be step-by-step based, so for some more over-arching best practices to keep in mind while implementing better Problem Management you can read my other Problem Management blog.

Agile Change Management – is it viable?

Traditional Change management can be long-winded and rigid. How do you make your change management process more agile? In this post in our agile blog series, we’ll discuss agile Change Management and a more agile approach to change requests?

Incident Management KPIs: a guide to better reporting

You want to meet your incident management targets, we all do. But what incident management KPIs should you focus on? And what targets should you aim for?

Setting Help Desk Customer Experience KPIs that matter

When you’re tracking customer experience, simplicity is key. These are the most important customer experience KPIs to keep an eye on.

Choosing Help Desk Software: 6 questions to help you out

Good help desk software will help streamline your day-to-day help desk operations. It often includes a ticketing system for your IT, FM or HR customers.

How to successfully promote your Self-Service Portal

You’re about to launch a Self-Service Portal. That should be the perfect solution to help your service department improve customer experience and lower costs at the same time. However, for that to happen it’s obviously important that your customers use it. Communicate the ease of a self-service.

Why XLAs matter for your Service Delivery

It makes sense, right? Why XLAs matter for your service delivery? If our only performance metric is how many tickets we solve within what time, or how many knowledge items we create – is anyone actually assessing the quality of what we produce?

How Enterprise Service Management improves the user experience

With so many counters your customers don’t always understand where to request which service. Enterprise Service Management improves the user experience.

7 things to avoid when applying agile to ITSM

You can approach agile transformations in two ways: top-down and bottom-up. A bottom-up approach means the team takes initiative, often in IT, to implement a more agile way of working with a single team.

4 steps to boosting Self-Service uptake

One of my recent consultancy projects was working with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), increasing Self-Service portal uptake. And did we!? Within the first three months, Self-Service went from 3% to 40%, and recently to 70%! How did we do it?

What does customer experience mean to the service desk?

There’s a focus shift in Service Management from numbers to experience. We see this in the growing focus on XLAs and CX and other cool acronyms. It’s all about improvements in Service Delivery. What does this imply for you? What can you do to get up to speed fast to improve the customer experience?

3 steps to better Customer Experience Management

What do you know about Customer Experience Managers? It’s a popular role with companies as a whole, but not typically with Service Desks. What does this role imply? And how can it inform your approach to better Services?

5 Questions about Agile Service Management answered

Do you have questions about moving to more Agile Service Management, and the implications of doing so? Consultant Bas Blanken – author of our Agile Service Management E-book and several blog posts on the topic – shares his wisdom in this video.

5 Vital Knowledge Base KPIs for better Self-Service

Knowledge management is a never-ending process; continuous development in your organisation means the knowledge base must be constantly updated with new information. It’s important to regularly measure the health of your knowledge base. How do you do this?

What is Workforce Enablement and how does it work?

Since everyone now works on the go – using their own apps and devices – one approach is to ask how you can best enable them to keep doing that.

10 onboarding ideas for new employees

A good onboarding is essential for making new colleagues feel at home. These are 10 onboarding ideas you can apply in your organization.

Improving your Service Desk Customer Experience

Want to exceed your customer’s expectations of your service desk? Create a sound foundation by taking away all obstacles your customers might have. How? With Workforce Enablement.

The changing roles and responsibilities of the Knowledge Manager

Is the Knowledge Manager the one doing most of the writing, editing and publishing? This happens quite a lot, it’s not optimal, and this is what to do about it.

Save costs on your supplier contracts? Do these 3 things

Many institutions lack a clear overview of their contracts and the additional expenses. This leads to unnecessary costs, because you’re paying for services you don’t need anymore, services you already had or services that are simply too expensive.

This is how your IT department reacts to an agile transition

Introducing an agile way of working means a culture shift at your IT department. What reactions can you expect from your IT employees?

Creating an onboarding workflow in 2 hours

Are you looking to improve your onboarding process? In this post, I’ll explain how to work together to set up an onboarding workflow in just two hours.

3 reasons for a good employee onboarding

Not prioritizing a good employee onboarding is a missed opportunity. These are three reasons why onboarding matters.

Improve your Knowledge Base using negative feedback

What do you do when a knowledge item is deemed ‘not helpful’ by your customers? Find out what we do over at TOPdesk.

Writing better Knowledge Base Articles

Some knowledge articles do contain the knowledge and it’s just not communicated that well, or the Knowledge base is hard to coordinate. So what do you do?

A more Agile Incident Management process

Every step in your incident management process needs to contribute to how quickly an incident is processed. Does a step not contribute to your goal? Remove it.

Improving your employee onboarding process

Learn how to improve your employee onboarding process. The key is good collaboration between different service departments.

Agile service management: the end of ITIL?

Is it possible to pair agile service management and ITIL? We’ve compared the 4 basic values of agile with ITIL and came to a not so obvious conclusion.

6 ways to improve your Service Desk customer service

Customer experience is increasingly important to the modern service desk. Luckily, there’re many ways to make sure that you meet your customer’s demands.

Building a good Self Service Portal in 5 steps

Making the most of self service will save you work. But you need to design the self service portal for your customers – not for yourself. Read our 5 tips.

Getting the Incident Escalation process right

Understanding proper Incident escalation is important, and can also contribute to less confusion in the Incident Management Process.

4 steps to a more user-friendly Self-Service Portal

One of the most common questions we get is how to ensure users actually use the SSP. A part of the answer is having a portal that users want to use.

4 steps to better IT Customer Satisfaction Surveys

You want to measure your Customer Satisfaction and you make a survey, but the results aren’t coming in. Consider if your survey is user friendly enough.

Is your Service Desk GDPR-ready?

Is your organization ready for the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that comes into force in 2018? Read 6 tips to prepare yourself!

Better Contract Management for MSPs

You’re the new Managed Service Provider and you’ve signed the contract. Let’s put that contract in a file. But is that really the best thing to do?

4 questions for starting a Change Management process

Change Management is still arguably the ITIL-process that causes most people on a project the most problems. But these problems can easily be avoided!

How to get better at Service Desk Process Documentation

Processes are rarely documented consistently. How can you contribute to better process documentation, and better organisation?

Making your IT Service Level Agreements more flexible

SLAs are great for reporting to management but too much focus on that may risk long term damage to your organisation. The solution? A shift towards XLAs.

The key to proactive Problem Management

When does a problem become an incident? The answer to this is ‘almost always’. So what do you do? Proactive problem management is the way to go.

5 checklist items for Best Practice Change Management

Ensure change management happens smoothly in your organisation with these tips for things that should be on your change management checklist.

Applying Agile Service Management at your service desk

There’s a lot of talk about agile. But does agile service management work? Or is the word simply meant to make service management sound cooler?

Mapping Customer Journeys for a better user experience

You can no longer hide behind KPIs on the technical performance of your services. And SLAs don’t cut it anymore. It’s all about customer experience.

4 steps to a Customer-focused Service Desk culture

See how to make your Service team more customer focused by taking four quick steps towards a more customer focused culture.

Onboarding new employees

Is a new employee in your organization ready for work right away? How do you make sure he is?

5 Key Metrics for your Service Department

When almost any interaction with your Service Desk can be monitored, how do you report on the right data? These are the service desk metrics to report on.

Maintaining a Best Practice Incident Management process

We often overlook simple things when improving our services. For Best Practice Incident Management you should make sure you’ve done the fundamentals right.

6 steps from reactive to proactive Facilities Maintenance

Choose a proactive strategy and prevent common issues, reduce costs and improve your services. Here are six simple steps to switch to proactive maintenance.

Setting up better Service Desk KPIs

Setting up metrics is not always as simple as creating a number you want to reach. You need to set KPIs that you need to shoot for.

6 ways to get continuous customer feedback

You have set up a system so that after resolving a call your customer can provide you with feedback. But this is where your real challenge starts.

5 ways to improve your IT department’s image

The image of your IT department might not always be positive. Colleagues will mostly contact you when they have a problem. You’ll need transparency, recognizability and procedures to improve this image. In this blog we give you 5 ways how to improve IT department image.

Simple steps towards sharing processes

Isn’t it better to search for a shared procedure derived from the overarching agreement between the departments: supplying services to the same customers?

3 IT Self-Service Portal Best Practices

Nowadays most users expect to find a portal with answers to their problems, but how can you make sure that you’re making best use of that portal?

5 ways to improve interdepartmental collaboration

Shared Service Management is a great development in interdepartmental collaboration between supporting departments. This is how to start sharing services.

5 steps to building a help desk knowledge base

Improving service delivery is a commendable goal, but few of us have the time to sit down and consider the benefits of well-constructed, knowledge base.

5 things that make a good Service Catalogue

It is important to always provide your customers with sufficient information. When compiling the online service catalogue, always take the following into account.

The importance of good functional management

The success of an application is partly determined after implementation. At this point, the functional manager is important. But how to take on this role?

Solve and evolve with KCS: The key to lower costs per call

Knowledge management has a slightly dull reputation. But it can be a quick way to reduce your costs per call. An easy way to start this is with KCS.

Practicing what we preach – how we implemented Shift Left

We are all about Shifting Left so why would be not also implement it ourselves? Read how we implemented Knowledge Centered Service and tips and tricks we learned.

Making your IT Service Catalogue customer centric

Most IT-departments use a service catalog – few optimize it for their audience: the end user. Both department and user will benefit from more customer focus.

The value of shared services: the Google effect

Customers become more demanding of services supplied by HR, FM and IT departments. The Google Effect teaches us a lesson in the value of shared services.

10 tips to improve your IT desk’s customer service reporting

Our top tips for how to gather customer feedback, so that you can learn more about how much your customers love IT! After reading this blog you can get started with customer service reporting.

How to implement a Shared Services Center

To meet the demands of the future, supporting departments need to combine their strengths. This is how to implement a shared services center.

Eight Reasons for Continuous Deployment

The SaaS revolution has been a liberation for companies: anyone can have access to software without the need for local database admins.

Producing Frequent High Quality Updates

We currently update the SaaS environments weekly. This means that the software that is developed now, is live in your SaaS TOPdesk environment a week later!

TOPdesk’s Four Flavors of Continuous Deployment

In this post I’ll explain how we are going to keep you up to date and make sure that you will not be caught by surprise.

From Compact Disk to Continuous Deployment

Over next year, we will improve our delivery pipeline one step at a time. This will eventually result in weekly release moments.

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What IT departments can learn from B2C organizations

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Knowledge Management best practices

Stop reinventing the wheel with every call: use the collective knowledge of the service desk to solve calls with knowledge management best practices.

ITSM trends: what is employee experience?

Employee experience has been all the rage in business for a while now. But what is employee experience? And why should service departments care?