SDI's Latest Survey Findings Reveals ITIL Domination of ITSM Industry
Survey findings from the Service Desk Institute (SDI), indicate that the UK's IT Service Management (ITSM) industry has reached a new level of maturity in the last four years. First-level resolution rates have increased from just 21 per cent to 60 per cent, and the adoption of ITIL standards has seen a staggering increase from less than 30 per cent in 2004 to 68 per cent in 2008.
SDI surveyed 159 service desk managers across eleven market sectors to ascertain overall industry trends, and to rate performance and service delivery quality of ITSM software vendors*. The findings show that UK organisations are taking IT Service Management seriously and are increasingly adopting 'best practice' approaches to deliver better customer service.
The industry has received significant investment in the past three years, with the result that the UK can now boast a well-established service desk model. Resourcing levels of service desks have risen by 60 per cent, with more staff being moved to a front line position within a 2-tier operation - where particularly complex incidents are escalated to a smaller, specialist team. Nearly 60 per cent of respondents are now operating service desks that resolve over half of all incidents at the first-level. The maturity of this 'service desk' model in practice is further reflected in the fact that 98 per cent of service desks now deal with service requests, such as requests for new workstations.
The adoption of ITSM standards has increased, with the number of organisations using no standards falling by half since 2004. ITIL remains the predominant standard followed by UK organisations, whereas the majority of other ITSM standards have seen a less than 10 per cent increase in adoption.
SDI's Chairman, Howard Kendall, comments: "These findings clearly demonstrate a new level of maturity in the typical service desk 'model' and across the industry itself. ITSM in the UK has made significant headway in terms of its commitment to delivering optimum IT customer service to further business success. It is an excellent reflection on the development of the IT Service industry that more incidents are being fixed at the first level. Widespread adoption of 'best practice' processes are providing first line analysts with the tools and expertise they need to solve more first line incidents at initial contact, leading to a tangible improvement in overall customer satisfaction.
"The smaller turnkey software vendors are catching up with the high-end market offerings, which has led to an increasingly consultancy-led vendor model. This has propelled the industry to adopt a more consistent approach to ITSM, and this progress is reflected in the widespread pick-up of ITIL standards, as well as a growth in salary and grade levels, which are at long last reaching equity with other parts of IT."
The survey additionally revealed that vendors have improved their consultative processes, adopting robust project management and engagement processes to contribute to an improvement in customer satisfaction. More than 70 per cent felt that their software vendor provided a good or excellent service, and over three quarters would recommend them compared to just 55 per cent in 2004. Customers are getting real value from money from their software vendors, with over 80% of implementations coming in on or below budget. The quality and durability of relationships with vendors is also improving since 40 percent indicated that that they have worked with the same vendor for around five years.
Kendall continues, "Despite significant progress, there is still much work to be done within the industry when it comes to more strategic processes such as 'problem management' and 'service level management', which have not yet experienced such high level of maturity."
Vendors still need to improve delivery of training as nearly 40 per cent of respondents stated that the training they received and the quality of training materials was 'very poor', 'poor' or 'average'. It is also evident that there is still a relatively low occurrence of certification, with only 5 per cent working toward ISO/IEC 20000, whilst the SDI Service Desk Certification is reported at 12 per cent.
"Interestingly, despite a maturity and growing consultancy approach from vendors, a widespread failure to delivery satisfactory training stands out amongst the findings. In the coming years we should expect to see an increase in service desk certifications and qualifications as organisations continue to invest in their service desks," concludes Kendall.
* SDI's UK 2008 Service Desk Software Vendors Report – Understanding the Customer Experience of the ITSM market. This report has been produced from survey data collected in early 2008. A total of 159 people responded by completing an online questionnaire on behalf of their organisations and service desk operations. This report follows up on a similar Help Desk Institute Europe (re-branded to Service Desk Institute in April, 2008) survey carried out in 2004. It contains data and analysis on a number of areas relating to the performance and service delivery quality of ITSM software vendors - those that are used by SDIe members. The report included a number of comparisons with the 2004 report.
