Management plays vital role in the evolution of IT support, according to Gartner

Jan 9, 2001
Gartner

By K. Brittain, T. Kirk

Each enterprise must understand its own culture and discontinuity origins and create focused plans that enable it to progress through the stages of IT support evolution. In an effort to lower the cost of ownership of the distributed computing environment and simultaneously improve the level of service quality, IS organizations are examining options beyond traditional methods of IT support. This Research Note highlights the requirements necessary to evolve through the stages of IT support.

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Making the transition
In re-engineering IT support, enterprises face some basic obstacles in achieving value facilitation status. Figure A represents layers in the evolution of the IT support function, concerning required changes in personnel management, processes, and technology. Three discontinuities need to be addressed: organizational, informational, and goal. Every functional area contributes to these discontinuities, and every functional area must modify its behavior to reduce and eliminate them.

Figure A

Organizational discontinuity—The walls
Organizational walls undermine operating performance and impair decisions in supporting the enterprise. To tear down these walls, an understanding must be established between various support groups.

It is typical for the service desk (Tier 1) to feel open contempt toward the IS organization (especially Tier 3) for not knowing the motivations and importance of the front line for end users. Some business-unit support analysts feel contempt toward the corporate organization for ordering staff reductions, and for controlling costs without fully understanding the motivations (e.g., the consolidated service desk).

Lack of communication is not the sole cause of this discontinuity; there are other key contributors such as mistrust, territoriality, and history. Only management can reverse these behaviors and rid the enterprise of these discontinuities. To eliminate mistrust, cross-functional groups must be initiated to allow departments to work together and gain mutual respect.

History is perhaps the most difficult aspect of change. Management must get directly involved and, in some cases, reorganize departments or divisions to break the traditions (e.g., the creation of competency centers).

Informational discontinuity—The numbers
Typically, no one respects or accepts any performance metrics but their own. Once again, management must exercise its charter to eliminate this key discontinuity by establishing defined processes with agreed-to performance metrics.

The lack of definition fosters mistrust and territoriality, which should be eliminated in the walls of discontinuity. We recommend chartering a cross-departmental team to define process and performance metrics. From this effort, IT can reconcile the needs of all groups and empower the IS group to implement the changes within the enterprise.

Often, outside measurement firms provide an unbiased review of services and performance and can assist in the implementation of improvement strategies needed to progress through the five stages of the IT management process maturity model. No consolidated help desk hoping to be an effective service provider can tolerate the numbers of discontinuity.

Goal discontinuity—The politics
Too many decisions are based on politics and hidden agendas, and the net result is often that the wrong choice is made. Enterprises should institute a policy tying all key decisions back to the enterprise mission.

Management can root out political decision-making by enforcing policies of checks and balances based on business objectives. Scenarios should be employed to demonstrate that reasonable alternatives have been analyzed, along with rationale for rejecting various paths (e.g., decentralized vs. centralized Tier 2).

By installing these value systems into the culture, politics (including negative effects) will be reduced, not eliminated. Even with well-designed personnel management programs, some support personnel will not be capable of revamping old attitudes. However, by publicizing and applying positive incentives, enterprises can start to evoke more change.

Bottom line
To support business processes, the IT support function must progress in managing its people, processes, and technologies, as reflected in the IT management process maturity model. Enterprises must focus on more than just technology acquisition—they must acknowledge and manage the existence of the three discontinuities: walls (organizational barriers), numbers (process design) and politics (personnel development).

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Gartner originally published this report on April 28, 2000.