Service Desk Management
ITIL® describes the Service Desk as:
…the single point of contact between service providers and Users, on a day-to-day basis.
However, the Service Desk is like no other Discipline in that it is a function and not a process. While the distinction may seem subtle, it is worth exploring to better understand the interaction of Disciplines within the ITIL. Webster defines "process" as: a series of actions or operations conducing to an end. This implies that there is an input to which tools and techniques are applied to render an output, at which point the process ends. On the other hand, there is a continuing nature to a "function", defined by Webster as: any of a group of related actions contributing to a larger action.
This makes sense when you think of the Service Desk a clearing house or hub for accessing the services provided by the other Disciplines. And while the Service Desk's primary role is typically the contact point for handling incidents and requests, it provides a vital interface for all the other Disciplines. This is not to imply that each Discipline will play a role in every possible scenario, but rather only that the Disciplines do interact, from a User perspective, through the Service Desk. To more easily visualize this interaction, consider the following example involving all of the Disciplines: A user calls the Service Desk for assistance with a new application that initially ran well, but has now ground to a crawl with continual timeouts. The diagram below depicts the interaction of the various Disciplines, coordinated by the Service Desk, to resolve the problem. more »
