InvGate Blog

Let’s face it. We’ve all been there. Attending a service review with a customer only to be faced with an incident or request that should have been sorted out months (if not years) ago. Such “aged tickets” happen for a variety of reasons – complex systems, organizational change, or even plain old “not enough people on the IT service desk.” The reality is that these aged tickets hurt us. From the business’ perspective, they have people struggling for much longer than is acceptable and from an IT perspective it means that we “can’t see the forest for the trees.” To help, here are my first five of ten ways to overcome your aged ticket problem.

Topics: ticketing system, Help Desk, Ticket Management

As you might know, we’ve recently launched a major release for InvGate Service Desk 6.0, featuring a whole new UI for improved organization and tracking of help desk activities. But the ball keeps rolling and we continue to develop new improvements.

Topics: help desk, Service Desk Software, service desk software features, Help Desk, InvGate Service Desk, Service Catalog

Keeping your IT service desk analysts motivated can sometimes be a difficult job. Between the negativity of end-user complaints, the stream of incoming incidents, and the monotony of some service desk tasks, staff demotivation is not uncommon. Don’t worry though, gamification – which essentially consists of merging game mechanics and work – can help you to keep staff motivation levels up.   So, if you feel that your IT service desk analysts are demotivated (or heading that way), unhappy, or simply bored at work, then gamification could be just what you need to inject a bit of enjoyment and fun into their working day. Please read on to find out more.

Topics: Gamification, Service Desk

ITIL is the go-to framework for most organizations in an IT service management (ITSM) environment but just because something works doesn’t mean that it can’t be reviewed and improved on. Especially because business requirements change, as has ITIL in 2019. Here are five questions to ask yourself, and your organization, when you’re reviewing and refocusing your ITIL approach.

Topics: ITIL

Selecting a new IT service management (ITSM) tool is a major project (and a major investment). It’ll impact your IT service desk, your technical support teams, and your end-user community. To help, here are ten tips for picking the right ITSM tool. Tip #1: Figure out what you want Know your organization and plan accordingly. What will you need the tool to do? There’s a huge difference between just doing the basics of incident, request, and change management and implementing a complex set of ITSM practices. Do you want a CMDB? What about problem management? So many people say they want a tool to “do ITIL” but the reality is that only the most mature organizations will ever have the need for support for over thirty ITIL management practices. Also, understand your business and create a plan based on your reality – not what the ITIL textbook says or what ITSM tool vendors are trying to sell you.

Topics: ITSM, InvGate Service Desk

Managing an IT help desk is one of the most visible roles in IT. Done well, you can support your team, inspire great service, and increase customer satisfaction. Done badly, you’ll demotivate your people, have unhappy customers, and a high churn rate (in terms of both team members and help desk users). If you want to improve how you manage your IT help desk, are about to take on a help desk manager role, or simply want to ensure that you’re doing whatever you can to get things right, then here are ten tips for becoming a great IT help desk manager.

Topics: Help Desk

Incident management is front and center of your IT service provider offering. Done well, effective triaging can speed up incident resolution times, make life easier for technicians, and improve customer satisfaction. To help, here are five questions for your IT service desk to ask itself when you’re reviewing your incident categorization approach.

Topics: Help Desk, Incident Management, Major Incidents

A service catalog is a great asset for any IT organization that offers multiple products and services to its end users. It acts as a one-stop-shop – where users can see the services on offer to them and discover any information they might need in relation to those services. For instance, a full description of what the service offers, how to request access, and delivery timelines.

Topics: Service Desk, Service Catalog

If you're reading this, then you're most likely a project manager or have recently passed your certification and are looking for a role as one. Or you might be someone who has temporarily moved into a project management role due to being a subject matter expert (SME). It really doesn’t matter which of these is true for you, as the handy list of pointers for project managers below applies to all. And you can use this list as a reference or a reminder of how to always be at the top of your game when it comes to managing a project.

Topics: Project Management