Service Desk Manager

Summary

A service desk manager identifies emerging issues and is a knowledge expert.

They are responsible for the resourcing and development of the team, including the preparation and co-ordination of service transition activities. At this role level you will:

manage a fully functioning multi-sourced service desk teams with a customer-centric support approach across multiple locations, focused on service level attainment and performance
ensure that all service and desk teams remain responsive to customer needs
display a knowledge of various methodologies used to manage service desk functions and an ability to tailor methodologies and management practices dependant on the characteristics of the service being delivered
have a knowledge of techniques and approaches that can be used to deliver value.

Background

Background Components

Description	Background
Is conversant with the processes used to support the customer services skill (e.g. incident management or CRM system). Has practical understanding of the activities of the employer or client and appreciates the importance of the customer service task within the business.	Prior Knowledge and Skills

Work Activity Components

Title	Details
Log, monitor and report	Monitors the service delivery channels (human, digital, self-service, automated) and activities of the customer services function, and collects and records performance data.
Standards and documentation	Assists with the specification, development, research and evaluation of customer services standards.
Technical briefings and Service Catalogue	Gives technical briefings to staff members to facilitate their effectiveness in understanding and resolving customer service incidents and problems. Ensures that documentation of supported components is available and accessible to all who need to use it.
Request handling and customer support	Ensures that all requests from users are handled promptly and effectively according to standards and procedures. For all requests that cannot be directly resolved, provides an effective interface between users and service providers; ensures that priority setting and escalation procedures are applied effectively and that all complaints are responsibly and professionally resolved.
Implementation and controls	Ensures implementation of information, and records management policies and standard practice, ensuring that information is protected, available and accessible, and can be retrieved as required. Complies with all relevant information and data security policies and procedures.
Lead, manage and supervise	Supervises, supports and guides the work of individuals and/or small groups in line with organisational strategy.
Work allocation, support and delegation	Allocates routine tasks and assigns project work to individuals, according to their particular skills, capabilities, and development needs.
Customer relationships and negotiations	Works with stakeholders to plan for service disruption and/or breaches of service level agreements.
Customer service assessment	Participates in analysis of customer satisfaction surveys and data and identifies actions for service improvements where appropriate. Supports and participates in regular review meetings between service providers and customers/users.
Leadership and management	Responsible for development, resource planning and work allocation of the customer service function, to meet agreed service levels.

Knowledge/Skills

Knowledge/Skills Components

Title	Depth	Details	Type
Analytical Thinking		Acquiring a proper understanding of a problem or situation by breaking it down systematically into its component parts and identifying the relationships between these parts. Selecting the appropriate method/tool to resolve the problem and reflecting critically on the result, so that what is learnt is identified and assimilated.	Behavioural Skills
Information Acquisition		Identifying gaps in the available information required to understand a problem or situation and devising a means of resolving them.	Behavioural Skills
Flexibility		Taking account of new information or changed circumstances and/or business requirements and modifying response to a problem or situation accordingly.	Behavioural Skills
Attention to Detail		Applying specific quality standards to all tasks undertaken to ensure that deliverables are accurate and complete.	Behavioural Skills
Interacting with People		Establishing relationships, contributing to an open culture and maintaining contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Effective, approachable and sensitive communicator in different communities and cultures. Ability to adapt style and approach to meet the needs of different audiences.	Behavioural Skills
Teamwork		Working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.	Behavioural Skills
Providing Direction		Directing others to undertake specified tasks within a defined timescale.	Behavioural Skills
Follow-up and Monitoring		Checking progress against targets, taking action to resolve exceptions/ issues and reporting and escalating where necessary.	Behavioural Skills
Application Systems	Proficient in	Technical or functional understanding of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications and/or other bespoke software deployed within the organisation in order to provide system configuration, audit, technical, and/or functional support.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Database Software	Proficient in	Software that enables the user to capture, create, populate and manipulate data structures and where appropriate unstructured data.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Networking and Communications	Familiar with	The planning and management of the interaction between two or more networking systems, computers or other intelligent devices.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Operating Systems	Familiar with	System software that controls activities such as input, output, dynamic resource allocation, and error reporting, within the operation of a computer configuration.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Corporate, Industry and Professional Standards	Familiar with	Applying standards, practices, codes, and assessment and certification programmes relevant to the IT industry, and the specific organisation or business domain.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Operational/Service Architecture	Familiar with	Knowledge of the IT/IS infrastructure and the IT applications and service processes used within own organisation, including those associated with sustainability and efficiency.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Access Control Systems	Proficient in	Any tool or system which provides security access control (i.e. prevents unauthorised access to systems).	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Business Environment	Familiar with	The business environment relating to own sphere of work (own organisation and/or closely associated organisations, such as customers, suppliers, partners and competitors), in particular those aspects of the business that the specialism is to support (i.e. localised organisational awareness from a technical perspective).	Technical Knowledge and Skills
IT Environment	Familiar with	The IT environment relating to own sphere of work (own organisation and/or closely associated organisations, such as customers, suppliers, partners), in particular own organisation’s technical platforms and those that interface to them through the specialism, including those in closely related organisations.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
BYOD	Proficient in	The policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, smart phones etc) to their workplace, and the implications of using those devices to access privileged company information and applications consistent with safeguarding corporate systems and data taking account of security and confidentiality requirements. Also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own PC (BYOPC).	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Incident Management Tools	Proficient in	Including interrogation of incident database, creation of parent and child incidents, creation of queries to seek trends and use of known error logs/ databases.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Appraisal Techniques	Familiar with	Methods and techniques for appraising an individual’s performance and potential.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Budgets	Aware of	Principles, methods, techniques and tools for the preparation and monitoring of budgets to manage costs and ensure cost-effectiveness and value for money.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Risk Management	Proficient in	Methods and techniques for the assessment and management of business risk including safety-related risk.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Techniques for Effective Meetings	Aware of	Methods and techniques for running effective meetings and for understanding and influencing the roles played by participants.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Coaching Techniques	Familiar with	Methods and techniques for coaching individuals or groups by a balanced combination of support and direction, including use of virtual learning environments plus add-ons to augment feedback specific to work items, workflow or career plans.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Project Planning and Control Techniques	Aware of	Methods and techniques associated with planning and monitoring progress of projects.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Resource Allocation	Familiar with	The effective and efficient routine deployment of resources, (but also including reassessment and reallocation in a dynamic multi-project environment), to achieve optimum results.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Service Delivery Economics	Familiar with	The economics of service delivery, such as the cost per service line in terms of hardware, software, and manpower used to deliver the service.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Service Level Agreements	Familiar with	The purpose and composition of a service level agreement (SLA); the relationship between an SLA, an OLA (Operational Level Agreement) and an underpinning contract for the supply of services.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Performance Monitoring	Familiar with	Identifying, agreeing and monitoring (usually by face-to-face interviews) objectives and deliverables with individuals. Identifying under-performance issues against agreed quality standards and performance criteria. Identifying gaps in capability and causes, disciplinary or ability-related (needing assistance, training or other support).	Other Knowledge and Skills
Disciplinary Issues and Procedures	Aware of	Managing episodes of unsatisfactory behaviour or performance in accordance with appropriate policies and legislative conformance. Includes changes to circumstances, such as sickness, disability and other personal issues.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Team Dynamics	Aware of	Knowledge and understanding of the psychological and environmental forces that influence the direction of team behaviour and performance and the tools and techniques to improve team cohesion and performance.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Information Assurance	Proficient in	Information assurance methods, tools and techniques (including the Caldicott Principles) used to protect the integrity, availability, authenticity, non-repudiation and confidentiality of user data and manage the risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information.	Other Knowledge and Skills

Training Activities

Training Components

Title	Details
Service Delivery	The service delivery processes: the systems, products, services, hardware and software environment.
Software Configuration	Installation, configuration and tuning of applications or systems software.
Infrastructure Hardware and System Software	Hardware, communication networks and system software that provides the organisation’s IT infrastructure; features of the infrastructure that need to be taken account of in hardware/software installation, with due attention to sustainability impacts e.g. back-up and recovery, virtualisation techniques to optimise efficient energy use of system hardware components, load sharing in communication networks; availability and use of Cloud services.
Coaching	Concepts, methods and techniques for providing coaching in subject specialisms to individuals or groups (e.g. GROW model).
Data Protection and GDPR	Data protection legislation, regulatory framework and compliance, including GDPR (General Data Protection Act).
Network Infrastructure Architecture	The frameworks and principles on which networks, systems, equipment and resources are based.
Service Management	Principles, methods and techniques for managing IT services, including the preparation, understanding and use of Service Level Agreements, Operational Level Agreements and underpinning contracts.
Mentoring	Methods and techniques for providing mentoring support to less experienced individuals.
Security Awareness	Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.
Health and Safety	Understanding statutory health and safety requirements relating to the working environment and/or the tools and techniques to promote, communicate, implement and maintain a health and safety culture.

PDAs

PDA Components

Title	Details
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments	Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, inside or outside IT, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures.
Research Assignments	Exploring a topic which is not part of own normal responsibilities and presenting findings to colleagues and/or management
Gaining Knowledge of Activities of Employing Organisation	Developing an understanding of the potentially diverse range of activities (service, governance, administrative, regulatory, commercial, charitable, industrial, etc.) undertaken by the employing organisation.
Gaining Knowledge of IT Concepts and Techniques	Undertaking study, learning and, where possible, practice in IT concepts and techniques external to own function.
Participation in Professional Body Affairs	Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level.
Negotiating and Influencing	Undertaking learning and practice of negotiating with and influencing others.
Team Leadership	Undertaking learning and practice of the skills required to lead teams, including motivation, direction, coaching, delegation, appraisal, counselling and developing others.

Qualifications

Qualification Components

Title	Awarding Body
ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver and Support (Managing Professional Module)	AXELOS
ITIL 4 Specialist High-velocity IT (Managing Professional Module)	AXELOS
Service Desk Manager	Service Desk Institute experience
Registered IT Technician (RITTech)	BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT
FEDIP Senior Practitioner	FEDIP

Organisation Skills

Framework » Organisation Category » Subcategory	Skill Name and Description	Level
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Asset and configuration management You can conduct life cycle management for assets including hardware, software, intellectual property, licences and warranties. You can manage usage, disposal, compliance, inventory, sustainability, cost optimisation and protection of the asset portfolio. You can help to improve investment decisions and capitalise on opportunities. You can comply with international standards for asset management. You can document information relating to assets including identification, classification and specification of all items, and information related to storage, access and versions. You can apply status accounting and auditing in line with relevant criteria.	1 – Awareness You can track, log and correct information to protect assets and components.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Continual service improvement You can identify and explore opportunities for service and business improvement. You can produce analysis and identify, prioritise and implement improvements and efficiencies, ensuring that the organisation derives maximum value from services. You can recognise the potential for automation of processes, determine costs and benefits of new approaches, and manage change or assist implementation where needed.	2 – Working You can identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance, and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Customer service management You can manage customer service functions, including responding to issue reports and information and access requests. You can use the results of customer satisfaction measurements to improve services. You can demonstrate a successful relationship with customers.	4 – Expert You can translate ‘lessons learnt’ from complaint cycles into continual service improvement. You can take responsibility for the full range of customer service functions, including reviewing customer service satisfaction. You can investigate which processes can be automated and the ways to do so.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Ownership and initiative You can take ownership of problems and proactively resolve technical problems, ensuring that technical solutions continue to meet business requirements. You can take full accountability for the actions taken and decisions made.	3 – Practitioner You can take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems. You can achieve excellent user outcomes.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Problem management You can understand and identify problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution. You can classify and prioritise problems, document their causes and implement remedies.	2 – Working You can initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems. You can effectively consult specialists where required. You can determine the appropriate remedy and assist with its implementation. You can determine preventative measures.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Service focus You can maintain focus on the whole life of service delivery (designing, developing, delivering and operating). You can ensure that a set of IT products, suppliers and vendors come together to deliver an IT service.	2 – Working You can take inputs and establish coherent frameworks that work.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Service management framework knowledge You can show an in-depth understanding of service management framework principles and processes. You can apply the technical knowledge in project or programme activities.	2 – Working You have a Level 3 service management framework qualification. You can demonstrate knowledge of the life cycle or capability elements of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library).
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Service reporting You can use management information to consolidate agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into product or service measures, to underpin the service management of a specific product or service.	3 – Practitioner You can use your data analytics skills to enhance business performance.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Stakeholder relationship management (IT operations) You can identify, analyse, manage and monitor relationships with and between stakeholders. You can clarify mutual needs and commitments through consultation and consideration of impacts. You can co-ordinate all promotional activities for one or more customers, to achieve satisfaction for the customer and an acceptable return for the supplier. You can assist the customer to ensure that maximum benefit is gained from the products and services supplied.	2 – Working You can identify important stakeholders and relationships, and work with teams to build these relationships. You can understand how to work with stakeholders and contribute to improving these relationships.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Technical understanding You can demonstrate knowledge of the specific technologies necessary to fulfil the responsibilities and tasks of the role. You can apply the required breadth and depth of technical knowledge. You can actively keep informed of industry developments to make cost-effective use of new and emerging tools and technologies.	2 – Working You can understand the core technical concepts related to the role, and apply them with guidance.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – User focus You can understand users and identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You can show that you put users first and can manage competing priorities.	3 – Practitioner You can collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. You can explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.

Framework » Organisation
Category » Subcategory

Skill Name and Description

Level