IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT BASED ON ITIL

METHODOLOGY
eljka POGAJ
Faculty of Economics and Business, 10000 Zagreb, Trg. J.F. Kennedy-a 6
e-mail: zpozgaj@efzg.hr
Jagor STRAHONJA
APIS IT, 10001 Zagreb, Paljetkova 18.
e-mail: jagor.s@vip.hr

Abstract:
Most companies today depend on the normal functioning of various IT services and IT-dependent
services. Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) has the main role in this process.
The foundations of ITSM lie in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best
practices. By applying ITIL methodology incorporated in ITSM, the company tries to provide upto-date services accessible to clients at the lowest production cost possible.
The paper discusses the ITSM model at the conceptual level. Since there are numerous software
applications based on ITIL methodology and ITSM generic model, the paper focuses on the
Hewlett-Packard's HP ITSM Reference Model. Service Operations component, one of the five key
components of HP ITSM Reference Model, is discussed in more detail. The paper also analyses
fundamental processes of Incident Management and explains the usual functions of the Service
Desk. It takes a closer look at the Service Desk structure and functioning of the Help Desk.
The paper ends with the case study based on ITSM implementation in the Croatian oil company
INA.
Keywords: ITIL, ITSM, Service Desk, Help Desk

Introduction
Most companies today rely on IT. This means that the core business process and the mere
existence of the company depend on the normal functioning of various IT services, and ITdependent services. In other words, the focus of most business activities is on services and
service management. A successfully delivered service is a result of good organisational skills and
synergy of the following three elements: people, processes, and technology.
Looking back to the past, the function of IT management has changed over time (Salle, 2004;
Hewlett-Packard HP IT Service Management, 2003). In the very beginning of IT application, IT
was understood as a companys technology provider, and from the managerial point of view, its
role was to serve the IT infrastructure. IT management had to provide necessary IT resources and
control technical compliance and functionality. Over the course of time however, IT has affected

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all segments and business functions of the company such as finance, procurement, production,
sales and HR.
Nowadays, the new role of IT is primarily the role of service provider, and this has led to the
development of IT Service Management or ITSM, with IT Infrastructure Management as its key
component.. The focus of ITSM is on identifying services necessary to users, planning and
delivering this service, and ensuring availability, performance and security requirements.
Therefore, it is important to stress that services delivered by IT have become the centre of IT
management and that the main goal of ITSM is to meet client needs and to provide services. The
foundations of ITSM are in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices
and methodology with which the company tries to provide up-to-date services accessible to
clients at the lowest production cost. According to the opinion of the authors of this paper, IT
application in most Croatian companies nowadays is at the service provider level. However, IT
application may evolve even further, to the stage where company IT becomes a real, strategic
partner and when IT processes become fully integrated within business processes, improving
service quality and business agility. When this occurs, ITSM evolves into IT Business Value
Management or IT Governance.
Since providing IT services to clients is one of the key points of successful functioning of a
company, this paper sets out to analyse the key ITSM components, especially those connected
with Service Support Processes or Service Operations. The former is related to Incident
Management where incidents are identified, analysed, classified and transferred to the Service
Desk (the second segment). The Service Desk, according to ITIL methodology, is a service
function organised as the point where all sorts of services within business processes are provided.
The Help Desk, as part of the Service Desk or standalone, is organised as the point where ad-hoc
assistance related to IT services is provided.
Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to present the main characteristics of the ITSM model
and to point out the organizing aspects of ITSM implementation. To this effect, concrete
procedures and processes of Service Desk functionality in a chosen Croatian company will be
presented in the paper.
The paper is divided into seven chapters. Following the introduction, ITIL methodology and the
benefits of ITIL best practices implementation are presented in the second chapter. The main
characteristics of the ITSM generic model and the HP ITSM Reference Model are analysed in the
third chapter. The fourth chapter explains the main processes of Incidental Management. The
fifth chapter discusses the role of the Service Desk within ITSM, and the role of the Help Desk
within the Service Desk. Some experiences in ITSM implementation and a case study based on
ITSM implementation in INA, a Croatian oil company, are presented in the sixth chapter. The
conclusion follows in the seventh chapter.

ITIL methodology
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) was established in 1989 as a project
undertaken by the Government of the United Kingdom (Hewlett-Packard HP IT Service
Management, 2003). The Government put the British Central Computer and Telecommunications

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Agency (CCTA) in charge of the project. The reasons for starting this project were in the
governments wishes to improve CCTAs IT organisation in order to lower its costs and manage
its IT service delivery better. At the end of the project, ITIL became a framework of best practice
approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality IT services. In addition, ITIL is the
most comprehensive and respected source of information about IT processes ever written for
organisations seeking to implement IT Service Management. Today, ITIL is managed by the
UK's Office of Government Commerce (OGC). The best practice processes promoted in ITIL are
supported by the British Standards Institution's standard for IT Service Management
(BS15000). Since entire ITIL methodology is very closely connected with the problem of
effective IT Service Management system implementation, a logical continuity of methodology
development is to form the Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) model.
Many world known companies like IBM, Shell Oil, Procter and Gamble, Boeing, DHL etc. have
accepted ITIL Best Practices and adopted them in their business strategy. Using ITSM, many
companies have achieved significant operational cost saving in the organisation and provision of
various IT services.
In order to illustrate the efficiency of ITIL methodology implementation in the field of service
management we will discuss the results of an online survey conducted by Pink Elephant and
BCM Software in February 2007 on the sample of 240 people (executive directors, managers,
individual contributors or consultants) that work in SAP environment (DuMoulin, Turbitt 2007).
The survey highlights some interesting characteristics of ITIL Best Practices implemented in a
specific surrounding. However, since the results of the survey represent one type of users (the
SAP environment), generalization is not recommended.
The survey results show that:
ITIL methodology as a service management framework is the most popular IT strategy
among SAP users. Namely, 71% of SAP organisations whose representatives took part in this
survey have implemented ITIL methodology; ITIL methodology is followed by other
methodologies such as Six Sigma (22%), BSM (18%), CobiT (15%) etc.
Most SAP users involved in the survey (62%) were able to implement and roll out the first
ITIL process within a six months time (28% in less then 3 months, 34% between 3 to 6
months).
The most common ITIL process first implemented in the SAP environment is Incident
Management (62%), followed by Service Desk (61%), and Change Management (51%).
SAP environment users prefer soft benefits of ITIL methodology implementation. Namely,
88% of survey respondents consider that the most important benefit of ITIL methodology is
efficiency, followed by increased availability, reduced headcount etc.
In conclusion, ITIL methodology meets the needs of SAP users because the applicability
percentage is greater than in other well accepted methodologies. The implementation time and
first results are satisfying, and in some places the level of satisfaction is even exceeded, which is
common for implementation of that kind. Implementing the most common ITIL processes into
Incident Management and Service Desk is understandable because the business process
adaptation and new business process design can be done quickly, accurately and the feedback is
seen through improved availability and client satisfaction. Service Desk help and incident

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tracking must be efficient, because if incidents are not handled on time, they can have
repercussions on the conduct of business. Therefore, the greatest advantage of ITIL methodology
is efficiency, as confirmed by users.

Information Technology Service Management

The connection between ITSM and ITIL is observed in the definition of ITSM by OGC, a
company which runs ITIL. According to the definition (Hewlett-Packard HP IT Service
Management, 2003): ITSM is concerned with delivering and supporting IT services that are
appropriate to the business requirements of the organisation. ITIL provides a comprehensive,
consistent and coherent set of best practices for ITSM processes, promoting a quality approach to
achieving business effectiveness and efficiency in the use of information systems. To put it
simply, ITIL defines and documents best practices, and ITSM uses it to satisfy client needs
regarding the services the client requires from IT.
The analysis of ITSM at the conception level (Leopoldi, 2004) allows us to comprehend the
follow up of service management process activity (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Basic structure of ITSM (Leopoldi, 2004), modified by authors.

As Figure 1 demonstrates, clients initiate service management process start up by demanding that
their need for a certain service should be met. Throughout the Requirement Definition Process, a
requirement is transformed into a service requirement or more of them. On the basis of defined
requirements, service support is activated initialising a series of processes (delivering, managing
and supporting appropriate and necessary IT services) merged within ITSM processes. ITSM
includes two sorts of processes: IT Service Support Processes and IT Service Delivery Processes.
By delivering the acquired service to the client, the whole service management process is closed.

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Two processes dominate in the shown model:

Requirement Definition Process,
ITSM processes (Service Support Processes and Service Delivery Processes).
Firstly, requirements identified in the Requirement Definition Process are related to requirements
that derive from organisation needs, requirements that need to be met in connection with
organisation requirements, requirements for IT infrastructure which should support given
requirements and requirements for technology inside the IT infrastructure. These requirements
have to be in conjunction with the business strategy, that is, they have to be a part of the business
strategy and connected with service planning, organisational planning and technology planning.
Secondly, Service Support Processes include a set of processes based on Incident Management,
Change Management, Problem Management, Release Management, Configuration Management,
Performance Management, Service Continuity and the function of Service Desk.
Finally, Service Delivery Processes rely on activities related to enhancing the service level in the
organisation (Service Level Management), optimising IT infrastructure (Availability
Management), strategic planning of future resource requirements (Capacity Management), and
managing the costs of resources needed to meet the requirements (Financial Management).
Major IT and software producers have accepted the idea of IT methodology and characteristics of
the generic ITSM model and they have developed their own models. For instance, HewlettPackard developed the HP IT Service Management Reference Model (HP ITSM), Microsoft
developed the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), and IBM developed the System
Management Solution Lifecycle (SMSL) (Salle, 2004). In our paper we will describe the HP
ITSM Reference Model in more detail.
This model has been selected because we think that it is transparent enough to present the main
characteristics of ITSM . In addition, regardless of the type of software product or its producer,
ITSM software usually includes key modules like Incident Management module, Operational
Management module, Problem Management module, Service Desk etc.
HP ITSM model
The HP ITSM Reference Model (Hewlett-Packard Business and IT Services, 2008) functions as
a high-level, fully integrated IT process relationship map that provides a representation of IT
processes and defines IT process requirements and solutions. The model is flexible and
applicable to any organisation. Originally, the model was released in 1997 and its second
iteration was released in 2000, and again in 2003. Service Management as the principal part of
the HP ITSM Reference Model should be accepted as a business-driven approach that IT
organisations can use to design, build, manage and evolve quality IT services.
The key components of the HP ITSM Reference Model (Figure 2) include: Business-IT
Alignment, Service Design and Management, Service Development and Deployment, Service
Operations and Service Delivery Assurance.

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Figure 2: Key components of the HP ITSM Reference Model (Hewlett-Packard Business and IT
Services, 2008), modified by authors.
Each of these components includes a set of activities that have to provide effective, reliable and
flexible IT services to clients.
The Business-IT Alignment component contains strategic processes that align IT strategy with
business goals and define service portfolios to increase business value. Parts of this component
include: IT Business Assessment, IT Strategy and Architecture Planning, Customer Management
and Service Planning.
Service Design and Management processes provide detailed service specifications to balance the
ability and quality of those services and service quality with costs. This component includes
Security Management, Continuity Management, Availability Management, Capacity
Management and Financial Management.
Service Development and Deployment processes are used for the development of services and
service testing used for infrastructure components (hardware, software applications, tools) with
the goal of reducing service activation risks and minimizing implementation costs. Two parts of
this component include: Service Build & Test and Release to Production.
The Service Operations component is the most important segment of the HP ITSM Reference
Model from the point of view of this paper. It covers Operations Management, Problem
Management and Incident & Service Request Management. Activity in this component enables
daily service monitoring, providing services, service process advancing and service reporting.
Operations Management is very closely connected with Incident and Service Request
Management, as well as Problem Management, but also with Change and Configuration
Management. Problem Management is focused on reducing the number of incidents. Therefore, it
is necessary to track the root causes of closed incidents, trend analyses, error control and to
inform the client about possible problems with services and IT environment. Incident & Service
Request Management is closely tied to the Help (or Service) Desk. It enables the Service Desk to
respond to client needs, quickly restore service availability and minimize service disruptions. The
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main goal of the Service Operations component is to meet the agreed service level and increase
customer satisfaction.
The Services Delivery Assurance component is the component in the centre of the model. It
contains Service Level Mana gement, Change Management and Configuration Management. All
processes that are performed within other components of the HP ITSM Reference Model are
grouped around Services Delivery Assurance component also called the central hub. The
reason for the centralisation of this component lies in the fact that Configuration Management
records, tracks and reports about every given infrastructure component and also controls the
entire IT infrastructure. Change Management controls and assures the application of standard
methods and procedures in situations when production environment changes occur in order to
minimize the effect of certain changes on the quality of services. Service Level Management
defines, monitors, reports and controls the customer-specific service level within previously
defined standard service parameters and suggests the service level objective for the clients.

Incident Management
Incident Management is part of Service Support Processes in the ITSM model. According to
ITIL, the focus of Incident Management is on discovering, researching and classifying incidents
and providing initial backup for incident solving. The term incident is defined as any event which
is not planned and causes, or can cause, termination or service quality downgrade. The first and
primary goal of Incident Management is reflected in the necessity of back up for the processes of
service execution to return to the normal state as soon as possible. Its goal is also to minimize the
incident effect on the business activity or on the user. It is advisable to ensure that it should
function at the lowest possible price, with the best possible quality and service availability.
Types of incidents include:
Known problems (root of the problem is unknown),
Known errors (root of the problem is known) which are under the control of Problem
Management and which are registered in the Known Error Database,
Isolated, individual occurrences.
No matter what the incident type is, every incident should be attended to as soon as possible. The
basic processes of Incident Management include:
Incident detection and notation,
Incident classification and initial assistance,
Analysis and diagnostics,
Resolving and reopening of incidents,
Closing incidents,
Incident assignment, control, tracking and communication.
Detection and notation of incidents are related to the first user contact with the Service
Department. After realising that they are unable to resolve the problem themselves, end users
contact the Service Desk. When the user contacts the Service Desk (by mail, service desk
application, telephone, fax), the process of gathering information about the user and about the
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nature of the incident is started (Sanderson, 2004). The Service Desk analyst then collects basic
information from the user through the process of incident notation (incident summary, type of
hardware or software used) and this information is entered in the request. The basic attributes of
the request include incident number, end user, incident creation time, process description for
incident creation, priority, and incident status.
Incidents should be classified and classification can be carried out according to problem types.
Namely, incidents could be classified as incidents based on functionality, hardware, network,
processes, da ta bases, data integrity, interface, user management etc.
After the classification, incidents should be analysed. If the problem of incident is
straightforward, not so serious and not so difficult, the incident can be solved instantly. For
complex incidents, a solution can be found in the knowledge base storing the data about
previously solved incidents which serve as an aid for problem solving in the future. For incidents
which occur for the first time, it is desirable to aggregate as much relevant data as possible
through detailed dialogues and system of questions. In some situations, it is useful to reinitialise
or open an incident. When the root cause of the incident is found, it is useful to determine
variables which undoubtedly triggered the incident. In that case, it is useful to draw the Ishikawa
diagram that can help visualise possible causes of the problem and that can display the relation
between the processes and the solution.
When possible causes for the incident are identified, further effort is put on resolving it. For
instance, if the causes are obvious, they can be addressed directly, which instantly relieves the
problem solving process. On the other hand, complex incidents which cannot be resolved quickly
are assigned to specialised groups for technical support. The role of the service department is
proactive, because if an analyst determines some sort of a pattern, he or she has the opportunity to
try to resolve the situation or try to pinpoint the problem.
Documentation about the incident solution (the reason why the problem occurred and the
explanation how the problem was solved) is transferred to the end user. After the incident is
actually solved and the solution is double checked in coordination with the user, the incident is
ready for closing. The reason why the incident was opened, and the way the incident was solved
are entered in the knowledge base if similar incidents occurs in the future. This is necessary for
effective existing knowledge application when solving the same kind of incidents.

Service Desk
The Service Desk is a central place for interaction between the end user and the service provider
in every aspect concerning IT services. The main role of the Service Desk is to provide help to
the end user and to satisfy client and IT service provider goals (ITIL & ITSM World, 2003).
Common functions of the Service Desk include (Best Management Practice, 2007) :
Receiving calls (the first line of contact with the user),
Notifying and tracking incidents and complaints,
Informing users about the status of their incidents,

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Initial analysis (should the incident be solved or transferred to the person who will solve it?),
Control and escalation of the incidents,
Contribution to the problem identification,
Incident closing in coordination with the end user,
Emphasising the needs for user education,
Providing information and references to the management for service improvement.

According to ITIL, the Service Desk is a service organisation function. Depending on the
complexity, it has several forms such as: the Call Centre, the Help Desk and the Service Desk.
The Call Centre is the simplest form of end user support. It is a central office where requests are
taken or transferred via the telephone. The Call Centre is formed for easier user query
management and for providing support regarding products or services of a certain business. Most
big companies use Call Centres to interact with their clients (catalogue order, customer support
for computer hardware and software, etc.), or to support functions within the company.
The Help Desk is a source of information and assistance for solving problems mostly connected
with the operability of computers and other similar products. The service is provided by the toolfree phone, web site or e-mail. Moreover, there are internal departments which provide the
already mentioned services exclusively to its employees. According to ITIL, the Help Desk can
provide a greater scope of user-oriented services and exist as a part of the Service Desk.
The Service Desk is a central place where contact between the service provider and end users is
made on a daily basis (Bon, J. V. et. al., 2005). At the same time, it is the central place for
incident application (an event which is not part of an everyday service and which causes, or can
cause, termination or decrease in service quality). Moreover, it is the central place for deliverance
of routine Service Requests. It has the elements of the Call Centre and Help Desk, but the key
difference is in the scope of user oriented approach for providing the user with a unique contact
place where information is provided concerning all of their ICT requirements. Aside from
actively covering and tracking incidents and user requests, the Service Desk provides interface
for other activities such as change requests, maintenance contracts, and software licensing.
The Service Desk tries to enable and facilitate business process integration in the Service
Management Infrastructure and provide end users with access to other ITSM activities such as:
Change Management, Problem Management, Configuration Management, Release Management,
Service Level Management and IT Service Continuity Management.

Service Desk structure

The Service Desk is most frequently organised according to assignme nt distribution between
Service Desk team members. From the organisational point of view, the Service Desk can
function as a local Service Desk, a centralised service centre or as a virtual service centre.
According to assignment distribution between team members, there are five basic structures with
possible combinations (Best Management Practice, 2007):
Pool structure,

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Mobile structure,
Layer structure,
Specialised structure,
Methodological structure.

Pool is the simplest Service Desk structure. In this structure every team member uses the same
technology, provides the same end users and conducts the same amount of work.
Employees in the mobile structure, who act like the first line of defence, work as if they were at
the post office. They transfer the question to the appropriate team of experts. Response time is
short, because the question is transferred to the optimal person.
In the layer structure, the Service Desk is divided in several groups. Every layer provides a
different service level. Specialists at the first level take the end user call or problem and they
handle the problem until it is solved. They possess wide but not deep knowledge so if they are
unable to solve the problem, they transfer it to the second level. Experts at the second level are
expected to be able to solve complex issues regarding their field of expertise.
With the specialised structure, the Service Desk is divided in several groups, and every group is
accountable for its own specific area. This way of grouping allows analysts to better understand
end user problems and provide quicker assistance in problem solving from their area of expertise.
The methodological structure is organised according to the structure of methods for providing
services. The staffs are assigned to their work place based on the required skills (technical skills,
communication skills). This method is sufficient if end user problems are equally distributed.
According to the organisational structure, the Local Service Desk functions in one location or
within one organisational unit; the Centralised Service Centre provides services within more
locations or organisational units; while the Virtual Service Centre provides assistance to remote
users by using ICT.

The way Service Desk operates

As it was mentioned before, the Help Desk can be organised independently or as part of the
Service Desk. Analysing the work of the Help Desk from the point of view of this paper, it is
obvious that the Help Desk is the central place of assistance for the end user, mostly dealing with
end user problems with computers and IT implementation. The work of the Help Desk is
supported by the application of adequate software. Thus, a certain software application can track
the entire course of activities from the registration of questions posed (problem, identified
incident) up to the final solution of the problem or closing of the case. Software can track and
analyse the entire work of the Help Desk as well as different characteristics of incident situations
(frequency of appearance of certain problems, speed of problem solving, amount and type of
solved problems according to places or levels of problem-solving). The work of the Help Desk is
strictly planned. It takes a certain amount of time to implement each concrete activity like
responding to a call, answering questions by e-mail, problem-solving etc.

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The typical Help Desk procedure is similar to the one in the Service Desk. The user informs the
Help Desk about the existence of a problem (incident), after which the Help Desk opens a
document called a ticket. The ticket contains a full description of the problem (incident). The
problem is solved according to its level of complexity. The Help Desk team of the first level is
ready to solve simple problems whereas complex problems are transferred to higher levels or
specialised teams. In Help Desks where the number of calls (incidents) is bigger, the Help Desk
team usually includes a person in charge of ticket management (queue manager or queue
supervisor), and the number of specialised teams is bigger. If the incident can be solved at the
first level, the ticket is closed and complemented with documentation detailing the problem
solving process and stored in the solved problems data base. The next time the same incident
occurs, the Help Desk team members have reference to the closed ticket which enables a
documented way of problem solving.

Experience in ITSM application

Positive experiences with ITSM application are numerous and they are mostly connected with
operational cost saving. For instance:
By adopting ITIL (ITSM), Procter and Gamble have saved nearly $125 million in IT cost per
year, which is nearly 10% of their IT budget (Salle, 2007).
Shell Oil utilized ITIL best practices and found the way how to implement software upgrades
in less than 72 hours thus saving 6,000 working man days and $5 million (Salle, 2007).
DHL have installed the HP ITSM Express Pack and saved the cost of service management by
20% (Poslovni-software, 2005).
LogLogic survey showed that ITS M implementation brings the following benefits (Sueltz,
2008):
o Cuts in incident resolution rates by 40%,
o Cuts in network failure downtime by 30%,
o Reduction in labour waste by 25%,
o Reduction in IT infrastructure costs by 20%.

Case study: ITSM implementation in INA

Case study: the first example
This case study is the result of one co-authors active participation in the work of the Help Desk
team during his student internship.
In 2005, the Croatian oil company INA, in cooperation with IBM Croatia, started developing a
project called I3 (Information, Integration, INA). The aim of the project was the transformation
of business processes, their standardisation and application supported by SAP (Systeme,
Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung) information system. As IBM and SAP are
local partners in Croatia, IBM executed this project in SAP environment. The project was
launched in November 2006.

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It should be mentioned at this point that the beginning of project activity coincided with the
beginning of the SAP Help Desk activity. The SAP Help Desk had the role of a Service Desk and
the work of the Service Desk was based on Unicenter Service Desk software application. The aim
of the Service Desk was to provide help to end users and educate INA employees who would in a
later phase of project development take over the analysts role of the SAP Help Desk. In the SAP
Help Desk, analyst jobs were performed by trained IBM employees, i.e. students who had
completed a brief training, as well as INA IT technicians and employees of local INA services
who were supposed to help with their experience but also acquire new knowledge. The SAP Help
Desk was organised to provide support to users at two levels. The first level was SAP Help Desk
and Business Super Users (users with excellent knowledge of business processes and work in
SAP) in cooperation with On Site Floor Walkers (students and consultants responsible for
providing on site assistance). The second level was made up of teams who were working on the
adjustment of business processes and implementation of SAP
Structure of the Service Department on I3 project
Floor Walkers were responsible for providing on site assistance to users. If the case involved a
simple incident, floor walkers recorded the incident using the application of the Service
Department installed on the end users computer and thus solved the incident themselves. That
way the burden of the SAP Help Desk was released. If the case was more complex, the incident
was transferred by the phone or by means of the application of the Service Department to the
SAP Help Desk. The SAP Help Desk analysts recorded such incidents in the form of tickets or
took the tickets opened by end users and then processed them, solved them and closed them. If
the incident could not be solved by the SAP Help Desk analysts (incidents of complex nature), or
if the incident recurred frequently, it was transferred to the second level of support, i.e. to the
team in charge.

Work organisation in incidents

The typical work procedure used in cases of incidents is as follows. After the end user becomes
aware of the incident, he or she reports it to the Floor Walker or directly to the SAP Help Desk.
After the ticket is opened (directly by the user through the software application or through the
Help Desk analyst), the user is assigned the incident number. The name of the end user is entered
in the header (if the user opens the ticket himself/herself, the name is automatically assigned).
The name of the person who reports the incident is also entered (it is possible to select it from the
INA directory). Finally, the incident group is entered (or just the SAP group) and the degree of
importance is determined (1-4).
A brief incident description is first entered in the body of the ticket (incident identification),
followed by a detailed description. Depending on the group to which the incident belongs, it is
necessary to enter additional data (INA employee identification number, the name of the superior,
the name and number of the system in which the employee reports and the group of transactions
he or she performs etc.) Thus described incident is delivered to the Help Desk. Each Help Desk
or team analyst of the second level of support can take over the ticket from the Help Desk and

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assign it to himself/herself or to the person he or she considers responsible for its solution. If
necessary, users may be required to provide additional information by mail or telephone.
At the time when one co-author of this paper worked as a Floor Worker, the most common jobs
that SAP Help Desk analysts performed included solving problems related to forgotten passwords
and unlocking of users, logging on to the system, changes in the user interface etc. Apart from
solving these problems, the SAP Help Desks function was to inform users on the changes in
business operations and on the way certain transactions were performed. A great number of
incidents were related to the lack of authorisation for performing these transactions.
According to informal information, until the beginning of 2008, the Help Desk registered
approximately 138,000 incidents which mainly involved problems with the identification,
authorisation and work with other SAP modules.
Since INA protects its business interests by withholding certain business information from the
public we were not able to access any data which would allow us to undertake a deep analysis of
incident situations, business effects of ITSM implementation, service performance metrics or
KPI. Therefore, this paper concentrates on organizational aspects of the Service Desk
implementation process in INA.
Case study: the second example
Within the project of updating information systems of gas stations, INA conducted a survey in
July 2007 (INA Glasnik, 2007) on the le vel of satisfaction with Help Desk services. These were
specific Help Desk services which included assistance to the staff working with POS (Point-OfSale) devices (cash registers). Four aspects of the service were questioned: Help Desk
availability, satisfaction with the service in case of a simple problem (which could be solved
without the contracted maintenance service), kindness of Help Desk employees, and satisfaction
with feedback. Grades ranged from 1 5. A total of 958 employees in 259 points of sale were
included in the survey. The survey results were as follows (Table 1):
Table 1: Satisfaction with Help Desk services (INA Glasnik, 2007)
Service aspects
Grade
Help Desk availability
4.39
Satisfaction with the service in case of a 4.49
simple problem
Kindness of Help Desk employees
4.56
Satisfaction with feedback
4.41
In the first half of 2007 about 15,000 calls of mainly counselling character were registered. The
most frequent questions related to the blocking of cash registers, assistance in making
calculations, cancellation of invoices and other types of additional help.

Conclusion

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The close relationship between business activities and the quality of services delivered based on
IT application is the central issue discussed in this paper. The authors set out to examine and
analyse fundamental processes and situations characteristic of IT Service Management.
In that respect, the generic ITSM model has been analysed and its close connections with ITIL
methodology have been highlighted. To illustrate the ITSM model with a concrete example,
Hewlett-Packard's HP ITSM Reference Model has been presented, since it is grounded on the
basic ITSM model in which the idea of service management is based on five key components.
In terms of its significance for the main topic of this paper, the Service Operations component
which covers Operations Management, Problem Management and Incident & Service Request
Management is of special interest. The processes characteristic of Incident & Service Request
Management are directly linked with the Service Desk and Help Desk function within ITSM.
Using a systematic approach to the analysis of fundamental processes and situations
characteristic of IT Service Management, our research has made a full circle. Namely, the
research began with the analysis of the generic ITSM model, and ended with the description of
processes characteristic of Incident Management and solving incidents within the Help Desk
activity.
The case study based on ITSM implementation in the Croatian oil company INA offered a
suitable practical example to illustrate the theoretical research framework

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