TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Willington Ngwepe to step down as Icasa CEO

      10 August 2022

      Samsung unveils its latest foldable smartphones

      10 August 2022

      Cape Town’s DataProphet expands funding to R165-million

      10 August 2022

      The tech proves it: South African women are better drivers than men

      10 August 2022

      BT, Seacom sign ‘strategic alliance’ for enterprise services

      10 August 2022
    • World

      Jumia says it’s past peak losses, shares jump

      10 August 2022

      Elon Musk sells $6.9-billion of Tesla to avoid Twitter fire sale

      10 August 2022

      Nvidia issues profit warning on slump in demand for graphics cards

      8 August 2022

      Buterin: Mining on Ethereum Classic won’t affect Merge

      8 August 2022

      Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a public debate

      7 August 2022
    • In-depth

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022

      Webb telescope’s stunning images of the cosmos

      12 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022

      Demystifying the complexity of AI – fact vs fiction

      6 July 2022
    • Opinion

      SIU seeks to set aside R215-million IT tender

      19 July 2022

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Promoted Content»Evolving the helpdesk with enterprise service management

    Evolving the helpdesk with enterprise service management

    Promoted Content By Micro Focus29 April 2021
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Enterprise service management (ESM) has progressed from service management to helpdesk and then enterprise helpdesks.

    To discuss its next evolution, IT professionals from a range of industries came together at a TechCentral C-Suite Perspective virtual roundtable sponsored by Micro Focus. The topics of where helpdesks sit, how they integrate with business and how new technology is implemented were all under discussion.

    Matevhu Davhana

    The question as to who owns the helpdesk is a tricky one, as Matevhu Davhana, group IT domain owner at Allan Gray points out. He explains that not much thought and discussion go into the question of who really owns the space.

    There is often a crossover, for example, when customer relations management comes into the picture because ownership of customer relations is not an IT aspect, Davhana says. However, support for this unit does require IT involvement, he adds. “There is no one person that owns this. It’s the collective responsibility, depending on what it is that we’re talking about, or which process it is.”

    Themba Mnguni

    Department of rural development deputy director Themba Mnguni, who also audits the department’s information systems, says he’s dealing with two merging departments, which has resulted in a situation where one helpdesk is outsourced, while the other is internal.

    Ian Keller

    Ericsson’s customer security director, Ian Keller, says the network infrastructure company doesn’t fit into a neat mould because it has two businesses — telco provision, where it provides service management, and the internal corporate aspect, which has its own services management tools.

    Ericsson has bespoke service desks for all its clients as it is dealing with different subscriber bases and customers, notes Keller.

    Annalyn Rejji

    Annalyn Rejji, Ernst & Young’s Africa digital technology infrastructure leader, adds that it matters whether an organisation has multiple desks versus one desk with multiple channels coming in to be serviced. This is because there are several elements that need to be taken into account, including different time zones, and multiple factors affecting the business needs.

    Despite this, she says, it is important that reporting comes from one area because “as much as it’s driven by IT, business has to see that all kinds of problems are hitting the service desk”. This information needs to be translated into something tangible, such as, “How do we make changes and how do you make things better?”

    To ensure alignment between business and ESM, Ernst & Young has weekly catch-up sessions to discuss what Rejji calls “hotspots” so that business is aware of what is happening.

    George Leonard

    Although artificial intelligence is the buzzword when it comes to providing better service, George Leonard, BankservAfrica’s infrastructure, platform, database and technology architect, says “people throw the word term around a lot”.

    Where intelligence and analytics come in is when calls get routed and managed correctly, says Leonard. “It’s just another technology that we need to take advantage of, to improve a service.” Taking advantage will allow calls to jump escalation levels if needed, to get it in front of the correct person with the least number of transfers, he says.

    Megaree Naraidoo

    Avbob chief enterprise architect Megaree Naraidoo says automation needs to be about understanding your client base. “It’s important to look at which types of queries you can produce automated answers to, and which types are complex situations, where you need a bit more detail.”

    This allows intelligence to be built in on certain questions; to determine types of problems, put ratings to those problems, and then articulate in terms of which department or which system can answer those queries, Naraidoo says. This results in technology being used where it will benefit.

    Michael Maseko

    However, when it comes to legacy systems, the latest technology cannot be used. Automation manager at Nedbank Michael Maseko explains that it is difficult to integrate new systems with legacy ones, and a company also needs to be at a certain stage of maturity before adopting new technology.

    Lufuno Khorommbi

    Orizur’s director of specialist data privacy and cybersecurity governance, Lufuno Khorommbi, adds that when robots are used, they need to be intuitive and understand what people’s needs are, otherwise they are useless and just infuriate customers. “The person who is developing and rolling out the technology for me, as a customer, must make sure that I get better service than what I was getting from a human.”

    Maciek Granicki

    Bongani Rainmaker chief technology officer Maciek Granicki says there is a place for the human element and it can be augmented by customer relationship management and maybe a bit of AI in the back end. This will help and empower a service desk agent, so that they know what they’re talking about. “I need to empower that first-line support to be effective, because I think nobody wants to be called back. Nobody wants to get an e-mail back.”

    Davhana adds it is key to ensure that people picking up a phone to get help are comfortable in helping themselves. “We need to continue to work on getting people to be more comfortable with self-service and upskilling, in terms of technology.”

    Resolution, says Granicki, is key, even if all problems cannot be fixed at once.

    • This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned
    Annalyn Rejji George Leonard Ian Keller Lufuno Khorommbi Maciek Granicki Matevhu Davhana Megaree Naraidoo Michael Maseko Micro Focus Themba Mnguni
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleFortinet debuts world’s fastest next-gen firewall, 5G connectivity for SASE
    Next Article China readies Tencent penalty in antitrust crackdown

    Related Posts

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022

    5 ways to make attack-path management more manageable

    10 August 2022

    Smart homes need even smarter Wi-Fi

    10 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022

    5 ways to make attack-path management more manageable

    10 August 2022

    Smart homes need even smarter Wi-Fi

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    SIU seeks to set aside R215-million IT tender

    19 July 2022

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.