I believe in magic every time I turn on my PC with the push of a button and, voila! Access to everything I need! I believe in magic when said PC crashes, and I simply go to the Service Desk tool, enter some basic info and whoosh! My Desktop Support Tech arrives! Click, click, click, with his ruby red sneakers, and I’m up and running again! Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, inventor, futurist, and vaunted as one of the “Big Three” of science fiction writers in the latter part of the 20th century, captured my belief well with his 3rd Law of Predictability: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” But if technology is magic, who are the magicians? The wizard who creates the amazing tool suites, to “simplify” Service Management? The support tech who waves a wand, astonishing customers with his technical prowess? Or the customer (end-user) who must determine how to use the tools, and how to access support, when needed?
The reality is that none of us is a magician, but when technology is made drop-dead simple to use and support, it certainly seems like magic. It’s not just the tools that are important for delivering a great experience … it’s also “the man behind the curtain,” what he knows, and what he’s doing back there. AKA, people and process.
Back in Kansas
Or, more pertinently, back to the recently released 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT Service Support Management Tools. As noted by my colleague, Joshua Bey, in his blog last month, having the right processes in place is critical to delivering services in a manner suited to your organization and culture. Equally critical, however, is ensuring your support teams and your customers have the knowledge and capability to easily access and utilize the technology and processes available to them. Herein lies the real magic.
Yet how often, as IT leaders and providers, do we find ourselves introducing new tools for customers, without ensuring our technical teams have the skills, capability, and the resources to provide support? It is equally incumbent upon us to demystify technology for our users, via diligent education and communication about the tools and processes available to support them. Bring customers and technical teams in early, and really understand their goals and capability with technology. Educate them on the “what” the “why” and the “how” of any new resources or processes. Communicate diligently and consistently before changes are made that impact access, use, and supportability of tools. In other words, make sure that the end-user and support teams understand enough about the product or service to know that it is not magic but useful and even necessary. Or, perhaps, the next wizard who comes along waving a wand will sweep your customers and support teams off their feet and carry them away to a new OZ.
Yes, I believe in magic, and sometimes technology seems like magic incarnate; however, even the greatest wizard can’t get back to Kansas without the right knowledge at hand. We owe it to ourselves, our support teams, and our customers to provide that knowledge, eliminating the mystery, simplifying access, use, and support. As stated by Leigh Brackett, another noted science fiction writer of the 20th century, “Witchcraft to the ignorant … simple science to the learned.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kelly Lowe is an ITSM Advisor at Cask, LLC, and a Six Sigma Black Belt, with 20+ years of business leadership, service delivery and organizational change experience. She has worked with clients ranging from 1,500 to 75,000 users, to build Service Management programs, roadmaps, services, and improve processes that enable great customer experiences in Service, Government, Financial, and Technology industries. Kelly has a strong background in talent management and leadership development, with focus on ensuring the right people and competencies are placed where most needed by the organization. Kelly has spoken at industry events on the topics of Service Catalog, Social Media, Six Sigma, and Talent Management. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Arizona State University, and an MBA from ThunderBird, Global School of Management.
