Making the most of your supplier relationship

In business, we all have suppliers. Whether they supply the transport to shift your goods from place to place or supply you with equipment, services or people, we all have them.  Your business relies on these people or organisations, but do we all know how to manage the relationship?  

Supplier or Partner?

Make a decision as early in the relationship as possible, whether you have a supplier / customer relationship or a partnership. A partnership will, like all partnerships, require involvement from both sides but should be a lot more fulfilling. You may be expected to share more about your future plans so that your partner can anticipate your needs and help you deliver.  If your relationship is customer / supplier based it will likely be more transactional and not deliver the same overall value to your organisation. However, each relationship should be evaluated individually as on occasion you only need a supplier.

Set expectations

Once you have decided upon the type of relationship, make it clear at the outset. If you want a partnership and the other party is not ready for that, it’s better to know early. Likewise, if you are just looking for a transactional relationship, but the other party assumes a partnership, that too can get awkward.  Clarity early on saves time and embarrassment later.

Meetings

This is where any similarity to a personal relationship will probably disappear. To avoid any surprises, it’s best to make sure you have regular, pre-planned meetings with set agendas, as well as informal meetings.  These informal meetings could be phone calls, coffee or whatever suits, but a brief chat about how things are progressing could save a large amount of disappointment or embarrassment later.

Minutes

Ensure that the formal meetings are minuted. I would recommend that the customer minute these meetings so that there is no misunderstanding about actions and timeframes. Of course this will depend on your trust and relationship, but I have seen and experienced meetings where suppliers fail to document some of the more uncomfortable actions so that they get additional time the following month.  Any actions need to be clear, with agreed owners and agreed upon delivery dates.

It is also vital that minutes are circulated as soon after the meeting as possible, and that the agenda for all meetings includes a review of actions. Otherwise, why bother?

Keep the relationship as intended.

Obviously there may be occasions where a relationship changes from one type to another, and that is fine if both parties agree to it, but when it doesn't, you need to remember to keep things as they are supposed to be.  I would strongly recommend against conducting business when invited to events.  The provision of access to events can sometimes be used to influence decision making within customer / supplier relationships. It is often a different matter with partnerships, as it is in both party’s interest to be open and concentrating on the same outcomes.

So these pointers may seem overkill but by being clear throughout the relationship it can save those uncomfortable moments where one or both sides have failed to deliver something. However by following these tips, you will likely never need to revert to contract waving or termination.  That rarely adds value for either party.

Projects from a Service Management perspective - Part 2

This is the second of two blogs I recently wrote for All Things ITSM about how to undertake IT projects with a service management perspective.

http://allthingsitsm.com/idea-through-to-delivery/

Projects from a Service Management perspective - Part 1

This is the first of two blogs I recently wrote for All Things ITSM  about how to undertake IT projects with a service management perspective.  Your thoughts would be appreciated.

http://allthingsitsm.com/projects-from-a-service-management-perspective-part-1/

Gander Service Management is proud to offer online training for ITIL, COBIT, OBASHI, ISO 20000 and, coming soon, PRINCE2 & BRM

By partnering with +ITSM Zone , our online training provides flexible, anytime / anyplace access to accredited courseware – backed by knowledgeable and friendly expert tutors and support staff.  Our partnership means that if required, we can attend your site for scheduled Q&A sessions to help you address or clarify questions that rise up during your training. Alternatively, support can be provided by email, 24*7.

We offer the following courses:

• ITIL Lite
• a quick introduction to ITIL and service management essentials. Based around a real world financial services case study, this course is suitable for technical, business and executive personnel.
• ITIL Foundation
• ITIL Lifecycle courses - targeted at delegates who will manage and implement ITIL processes.
• ITIL Capability courses - targeted at delegates who will carry out ITIL processes on a day to day basis.
• ITIL Managing Across the Lifecycle
• ITIL Expert Package

• COBIT5 Foundation
• OBASHI Foundation
• ISO 20000 Foundation
• PRINCE2 Foundation (Coming soon)
• Business Relationship Management Foundation (Coming soon)

Also available are online exams allowing you to take the exam when you are ready, at a time that suits you, day or night.

Why train online?

• Lower cost – eliminate all travel/hotel expenses and reduce your time away from other priorities
• Any time, any place, any device online access – to all of your training resources and materials
• Focus is on learning – rather than cramming for an exam in a few days, online training focusses on the retention of knowledge
• Courses are guaranteed – no last minute cancellations or re-scheduling
• Content on demand – allows you to pick up where you left off at any time
• Control the pace of the action – you can read, watch, listen and learn as many times as you want
• Make the most your time – by skipping familiar sections and spend more time on other material

More information, prices and booking facilities can be found at www.gander.co.nz

What are Customer Service Skills?

So you want to work on a service desk or customer support centre?  You want to recruit somebody to your support team?  What sort of skills are needed?

All too often I see job adverts for people who "must have" good customer service skills and ITIL Foundation certification (if on an IT Service Desk). But are these essential and what are they?

Communication
If you are working in a front line role you need to be able to communicate well. That means you must be able to talk to the caller in such a way that they don't feel threatened by overly technical or commercial talk and you must be able to listen and understand what the caller is saying. They generally aren't calling because they love calling your team, rather they are calling because they need something / something doing and they can't do / find it themselves.

Empathy
Now I'm not suggesting that if a caller says everything bad under the sun about your organisation or team you agree with them (that could be career limiting) but that you try and understand WHY they feel that way and think about what you can do to rectify it.  You may not be able to do anything, but if you can demonstrate that you have understood their concerns or issues and will attempt to do something about it, that will be a big step forwards.

Cheerful manner
Please do not go over the top.  I'm not suggesting that you should be "Have a nice day!" or "Missing you already", but smile when talking (even on the phone) and be polite.  If you have just had the call from hell, and the phone rings straight-away with no opportunity for someone else to take it, then take that deep breath, smile and answer the phone.  The caller doesn't want to know how bad things are - imagine how bad it is for them to have to call and ask for help.

Good telephone manner
Most support roles are telephone based now and so this is a critical "skill". The ability to feel confident when on the 'phone is important in most roles, but probably more so here. You need to be clear and confident.  And if anybody complains about the quality of your headset, change it immediately.  That is a piece of hardware that is as important as your computer and OSH approved desk & chair.  If you are recruiting somebody for this role, make sure that first interview is a 'phone interview. If that doesn't impress you, go no further because they won't impress your callers.

Polite
Under no circumstances should you be rude to the caller. This may be hard sometimes, but if they are rude to you, just ask to put them on hold and pass the call to your supervisor.

Ability to follow processes
Support teams have processes in place so that a similar level of service is provided each time a caller interacts with them.  You need people who can follow these processes.

Ability to think for themselves and not follow processes
Processes aren't always right.  To have people blindly following processes is wrong AT TIMES. The support team members need to know that if they feel a slightly different approach is called for (and it doesn't breach any company policies) then they will be rewarded for that thinking, not admonished.

Everything else can be taught / learned on the job.

Have I missed anything?

All Things ITSM - IT S&M Pain or Pleasure Part 3

I have written a series of blogs for All Things ITSM (which is fantastic site aimed at delivering "the one destination that has everything you need if you are concerned about the value business gets from IT".

The third of these blogs can be found here

Post webinar Q&A - The Science behind Service Catalogues

As a follow up to some questions I was asked at my recent webinar for ManageEngine, but unable to answer at the time, we have responded on ManageEngine's blog site.

I would value your comments about my answers, and the webinar.

The Q&A can be found here.

Conferences - what's the point?

Why would you want to attend a conference that takes you away from your work and costs several hundred or thousand dollars?

That is a very good and important question. You may only have the opportunity to attend either a training course or a conference in a year and a training course looks so much better on your CV, doesn't it? Or does it?

Training, while important to your current employer, addresses an immediate need. Your employer has identified a need for you to have a particular skill set, or you have convinced them during your annual review process, and so it is signed off.  "Go and find the training course you need" (before the training budget is slashed).

Conferences probably come from the same budget as your training, so it is fighting for the same opportunity. However conferences are often not going to address an immediate need. They address a long-term desire. Attending a conference will allow you to meet, talk to and listen to other people in similar roles as you, but in different organisations. You will learn about the mistakes they have experienced, the improvements they have made and the ideas that this will spark will enable you to often identify improvements in your current workplace.  It will also enable you to network with other people and talk to those people throughout the year.  I've never met somebody at a conference who has said that they are happy to talk about things when everyone is back at work, and not meant it.  If they are at the conference, they generally enjoy their work and want to grow and help others to grow. So when you get that sticky piece of work and are not sure who to talk to, call upon your network. Someone will have been there before or will be happy to think and talk it through with you.

Conferences are also where vendors are. These are not the terrible people that your mother warned you of, but the people who have products that will probably help you in your job and help keep the cost of your conference down to a level that means you are more likely to be able to get it signed-off. By talking to these people, you will learn about different ways of doing your job, different products to ease the way you do your job or you may even be able to talk to a subject matter expert in the product you currently use to understand what you could do differently, or why you should push to get the latest version in your organisation.

Conference attendance also, in my view, looks better on a CV. It demonstrates maybe not enthusiasm, but enjoyment of your role or skills, and a desire to improve.  That is more important in the long-term than a 3 - 5 day course, unless you need to plug an immediate gap.

So get along to the local conference of your choice.  There may only be one a year in your country, or there may be several and you have to pick and choose.  Many conference organising teams will also be happy to help you justify your attendance if you ask.

I find that the itSMFnz annual conference, and the branch meetings, are a valuable asset for all of the reasons above, so maybe I'll see you at one of those?

Webinar around service catalogues

Recently I was asked by ManageEngine to produce a webinar around Service Catalogues, which they named "The Science behind effective Service Catalogues".  It was a pleasure to have been asked and I enjoyed producing it immensely. There were over 100 people in attendance at the webinar and I felt that I let several people down because, due to technical issues at my end, I was unable to answer any questions.

So, over the coming days,  I will be addressing the questions that were raised and they will be published, initially by ManageEngine, and then by me on this blog.

If you didn't get a chance to attend the webinar, it can now be found on ManageEngine's YouTube page, or here.

I would welcome your feedback.

 

Wearable tech will be affecting your helpdesk - really?

With all the hype recently around the release of Apple's new watch, there appears to have been a plethora of blogs telling us how the helpdesk needs to be ready for the influx of calls from people wanting to use the benefits of wearable tech for work and how the helpdesk needs to address issues like security, compatibility with existing software and hardware and the information "stored on them".

What rubbish.

None of this is a role for the helpdesk.  Just as with smart phones and tablets or people's personal laptops or palm pilots, this comes back to governance.

Do the governors of IT want IT to allow smart watches to be used in the workplace? I doubt they would be able to consider all of the risks and benefits so this is where IT (maybe in the form of the CIO) needs to advise the governors.  When they have all the information, they can make an informed decision. Then they can direct IT to allow certain things.

Without this direction, IT don't allow anything.

If the governors decide that they do want to allow wearable tech within the workplace, then it is still not the helpdesk that addresses the issues mentioned above. Information Security will consider and address information and security concerns, compatibility will be undertaken by architects.  None of that is the helpdesk.

When everything has been considered and all risks mitigated to an acceptable level, then the helpdesk and other support teams (who we hope have been involved in the design of any changes) will receive all the appropriate information BEFORE go-live, so that they can support the users.  Until then, nothing is supported.

So pundits, before you start scaremongering, just consider who DOES need to address concerns and when.  Let's get the governors governing and IT managing.  It's like Government and Police. The Police (IT) are suppose to uphold the law, and the Government (Governors) set the law. (To follow that analogy a bit, see the IT Skeptic's To Protect and Serve)