IT Service Desk and IT Service Management Reorganization and other Changes at DITS

24 Mar 2023 Article

Last year, we focused on the technological change and modernization of our Monitoring centre at ICS while successfully implementing new systems for Service, Incident, and Change management. This year, we expect to improve service quality and IT support efficiency by linking technicians from user support and the IT Service Desk team. Thanks to the experience of our technicians, this will not only support the increase in the technical skills of our operators, but it will also allow us to find out which areas of support to focus on and how to operate more efficiently. All this will happen as part of other changes in the IT Services Division, which we already informed you about in the March colloquium.

Connection of the IT Service Desk and the Team of Technicians

We have already outlined the most fundamental news. The Department of Technical Support of Users and Services will merge with the Department of IT Service Desk and CPS. Why is this happening? By directly involving technicians in the regular activities and training of the Service Desk, we will significantly support the technical knowledge of the entire team. Thanks to this, we will increase the possibility of solving the request and satisfying the user right from the first contact without further escalation. The merging of the two teams will also lead to a more significant strengthening of personnel and focus on individual agendas, creating space for new opportunities and challenges.

The newly formed team will be led by the current head of technicians, Martin Mazánek. He is clear about the following steps: "I want to continue, above all, to further develop the Service Desk and provide maximum support, for example, in the automation of activities, such as managing outages based on suggestions from the Monitoring centre." At the same time, the Service Desk is to assume the role of a unit responsible for managing processes associated with those activities – managing requests and incidents, informing users and helping with the change management process.

Tomáš Bejček, who was head of the IT Service Desk and CPS until now, will continue to be in close contact with the Service Desk. At the same time, he will be able to devote himself to crucial activities related to streamlining and improving the quality of services for users - newly in the position of IT Service Manager.

Service Management is a Step Further in Terms of Users and Processes

Tomáš Bejček takes over the role of IT Service Manager from Pavlína Špringerová, who is leaving the position to devote herself entirely to service design and UX. However, the goal of Service Management does not change. Tomáš will continue to find out how our services are used and beneficial, how user-friendly they are, whether their operation is efficient and how to further develop them, or whether to terminate them. In short, he will provide an overall view of the quality of IT services. Based on the slogan "what we don't measure, we don't manage", together with service operators, Tomáš wants to focus on defining key indicators that will support the evaluation of services and their presentation to interested parties. The continuation of the development of tools for IT management and the simplification of processes associated with the implementation, ongoing evaluation and termination of IT services will also help with this. All this will support our long-term intention of improving the quality of services and becoming a service-oriented organization with an emphasis on users and added value, efficiency in service provision and flexibility.

IT MUNI and IT Community

The website and catalogue of our IT MUNI services are closely connected with the services and the IT Community. Pavlína Špringerová was in charge of both. With the function of IT Service Manager, Tomáš Bejček also takes over responsibility for IT MUNI. Together, they will try to see through the eyes of the user if the services on the web are well categorized and named and if browsing the pages is pleasant and helpful for the user.

Another novelty is a "new" name for the position of IT Community manager. It will be the analyst Václav Štefela from the rectorate, who intends to continue the well-started activities of his predecessor. "I want to ensure that Commun[IT]y is a place where everyone interested can meet. Whether in person at meetings (which will definitely happen) or in a Teams group doesn't matter. I care about developing a community atmosphere where members will feel connected and will be able to share their knowledge and experience," explained Václav Štefela. Ideally, he would also like more events to occur within the year, such as presentations, workshops, hackathons, training or webinars. He wishes that through community activities, IT professionals across the university can develop their skills and best adapt to rapidly changing trends.

Pavlína Špringerová, who is handing over these previously mentioned positions, is moving to the EOSC CZ Sekretariat team within the Institute of Computer Science. There, she will devote herself entirely to designing user-friendly services for the vCERIT-SC research centre and other challenges, such as designing services for the emerging National Repository Platform (NRP). The NRP is part of the broader framework of implementing the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative in the Czech environment. It follows the Open Science development activities at the university, which the CERIT-SC centre under the Institute of Computer Science ensures for MU.