Knowledge library
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Support CentreMembers
The Support Centre Is a Function Not a Process
The support centre brings people and resources together to perform several processes and provide a dependable point of contact.
Support CentreMembers
Maximising First-Line Resolution Responsibly
First-line resolution can reduce effort and delay when analysts have capability, knowledge and authority and when the metric is not gamed.
Support CentreMembers
Measuring Support Centre Performance
A balanced support-centre view combines accessibility, quality, resolution, consumer effort, demand, workforce health and contribution to improvement.
Support CentreMembers
Using Automation and Chatbots in Support
Support automation should make common journeys easier while preserving context, safe escalation and access to human help.
Support CentreMembers
Scheduling Support Around Demand
Effective scheduling matches skills and capacity to demand patterns while protecting resilience, learning and staff wellbeing.
Support CentreMembers
Choosing a Support Centre Structure
Centralised, virtual, local, follow-the-sun, specialist and outsourced models each trade consistency, proximity, resilience, cost and knowledge.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Why Service Level Agreements Matter
An SLA creates a negotiated, shared understanding of service, performance and responsibilities and becomes a foundation for improvement and trust.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Preparing the Organisation Before Writing SLAs
SLA work should begin only after the service, customers, current capability, measures, dependencies and governance are sufficiently understood.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Writing Meaningful and Achievable Service Levels
Good service levels are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound and are expressed in terms consumers can understand.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Choosing an SLA Structure
Customer-based, service-based and multi-level SLA structures serve different operating models and should minimise duplication while preserving relevance.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Running Effective Service Review Meetings
A service review is a joint decision forum that uses performance, experience, risk and improvement evidence to protect and increase value.
Service Level ManagementMembers
Aligning OLAs and Supplier Contracts to SLAs
Customer commitments are credible only when internal operational agreements and supplier contracts support the same end-to-end outcome.
Service CatalogueMembers
Why Every Organisation Needs a Service Catalogue
A service catalogue makes available services, value, access, ownership, expectations and responsibilities understandable to consumers and providers.
Service CatalogueMembers
Naming Services in Consumer Language
A service name should describe a recognisable outcome or capability and avoid internal products, department names and unexplained acronyms.
Service CatalogueMembers
Building and Sense-Checking Catalogue Entries
A useful entry combines a concise description with eligibility, request route, support, service levels, dependencies and mutual responsibilities.
Service CatalogueMembers
Managing Technical and Consumer Service Catalogues
Consumer and technical views serve different needs but must remain linked so experience, ownership and component impact can be traced.
Measurement and ReportingMembers
Why Measure and Report Service Performance
Measurement supports control, decisions, accountability, learning and improvement; reporting turns selected evidence into a message for a defined audience.
Measurement and ReportingMembers
Designing Consumer-Focused Metrics
Consumer-focused metrics reveal outcome, effort, experience and reliability from the receiving side rather than only internal activity.
Measurement and ReportingMembers
Using Metrics to Drive Improvement
A metric drives improvement when it has a clear purpose, credible definition, owner, target logic and a route from insight to action.
Measurement and ReportingMembers
Choosing the Right Measurement Period and Granularity
The reporting period and level of detail can reveal or conceal meaningful patterns, so they should match demand, risk and decision timing.
Measurement and ReportingMembers
Reporting Without Misleading Graphs or Conclusions
Clear reporting distinguishes fact, interpretation and hypothesis and uses visual forms that preserve scale, context and uncertainty.
Supplier and Partner ManagementMembers
Managing Suppliers and Partners as Part of the Service
External organisations should be managed according to their contribution to end-to-end outcomes, risk, innovation and relationship value.
Supplier and Partner ManagementMembers
Underpinning Customer Commitments With Contracts
Supplier obligations must provide enough scope, timing, measurement and remedy to support the provider's commitments to consumers.
Supplier and Partner ManagementMembers
Managing Multiple Suppliers End to End
Multi-supplier services need integrated accountability, common data, coordinated change and a way to resolve issues that sit between contracts.