Self-service concepts have been around for quite a while, but new strides in IT applications have revolutionized business efficiency, reduced costs, and empowered end-users. Traditionally, new resource requests bounce around an organization until gaining the proper approvals and signatures before IT staff can process the change. While a user waits for IT to fulfill their request, their productivity goes on pause.
When combined with automated user provisioning, self-service accelerates IT service delivery, setting up accounts and access immediately following request approvals. Further, since the automating solution executes the process, access requests can bypass IT entirely. Once a manager or team leader approves the request, the configuration for an automated provisioning solution such as HelloID handles the rest.
Self-Service benefits include:
- Better and faster service fulfillment
- Approvals handled by informed decision-makers
- Reclaims IT bandwidth
- Increases user efficiency
- Increases user satisfaction
- Electronic audit trail for all approvals, denials, and processing
- Minimized human error
- Tracked, transparent requests
Ultimately, the simplest benefits of self-service are that it’s easy-to-use and it’s always available. HelloID’s “Service Automation” module integrates self-service capabilities directly into a tab on every user’s dashboard. Self-service eliminates the middleman—in this case, the IT helpdesk—but allows users the ability to send and manage access requests themselves.
More than a Project – An Ongoing Philosophy
Self-service is more than a project. It’s a habit instilled throughout an organization and communicated to users to encourage ownership of their service experience. So, while it’s easy to dream when talking about self-service, start small to achieve your self-service success.
To make your self-service solution successful, you’ve got to ensure that your users understand and use your self-service portal. Navigating and using the self-service functionality should be seamless and intuitive. Transparency further empowers users by allowing them to track the progress of their requests and even send reminders.
Extending IT
Many don’t realize that self-service is an extension of what they do, not a replacement. Self-service enhances IT staff while allowing them more time to work on impactful projects and tasks. To seamlessly exist alongside your service desk’s day-to-day tasks, you should implement a service catalog so that users can browse and requests IT resources as they require them.
Through self-service, managers can preemptively grant access to systems and applications, or users can request such for ad hoc and temporary projects that fall outside their normal provisioning parameters. A service catalog leaves your team with more time to focus on the work that matters most.
The key to your service desk’s success is determining what services best suit your end-users needs. Using their feedback, start implementing your service catalog so you can be sure everyone is on the same page and understand the perceived value of the help desk.
Varying Levels of Self-Service
Self-service automation can transfer ownership from the IT department to the users and managers for access requests to systems, applications, file storage, and more.
There are varying levels of control that may be applied to all self-service activities throughout an organization—without any IT personnel involvement. Each item in your self-service catalog can be configured for different approval levels and restrictions. This helps ensure improper access isn’t mistakenly granted.
Service Desk Relief
Implementing self-service eases the ticket burden for your service desk by bypassing their involvement. With a solution that automates request fulfillment, there’s no need for time-consuming and error-prone manual management efforts. Instead of tracking down managers to verify a request’s validity and then manual provisioning accounts and access, your service desk can stick to the work they do best in handling service maintenance, issues, and outages.
Establishing successful self-service capabilities requires willingness, ambition, a little desire to improve the organization, and a bit of time dedicated to planning. Once self-service is set up, your organization gains efficiency, saves time, and reduces operational costs.
