Department in focus

TEXT: ELSBETH HAMBERG

Planning and Change Management

Perhaps you have already noticed that, at some point, changes have been linked to your customer card on the Extranet that you have not made yourself, and that also have nothing to do with bespoke work. This is because Planning has started using the Change Management module to support its processes.
The Planning department
Many of you will have had something to do with Planning at some point. Everything that is sold through the Sales department from a completely new TOPdesk to a reimplementation or an extra module comes through the Planning department. But we also process the confirmation of courses, training days, or consultancy days, which you can create yourself via the Extranet or the website. Plannings primary task is to match customers with consultants. This can be a one-day consultancy, or a process lasting several years. The customer has specific wishes and expectations, and we try to select the right consultants, who have a broad range of knowledge and experience, for each job. Even if consultancy is not needed, we are still kept busy. Take the distribution of licences and manuals, for example, or the scheduling of training, answering or processing queries from customers and colleagues, and, of course, dealing with administration so that customers are billed for what they have purchased.

ELSBETH HAMBERG
has been working in the Planning department since 2007. For the past year, she has been using TOPdesk to support the planning departments workload.

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Getting rid of the paper checklist!

Until 2008 we completed a new paper checklist for every sale we made. On it was laid out, step by step, what had to be done. If an order confirmation came in through reception, we had to look up exactly what kind of order it was, and find the corresponding checklist. It got to the point where we knew that there had to be a more efficient and, above all, less wasteful way to do things. We also wanted to work more with TOPdesk, so we chose to hire in two consultants to evaluate which module could be of help and how we should set it up. It was then that we chose to start working with the Change Management module, because it offers templates these could then replace the paper checklists. Together with the consultants, we installed the module within a matter of days, and paired our work processes with the possibilities within TOPdesk. Because our Bespoke Work department also works with Change Management, we had to make agreements about things like status, categorization and emails via the Event Management module. During the implementation, I often heard from the consultants: Youre just like a real customer.

result of scheduling activities, so it was already completed prior to the start of the consultancy process. Recently, however, we have added an activity to keep track of the progress of the activities the so-called follow-up activity the end date of which is the final date of the consultancy process. This ensures that the change remains open until all parts of the tender have been carried out, enabling us to keep an overview of exactly what has been done.

department, we have been the biggest beta-tester of the new version, which has been a very interesting and educational process. The new Change Management module offers many advantages. Because there are now activity templates, which can be linked to several change templates at once and are also optional, we do not have to maintain as many change templates. And you can already specify an operator for each activity when carrying through a change request based on a template. Both the checklists and the completion status have made the overviews clearer, and we can easily adjust the end date of the activities as soon as we know when they need to be completed by.

Change Management 4.3

As most of you know, the new version of TOPdesk the 4.3 has now been released. In this version, the Change Management module has been completely redesigned and improved. Here at the Planning

The entire process in Change Management

Since February 2008, the Planning department has been an official TOPdesk-user. For every order confirmation a change is created, based on a template, with a number of activities. At first a change came about purely as the

In change management, both the process itself, and the follow up are kept in check

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The planning department has started using Change Management to replace paper checklists

For Example
How does this work in practice? A new customer signs an order confirmation for the purchase of TOPdesk and sends it back to us. Reception processes the agreement and a request for change is created. This ends up at planning, together with the hardcopy of the order confirmation. On the basis of what is stated in the tender, the change request is escalated to an extensive change in process using a template. Using this template, the change is assigned five activities: Customer contact: here, we contact the customer to schedule the implementation. Administration: we process everything that is discussed with the customer, and confirm the details with both the customer and the consultant. It is always clear when the activities can begin. Licences: We create licences and prepare a package containing manuals, which the consultant can take to the customer; Billing: We write up everything we have used for billing purposes. Follow-up: At the end of the process, we check to see whether everything has been done. With larger projects, we email the CRM department department, informing them that the process is complete and that they can send an evaluation to the customer, if desired.

Better Collaboration
Since the new Change Management was introduced, we have been working more intensively with other departments, such as Bespoke Work. When a request for bespoke work comes in, we now use just one change, with various activities for the various departments, so that we can clearly see the status of everything. The

Bespoke Work department can see if the order confirmation has come in by checking the status we have put in the request for change; and we, in turn, can see when the bespoke work has been completed by whether the activity has been closed and whether Planning has given the go ahead for the billing activity to take place.

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+ All information in

+ Interesting to work with

+ Less paper, therefore a

The Advantages:
one place, thus more transparent. Also useful for different departments, such as Sales and Support. your own application, that way you know what youre talking about and can give Development feedback. smaller archive.
+ Better overview of the

Expansion
We have now been working with TOPdesk for almost three years and we are becoming ever more enthusiastic about it. We are not only expanding our working methods with Change Management, but are also working with more and more of the available modules. We have recently implemented

Visitor Registration and Incident Management, and set up a mail import. And who knows what the future will bring, maybe even a Planning module?

workload and easier to assign work.

+ Working together with

other departments in one change.

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