{"id":4474,"date":"2024-03-13T13:46:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T13:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teamdynamix.com\/uncategorized\/itsm-best-practices-what-to-look-for-in-an-end-user-portal\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T16:25:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T16:25:36","slug":"itsm-best-practices-what-to-look-for-in-an-end-user-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamdynamix.com\/blog\/itsm-best-practices-what-to-look-for-in-an-end-user-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"ITSM Best Practices: What to Look for in an End-User Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that, according to HDI<\/a>, a support call costs $22 compared to self-service which costs just $2 per incident?<\/p>\n

As companies look for ways to save on costs, it\u2019s clear that there needs to be a push toward including self-service in all\u00a0IT Service Management (ITSM)<\/a>\u00a0initiatives.<\/p>\n

To drive the adoption of self-service, it\u2019s important to have an easy-to-use, searchable portal. If your portals are complex and hard to use, then your efforts to save money will be fruitless as no one will use the portal for service and your call volumes will skyrocket. Here are a few best practices you can follow to create robust end-user portals that will save you time and resources while keeping your customers happy.<\/p>\n

Make Sure Your Portal is Easy to Use, Own and Operate<\/h2>\n

If you want people to use your portal it should look and feel welcoming.<\/p>\n

Your portal needs to be easy to navigate, include graphical elements (i.e., branding, images, etc.) that your users will recognize, and you should use jargon-free language to get your message across. For example, a button that says \u201cGet Help\u201d will likely perform better than a button that says \u201cSubmit Ticket.\u201d Be clear and direct with all of your calls to action and messaging.<\/p>\n

In terms of creating self-service portals, they should be easy to build and easy to maintain. This means no specialized technical skills like coding or scripting should be needed to get your portal up and running, and you shouldn\u2019t need dedicated resources to manage it either. Anyone in your organization should be able to log in with their credentials and make changes, as needed, to better serve the users of your portal.<\/p>\n

With a highly configurable portal, you can be strategic in your efforts as well\u2014first focusing on frequently asked questions and those issues that contribute to a high volume of incoming help desk tickets.<\/p>\n

Over time, you\u2019ll be able to grow and evolve your end-user portal into a valuable resource that people will learn to turn to first, freeing up your IT staff to focus on higher-priority tasks and projects.<\/p>\n

All-in-all, an engaging portal enables you to deliver on the promise of high-quality ITSM for your customers and employees.<\/p>\n

At Ellsworth Adhesives<\/a>, they use TeamDynamix for their ITSM needs and have been impressed with what they’ve been able to achieve using their portal. The company is a global corporation that supplies a wide range of adhesives, sealants, lubricants, coatings, encapsulants, tapes, soldering products, surface preparations, specialty chemicals and dispensing equipment.<\/p>\n

After switching to TeamDynamix for ITSM\/Enterprise Service Management (ESM)<\/a>, the team at Ellsworth Adhesives launched a self-service portal and it\u2019s been a game-changer.<\/p>\n

Within the IT department, the help desk used to receive about 80 percent of service requests through email, 15 percent through phone calls and walkups and only 5 percent through the service portal.<\/p>\n

Now, 95 percent of requests come through the portal, 5 percent come through walkups, and the help desk team no longer accepts email requests.<\/p>\n

To make it as easy as possible for people to use the service portal, the IT department created an app that opens the portal automatically on employees\u2019 desktops.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were getting 80 to 90 service requests per day, and the help desk team couldn\u2019t filter and rout them all quickly enough,\u201d Adam Crichlow, IT service desk manager, said. With the portal, however, this all happens automatically. This shift alone has cut the time it takes from creating to resolving a service ticket nearly in half.<\/p>\n

Using TeamDynamix \u201chas freed up staff time right away,\u201d Crichlow said\u2014a benefit the company realized \u201calmost on day one\u201d of using the system.<\/p>\n

As other departments have seen the efficiencies that TeamDynamix has created, they\u2019ve also adopted the ESM system. The latest department to create its own service portal using the platform is the Environmental Health and Safety team, which never used the old ticketing system for service management before.<\/p>\n

Did you know a support call costs an organization an average of $22?<\/h3>\n

Build Your Knowledge Base<\/h2>\n

Along with being easy to navigate and written in clear, direct language, stellar portals also leverage a knowledge base<\/a> (KB) within the portal that is highly indexed, provides quick links to the most accessed content, makes it easy to enhance content and is accessible on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

But since a knowledge base is only as good as the content it contains, it\u2019s good to follow industry best practices for creating and curating knowledge content in your end-user portal.<\/p>\n

Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS\u00ae<\/sup>)<\/a> relies on the notion that content is generated as problems arise. While KCS started in ITSM, it\u2019s now being adopted across the enterprise.<\/p>\n

KB articles are living assets that can be leveraged by both the users and technicians. Using a portal with a KB usually translates into a dramatic increase in first contact resolution (30-50%).<\/p>\n

Focus on Accessibility<\/h2>\n

When creating an end-user portal, it is important to be as accessible as possible, meaning it should be WCAG 2.0\/508 compliant.<\/p>\n

Not only should the site be easy to navigate, but it should be made available to everyone. By not focusing on accessibility, you are likely alienating a portion of your customers or employees \u2013 making it more difficult for them to resolve the issues they may be having. You can read more about the accessibility features offered by TeamDynamix here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you want to see a collection of stellar self-service portals, including portals that are WCAG 2.0\/508 compliant,\u00a0here are some examples from actual TeamDynamix customers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to WCAG 2.0 compliance, you’ll want to make sure your portal design makes sense for your users. A great way to do this is to practice human-centered design.<\/p>\n

Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem-solving that focuses on users\u2019 needs and requirements by researching and observing how people use certain services, and identifying how their experience can be improved.<\/p>\n

Human-centered design has a few\u00a0fundamental principles<\/a>\u00a0that are applicable to the implementation of an IT service portal within an organization, like the following:<\/p>\n