November 2011, Volume 4, Issue 13

Reservations for the Museum of Ethnology

More in this issue:

Caribbean Service Management / Trends: Colour-coded projects / Reports: On the shelf or in use?

EDITORIAL

19

Critical success factors

I completed all my courses on schedule, got a good grade for my thesis, and all of a sudden I had my First Real Job. Last week, a friend asked whether this makes me a successful businesswoman. Thats a tough question to answer, because what constitutes success? Is it driving a company car? Being appreciated at work? The high salary? Or being able to list yourself as a manager (or editor-in-chief) on your business card? Money, means and knowing that youre good at what you do all contribute to a persons success, intangible as that is. Its not easy to define what makes an organization or project successful, either. This has led to people trying to pinpoint critical success factors, such as having sufficient manpower and capital. However, one success factor is by far the most important: your people. It doesnt matter whether an organization has access to cutting edge technology, sufficient funds and carefully-designed processes; the project is doomed to fail if there is resistance among employees. In this issue of TOPdesk Magazine, we put the spotlight on people as a critical success factor. Read on to find out how Waternet made the Self Service Desk a success throughout the organization, how to create reports tailored to your target demographic and which cultural factors affect service management success in the Caribbean. To return to my friends question of whether Im successful, well, that depends in part on how TOPdesk Magazine is received. Thats why Im inviting you, my own critical success factors, to share your opinion. Send your feedback to magazine@topdesk.com. Enjoy your read! Nienke Deuss, editor-in-chief P.S. Our graphic designers have given TOPdesk Magazine a new look. Any comments or compliments on the new style can also be sent to the email address above.

13

CONTENTS November 11
YOU CAN TELL THAT TOPDESK IS WRITTEN FROM THE SERVICE DESK EMPLOYEES POINT OF VIEW
Serge Morabito, CIP

Continue reading on page 19

4 7 9 10 13 15

NEWS
UniDesk: TOPdesk as a shared service in Higher and Further Education The benefits of collaboration in TOPdesk

TRENDS:
Colour-coded projects! Caribbean Service Management

COLUMN:
Learning to ride a bike Waternet makes waves

17 7

17 19 23 25 28 32

CUSTOMER IN FOCUS:
CIP is ready for the future Reservations for the Museum of Ethnology Reports: On the shelf or in use?

WORK SMARTER:
Sending calendar invitations from TOPdesk

TIPS + TRICKS

28
Sending calendar invitations from TOPdesk. Continue reading on page 28

ON THE COVER:
Kim Borst, Reservations department, Museum of Ethnology

Want to stay up to date?

To stay on top of the latest TOPdesk news and service management developments, follow us on Twitter via @TOPdesk (Dutch) and @TOPdesk_UK.

TOPdesk acquires new branch in Denmark

TOPdesk has added a fifth foreign branch to its ranks as a result of the recent merger between Aventor and TOPdesk in June 2011. Danish Aventor will become the official TOPdesk Denmark branch and sell, implement and support TOPdesk software. This merger grants TOPdesk, already a market leader, a considerable share of the Danish service management market. Aventor, the company behind AD HOC service management software, already has a solid customer base in Denmark. This merger is a huge step forward for us, says Michael Tandrup, director of Aventor. TOPdesk will not only help us further improve our market position; with TOPdesk replacing the next version of AD HOC, we will also be able to provide our existing customers with the next generation of service management software. We have already received very positive reactions, so we are confident that this merger will be a great success. The cooperation after the merger went smoothly, according to TOPdesk director Wolter

@TOPdesk
A selection of our recent tweets:

@TOPdesk @christiaanpetit Which version do you use? We dont officially support Chrome, but customers with v4.3/4.4 encounter hardly any problems @christiaanpetit @TOPdesk It is virtually problem-free after updating to 4.4. I would start officially supporting Chrome. @Bertvanlaren @TOPdesk Bravo to the helpdesk employee who was still available at 19.00 and gave us the tip that helped us complete our 4.3 installation. @Chocartlaatje Finally going to start reading the August @TOPdesk Magazine A digital version for the iPad would be nice!! @TOPdesk @chocarlaatje You can read the Magazine on Scribd via the Mobile button. Enjoy your read! http://cot.ag/ oIKPB6

Smit: We are not looking at this as a takeover, but an extensive collaboration. Aventors corporate culture is very similar to TOPdesks, and we can tell that our new Danish colleagues feel very welcome.

Victa Ltd becomes a TOPdesk partner

TOPdesk has a new partner: Victa, the Dutch QlikView solution provider. Victa has developed a management dashboard for TOPdesk that grants additional analysis possibilities, as well as insight into operational tasks related to Incident Management. The dashboard functions as an incident monitor, displaying current durations, trends and geographical distribution of incidents via Google Maps. About twenty TOPdesk customers are currently using the improved dashboard. This has resulted in a product that meets end users wishes and requirements.

NEWS

CALENDAR
BELGIUM
December
1 & 13 TOPdesk Demo Day for IT | TOPdesk office, Antwerp, Belgium

TOPdesk in the Wheel of Energy

On Wednesday 24 August, 18 TOPdesk employees ran in the Wheel of Energy, a larger-than-life running wheel stationed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. TOPdesk has been present at many running events over the past few years, such as the Adidas Ladies run, the British 10K and the CityPier-City run. Our participation in the Wheel of Energy raised 1,036.46 for charity. Many TOPdesk employees are committed to raising money and awareness for charities. TOPdesk believes in supporting its employees in their charitable endeavours. Hazel Hollis, a translator at TOPdesk, suggested that TOPdesk participate in the Wheel of Energy this year. Her idea was met with much enthusiasm.

UK
December
15 & 16 Demo Day | TOPdesk office, London, UK

Wheel of Energy
The Wheel of Energy365 project is dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer patients and providing support for their friends and family; however, they cannot do this without donations. Wheel of Energy uses the proceeds to support special centres for cancer patients in the Netherlands, among other projects.

January 2012

11 14 BETT show | Olympia, London, UK

NETHERLANDS
Januari 2012
18, 19 and 20 Facilities Trade Fair | Brabanthallen, Den Bosch, The Netherlands

TOPdesk gains new Swedish sales partner

From September onwards, TOPdesk will work together with its new sales partner in Sweden, ITBM. This company is a major player in the Swedish IT market, and TOPdesk hopes to earn similar success through this collaboration. ITBM previously sold LANDesk Service Desk software. However, they noticed a growing demand among organizations for standardized software which is fast and easy to implement. ITBM sees TOPdesk as a standard solution for both large and small companies in the Swedish and Norwegian markets. TOPdesk serves the IT, FM and HR markets, with the SaaS solution offering even more possibilities.

Text: Nicola van de Velde

University of Edinburghs campus

Photography: University of Edinburgh

UNIDESK: TOPDESK AS A SHARED SERVICE IN HIGHER AND FURTHER EDUCATION

The University of Edinburgh started using TOPdesk in November 2010 and, together with partners University of Abertay Dundee and University of St Andrews, developed UniDesk: a TOPdesk-based service, extensively tailored to the needs of Higher and Further Education institutions.

he three universities of Edinburgh, Abertay Dundee and St Andrews share a great deal of Scottish

Head of Application Divisions Service Management, and his team have their hands full. Our users can contact the Information Services (IS) helpline for a wide range of IT-related services, ranging from requests for user accounts, general desktop queries, printer or network problems, to e-learning and web services. To be able to manage all these requests, the university previously used their own CMS system which they developed ten years ago. It was a simple web-based system that only really offered Incident Management, explains Mark. Although they could log basic calls, the bespoke work involved would have been too costly for major engineering and the system lacked extensive features such as a CMDB and knowledge base. An external company also came to assess their processes against

Andrews , they decided it was only natural to head in that same direction, with the University of Abertay Dundee as the third party. Mark explains: Together with the other universities, we compiled a list of requirements for the new system. It not only had to offer the same support as the current system and be ITIL-compliant; we also needed a supplier partner that was able to work with Shibboleth, an Open Source centralized authentication mechanism, to ensure a shared service for all our partners. In addition, it had to comply with all the rigorous rules and regulations of the public sector.

heritage, and are among the most prestigious in the entire UK. The University of Abertay Dundee is the newest and most modern of the three, and its buildings are considered some of the most innovative and well-designed in Scotland. The University of St Andrews, on the other hand, is the oldest in the country; In fact, they are currently celebrating their 600th birthday. With three colleges comprising 27 schools, the University of Edinburgh is one of the largest, offering its students a wide range of degree programmes in the fields of Humanities, Social Sciences, Science & Engineering and Medicine & Veterinary Medicine.

UniDesk: a shared service in every way

Aided by TOPdesk consultants, the University of Edinburgh managed to tailor TOPdesks Incident Management and Problem Management processes to meet the universitys requirements. Because the implementation is a shared service specifically designed for universities, the three partner universities decided to call it UniDesk. The application is hosted and supported by the University of Edinburgh. The Incident Management process is >>

50,000 staff members, students and visitors

At the heart of the University of Edinburghs technical support lies the Information Services department, responsible for the library, computing and e-learning services. With a total of 50,000 staff members, students and visitors to support, its no wonder that Mark Wetton,

ITIL standards, and they were not up to par at that time. Because we were already working according to ITIL procedures and found it important to share a unified vocabulary, we started looking for a new solution that fitted the bill. Having run their current CMS system as a shared service with University of St

the first to be shared across all the partner institutions, but remains flexible due to regular Change Board meetings, during which all partners are able to represent their priorities and requirements. With UniDesk, we not only share the cost of the service, but we also share ideas through workshops, reviews and training. We believe we can collectively be more effective, creative, and learn from each other, in order to continually improve our own services, Mark explains. Lorraine Brown, Service Desk IT Manager at St Andrews University, is very pleased with the numerous advantages UniDesk has to offer. What I like best about UniDesk, is that Ive got a lot more control than I had with the old system. As an administrator, it has given me a great overview, allowing me to assign roles and authorizations, for instance. Our 149 operators also greatly benefit from being able to see the status of each call. According to Lorraine, the biggest benefit of using UniDesk is the fact that its a shared service. Aside from

UniDesk is designed specifically for higher and further education institutions, the partners are able to offer UniDesk as a service to other universities. The advantage for other institutions, is that they can use our blueprints to make more rapid progress in service deployment, and they can benefit from a community approach, using a tried-and-tested tool that has a robust track record. This saves them both time and money, with unlimited usage and very competitive pricing, according to Mark.

greatly improved, and they are informed as soon as their call is closed, Matt explains. The University doesnt just use UniDesk for IT, however. We have also integrated processes with our corporate units, explains Mark, which include business service desks for Finance, Registry and Accommodation services, among others. We also support external queries from research organizations and partners. Recently, we even developed a mobile camper service: an application for smartphones which the students can use to log calls.

IT, academic and corporate support

It has been almost a year since the University of Edinburgh implemented UniDesk. They currently have 1,000 operators handling approximately 12,000 calls a month, logged by email, one of the face-to-face service desks, or by local computing officers at each college and department. UniDesks main service manager Matt Beilby has really noticed

A learning organization
Overall, the University of Edinburgh is very pleased with running UniDesk on TOPdesk software, as Mark explains: It has become really easy to log calls, and the system has provided all the universities with a clear understanding of their processes and target times. In the next three months, we plan to release the Self Service Desk portal, which will enable users to log their own calls and use a shared knowledge base. We are already implementing Change Management, which is due to go live in the new year, closely followed by a Service Level Management module to help our customers manage the expectations and integrated responsibilities that underpin each service.

WE BELIEVE WE CAN COLLECTIVELY BE MORE EFFECTIVE, CREATIVE AND LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Mark Wetton - University of Edinburgh

the regular meetings, I can always phone the other universities to ask for their advice. When the university of Abertay Dundee launched Problem Management, for example, I went to see how they implemented it. We will be able to use that same process effectively for our university. Normally an organization could spend days designing an appropriate process for their implementation. However, because

the difference in the services they provide. The old system didnt provide statistics, so there was no way of knowing how much time we were spending on each call; any (success) stories were anecdotal. Now we have the reports to back them up. We were really surprised that some tasks, such as password resets, took up a larger part of our time than we expected. We can now use this information to prioritize our calls. For the users, communication has also

Using the feedback they receive in their shared forum, the partner universities are continually improving UniDesk to better meet their requirements. One of our collective projects is to create a management information dashboard: a high-level reporting tool which will give us even more information on our processes and areas for improvement. With UniDesk, we have really become a learning organization.

Text: Rob Haaring

Photography: Ted Erkkila

ROB HAARING
is an HR manager at TOPdesk and a TOPdesk application manager

THE BENEFITS OF COLLABORATION IN TOPDESK

More and more organizations are trying to improve process efciency across several departments. In this edition of TOPdesk Magazine, we close our triptych of case studies examining how HR departments can use TOPdesk to facilitate interdepartmental collaboration. We will take a closer look at creating and sending surveys in TOPdesk.

ervice departments and organizations owe their existence to their customers. It is therefore

Once this is done, it is possible to create a selection of colleagues, such as when you only want to poll part-time employees. TOPdesk then sends out the survey invitations via email. You can reuse both individual questions and entire surveys, eliminating the need to enter the same questions over and over. This makes it easy for several departments to use this module.

an exit survey to employees leaving your organization, which enables you to gather important information about your work environment. You can even use TOPdesk to create polls, allowing you to gauge employees reactions to new company policies, for instance.

important for them to know what customers think of the services they provide. Which services are good? Which can be improved? TOPdesk developed the Survey module to answer such questions. The module was originally designed to grant IT departments insight into how their customers perceived the speed and quality of their services.

Insight and reports

Sending out surveys is just the beginning. TOPdesk can display survey results in

HR and surveys
Surveys are especially useful for HR

convenient pie charts, or even export results to Excel for further processing. Like all service departments, at the end of the day you want to use the results to further improve the services you provide for your customers.

Everyone has questions

Today, several types of supporting departments use TOPdesk, each needing to know how their customers experience their services. You can use TOPdesk to define questions and create your survey.

departments. After all, they must frequently measure employee satisfaction. Once you have created such a survey, you can adjust the settings so that TOPdesk sends it out on a fixed date every year. You can also use the Survey module to send

10 TRENDS

Text: Jordi Recasens

JORDI RECASENS
... is a team leader at TOPdesk Consultancy and has years of experience in implementing process flows within organizations.

COLOUR-CODED PROJECTS!
You have probably already experienced a project that did not go according to plan, even though everything was organized to a T: a good team, thorough preparation and a dedicated management team. In this article, I will explain how colour-coding can offer a solution when determining the best change strategies for your projects.

recently found myself in the midst of it again: a large process implementation with impressive goals and even better

a new IT infrastructure or renovating a location. When changing supporting services, and by that I mean people, it becomes a bit more tricky.

Colour-coding as a basis for managing change

The colour code (see below), created by change experts De Caluwe and Vermaak [1] offers a solution for the problem described above. According to the colour code,

planning. We set to work with much enthusiasm, led by an external party. We thought out the various processes, involved employees from different project teams, provided ample opportunity for feedback and processed every last comment. But time flew by, and we did not meet our deadline. We encountered a lot of resistance and just couldnt finish the procedures. We eventually completed the project, but it was much more demanding than we had anticipated. So why did this happen?

A more important role for supporting services

Supporting services such as IT, Facilities and HR are becoming more and more important for operational management and are becoming more professional as a result. This means not just more employees, but also different employees performing different tasks. Your employees will also have to keep in closer contact with customers and must therefore be communicative and customer-friendly. In

people should ask themselves a number of questions when planning a change. In what type of organization will the change take place? What is the corporate culture like? Which people will be involved in or affected by the change? With such questions in mind, we can discern five different methods of approaching the situation. Each of these five approaches has been allocated a different colour (see above). Depending on your personal qualities and preferences, you can choose the colour that best matches your project and organization.

Not everything is controllable

What is it that makes one project succeed and another fail? People are used to everything being controllable - that is to say, projects and results being predictable. This works as long as you are changing

practice, the way people actually approach projects does not change much throughout this process. People often make extensive project plans that rely too much on controlable factors and results.

Thats where it went wrong!

At the start of this article I mentioned a process implementation where I got caught

things, for example when introducing

Photography: Ted Erkkila

TRENDS 11
Yellow Concern and power are paramount. It is crucial that you adopt a stance and ensure that all your employees are on the same wavelength. Negotiating is an important tool needed to achieve your objectives. Blue Everything revolves around planning; making a blueprint of how to reach your goals. All factors must be as quantifiable as possible, so that you can adjust plans should you need to. The basic principle is think first, act later. Red Its all about your people. Developing talent is important for you to attain your goals. You do this by using rewards and penalties to stimulate your employees. Green Your motto is learning through experience and taking it step by step. You motivate people to try new things and give feedback. This is also characteristic of a learning organization. White White contains all colours. The pillars of this approach are allowing people to fulfil their ambitions by removing barriers, inspiring them and providing freedom. Taking the initiative is encouraged and individual organization is important.

up in an overly-extensive plan. When I look at the colour code now, I realize what went wrong. We assumed that we could use the procedures to control the outcome and create a blueprint of all possible situations. It shouldnt have come as a surprise that the procedures were neither set in place nor approved. I now realize that we were far too concerned with all the blue.

After studying the colour scheme I have come to the conclusion that TOPdesk is quite green. We take on internal projects in steps and continue to learn while remaining critical. You can observe this in the way we arrange projects at our customers [2], such as process or software implementations: Think big, start small Dont try to lay out everything beforehand

Go greener!
To speak in terms of the colour code, you can often make a project a lot less blue. At TOPdesk our approaches are already fairly green. This approach also works very well during projects with our customers. When starting a project, think critically about which approach best fits your organization. The colour code can help you with this. My advice is to consider the green approach. At first sight it may seem to take longer, but in the long run you get better results and the project will run a lot more efficiently.

Which colour is TOPdesk?

Inspired by the colour code, I thought it would be interesting to examine TOPdesks colour. So I took a look at my own organization, the corporate culture and the people who work here. In 18 years, TOPdesk grew from a twoman student club into a professional, international organization with almost 400 employees. Despite this, the corporate culture has not changed much. TOPdesk employees are still young, eager to learn, critical, open to new things, and really enjoy their work. Colleagues often take the initiative and start projects from personal interest. They are given the freedom to gradually achieve their goal. In addition, the organizational hierarchy remains relatively flat with very little power distance.

Work together and be open to feedback

DEPENDING ON YOUR PERSONAL QUALITIES AND PREFERENCES, YOU CAN CHOOSE THE COLOUR THAT BEST MATCHES YOUR PROJECT
Jordi Recasens - TOPdesk

This green approach is one of the biggest success factors in our projects, both internally and at our customers. It is not an artificially thought-up approach, but a logical result of our corporate culture. Our approach has resulted in more than 5,000 successful software and process implementations.

[1] Learning to Change, A Guide for Organization Change Agent ; Leon de Caluwe and Hans Vermaak. [2] See the article Taking your organizations maturity to the next level in TOPdesk Magazine of May 2011

12

Text: Milou Snaterse

CARIBBEAN SERVICE MANAGEMENT

TOPdesk collaborates with a number of international sales partners, of which Next Step Consulting on the island of Curacao was one of the rst. Apparently, the service management branch in the Caribbean is considerably different from that in Europe.

Photography: Next Step Consulting

13

onald Lieuw-Sjong is the man behind Next Step Consulting (NSC), located on Curaao. NSC offers organizations in the Caribbean a range of consultancy and training services in IT

Meanwhile, NSC is making up lost ground by organizing demo days and discussing best practice frameworks such as ITIL. Fortunately, weve noticed that young graduate IT workers are being introduced to management activities during their studies. Doing business in the Caribbean also differs from the Netherlands, Lieuw-Sjong explains further. You need a more personal approach towards the sales process. On Curaao, who you know is often more important than what you know.

service management (ITIL and MOF) and facilities management. Lieuw-Sjong gives TOPdesk demonstrations on location, works as a consultant and provides training courses in the areas of ITIL, FM and process management.

ITIL sans tool

Lieuw-Sjong had taken a number of ITIL courses, and wanted to apply his acquired knowledge at his customers. You need a good tool to support the ITIL processes, but the market was simply too restrictive for these tools to be available. I then started looking for a useful and practical tool, which led me to TOPdesk. This is when Lieuw-Sjong contacted TOPdesk. He explains that the response from TOPdesk was quick and friendly. In 2002, the partnership started with installing TOPdesk 3 at three local companies and one company in Suriname. For the last ten years now, Lieuw-Sjong has been responsible for sales on Curaao, Bonaire and Aruba and software implementations in the Caribbean region. At the start of the collaboration between TOPdesk and NSC, LieuwSjong made frequent visits to the Netherlands for training courses and demonstrations. Things have really changed since then. I can now attend most courses from a distance, explains Lieuw-Sjong. These days, we have access to numerous tools that enable us to communicate and exchange knowledge with people on the other side of the world. You merely schedule an appointment, arrange a time and go for it. Nevertheless, Dutch consultants still visit Curaao to share knowledge; and in turn Lieuw-Sjong comes to the Netherlands from time to time. You can also notice more subtle cultural differences in the Dutch colleagues. I first have to educate Dutch consultants when they

Different culture, different procedure

Hierarchy still plays a vital role within organizations in the Caribbean, according to Lieuw-Sjong. If, so to speak, the boss tells you to jump, the employees will ask how high? This work ethic is unheard of in the Netherlands. Dutch consultants often ask their customers for their opinion when dealing with a particular approach: Tell me, what do you think? In the Caribbean, you will often catch people saying: You decide, youre the expert.

ON CURAAO, IT IS CONSIDERED A COST, MEANING YOU FIRST HAVE TO CONVINCE ORGANIZATIONS OF THE TOOLS ADDED VALUE
Ronald Lieuw-Sjong - Next Step Consulting

Service Management in the Caribbean

Compared with European sales, selling TOPdesk in the Caribbean has proved to be quite a challenge, explains Lieuw-Sjong. On Curaao, IT is considered a cost, meaning you first have to convince organizations of the tools added value. If you compare the use of IT in the Netherlands to that on Curaao on a maturity scale of one to five, the Netherlands will score a four and Curaao a two. The reason for this is that many IT specialists in the Caribbean consider the technical aspects of the tool to be more important than the organizational aspects. As a result, the technical side of IT often runs smoothly, while the managerial side of IT is not up to par.

visit Curaao for the first time, explains Lieuw-Sjong. I have to tell them that over here, a yes does not always mean a customer is committed buying, but that they expect an expert opinion instead. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, saying yes can have immediate consequences. Nowadays, I dont really notice these differences anymore; after a while, you start speaking the same language.

TOPdesk users in the Caribbean

Having years of experience, Lieuw-Sjong is able to spot which organizations are potential TOPdesk users. Theres no point in trying to sell TOPdesk to international companies in the >>

14

In addition to Next Step Consulting (Curaao), TOPdesk

IT IS FROM MARS AND FM IS FROM VENUS

Ronald Lieuw-Sjong - Next Step Consulting

partners in the Caribbean also include ITEE NV (Suriname) and Gilette group (Trinidad and Tobago). TOPdesk currently has 24 customers in the Caribbean, including the government of the Netherlands Antilles, Harbour Port Authority and State Oil Company Suriname.

Caribbean, as their parent company provides them with the tools they need. Small organizations usually do not have the available budget, but an appointment with the IT manager from a larger local organization can be arranged without a problem.

minor issue, I always visit them personally; otherwise, I just call the service desk. It has all become a lot easier with the help of modern technology.

Customers on TOPdesk
Unlike the Netherlands, the Caribbean has seen a large number of TOPdesk Professional implementations. Enterprise is often too expensive for smaller companies in the Caribbean, and many organizations consider our lite version to be too lite, explains Lieuw-Sjong. Another remarkable difference is that SaaS is not yet seen as a worthy alternative. Not many organizations on Curaao outsource their IT tasks, explains Lieuw-Sjong. For now, SaaS is out of the question on Curaao, as staying in control of the software is vital. On the other hand, our customers do use Gmail to communicate with one another! TOPdesk currently has a secure market position in the Caribbean. Customers are especially overwhelmed by our demonstrations; and the number of TOPdesk modules is so vast, that I usually only present a selection, explains Lieuw-Sjong. I begin the demo by showing them the basic modules of Incident Management and Configuration Management. Once the customers, currently 25 in total number, start working with TOPdesk, Lieuw-Sjong is mostly met with positive responses. When I see how customers can generate figures and control processes with ease, their response is usually wow!. Some minor cultural differences aside, the Caribbean appears to be another successful location for TOPdesk.

IT is from Mars, FM is from Venus

The IT and FM markets are extremely different, says Lieuw-Sjong. IT is from Mars and FM is from Venus. In the Caribbean, 80 percent of all TOPdesk implementations are for IT, while 20 percent are for FM. Although the FM market is considerable, people are not yet ready for a tool to support it. Implementing TOPdesk for HR purposes in the Caribbean is also not yet an option. Im sure we can enter that market in the future, as the demand is already there.
TOPdesk demo day on Curaao

Support from 3.30 to 12.30?

The average time difference of five hours between the Caribbean and the Netherlands does not seem to pose any problems. Once TOPdesk is up and running, it just keeps on going, according to Lieuw-Sjong. And if a customer has a

Text: Renske van der Heide

Photography: Robin Kuijs

COLUMN

RENSKE VAN DER HEIDE

is a product manager at TOPdesk and chairwoman of the FMN (Facility Management Netherlands) Young Professionals network.

LEARNING TO RIDE A BIKE

Our previous columnist, Annemarie, has left the company and I will be taking over her column. Annemarie had quite some experience with columns. I, on the other hand, have a little less. It seemed like a good idea to have a chat with Annemarie over a glass of wine. She had plenty of useful tips: take your time when writing, dont wait until the last moment, pick a topic that is close to your heart and so on.

iscussing columns with an old friend while enjoying a glass of wine is a pleasant way to share

What are your strengths? How do you handle particular situations? These things determine the way you approach a task, and vary from person to person. Theres really nothing wrong with that.

done, shadowing someone from your own or another department, attending meetings or visiting customers. Finally, you also learn a lot by exchanging tips with others, just as Annemarie and I did.

knowledge. But how do you approach sharing knowledge about more complex issues with someone you dont know very well? If, for example, someone from your department is replaced, how do you ensure that the replacement acquires all the knowledge that they need? It is fairly easy to record what must be done in task descriptions, work instructions or written procedures. These descriptions may even be quite complex and extensive, such as the many protocols describing the tasks of a medical specialist or nurse. In short, it is possible. How someone does something, however, is much more difficult to record. It depends on personal experience, competence and personality. How experienced are you?

YOU DONT LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE BY READING A BOOK ABOUT IT; INSTEAD YOU FALL OVER AND PICK YOURSELF UP AGAIN

Trial and error often proves to be a good way to discover which methods suit you best. After all, you dont learn to ride a bike by reading a book about it; you do it by falling down and picking yourself up again. At work you learn in all sorts of ways; by observing how your colleagues get things

Come to think of it, its high time that Annemarie and I had another glass of wine together. I could still use a few tips, and I only made the deadline for this column by the skin of my teeth.

16

Text: Nienke Deuss

INTRODUCING A NEW WAY OF WORKING IS NOT AS EASY AS IT SEEMS

Rik Roelofsen - Waternet

Rik Roelofsen, Waternet

Photography: Kees Muizelaar

17

WATERNET MAKES WAVES

After implementing TOPdesk, Waternet asked itself, How do we motivate our employees to actually use the tool? The answer: a Self Service Desk promotion campaign.

aternet, one of Europes biggest water companies, is based in Amsterdam

for our Assets sector, which spans several departments.

spaces. But introducing a new way of working isnt quite that easy, explains Roelofsen, especially when new TOPdesk users react sceptically to the tool. The IT

and is the only company to deal with the Netherlands entire water chain. Waternet purifies waste water, produces drinking water and keeps surface water clean and at sufficient levels. The latter is contracted out by the water board Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht and the Amsterdam city council. Waternet supplies clean and safe potable water to 1.2 million people in the central and west Netherlands. Waternet is also responsible for rivers, ponds and lakes in these regions.

The Assets project

To ensure optimal results, project leaders Cynthia Anas-Roose, Jody van Kerkwijk and Rik Roelofsen involved as many departments that deal with Assets in the project as possible. Roelofsen explains further. To be able to select a system, the project team first evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of the packages that were already in use at Waternet. Among other things, the positive experience with the Support department, the existing knowledge of the system and the pricing model made

department was already used to working with TOPdesk. Employees from the Facilities, Documents and Records and Human Resources departments on the other hand find human interaction more important than IT employees do. Because of this, some people viewed the tool as hindering their service.

Attention to communication
In order to turn his colleagues reticence into enthusiasm, Roelofsen took a structured approach to the implementation. At the start of the process we discussed our approach and wrote a product description for communication that would serve to introduce the Self Service Desk, Roelofsen recalls. No matter how much you organize or how often you post on the intranet, the impact will never be big enough. With such a big change, you have to be more

IT and Facilities
When Waternet was founded some five years ago, TOPdesk emerged as the best tool for IT management. Rik Roelofsen, TOPdesk application manager, worked closely with colleague Jody van Kerwijk from the start. Jody was manager of the facilities service management system at the time. Roelofsen explains the situation. There came a point where Facilities wanted a system more attuned to the departments developments. Waternet wanted to reduce the number of applications and improve support of internal employees, so we formed a project team to select a single central system

TOPdesk the obvious choice. Many of the processes surrounding Asset management have been included in TOPdesk, offering great improvements. For example new, relocating and exiting employee processes are now dealt with entirely within TOPdesk. Roelofsen explains.

Challenges
Choosing a tool was relatively easy, but integrating it into the existing methodology was something else entirely. After introducing TOPdesk, Waternet began using the Self Service Desk to reserve meeting rooms and parking

direct when communicating. Thats why we discussed the role our communication would play at such an early stage of the project and why communication was an important part of the project planning. Roelofsen also included the internal media channels that would be used to >>

18

Personal approach
In addition to using promotional material, Roelofsen underlines the importance of a personal approach. He regularly visits the Facilities department to help them with TOPdesk. This means Im no longer just that guy from the eleventh floor who does things with TOPDesk. Personal support is also a very important part of an implementation. People find it that bit easier to come to you with questions or problems.

Impressive results
By timing the communication releases correctly and involving employees in the projects objectives, TOPdesk was introduced very successfully. At Waternet, the Self Service Desk in particular is now used much more. Roelofsen is very pleased with the results. The Self Service Desk promotion was very well received. Facilities have noticed that the number of phone calls has gone down and already half of the reservations are made via the Self Service Desk, even during the holiday season! Employees like the fact that they are now more independent. They are no longer left waiting on the
Waternet Service desk employees

telephone if they want to reserve a parking space, they just request it themselves via the Self Service Desk. According to Roelofsen, the Self Service Desk offers another

promote the Self Service Desk in the product description.

important advantage. Now that supporting departments have been brought together in the Self Service Desk, people work more closely with one another. In the past, departments were primarily

Self Service Desk promotion

To help with the Self Service Desk promotion, Roelofsen hired Design Agency DDC. I had always found TOPdesks magazine and website rather attractive and I heard that Design Agency DDC also offers Self Service Desk promotion. That led me to involve them in our project. During the intake, they discussed which materials would be used. With such a new way of working, you must be able to present information in a very accessible way. We decided to make four video tutorials, so that everyone would see straight away how the Self Service Desk works, explains Roelofsen. Not all employees in the target group have the same affinity with IT. To get around this, Waternet also used a medium that does not have to be viewed on a computer: the 3D desktop card. The 3D card explains, in a few simple steps, exactly how an employee can make a reservation or create an incident in the Self Service Desk. And that can give you just the confidence you need to go ahead and use the Self Service Desk, Roelofsen says cheerfully. To complement this information, the intranet, employee magazine and newsletter were also used to promote the Self Service Desk.

concerned with themselves, but now they are required to confer more often. As a result, they soon find that they learn a lot from each others procedures! The Self Service Desk is a positive step towards one central service desk.

About Design Agency DDC

Design Agency DDC started out six years ago as TOPdesks Communications and Design department. DDC now enjoys working independently for a wide range of customers. DDC is a one- stop shop for graphic design, web design, copywriting and translation. If you are interested in the promotional material used by Waternet, turn to the DDC advertorial on page 31. For more information, call us on +31 (0) 15 270 09 60 or go to www.designagencyddc.com

Text: Nienke Deuss

Photography: Jonas Mertens

CUSTOMER IN FOCUS 19

CIP IS READY FOR THE FUTURE

Our editors braved a congested Brussels by car to write this article. After a challenging parking experience (and being warned about an exciting corner) the editorial team made it to the ofces of CIP, the IT service desk for a complex and particularly varied organization. >>

Serge Morabito, CIP

20 CUSTOMER IN FOCUS

lthough CIP receives the type of incidents you would normally expect, about the network or IT infrastructure, it is no average service desk. We provide support primarily

In 2006, CIP decided to further optimize the working procedures by taking stock of and standardizing key processes. And, of course, ITIL is never far away notes Morabito. We decided to look for a tool that would better support our processes and needed less customization. An acquaintance told us that TOPdesk looked pretty good. We attended a demo and were quickly convinced. You can tell that it is written from the point of view of a service desk employee. It is not a product that dictates how you should organize your service desk.

to UNIZO (Union for Independent Entrepreneurs in Flanders) and Zenito, the social insurance fund for the self-employed, explains Serge Morabito, TOPdesk application manager at CIP. Our team of seven supports around 300 people.

Diverse customers
Several of the more than 120 professional associations are based at the headquarters, where they represent self-employed entrepreneurs from particular sectors. Zenito has another half a dozen regional relationship management offices for which CIP provides services. As you can imagine, in an organization like this we deal with a large number of people from a variety of business fields, Morabito continues, This can make our work quite complicated. Each professional association or service has its own requirements; and even the infrastructure can vary between the different locations. Communication is of utmost importance. You dont want to travel all the way to an office half way across the country when the problem could have been solved from our own office.

Added value for the helpdesk and its customers

Once they had decided on TOPdesk, everything went very quickly. A consultant implemented Incident Management, Configuration Management and the Self Service Desk in twelve days. Its not often that Im this pleased with a consultancy project, says Morabito. The other help desk employees were also very enthusiastic about TOPdesk, but what about the customers? Morabito has no doubts. We organized several sessions to inform our customers about our progress. Above all, customers expect an excellent service, and a tool is a matter of detail. However, we were able to convince them of the importance of a good tool for effectively following up their calls, which, ultimately, means solving their problems.

CUSTOMERS STILL FIND IT IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN THEIR PROBLEMS TO A PERSON INSTEAD OF A MACHINE
Serge Morabito, CIP

Finding the Self Service Desk

Even though CIP introduced the Self Service Desk immediately after implementation, Morabito has found that most customers still choose to call the service desk. Because we have a relatively small help desk team, the line is often busy. It can take up to half an hour before you get through to someone. We continue to promote registering incidents via email; however, customers still find it important to be able to explain their problems to a person instead of a machine. It is not always easy for our customers to explain exactly what the problem is. In such cases, having someone

From tool to TOPdesk

Ten years ago, CIP decided to purchase a tool to replace the paper forms that were being used. The tool we selected seemed to be a great improvement at first; it was fantastic to be able to see who was doing what. But as we continued working with the tool, we kept getting updates that took the tool in a completely different direction, or even crashed the application at crucial moments. It no longer supported the working methods we had in mind. When we realized that, we took our time searching for an alternative solution. After all, we had just started working with this tool and we didnt want to give up on it straight away, Morabito recalls.

on the line who understands the situation and can listen is an advantage. We are slowly trying to encourage people to find their answers themselves, in the Knowledge Base. Thats why we always refer to the Self Service Desk on the phone. A customer can then track the progress of their incident from registration through to closure, which adds transparency to the process. Statistics show us that more and more customers are finding their way to the Self Service Desk, something we welcome wholeheartedly.

CUSTOMER IN FOCUS 21

YOU CAN TELL THAT TOPDESK IS WRITTEN FROM THE SERVICE DESK EMPLOYEES POINT OF VIEW
Serge Morabito, CIP

Planned for 2012

UNIZO and Zenito services share the same office as CIP employees. As the organization has grown, more space is needed. The rooms are currently being divided to create more work space. I wouldnt lean against the walls here jokes Morabito. Fortunately we are planning to relocate at the end of 2012. Morabito is aware that relocating will present CIP with new challenges. Change on such a large scale will include reviewing our IT and will also bring the current procedures into question. We are
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discussing outsourcing and cloud computing in the private cloud. It will be difficult to weigh up the cost of having our own data centre against a that of a cloud model. The coming year will determine how we handle the future, but if one things certain, its that we will continue to use TOPdesk. We are even thinking about introducing TOPdesk for facilities management.

TOPdesk at the Better Education Through Technology Show

Join us at the Better Education Through Technology Show from 11 - 14 January 2012 at Olympia in London. We are on stand SW7 and look forward to your visit!

Service Management Simplified

22

Text: Timme Hos

Kim Borst, Museum of Ethnology

Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

23

A RESERVATIONS SYSTEM FOR THE MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY

Trying to reach the Reservations department at the Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) is quite an adventure. The grounds around the historical building in Leiden (the Netherlands) are full of huge wooden crates and there is still some construction work going on. On Expedition, the museums newest exhibition, is set to open the day after we conduct this interview. All museum bookings, such as corporate meetings, school trips and private tours, are processed in TOPdesk.

he Museum of Ethnology is home to extensive collections of information and objects related

groups and private tours. The museum offers many options for customers wanting to book an organized visit. Whether you are looking for a day out steeped in culture, want to hold a meeting in an inspiring environment or are organizing an educative school trip, the Reservations department will be able to provide you with a suitable room and programme to meet your needs. We check which rooms are free, the estimated price and whether there are any tour guides available, says Borst. Our tour guides work freelance. Many of them are historians or students, but we also have a number of former teachers. They have been doing this for quite some time and are very knowledgeable, which means that they can handle many different types of groups.

From a simple calendar to TOPdesk

The number of weekly reservations varies from season to season. In the summer months, reservations can dwindle to as few as one a week. The schools are closed, so most of the bookings come from individuals or after-school care organizations. When the schools start again, the number of reservations goes up. We get roughly twenty reservations a week. Some weeks we have ten, others thirty, according to Borst. With so many reservations to handle, being able to process them quickly and efficiently is essential. The reservations system that the museum used up until last year was not up to scratch. It cost us a lot of time to handle reservations, says Borst. The old system was a calendar in >>

to the history of cultures from all over the world. The cultural history of various regions is illustrated in exhibits spanning several halls. The museum regularly hosts temporary exhibits in addition to its permanent collections, such as last years Maori exhibit. It was a great success: Maori came to the Netherlands to officially open the exhibition and presented the museum with a waka, a genuine Maori canoe. On Expedition, which focuses on adventurers in the 19th and 20th centuries, also seems set to be a huge hit. The exhibition features interactive elements such as an expedition area in the museum gardens.

The Reservations department

We met up with Kim Borst, who runs the Reservations department together with two colleagues. We lease out rooms in the museum and pavilion, as well as taking care of everything else to do with reservations, explains Borst. One person is in charge of leases, while my other colleague and I are in charge of the school

WHEN THE SCHOOLS START AGAIN, THE NUMBER OF RESERVATIONS GOES UP

Kim Borst - Museum of Ethnology

24

which we noted our appointments and that was it. All correspondence was handled via email, telephone or additional documents. It was so time-consuming that we often didnt get around to our core tasks. The museum started its search for a more comprehensive system that would save time, eventually choosing TOPdesk. With the help of consultants, they set up TOPdesk as a complete reservations system. There are not many museums that use TOPdesk for this purpose, says Borst. But it really works well for us!

method, so you will have the complete reservation in a single system or, even better, on a single card in TOPdesk. Once Borst and her colleagues have found the ideal tour guides, they send an email to the customer from TOPdesk, informing them that the reservation has been finalized. This is a great improvement on the previous situation. We dont have to send separate emails or create individual documents any more. Other departments also have access to the reservations system, such as the Education department. They must put the programmes they create into the system.

for that specific day, which rooms are available and even whether you have enough space for the group. Additionally, some companies want quite complicated programmes, which can take a long time to organize. The Reservations department always knows what is going on at the museum. This makes us something of an information desk, says Borst. We get all types of questions. Is that room free? What is that group doing here exactly? How much does this cost? We also get feedback from schools, allowing us to further improve our services.

NOT MANY MUSEUMS USE TOPDESK FOR THIS PURPOSE, BUT FOR US IT WORKS REALLY WELL!
Kim Borst - Museum Volkenkunde

Each room in the Museum of Ethnology tells a different story of cultural history from Indonesia, China, Japan and Korea, Central and South America, North America, the Arctic, Asia and Africa.

A complete reservation in a single system

All the museums reservations data was entered into TOPdesk during the setup. We included everything that we offer in the museum, such as rooms and services. This means that we can link everything with a single click. Borst explains how they put this into practice. We receive a reservation via email or telephone. We add the customer details to TOPdesk, and link this to a reservation. In other words, what will they be doing? We then link this to a room where will the visit take place? You can also record prices and the agreed payment

They also use TOPdesk to specify on which day their programme can run, for example. The Technical department also plays an important role, as Borst explains. The Technical department has to know what needs to be done each day. Sometimes a meeting requires a projector or laptop, and sometimes a room needs to be rearranged for a private group. This is all taken care of by the Technical department.

Interdepartmental collaboration within the museum is very important, as Borst explains. If the Education department doesnt develop any programmes and Public Relations doesnt release any information, we wont get any reservations. At the end of the day, were all working together. TOPdesk is vital to this cooperation: Because we all work in the same system, we automatically make more agreements with each other. We collaborate more. Its definitely a must for

A must for other museums

Borst emphasizes that there is more to managing reservations than simply answering the phone. You have to check whether you have enough staff on duty

other museums.

Text: Lydje Snieders and Jolanda Harper-Simonis

Photography: Robin Kuijs

25

JOLANDA HARPER-SIMONIS AND LYDJE SNIEDERS

work at TOPdesk. Jolanda is a consultant and Lydje works at the Relationship Management department.

REPORTS: ON THE SHELF OR IN USE?

Nobody will deny that reports can be incredibly useful. A report provides you with insight into working procedures, and can help you optimize processes; however, it is quite common for reports to disappear into the cupboard along with other piles of paper, with no conclusions being drawn or action being taken.

eporting should not be a goal in itself, but rather contribute to the goals of the organization. The real

Step 1: Determine your target (audience)

Creating a good report begins with determining your goal and target audience. There are generally three possible target audiences for reports: (external) customers, the management and your own department. Each target audience uses reports in a different way and for different ends. Reports for customers are usually designed to give them a means of control, or to influence their perception. Management can use reports as a monitoring tool or to gain insight into processes. Reporting is usually employed within your own department to support operations

management or motivate employees. Whatever your goal, the objectives must be formulated in a SMART way; they must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.

question, however, is what happens to the report? We notice that, in practice, reports are often not used optimally; for example because the target audience was not involved in compiling the report. As a result, the report does not appeal to the target audience, meaning the organization will not use the finished report much or even at all. Creating a useful report appears to be quite difficult. Thats why in this article we describe four steps for making a good report that is actually valuable to your organization.

Step 2: Discussion and collaboration

To determine exactly what the objectives of the target audience are and which method of reporting your organization should use, the person responsible for creating the report must collaborate with the target audience. This person usually knows how the application works and how to interpret the results in the report. >>

26

It is useful to apply this knowledge at an early stage and, together with the target audience, determine what they want and why; or in other words: What would you like to achieve with the report? What exactly would you like to see in the report? How often would your target audience like to receive a report? How would the target audience like the report to be delivered? Asking these questions and brainstorming with the target audience improves the quality of the report. Above all, you can use this information to keep the report as short as possible. As a rule of thumb, the longer the report, the less people will read of it. Asking critical questions will enable you to fine-tune the operational process. When creating a report, you must determine which information needs to be recorded beforehand. Is this information already being recorded, or do you need to adjust working procedures in order for this to happen? By remaining critical regarding how your organization will use the report and why, you will prevent needless registration for the purpose of the report. This saves not only time, but you will avoid wasting unnecessary effort recording irrelevant activities.

There are a number of tips for generating a report: keep the reasons for the report in mind, think ahead, make choices and keep it simple. When you tick all the options for a report in TOPdesk, you will get an unreadable report that no one can use. In order to maintain an overview, you must limit the number of fields. Instead of bundling all information together in a single report, it can be more useful to deliver several (short) reports. Give this careful consideration and produce reports sparingly. Here too you should be careful not to overdo it.

Step 4: Interpretation
The report is generated and all results have been neatly displayed in numbers and charts, but the task of the person who created the report is not over. This person knows how the report has been compiled, and therefore how to read the results. Use this knowledge to help the target audience interpret the report. When interpreting the report, the results are examined with the objective in mind. A report without any interpretation does not say much at all. For example, a transportation company made agreements about the maximum number of delays per year in order to keep customers satisfied. A report demonstrated that the company kept to its agreements; however, most delays occurred during rush hour. As a result, a relatively large proportion of customers experienced delays. The report did not represent customer satisfaction, and therefore did not (entirely) fulfil

CREATING A GOOD REPORT BEGINS WITH DETERMINING YOUR GOAL AND TARGET AUDIENCE

its purpose. It is also important to analyse not only the current results, but past results alongside them. The transportation company from the previous example may have met their SLA, but if it transpires that 90% of services were on time this month, while the figure was 95% last month, then things are still not running optimally. It is important to compare results to determine whether your services are improving, and thus whether your hard work has had the desired results.

Step 3: Generating the report

The report should be generated by someone who is familiar with the applications setup, as well as the underlying processes and procedures. The application will generate exactly the information requested. The trick is knowing exactly what to ask to ensure that the results provide an accurate depiction of the situation.

Best practices
If everything has gone according to plan, you will have made agreements in step 2 on the format of the report and to what extent the interpretation is expected from the person who created the report. You can include a number of topics in the report, depending on the agreements and target audience. Below are a number of examples that have proved useful in practice.

27

REMAIN CRITICAL ABOUT HOW YOUR ORGANIZATION WILL USE THE REPORT
Do not tick all the options when creating a report

It can be useful to suggest possible causes alongside the results. For example, if there is a spike in a report, try to determine the cause. Was a piece of equipment broken? Had the service desk just become more easily accessible? Had the coffee run out? It is nice when you can see the result of the report right away. By giving a short and understandable summary of the report, the chances that the reader understands the essentials of the report will increase significantly. Using symbols, such as emoticons or a thumbs up or down can even provide an effective overview. Discuss the reports with the target audience at regular intervals. If the target audience is your own department, plan to discuss the report at the weekly or monthly team meeting. If the target audience consists of external customers, make a recurring appointment to discuss the reports. Alternatively, join the management meetings regularly to discuss the report that they requested.

reports should change accordingly. Run through every step each time you create the report. It is important to always discuss the report to evaluate whether requirements have changed. Is the report still used? If so, for what? Does the report still meet the requirements? In short, stay curious and take action!

Go the extra mile

Creating reports is something which is done a lot; however, the difference between a barely-read pile of paper on the shelf and a useful and useable document comes down to conferring with and designing for the target audience. Above all, keep in mind how the information from the report will actually be used.

Need help creating relevant reports?

TOPdesk consultants can help you get on top of the reporting process within your organization and harmonize your procedures with TOPdesk. TOPdesk also offers a Reporting with TOPdesk course.

Reporting is an ongoing process

It is important to report periodically in order to assess whether adjustments have led to improvements. Do not assume that you can keep using the same report. Organizations develop, and For more information, visit http://www.topdesk.com/en/services/courses

28 WORKING SMARTER

Text: Patrick Mackaaij

PATRICK MACKAAIJ
is a consultant and team leader at TOPDesk. He specializes in technical issues and optimizing processes..

SENDING CALENDAR INVITATIONS FROM TOPDESK

In my last article, I explained how you could create your own card report using the Events module. You can open this card report in Microsoft Word to supplement or print it. In this article, I will discuss how you can create a calendar le in TOPdesk in more or less the same way. Via a calendar le, a recipient can copy an appointment with detailed information to their calendar, such as a meeting including the room that has been reserved.

he standard for calendar files is iCalendar (.ics), the successor of vCalendar (.vcs). Both formats are

save it as an iCalendar file. Enter all data in the appointment that you would like to include later via the corresponding card in TOPdesk such as location, start and end time, reminder and other information (figure 1). You can use the file Example subject.ics as a template for the text file that you can generate using the Events module. It looks like this:

11.0 MIMEDIR//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20111003T070000Z DTEND:20111003T083000Z LOCATION:Example location TRANSP:OPAQUE SEQUENCE:0 UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00 800000000609243833971CC01000000000 00000001000000051C368D673084C439D BE9FE4B56C1A0E DTSTAMP:20110912T084832Z

simple flat text files that can be read in to most calendar software, including Microsoft Outlook. TOPdesk can create calendar files using the Events module. You can then include a link to the calendar file on the server in an email.

Saving an Outlook appointment

To generate a calendar file, create an appointment in your Outlook agenda and

Example 1 iCalendar text

BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook

Photography: Robin Kuijs

WORKING SMARTER 29

Fig. 1 Saving the appointment as an iCalendar file

SUMMARY: Example subject PRIORITY:5 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1 CLASS:PUBLIC BEGIN:VALARM TRIGGER:-PT15M ACTION:DISPLAY DESCRIPTION:Reminder END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR

on the server. TOPdesk will then run the file MoveFile.cmd, a batch script that will move the temporary file (variable %1) to a location from which the TOPdesk Operator can access it through the TOPdesk server. This location is configured in the batch script. You can create the batch script in the TOPdesk installation master folder, using the following content: move %1 web\open\TOPdesk-ics\%2.ics Before you do this, ensure that you have

changed. The start date will appear as follows: [Planned_Start_Date;13] Next, link the action that you have created to the corresponding events. For a reservation, this would be the moment that the card is created or changed.

Setting up a mime type on the TOPdesk application server

You can find the generated calendar file on the TOPdesk server via a URL, for example:: http://[TOPdesk-server]/[-UNID-].ics The TOPdesk server will present the .ics file as text by default. A pop-up containing the iCalendar text from Example 1 will then appear on the recipients screen. Your TOPdesk application manager can ensure that files with the .ics extention are presented as mime type text/calendar, in other words as a calendar file. To do this, the application manager must adjust the TOPdesk file etc/webdefault.xml as follows: >>

Please note: The implemented iCalendar rfc5545-functionalities depend on the software that you are using. Microsoft Outlook 2003 for instance does not process additional attendees.

created the folder TOPdesk-ics on the TOPdesk server in the folder /web/open. Replace the fields in bold in Example 1 with fields to be inserted. For the appointment, copy the unique ID from the card in TOPdesk [-UNID-] to UID (unique ID). The

Setting up Events and Actions in TOPdesk

Just as in my previous article, Creating your own card report, you copy the iCalendar text in the File content field from a File to be executed Action in the Action explorer (see figure 2). The TOPdesk server creates the calendar file as a temporary text file with the Action settings. The calendar file will be placed in the temporary files folder

date format in TOPdesk is different from that of the iCalendar default. To adjust this, select the inserted date field. Right-click on the field with your mouse and select XML Date/Time (yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss). Tip: You can also adjust the date format manually by adding ;13 to it. For example, for a reservation insert the start and end date and the time that the card was

30 WORKING SMARTER

Editorial
Want to comment? Go to www.topdeskmagazine.com
The TOPdesk Magazine covers subjects that are topical in the world of professional service desks in IT, facilities and other service providing organizations. TOPdesk Magazine is intended for managers, service desk employees, facilities organizations and electronic city councils anyone who is involved with supporting clients on a daily basis. This concerns both the processes and the technology behind these services. TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk publication Tel: +31 (0)15 270 09 00 Fig. 2 Generating a calendar file in the Action Explorer Email: editorial@topdesk.com Chief Editor: Nienke Deuss Editors: Nienke Deuss, Timme Hos, Milou Snaterse, Niek

1. Stop the TOPdesk server (service) 2. Open etc/webdefault.xml in notepad 3. Search for the command </servlet-mapping> and insert the following text directly below it: <mime-mapping> <extension>ics</extension> <mime-type>text/calendar</mimetype> </mime-mapping> 4. Start the TOPdesk server (service) Ask your TOPdesk application manager to check this setting each time TOPdesk is updated. When an event (defined by you) occurs, your agenda software will open an appointment that you can save in your agenda. You can check this by opening the generated .ics file in your browser. If you wish to include the link to the .ics file in an email, you can give it an even neater appearance by using HTML. If you also use a file icon for an agenda item in the link, the recipient will probably not even spot the difference between an attachment and a link.

Steenhuis, Nicola van de Velde Translators: Leah Clarke, Hazel Hollis, Nicola van de Velde Contributors: Rob Haaring, Jolanda Harper-Simonis, Renske van der Heide, Patrick Mackaaij, Jordi Recasens, Lydje Snieders Layout: Cathy van den Berg, Elise Kerner, Design Agency DDC Photography: Ted Erkkila, Aad Hoogendoorn, Robin Kuijs, Jonas Mertens, Kees Muizelaar Copy editor: Nicola van de Velde A print run of 5,000 Quarterly magazine Languages: Dutch, English

ADVERTISEMENT

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The more your end users use the SSD, the more time and money you will save. After a successful promotion, the number of calls logged increases by 40% on average!

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tips + tricks
The symbol
Some TOPdesk users have spotted it already: If you move your mouse over the bar at the bottom of the screen in a total overview in TOPdesk, a pi symbol appears.

A Wintry Self Service Desk

In little over a month the festive season will be in full swing! To help you celebrate, TOPdesk offers a wintry look and feel for your Self Service Desk interface. As your customers and service desk prepare for the holiday period, give your Self Service Desk a new look by downloading the bespoke work from the TOPdesk Extranet.

Clicking on this symbol will open a card from an overview directly in a new window. This enables you to quickly identify the URL of a specific card. You may need to know the URL of a servlet to create a new User card, for example. By clicking on the pi symbol in the overview of all User cards, you can easily copy the URL of the card from the new window. The Help and Support site is frequently updated with new content, such as manuals or tips on how to get more out of TOPdesk. You can access the Help and Support site by clicking on the question mark above an overview in TOPdesk, or from the menu option Help > Help and Support. You can also look up solutions via our Extranet twenty-four hours a day: www.extranet.topdesk.com

Online Help & Support

TOPdesk UK limited t +44 (0)20 7803 4200 e info@topdesk.co.uk w www.topdesk.co.uk TOPdesk Germany GmbH t +49 (0)631 624 00 0 e info@topdesk.de w www.topdesk.de

TOPdesk Belgium t +32 (0)3 292 32 90 e info@topdesk.be w www.topdesk.be TOPdesk Netherlands t +31 (0)15 270 09 00 e info@topdesk.nl w www.topdesk.nl

TOPdesk France t + 33 (0) 811 11 59 84 e info.topdesk.fr w www.topdesk.fr TOPdesk Hungary t +36 1 301 0190 e info@topdesk.hu w www.topdesk.hu

Copyright 2011 TOPdesk UK limited. Although this magazine has been produced with the utmost care and attention, the writers cannot be held responsible in any way for any damages that may occur due to errors and / or deficiencies in this publication.