TOPDESK MAGAZINE - MARCH 2016 19

Ad Huige
is a consultant at TOPdesk and works two
days a week as a functional manager at a
semi-public organization.

FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT:
WHERE DO ALL THOSE
QUESTIONS COME FROM?
WHICH PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED IN MANAGING A SHARED
SERVICE MANAGEMENT APPLICATION?
The new application is live and you think youve got everything under control. But have
you considered the advantages of managing a tool properly? Good management can help
you take full advantage of a tool like TOPdesk. And once youve actually got everything
under control, youll know exactly which parties to work with to achieve optimal results.

In the last issue of TOPdesk Magazine,

solution groups include the operational

I explained which tasks a functional manager

departments. In the tool managed by the

Building bridges between

operational and tactical issues

should or could perform. In this article I

functional manager, the processes of multiple

A manager asks different questions

will talk about when these tasks should be

departments meet. Bringing together

than people working at the operational

performed and which parties you should

different solution groups makes the functional

department. A manager is often more

collaborate with. As a functional manager you

manager transcend departments. He or she is

focused on costs, long-term vision and the

translate the businesss wishes to different

involved with streamlining all processes. It can

departments performance. They use reports

solution groups. The business includes

be difficult for many functional managers to

to gain more insight into these matters. The

people in the organization that might have

manage different groups and simultaneously

operational departments on the other hand

a question and external customers. The

not touch on any sore points.

are more practical. They want their daily tasks

20 TOPDESK MAGAZINE - MARCH 2016

to be as easy as possible. They can achieve this

After talking to the facilities department

functional managers message to their

by gaining insight into manager agreements,

employees, it turns out they only work with

constituencies in their own words. This

or by learning tips and tricks about TOPdesk.

second line calls, resulting in them not seeing

way, the message remains personal and the

Ive mentioned before that the functional

and working on the assigned calls. By making

functional manager no longer needs to visit

manager deals with multiple communication

good work agreements, you can prevent these

all the organizations end users. For instance,

parties, which the example above also

issues and keep the customer happy.

if a printer is broken, all end users can read in

the service catalogue that it should be fixed

illustrates. Below Ill discuss who these parties

actually are. There are hundreds of examples
discuss one per section. I will also discuss how

The operator groups policy

makers

functional managers can deal with this.

How are the different solution groups divided?

of frequent questions per group, but I will

The operator groups policy makers are the IT

Unit managers and general

managers

within three hours. If it hasnt been fixed

by then, they can submit a complaint to the
responsible department.

manager, facilities manager or HR manager,

The functional manager

for instance. These managers all have their

Which requested change has the highest

own reporting wishes and process choices. For

priority?

Where can I find the agreed upon SLAs and

instance, IT doesnt need a service catalogue,

The functional managers most important

how do we present these SLAs?

but facilities does. As a functional manager,

task is to process all the different types

SLAs are management-level agreements made

you then focus on how these differences can

of requests in the form of wishes and

between a unit manager and an operational

be set up in TOPdesk and how this can be

requests. This can be done by collecting,

department manager. For instance, they can

communicated logically to the business.

specifying, prioritizing, solving and assigning.

decide that when someone cant log into

A possible solution is that IT, HR and

The questions are sent in by different

their account, IT has to resolve this within two

FM start collaborating. A number of the

departments. Once the questions are clear, it

hours. The functional manager is responsible

processes are similar, so why couldnt

is up to the functional manager to prioritize

for communicating these SLAs. In TOPdesk,

these departments learn from each others

them. For instance: will he first set up the key

for instance, this is possible via a services

mistakes? This is a topic that a functional

management process, or rather focus more

catalogue, by sharing a knowledge item or by

manager of TOPdesk could discuss, and that

on the process of employee commencement?

sending a newsletter.

is why he or she organizes a key user meeting

The functional manager determines these

with the different departments. They are one

priorities together with his manager, the

of the few people within the organization

process owners and the information manager

who understands how the different processes

(or these are determined within the functional

really work. In this meeting, the functional

managers team). They receive input from unit

The functional managers

manager, process owners and
information manager

manager should have a leading role, because

managers, general managers and the

Which tooling and/or reports do I need to

manage the processes?

they have knowledge of the tool and the

operational department managers. The wish

underlying processes. He also knows what

or need is initially communicated to the

Imagine that the first line IT service desk

the possibilities are.

functional manager.

service desk employees however indicate

The end users and the key users

The (key) operators

that the unresolved call cue isnt long, and

Which services can we expect from facilities

Can we create and manage our own standard

that they dont understand the complaint.

management, IT and HR?

solutions?

The functional manager can use reports to

A key user is assigned per service department

The (key) operators are people that work in

grant insight into this complaint. They can

who, together with the functional manager,

TOPdesk. They receive the requests and solve

see that the calls IT assigns to the facilities

looks for a solution to answer frequently-

them, for instance a support department or

helpdesk are not being picked up properly.

asked questions. They can explain the

facilities management. It is the functional

receives many complaints about the

resolution time of a number of calls. The