During mid 2017 I wrote a two-part article that compared and contrasted the traditional “tiered support model” with a new, collaborative approach to technical support entitled “Swarming”:

• “Evaluating Technical Support Models: Tiered Support vs. Swarming” – HDI SupportWorld, July 2017
• “Evaluating Technical Support Models: Tiered Support vs. Swarming – Part 2” – Support World, Aug 2017

I was contacted by Info-Tech to contribute to a research project on this topic, and did so – along with many other contributors.  As a result, Info-Tech Research Group has created a support tool entitled “Build a Swarming Pilot Project”.  The purpose of this project is to assist support center manages in transitioning to more of a :swarming” support model, in contrast to the traditional “tiered support model

While the tiered model approach to the service desk may work in some organizations, for many others it results in a severe silo effect, a breakdown in communication, and tickets being bounced back and forth like a game of ping pong. Despite best efforts, IT department managers are left with a dysfunctional system, with ticket backlogs, resistance to share knowledge, elevated costs and frustrated end users.

As web portal usage increases, it leads to the majority of tickets escalated to agents being complex tickets that require further escalations. This compounds the ping-pong effect, increasing ticket time to resolve and further alienating end users. Companies wanting to adopt a DevOps approach will encounter process issues with the traditional tiered model of service support due to the silo effect impacting collaboration.

You might check out the advice contained in this project, if you feel you are facing some of these challenges, and want to move in the direction of a more collaborative support approach for your service and support organization.

According to Info-Tech, their tools and guidance will help you to minimize risk, optimize stakeholder buy-in for your swarming pilot project, and maximize your growth potential and ability to adapt to your service support organization. This project will help you:

• Create and implement a swarming project pilot project.
• Increase adoption and evaluate the efficacy of the pilot project.
• Eliminate ping pong support and get your people finally playing catch.
• Create a consistent customer service experience for service desk patrons.
• Increase customer satisfaction.
• Create an environment that fosters collaboration and skill development.
• Improve capabilities of solving complex tickets.
• Decrease time and cost to resolve service desk tickets.
• Create a stronger and more engaged team.
• Build a solid foundation for future IT service improvement.

Link to the project overview on Info-Tech’s web site: https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-swarming-pilot-project