Are Users Ready for Self-Service IT?
Ayes
Nays
“It makes sense for IT teams to let users resolve what they can and allow support teams to work on more difficult problems.”
A. K. Mohanty
Central Bank of India, Head-IT
“Without proper controls and compliance in place, self-service IT is akin to allowing a child drive a Bentley.”
H. S. Muralidhara
TTK Prestige, Head-IT
Customer service has developed to hold a very important place in today’s banking industry. As a part of it, we use self-service banking to help create value for our customers. The same ideology is reflected in the demands of our internal users. Their demands are not misplaced.
We completed our move to core banking exactly 10 months ago. Our helpdesk team was under pressure as internal users got used to the new system. But slowly, maturity levels have grown.
Today, helpdesk support is more complex than merely resetting passwords. It makes sense for IT teams to let users resolve what they can and allow support teams to dirty their hands on more difficult problems. This will help reduce cost towards services and significantly lower requests from IT.
Customers who approach us for support today have basic technical know-how and good knowledge of the company’s processes. Allowing them to support themselves helps us address some basic but unnoticed issues. For example, passbook printing seemed to have vexed our bank staff for quite some time. Putting in place readymade solutions and making it available at the helpdesk has smoothened things out. Also, by creating a knowledge base with FAQs, IT teams can empower users to become more self-reliant.
There might be risks in giving employees more control but life is a chain process. It always makes room for improvement. So, if it means rising to new demands, so be it. There is a quote I remember: The faster you go, the more chances there are of stubbing your toe. But the more chances you have of getting somewhere.
The road to a self-service module might be dotted with holes, but it’s definitely a step forward.
I think self-service IT—without proper controls—will become a frivolous plaything in the hands of immature users rather than a productive process.
Users that don’t have the maturity to handle sensitive information (for example, product details in our case) could work against the interest of an organization. However remote that probability is, enterprises can’t afford the risk.
Self-service IT should be limited to IT infrastructure and CIOs must give maximum weightage to laying out appropriate controls in compliance with their organization policies.
Otherwise, it will be akin to allowing a child drive a Bentley. Management needs to realize that a ‘bump on the hood’ is a very real possibility.
I agree that knowledge, when shared, educates and introduces self-dependency, but the problem lies in user sensitization. In an environment where clinging to tradition is the norm, change is always greeted with inertia.
How many of your users are knowledgeable enough to handle sudden shifts? That’s the question a CIO has to ask. After all, the basic technical understanding of a user in the ITes or outsourcing industry is very different compared to that of a manufacturing company like TTK Prestige.
From our experience, an average user takes two visits to the help-desk to understand what value he reaps out of it as compared to a user from an IT company who understands the benefits and is excited about it.
At TTK Prestige, we have a .Net application for attendance management. It is a self-service application. But beyond that the concept of employee self-service is still in its infancy.
This isn’t pessimism. A year ago, my view on self-service IT would have been: It doesn’t fit my bill. But, today, user maturity has definitely improved. That being said, CIOs need to be prepared for the friction a self-service tool rollout will meet from users of traditional and manual processes.
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