When SDI’s Service Desk Analyst of the Year 2026 Michael Montgomery first got involved with the SDI Awards, winning wasn’t on his radar. In fact, entering wasn’t even the plan. Fast forward to Spark26 and Michael found himself standing on stage as the winner of the SDI Service Desk Analyst of the Year 2026 Award! An achievement that not onlyContinue reading “Service Desk Analyst of the Year 2026: Meet Michael Montgomery”
Resource Type Archives
How to Measure XLAs in IT Support
XLAs in IT support aren’t just about the number of tickets. You need to take the operational metrics and add user sentiment and business outcomes to see if your service desk is really doing well. That’s because the time it takes to resolve a ticket has nothing to do with user experience. So, a service desk can be fast, butContinue reading “How to Measure XLAs in IT Support”
How to Align XLAs with ITIL and Service Improvement Programmes
Both the XLAs and ITIL are focused on achieving value and continuously improving services, and therefore are compatible with each other. ITIL-aware service management is already in place, and can be complemented by the user-experience layer of the XLA. This matters for service desks because it allows them to tie technical aspects of support to the real-world experience of theContinue reading “How to Align XLAs with ITIL and Service Improvement Programmes”
From Benchmarking to Winning: Akita’s SDI Awards Journey
When Akita first entered the SDI Awards in 2025, they weren’t expecting perfection. In fact, they openly recognised that some areas of their customer experience strategy were still evolving. But rather than waiting until everything felt “finished”, they saw the awards as something else entirely: An opportunity to benchmark themselves, learn, and understand where they stood. That decision became theContinue reading “From Benchmarking to Winning: Akita’s SDI Awards Journey”
Enterprise Service Management Software: Extending ITSM Practices Across the Business
Enterprise Service Management Software: Taking ITSM Practices Business-Wide Enterprise Service Management (ESM) software extends proven service management practices to other enterprise functions, such as HR, Facilities, Finance, Legal, and internal service groups, bringing service management to the enterprise with a consistent approach to requests, workflows, knowledge, and employee experience management. If an organisation is familiar with ITSM, then ESM isContinue reading “Enterprise Service Management Software: Extending ITSM Practices Across the Business”
Supporting IT Managers: Top Training Programs for Leadership in 2026
Support manager training no longer focuses solely on operational know-how but rather on leadership-based training that is strategy, people, and service driven. When IT and support leaders work in highly complex, always-on operating environments, the difference between firefighting and a high-performing, trusted service operation may lie in appropriate training. The Importance Of Leadership-Based Training To IT And Support Managers. Contemporary IT and support managers are supposed to be both serviceContinue reading “Supporting IT Managers: Top Training Programs for Leadership in 2026 “
King’s Service Centre’s Improvement Journey: Raising Certification Scores Year on Year
Inside King’s Service Centre’s Continual Improvement Journey: Raising Service Desk Certification Scores Year on Year Achieving Service Desk Certification is one thing. Continually improving your scores, strengthening service maturity, and driving higher standards year after year is something else entirely. That’s exactly what King’s Service Centre (KSC), the technology support operation behind King’s College London, has demonstrated through its ongoingContinue reading “King’s Service Centre’s Improvement Journey: Raising Certification Scores Year on Year”
Tata Communications achieve 60% reduction in customer portal tickets
IT leaders are under increasing pressure to improve service quality while reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and supporting wider business transformation. That’s why more organisations are turning to SDI’s Service Desk Certification (SDC) to benchmark, improve, and prove service excellence. Organisations that achieve SDI Service Desk Certification are proving something very different. They’re transforming their service desks into: High-performing customer experience functionsContinue reading “Tata Communications achieve 60% reduction in customer portal tickets”
How to Build an XLA Framework for Service Desk Teams
An XLA framework for service desk teams provides structure to experience management. Experience is no longer an abstract idea but what it entails, how it will be measured, who will own it and how it will progress over time. In particular, service desk teams can benefit from this, as the service desk is tightly coupled to the user experience. ItContinue reading “How to Build an XLA Framework for Service Desk Teams”
Service Desk Manager Course: Fast-Track Your IT Support Leadership Career
Fast-Track Your IT Support Leadership Career If you want to move from being a strong technical support professional to a confident, recognised people leader, a service desk manager course can help bridge that gap. The right course gives aspiring and current managers a structured framework for strategy, people management, service improvement and performance measurement, while also adding a recognised qualification that canContinue reading “Service Desk Manager Course: Fast-Track Your IT Support Leadership Career “