At SDI, we believe Service Desks should shine and be recognised. Whether you’re leading a small internal support team or a large-scale IT operation, your goal is the same: To deliver brilliant customer experiences that support people, empower business outcomes, and prove the real value of IT.
The aim of this blog is to establish, enhance, and support Service Desk teams in delivering excellent customer experience (CX) — especially during those critical moments of truth where IT becomes make-or-break for the people you support.
This is why SDI exists: To help Service Desk and IT Support teams move from good to great, and from great to world-class. To ensure your team get the recognition they deserve and to inspire them to be even more brilliant.
Through proven frameworks like our Service Management Optimisation Assessment, we equip IT leaders with the clarity, tools, and guidance needed to deliver consistently excellent service and to do it with confidence, insight, and measurable results.
Facing the pressure? You’re not alone.
As an IT leader, you’re probably facing familiar pressures like: Rising ticket volumes, greater customer expectations, and fewer resources. Yet despite the challenges, many Service Desk and IT Managers are still caught in a cycle of reactive support, disconnected tools, and siloed teams.
According to SDI’s latest Benchmarking Report, the typical Service Desk is:
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Logging over 10,000 tickets per year
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Spending 65% of time handling incidents
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Measuring incident volumes (96%) — but only 68% measure resolution times, and just 17% track cost per ticket
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Still struggling with cross-team alignment, service lifecycle visibility, and continual improvement adoption
So what’s the answer?
The organisations making real progress are those shifting from operational firefighting to strategic optimisation. Here’s how — and how you can start doing the same.
1. Move Beyond Ticket Metrics — Start Measuring Maturity
Almost every Service Desk tracks incident volume. But far fewer evaluate how well they’re enabling value across the entire Service Management lifecycle — or how mature their people, processes, and technology truly are.
To improve, you need to look beyond output to outcomes. Are your workflows aligned with business strategy? Is your team operating efficiently, or just staying afloat?
A structured Service Management Optimisation Assessment helps you shift from “how many” to “how well”, giving you a full picture of your current performance — not just your workload.
2. Align Your Operating Model to Business Goals (Not Just Tool Capabilities)
Many organisations fall into the trap of designing their Service Management processes around the limits of their tools. But true optimisation starts with strategy first, tooling second.
The best-performing teams have a clearly defined Target Operating Model (TOM) — one that reflects stakeholder needs, digital service lifecycle alignment, and a culture of continual improvement.
The SDI Optimisation Assessment doesn’t just identify gaps — it helps design the TOM that brings everything together: people, process, tools, governance, and performance.
3. Diagnose the Gaps — Then Prioritise What Actually Matters
Even when you know something’s not working, it’s hard to pinpoint why. Too often, improvement initiatives are driven by assumptions or the latest vendor promise, rather than real operational evidence.
The Optimisation Assessment reveals what’s underperforming, why it matters, and how to fix it — based on interviews, best practice benchmarking, and radar chart analysis.
From collaboration breakdowns to outdated workflows, it gives leaders a prioritised roadmap to fix what’s broken — and elevate what’s working.
4. Break the Silo Trap
SDI’s Benchmarking Report highlights a persistent problem: siloed functions. Service Desk, Change Management, HR, Facilities, DevOps — each working in isolation, often duplicating effort and under-serving the business.
Modern Service Management needs to be enterprise-wide. The Optimisation Assessment looks beyond the Service Desk, across your entire service ecosystem, identifying how different teams contribute (or hinder) end-to-end value delivery.
One of the assessment’s key deliverables is a Community of Practice framework, helping you establish shared goals, improve knowledge management, and foster collaboration.
5. Stop Guessing — Lead with Insight
True optimisation isn’t about copying what others are doing. It’s about building data-informed, strategic capability that fits your context, your customers, and your challenges.
The Optimisation Assessment arms you with insight, not just observation. It delivers:
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A visual map of your current maturity
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Target Operating Model designs
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A prioritised improvement roadmap
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Clear recommendations on service design, governance, and tooling strategy
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The confidence to present a credible business case for investment or change
And all of it is backed by decades of SDI experience, grounded in global Service Management best practice.
Ready to Take Action?
Thousands of Service Desk Managers and IT leaders are ready to improve, but stuck in reactive cycles with no clear way forward.
The Service Management Optimisation Assessment is your next step.
It’s fast, focused, and built to help you:
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Improve service delivery and customer satisfaction
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Reduce cost and inefficiency
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Align IT strategy with business needs
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Equip your teams for the future of service
Speak to an SDI Consultant
Want to talk through your current challenges or understand which Assessment is right for you?
