Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy

As your organization has grown and expanded, multiple service desks have emerged, each with its own distinct processes, tools, and/or resources. Or, a merger or acquisition is approaching, and you need a strategy to combine the organizations’ existing service desks into one.
Supporting multiple service desks can be costly and inefficient and produce poor or inconsistent customer service, especially when each service desk follows different processes and uses separate technologies.
Without a centralized service desk, users find it complicated to get help, service desk managers lack visibility into the data needed to drive improvements, and the TCO is higher than it should be.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Organizational resistance to change is one of the strongest barriers to consolidating service desks, especially if there is a fear that consolidation will lead to role changes or job loss. Organizational complexity is another perceived barrier, particularly for global enterprises with multiple sites or user bases that have traditionally been siloed with little cross-collaboration or communication.
When the focus is on cost reduction, it can be hard to get buy-in and approval because the cost savings may take years to be fully realized.
Consolidating service desks into a single point of contact not only will eliminate waste and improve service quality and customer satisfaction but is also a necessary first step to provide the visibility and cohesiveness needed to innovate and transform.

Impact and Result

Get buy-in for the project up front, then used a phased approach to implementation to help counter and overcome resistance to change. Focus on quick-win implementations that bring two or three service desks together in a short time frame and add additional service desks over time if needed.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; leverage existing processes, tools, and resources where it makes sense as you design the single service desk.
Benefits of consolidation include a single ITSM solution, a single point of contact for the business, data integration, process standardization, and consolidated administration, reporting, and management.

Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy Research & Tools

1. Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy Storyboard – A step-by-step document that walks you through why and how to design a plan to consolidate multiple service desks.

Supporting multiple service desks can be costly and inefficient and produce poor or inconsistent service delivery. This deck will provide guidance on how to build a strategy to consolidate into one centralized service desk with a single point of contact and standardized processes.

2. Service Desk Consolidation Project Charter – A template to organize the project and communicate the scope and parameters.

Use the project charter to organize the consolidation project and communicate important details about the purpose of consolidation, scope, project team and stakeholders, and project parameters.

3. Service Desk Consolidation Strategy – A template to document the project’s objectives, current and target states, and transition plan.

Use this template as an aid in creating a strategy for consolidating two or more service desks into one, including requirements, current state, target state, and roadmap.

4. Service Desk Consolidation Stakeholder Presentation – A presentation template to communicate the project to key stakeholders.

Use this template to summarize your service desk consolidation project at a high level to key stakeholders. It is meant to be customized but provides sample content for a concise presentation.

5. Service Desk Consolidation Communications and Training Plan – A template to document your communications plan for the consolidation project.

Use this template to develop a communications and training plan for your service desk consolidation project.

Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy

A consolidated service desk not only drives more efficient service but is the foundation for optimization and innovation.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Natalie Sansone

Natalie Sansone, PhD
Research Director,

Infrastructure & Operations

Info-Tech Research Group

Whether through organic growth, mergers, or acquisitions, or a need to service separate areas differently, organizations may eventually find themselves at a point where they have multiple operating service desks, and that support model is no longer serving them well. When each service desk has its own team culture, processes, ITSM tool, data, and communication channels, they end up with inconsistent service delivery and quality, confused and frustrated end users, duplication of effort, siloed teams, lack of visibility, and higher costs.

With the shift to remote work, increase in remote support, and changes to modern collaboration tools, many IT organizations that were not previously able are now finding themselves in a position to take the opportunity to consolidate their service desks into one centralized team. Consolidation, if done well, will streamline processes, improve service quality, provide a more consistent and seamless experience for end users, improve collaboration and knowledge sharing, ensure that all end users receive the same quality and level of support, reduce duplication of efforts, and save money through tool rationalization.

Once you've successfully consolidated your service desks into one and standardized processes to achieve consistent service delivery and meet SLAs, you can then leverage the visibility you gain into centralized data to drive optimization efforts and shift remaining service support. Once you’ve optimized, you can then look to opportunities to automate and even innovate, supporting the business and IT’s long-term objectives. And as your single team becomes more cohesive and efficient, you also become more agile and flexible to more easily implement new digital technologies and adapt to changing business needs.

The long-term value of consolidation is clear, but it takes a significant effort to get there. Break the effort into phases, focus on what’s achievable and realistic, ensure you have strong project governance, and engage stakeholders throughout the process to achieve success.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge	Common Obstacles	Info-Tech’s Approach
As your organization has grown and expanded, multiple service desks have emerged, each with its own distinct processes, tools, and/or resources. Or, a merger or acquisition is approaching, and you need a strategy to combine each organization’s existing service desk into one. Supporting multiple service desks can be costly and inefficient, and produce poor or inconsistent customer service, especially when each service desk follows different IT service management (ITSM) processes and uses separate technologies. Without a centralized service desk, users find it complicated to get help, service desk managers lack visibility into the data needed to drive improvements, and the TCO is higher than it should be.	Organizational resistance to change is one of the strongest barriers to consolidating service desks, especially if there is a fear that consolidation will lead to role changes or job loss. Organizational complexity is another perceived barrier, particularly for global enterprises with multiple sites or user bases that have traditionally been siloed with little cross-collaboration or communication. IT leaders looking to consolidate often struggle with building a clear business case up front to get the buy-in needed to proceed with the project. When the focus is on cost-reduction, it can be hard to get buy-in and approval because the cost savings may take years to be fully realized.	Get buy-in for the project up front then use a phase approach to implementation to help counter and overcome resistance to change. Focus on quick-win implementations that bring two or three service desks together in a short time frame and add additional service desks over time if needed. There's no need to reinvent the wheel; leverage existing processes, tools, and resources where it makes sense as you design the single service desk. Benefits of consolidation include a single ITSM solution, a single point of contact for the business, data integration, process standardization and consolidated administration, reporting, and management.

Info-Tech Insight

If you're currently operating or will inherit multiple distinct service desks for the organization, you’re not only wasting money but will miss out on key opportunities for growth and innovation. Consolidating service desks into a single point of contact will eliminate waste and improve service quality and customer satisfaction. It is an important first step to provide the visibility and cohesiveness needed to innovate and transform.

Use cases for service desk consolidation

Service desk consolidation projects are not undertaken as often today compared to ten or even five years ago, with many service desks already made virtual and centralized. But we still frequently see our members challenged with this project, especially in the following scenarios:

Company growth	Remote workforce	M&A	Enterprise Service Management	Tool consolidation
The company has grown, and the number of service desks has proliferated. This traditional model can no longer efficiently support the number of users and services.	The shift to remote working has not only increased demand for support but has made a virtual single service desk model possible where it wasn’t before when in-person support was the norm.	One of the most common use cases, where as a result of mergers and acquisitions it becomes necessary to consolidate two or more service desks into a single function.	Traditionally, we think of two IT service desks merging, but consolidation can also mean merging an IT service desk with a help desk of another business unit (or more) into a single enterprise service desk.	If different support teams have been using different ITSM tools and want to get on the same platform, there’s an opportunity to also merge processes along with technology.

Project drivers

Beyond the use cases described on the previous slide (mergers, acquisitions, company growth, service desk expansion), common drivers of a service desk consolidation project include:

Simplify access to support for end users into a single point of contact
Improve efficiency and effectiveness of the service desk
Improve the overall customer or end-user experience and satisfaction
Improve consistency of support across different locations or groups
Improve knowledge sharing across teams
Need to modernize and innovate the service desk
New ITSM tool purchase or need to move everyone to the same platform
Make better use of resources and simplify management of staff
Improve access to and accuracy of data and reports
Cost savings/cost reduction initiatives

Challenges of disparate service desks

Challenges with separate service desks

Different processes
- Difficult to hand over tickets when needed
- Siloed knowledge; repetition of work
- Inconsistent service delivery and expectations
- Duplication of effort
Lack of data
- Difficult to establish a single set of SLAs
- No insight into problems and performance across IT
High cost
- Multiple locations, resources, and tools leads to a high TCO
Barrier to improvement
- Difficult to expand into enterprise service management or improve with digital transformation
Resourcing challenges
- Resources not allocated effectively (e.g. some overstaffed, some understaffed)
- Siloed cultures
- Disparities in skills and knowledge across teams
- Difficult to train or make improvements across entire team
Poor user experience
- Inconsistent service experience
- Too many channels; unsure where to go to get help
Incompatible tools
- Different capabilities make ITSM maturity difficult
- More vendor relationships to manage
- High TCO; no discounts
- Multiple admin roles needed
- No central insight into data
- Complex integrations

Silos block digital transformation

90% of IT leaders say that data silos create challenges for their organization.

54% Over half (54%) say it’s difficult to integrate end-user experiences.

34% The number one cited challenge getting in the way of digital transformation is integrating siloed apps and data (34%).

Source: MuleSoft, 2023

The success of digital transformation depends on one fundamental requirement – breaking down silos.

– Spiros Liolis in Forbes, 2021

Until you consolidate your service desks into a single team and point of contact with standardized processes and service delivery expectations, it will be difficult to grow and transform in order to support the organizations modernization and digital transformation efforts.

This is due in large part to the silos that disparate service desks create. Silos – whether created by disparate tools, content, data, processes, or people – create the following obstacles:

Disjointed user experience
Lack of brand consistency across user experiences
Misaligned goals and vision
Competition or rivalry across sites
Manual and inaccurate data and reporting
Lack of collaboration and communication
Unstandardized processes and service delivery experiences
Inability to scale

To move forward with transformation and improvement efforts, you need to first establish a centralized service desk team, processes, and technology.

Barriers to consolidation

Consolidating multiple service desks is a big task, made more complicated as the number of service desks to merge multiplies. Overcoming the barriers and pitfalls that go along with a large consolidation project requires strong commitment and support.

Organizations that have sought Info-Tech’s guidance on service desk consolidation faced the following barriers:

We need to consolidate 200 service desks and need help building a strategy for the transition.

We need to consolidate multiple global service desks. What are the critical success factors for such a project, and what are pitfalls to avoid?

Were merging with another company with very few processes in place and a legacy support tool. How do we get started? What should we focus on in the short-term vs. long-term?

How can I build a clear business case for service desk consolidation to get full buy-in?

I want to combine two service desks into one. How can I standardize processes, create a new org. structure, map workflows, all while managing the organizational change?

We need to redesign our IT support model as the current one is not cohesive, with each market doing things differently. How can we choose the best support model and decide whether to reorganize or outsource Tier 1?

We need to evaluate the current service desk environment at each business unit in order to produce a business case to unify IT support while considering the financial, cultural, and service quality impacts to each unit.

Common obstacles to service desk consolidation:

Lack of buy-in
Silos; lack of communication
Unclear direction
High up-front cost
Resistance to change
Fear of job loss
Lack of skills/ expertise

The image contains a screenshot of the Thought Model map Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy.

Benefits of consolidation

A successful service desk consolidation can significantly reduce cost per transaction, speed up service delivery, and improve the customer experience through:

Single point of contact for end users
Integrated ITSM solution where it makes sense
Standardized processes
Staffing integration

Project Outcome	Expected Benefits
Standardized processes	Efficient and timely customer service and a more consistent customer experience.
Improved customer experience	Easier for customers to know where to get help; improved resolution times and consistency of support experience.
Greater efficiency	Eliminate duplication of work and effort across resources, teams, and ITSM tool instances.
Integrated data and information	The capacity to produce quick, accurate, and segmented reports of service levels across the organization.
Integrated staffing	Flexible management of resources that better responds to organizational needs.
Integrated technology	Reduced tool procurement costs, improved data integration, and increased information security.
Cost benefits	Utilize resources more efficiently and eliminate redundant technology to save money in the long run.
Increased collaboration	Improved knowledge and skill sharing across resources to enable easier collaboration and access of shared knowledge.
Easier to scale and improve	With a single, standardized service desk, you now have the platform upon which to expand and improve to support business growth.

Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy visualization

A consolidated service desk not only drives more efficient service but is the foundation for optimization and innovation.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 6 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Initiate and engage.

Call 1: Discuss challenges and drivers and define goals and vision for consolidation.
Call 2: Identify key stakeholders, assign roles and responsibilities for the project, and build an engagement plan.

Guided Implementation 2: Discover and design.

Call 1: Review tools to assess current state or review completed current-state assessment. (May require more than one call.)
Call 2: Design the target state of the consolidated service desk. (May require more than one call.)

Guided Implementation 3: Plan and communicate.

Call 1: Discuss transition plan, complete consolidation strategy, and build project roadmap.
Call 2: Build communication and training plan and review stakeholder presentation.