Increase Support of Tier 2 and Tier 3

Did you know?

60-90% of change initiatives fail, costing organizations dollars off the bottom line and lost productivity.
70% of change initiatives fail because of people-related issues, which place a major burden on managers to drive change initiatives successfully.

What causes change initiatives to fail?

The shift-left strategy alone is not enough for infrastructure managers to get buy-in from their tier 2 and tier 3 technicians.
Despite best efforts, infrastructure managers are left with a dysfunctional system, fully entrenched silos, and resistance to process changes and sharing knowledge.
Not everyone embraces their role in shift-left. Organizational culture and resistance from the IT team to buy into the shift-left strategy will trump the strategy every single time.
Senior leaders are often unaware of their impact on employee engagement and company culture and may not know what practical steps to take to effectively shift the culture of the company to support shift-left.
Managers are often too busy focusing on the process elements of change; as a result, they neglect major opportunities to leverage and mitigate staff behaviors that affect the entire team.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

The IT department has to take a holistic and collaborative approach to service support. Silos and the “us vs. them” mentality lead to a break down in knowledge sharing that costs companies not only from a fiscal standpoint, but also in wasted time and a high attrition rate from unsatisfied employees.
Culture change has to start from the top and trickle down. If executives are not willing to change the way they behave, attempts to shift the culture will fail every time. As a leader or manager, think of ways you can spend time working in teams across functions, silos, and organizational boundaries. Encourage greater cross-functional collaboration among executive leaders as well as your analysts and technicians.
Communication is the key driving force for communication and adoption. It is important for leaders to take a proactive approach to this information and leverage it to improve communications and buy-in from Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Use mentoring to break down your silos. Sixty-six percent of Millennials leave their employer in less than five years. To reduce attrition, companies need to nurture and develop their employees through mentoring, which will in turn create an environment of agility, collaboration, and transparency.

Impact and Result

Info-Tech’s tools and guidance will help you shift the IT department's culture to one that supports collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the shift-left strategy.
This project will help you:
- Create a more holistic and collaborative IT department that fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skills development.
- Increase buy-in from tier 2 and tier 3 technicians.
- Decrease time and cost to resolve service desk tickets.
- Build a scalable mentoring program to foster inter-tier knowledge transfer.
- Create a stronger and more engaged team by enhancing employee experience and improving company culture.
- Build day-to-day recognition practices into the IT department to increase team efficacy.
- Create a consistent customer service experience for service desk patrons.
- Build a solid foundation for future IT service improvements.
- Enhance demand planning and trend reporting.

Increase Support of Tier 2 and Tier 3 Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should focus on increasing support of your tier 2 and tier 3 technicians to the shift-left strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Increase Support of Tier 2 and Tier 3 – Executive Brief

1. Conduct a gap analysis

Conduct a current-state assessment of ticket handling and collaboration, and identify key operations metrics, benchmarks, and areas of required improvement and opportunity.

2. Shift the culture

Develop the building blocks to increase team efficacy by reducing resistance, enabling leaders, improving communication practices, and incorporating recognition practices into your IT department.

3. Improve knowledge sharing

Develop the building blocks of improving collaboration and knowledge sharing by reviewing knowledge management practices, designing a mentoring program, and building an internal communications strategy.

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

Talk to an Analyst

Our analyst calls are focused on helping our members use the research we produce, and our experts will guide you to successful project completion.

Book an Analyst Call on This Topic

You can start as early as tomorrow morning. Our analysts will explain the process during your first call.

Get Advice From a Subject Matter Expert

Each call will focus on explaining the material and helping you to plan your project, interpret and analyze the results of each project step, and set the direction for your next project step.

Author

Dianna Bradley

Contributors

Robert Osmond, Director of Information Technology, Virginia Department of Transportation
Joel Kraft, Director, UGEN & Executive Support, Case Western Reserve University
Alvin Alcantara, Senior Manager IT Service Management, Convergys
Dusty Dezell, IT Security Innovation Manager, Colorado Springs
Associate Director of Information Technology, Pharmaceutical Company
6 anonymous company contributors