Welcome to the Nilex ITIL 4 Guide. The first part dealt with incident management, and now we are publishing a new guide that focuses on the service request process.
The technical definition of a service request involves handling and delivering user requests as standardised services, such as software installation, onboarding/offboarding or requests for access to specific systems. The ITIL Service Request Management process is therefore the process that IT organisations use to handle service requests. The aim of the process is to efficiently handle orders and requests, thereby meeting expectations and agreed delivery times, which leads to increased user satisfaction. The request fulfilment process is the design of workflows that enable the delivery and management of these service requests.
All user cases start in the request fulfilment process as a service request and are then forwarded to other processes as needed. Service request has become an established collective term describing orders or enquiries that come to the service desk from a user.
Why Service Request Management
Well-managed service request management creates several benefits for the IT organisation and its users:
- Shorter lead times for deliveries to users.
- Standardised procedures that deliver higher quality.
- Service Request supports Shift Left, which means that users can get help outside of working hours.
- Onboarding new IT staff using clear guidelines on how deliveries should be handled.
ITIL 4 service request management focuses on how to optimise orders from the service catalogue and how the organisation can create workflows for these orders or requests. Other elements that are important in service requests are:
- Self-Service and Service Catalogue
- Automation and Workflow
- Service Request models
Essential parts that need to be documented
- Rest products, services and requests shall be offered to users in the service catalogue.
- Service Request models that describe procedures for handling orders and requests, as well as authorisation flows.
- Escalation paths for support issues
Service Request models
In order to become more efficient in handling requests and orders, it is important that the IT organisation develops a model for the service request process. This model clearly describes the division of responsibilities within the organisation. This means that the right skills for handling specific orders have been clearly mapped. For this to be as effective as possible, it is also important to develop roles that match this skills mapping. This ensures that when workflows are set up, these requests or orders are automatically forwarded to the right role and competence. In addition to this, it is also essential to involve third-party suppliers who are part of the workflow for certain orders. This could involve involving a hardware supplier if a computer is ordered from the service catalogue. As an organisation, it is important to develop a policy on how these suppliers can be part of the service request management process. Finally, you should analyse whether other methods and processes, such as knowledge management, should be part of order management. This means that selected knowledge articles are embedded in the workflow for service requests.
