The biggest bet on the Internet: the Internet himself !!!

Are all bits in the Internet equal? Well they still are...but maybe not for long because the freedom of Internet is under discussion: the debate is called Net Neutrality and some major players like Google and Verizon just proposed a common legislative proposal against Internet independence :(

Liberte, egalite, fraternite...but not for Internet ?!?

How to use Six Sigma to improve the Helpdesk

If I were a good Help Desk Manager (See also the bad approach):

and Moses (the CIO) would tell me: "You have to lower the costs for the next budget year with 10% or you'll be fired", I could do the followings:

• I would consider all expenses, I will not make any assumptions for savings and I would define the project in terms of CTQ, opportunity, defects;
• I would Define the correct measurements (how to calculate the cost per call), validate them, and gather data for 3 months;
• The Measure phase shows me that statistically the process fluctuates because some calls are significantly more expensive than others;
• The Analysis reviews point out that the phone bill is very high, so I check the phone records of each employee;
• After some brainstorming sessions we discover the root cause: when there is no experienced employee to resolve difficult calls, the call is logged and the company calls back the client and pays the bills! Damn!
• I start calculating the savings in a scenario with 2 more experienced consultants: the savings in the phone bill overcome the costs attached to the new employees. Joy!
• In order not to give a heart attack to Moses by hiring 2 extra people when I should reduce costs, I prepare a business case (the improve phase): the investments, benefits, risks and timeline. I check with the financial cell and after I try to sell it to Moses: he approves ;)
• I inform the operations about the change and I pass the project to a PM for the implementation;
• I will not stop, but after the new process is implemented I would establish control procedures so that the process does not revert back. Usually it takes around 1 year for the process to generate a lasting improvement. In the end it will pay back!!!

I'm a happy Help Desk Manager now, and Moses a happy CIO ;)

Adaptation from "Six Sigma for IT Management", Sven den Boer, ITSM Library, 2006

How NOT to use Six Sigma to improve the Helpdesk

If I were a bad Help Desk Manager:

and Moses (the CIO) would tell me: "You have to lower the costs for the next budget year with 10% or you'll be fired", I could do the followings:

• 
  
  I will think at a quick win and I will define the goal of the project: reduce the costs with 10%;
• 
  
  I would say to myself that cannot be too difficult after all because most of the times the biggest costs are generated by the headcount, so there should the place to investigate first;
• 
  
  I will start to measure the number of calls each employee takes daily and by knowing their wages I can calculate the cost per call. The employees with the biggest costs per call are probably the ones to consider for firing;
• 
  
  I will even do a SQL script that looks in the Incident Database for the times per call. After 1 day of testing I believe I have the correct report: the employees that earn the most take the fewest calls per day! It's incredible!!! So, my boss Moses was right: the costs are too high...
• 
  
  I would immediatly inform Moses that I will manage to reduce the costs so that he can prepare the new financial projections: he will be thrilled!
• 
  
  I will invite in my office the 2 employees that generate the biggest costs and present them my findings;
• 
  
  I will then realize that I did a tremendous mistake: they generate these costs because they are the most experienced from the team and they actually solve the most difficult problems instead of transferring them...
• 
  
  I call Moses but it's too late: the new projects are already in the budget for next year (the stakeholders are already informed)...
• 
  
  All I can do now is to fire any 2 inexperienced people...I cannot fire the experienced team members;
• 
  
  Soon, the Help Desk goes out of control...what were my mistakes?

I soon realize that I did everything wrong...read my next blog post ;)

Adaptation from "Six Sigma for IT Management", Sven den Boer, ITSM Library, 2006

this is our new IT strategy for 2011 and beyond

If I were a CIO:

I would be a responsible manager that prepares from time the new IT strategy for 2011. And because we are almost in the last quarter of 2010 and there is not a lot of time left I would definitely take a look at the following trends projections for the technologies and IT priorities.

• 
  
  IT's Top 10 Business Priorities for 2010
• 
  
  Top 10 Tech Priorities for 2010
• 
  
  Gartner Hype Cycle Special Technologies Report
• Gartner Top Predictions of 2010

All free of charge ;)