ICT are currently undertaking a review of our Service Management processes (including Service Desk provision) across our 3 regions.
To support 1Kerry, Global Systems Deployments and Business Objectives we are looking at providing wider ICT support coverage across regions by using a "Follow the Sun" (FTS) strategy. This will share ICT resources across the globe to cover out-of-hours support for each region. Currently in America and APAC we provide a reduced service out-of-hours, whilst in EMEA the Charleville Service Desk provides an out-of-hours service.
Since September we have been operating a trial, which will run through until January to assess if this "FTS" strategy is feasible for Kerry. All ICT Service Management resources will remain working their normal shifts and hours during this trial so it will be low risk and seamless to the user. At this stage the support arrangements provided by the LATAM Service Desk have not changed and they are not part of this trial.
At the end of January the ICT Leadership Team will review the output from this trial and agree how out-of-hours ICT services will be delivered from early 2014.
What is “Follow the Sun” support?
Operating a “Follow the Sun” strategy will enable the 3 regional ICT Service Desks to provide a seamless 24x7 service. Service Desk requests/tasks are passed to the “working service desk” across the globe to be responded to there and then for Priority Calls, rather than having to wait for the local Service Desk to start work. All non-priority calls will be logged and responded to when the local regional Service Desk commences work on the next working day.
Example: Users in New Zealand will have the support from the AMER ICT Service Desk team at the start of their working day and users in India will have the support from the EMEA ICT Service Desk team at the end of their working day.
Prior to this trial commencing Out of Hours support in the APAC region was provided on a best endeavor, goodwill basis, so this trial, if successful, will greatly improve the service to the sites and people in the region.
Please pass the message onto your teams and sites. Please encourage them to make use of this new service so we can get the best out of the trial.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this.