End User Equipment and Services Enterprise Service Desk
Efficiency and Effectiveness Can Be Improved
May 2003
Reference
Number: 2003-20-109
This report has cleared the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration disclosure review process and
information determined to be restricted from public release has been redacted
from this document.
May
23, 2003
MEMORANDUM FOR ACTING DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR
MODERNIZATION & CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
FROM: Gordon C. Milbourn III /s/ Gordon C. Milbourn III
Acting Deputy Inspector General for Audit
SUBJECT: Final Audit Report - End User Equipment
and Services Enterprise Service Desk Efficiency and Effectiveness Can Be
Improved (Audit # 200220007)
This report presents the
results of our review of the Enterprise
Service Desk (ESD). The overall
objective of this review was to evaluate the readiness of the End User
Equipment and Services (EUES) organization to provide an enterprise-wide help
desk function. The EUES organization serves as a single point of
accountability and ownership for all end-user support activities including help
desk problem resolution. The ESD
consolidates the 18 help desks into 6 physical
locations under an Eastern and a Western Service Desk manager and will result
in standardized service support processes, systems, and employee grade levels.
In July 2002, the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) announced that the EUES organization was undergoing major
changes as part of the Modernization, Information Technology, and Security
(MITS) Services reorganization to be highly customer-service focused, more
efficient, and more competitive. The
General Accounting Office (GAO) reported in November 2002 that a number of key
practices have been found at the center of successful mergers, acquisitions,
and transformations.
In summary, when the ESD was implemented, several of these key practices were incorporated in the transformation process. The transformation also incorporated many of the industry best practices identified in an independent contractor’s study issued in July 2000. Overall, the IRS has done a good job in planning the transformation of its help desk operations and incorporating industry best practices; however, improvements are still needed in the ESD program.
Management established the ESD
primary assistor position at a higher-grade level in order to staff the
telephones with Level 1 assistors that possess the necessary skills and
knowledge to increase first contact resolutions. However, our analysis of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 help desk call
volumes determined that approximately 32 percent of all calls are customer
requests for password related activities, which require skills that are
significantly less than the requirements for the ESD assistor grade level. In addition, calls to the ESD are not
screened and routed to the assistor with the skills to most efficiently address
the call.
Also, due to the
establishment of the ESD assistor position at the higher-grade level,
management was unable to fill many of the vacant positions and was required to
supplement the ESD staffing with contractors to meet the December 29, 2002,
implementation date. The authorized
staffing for the ESD includes 120 staff years for the service desk assistor
position. As of January 2003, 45
percent (55 of 120) of the ESD assistor positions were staffed by
contractors. Since the contractors and
the ESD assistors perform the same duties, the skills of both are significantly
underutilized performing simple, repetitive activities.
The EUES organization has
also not developed a call reduction strategy.
Although the MITS Services organization implemented new Web Ticketing,
Password Management, and Get Answers self-service tools, management has not
required that customers use them. In
addition, the self-service password management tool has been disabled because
of security concerns. Based on our
analysis of the FY 2002 call volumes, the potential cost savings to the IRS
resulting from the use of the on-line self-service tool for password reset and
unlock rather than an ESD assistor is approximately $23.6 million over 5
years.
While the IRS will use four
of the MITS Services Balanced Measures to measure the performance of the ESD,
additional measures are needed to provide management with sufficient
information to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESD program and
the ESD assistor.
We recommended that the
Acting Deputy Commissioner for Modernization & Chief Information Officer
review the ESD staffing needs to determine whether some of the assistor positions
should be a lower-grade to more efficiently handle simple, repetitive calls;
establish a process to ensure that calls to the ESD are screened and routed for
efficient resolution; ensure the self-service desk tools are available to end
users and require their use; develop a call reduction strategy; ensure
additional measures are established for the ESD program and assistors; and
ensure efforts are continued to reach an agreement with the National Treasury
Employees Union to allow the monitoring of ESD assistor calls.
Management’s
Response: Management’s response was due on May 21,
2003. As of May 22, 2003, management
had not responded to the draft report.
Copies of this
report are also being sent to the IRS managers who are affected by the report
recommendations. Please contact me at
(202) 622-6510 if you have questions or Margaret E. Begg, Acting Assistant
Inspector General for Audit (Information Systems Programs), at (202) 622-5959.
Management Implemented Several Key Practices Necessary for a
Successful Reorganization
The Enterprise Service Desk Staffing Structure Inefficiently Uses Resources
Appendix I - Detailed Objective, Scope, and Methodology
Appendix II - Major Contributors to This Report
Appendix III - Report Distribution List
Appendix IV - Outcome Measures
One of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) major strategies contained in the IRS Strategic Plan (Fiscal Years (FY) 2000-2005) is to provide high-quality, efficient, and responsive information services. To accomplish this strategy, the IRS established the Modernization, Information Technology, and Security (MITS) Services organization, which includes the offices of Business Systems Modernization, Information Technology Services (ITS), and Security Services.
Over a period of 18 months, the MITS Services organization analyzed the organization, services, and needs of customers to develop a reorganization strategy to provide superior customer service and increase employee satisfaction. A key component of the reorganization is the establishment of the End User Equipment and Services (EUES) organization within the ITS, to serve as a single point of accountability and ownership for all end-user support activities including help desk problem resolution. The FY 2003 budget for the EUES organization is $370 million with 3,171 employees.
Although the new EUES organization began operations on October 20, 2002, the single enterprise-wide service desk was not implemented until December 29, 2002. The Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) consolidates the 18 help desks into 6 physical locations under an Eastern and a Western Service Desk manager. The objective of the consolidated service desk concept is to improve the quality, consistency, and efficiency of service to all IRS customers. The ESD will also result in standardized service support processes, systems, and employee grade levels. This transition to the ESD will occur in multiple phases and should be completed by October 2004.
Prior to the consolidation of the IRS’ help desk operations, the help desks at the IRS campuses were staffed with lower-grade Computer Assistants, while the help desks in the area offices were staffed primarily with higher-grade Computer Specialists. With the transition to the ESD, the IRS established a standard service desk assistor position at the higher-grade levels. The GS-12 primary assistors will provide Level 1 response and support for all service desk trouble calls. The GS-11 assistors work customer callbacks, web tickets, and requests for services. In addition, they will provide some back-up support for Level 1 service desk trouble calls.
The EUES organization also established a new web site to provide direct customer access to several new self-service desk tools focused on improving the work environment by allowing employees to order products and services themselves. These tools include:
· Web Ticketing - Allows customers to use the web to report an ITS-related problem, request ITS services or products, and track the status of a request. The IRS characterizes these services as “fix it, get it, move it, or check ticket status.”
· Password Management - Allows customers to build a personal profile with information specific to them for use in password-reset requests. Using their personal profile, customers are provided around-the-clock access to reset their operating system password on-line or by telephone.
· Get Answers - Provides a direct link to the MITS Services Products and Services Catalog. In the future, customers will be provided the capability of searching a knowledge base to get answers to ITS questions in simple easy-to-understand language.
Audit work was conducted at the EUES Headquarters in New Carrollton, Maryland, and the ITS Customer Support Help Desk in Atlanta, Georgia, from August 2002 to March 2003. The audit was conducted in accordance with Government Auditing Standards. Detailed information on our audit objective, scope, and methodology is presented in Appendix I. Major contributors to the report are listed in Appendix II.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources, states that agencies should seek opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government programs through work process redesign and the judicious application of information technology (IT). In addition, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported in November 2002 that a number of key practices have been found at the center of successful mergers, acquisitions, and transformations.
In July 2002, the IRS announced that the EUES organization was undergoing major changes as part of the MITS Services reorganization to be highly customer-service focused, more efficient, and more competitive. On December 29, 2002, the ESD was implemented and several of the key practices reported by the GAO were incorporated in the transformation process. These practices included:
· Ensuring that top leadership for the MITS Services organization drives the transformation.
· Establishing an implementation team to manage the transformation process.
· Setting key implementation goals and a timeline for tracking progress from planning to rollout.
· Establishing an extensive communication strategy to create shared expectations, report progress on the reorganization, and market its services.
The transformation also incorporated many of the industry best practices identified in an independent contractor’s study issued in July 2000. For example, the ESD provides a single-point consolidated system, which will provide consistency in service support processes, tools, and systems. In addition, management defined the ESD mission, objectives, and key roles and responsibilities for accomplishing its mission.
Overall, the IRS has done a good job in planning the transformation of its help desk operations and incorporating industry best practices. However, we identified several areas for improvement in the ESD.
The OMB Circular A-123, Management Accountability and Control,
states that management is responsible for ensuring that programs achieve their
intended results and that the use of resources is consistent with the agency’s
mission. In the Standards for
Internal Control in the Federal Government, the GAO states that effective
management of an organization’s human capital is essential to achieving results
and an important internal control. Only
when the right personnel for the job are on board and are provided the right training,
tools, structure, incentives, and responsibilities is operational success
possible.
Industry best practices provide no specific guidance for determining the grade level of help desk assistors. They recognize that business applications and user questions are becoming more sophisticated; however, help desks are still spending an inordinate amount of time fielding password and printing problems, which are simple, repetitive tasks. In fact, an InformationWeek article, Help Desks Think Bigger (dated October 2001), estimates that only 45 percent of the calls to help desks are devoted to complex issues. Therefore, industry best practices for help desk operations recommend implementing self-service tools to handle the simpler calls and establishing multiple support levels for help desk operations. The support levels allow the calls to be screened and routed quickly to the assistor with the skills to most efficiently address the call.
Management established the primary assistor position at a
higher-grade level to staff the telephones with Level 1 assistors that possess
the necessary skills and knowledge to increase first-contact resolutions. The ESD assistors are expected to have
knowledge of and skill in applying methods and practices for troubleshooting,
recovering, adjusting, modifying, and improving IT systems and files. The assistors should also be capable of
providing support in a manner that minimizes interruptions in customers’
abilities to carry out critical business activities. This includes using new customer support technologies such as the
Tivoli Remote Control tool to troubleshoot and resolve the most complex
customer problems at first contact.
The ESD Transition and Stand Up Plan required that the ESD assistor positions be staffed at the targeted higher-grade level prior to the implementation of the ESD. However, our analysis of the FY 2002 help desk call volumes determined that approximately 32 percent of all calls are customer requests for password related activities, which require skills that are significantly less than the requirements for the ESD assistor grade level. In addition, the ESD does not provide for the screening and routing of calls to the assistor with the skills to efficiently resolve the call. As a result, the ESD assistor resources are currently significantly underutilized, resolving lower-graded types of problems.
Also, establishing the ESD assistor position at the higher-grade level resulted in several positions not being filled because the help desk assistors from the prior organization structure could not qualify for the new positions. Therefore, management was required to supplement the ESD staffing with contractors to meet the December 29, 2002, implementation date.
The authorized staffing for the ESD includes 120 staff years for the service desk assistor position. As of January 2003, 118 of these 120 staff years had been filled, which includes 55 (45 percent) contractors, 47 employees who transferred from the old service desks to the new ESD, and 16 employees who did not transition into the new ESD organization but were assigned to the ESD to perform meaningful work until they could be placed in a permanent position. Since the contractors perform the same duties as the ESD assistors, their skills are also significantly underutilized, performing simple, repetitive activities.
The inconsistency between the difficulty of the help desk work and the assistor skill level is caused by the establishment of the ESD assistor positions at the higher-grade levels, the calls not being screened and routed to the assistor with the skills to efficiently resolve the call, and the requirement that the assistor positions be filled at the target higher-grade level while the ESD tools, capabilities, and services are being incrementally implemented. Until the service desk calls are screened and routed to the appropriate assistor and the self-service desk tools are fully implemented and effectively used by employees, the ESD assistor skills will continue to be underutilized, devoting a significant amount of time performing simple, repetitive tasks that should be automated and/or performed by lower-graded technicians.
The Acting Deputy Commissioner for Modernization & CIO should:
1. Review the ESD staffing needs to determine whether some of the assistor positions should be a lower-grade to more efficiently handle simple, repetitive calls.
Management’s Response: Management’s response was due on May 21, 2003. As of May 22, 2003, management had not responded to the draft report.
2. Establish a process to ensure that calls to the ESD are screened and routed to the assistor with the skills to most efficiently resolve the problem.
The OMB
Circular A-123 states that managers are responsible for increasing productivity
and controlling costs of agency operations.
The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) was enacted by the Congress to improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of federal programs by establishing a system to set goals for program
performance and to measure results.
Industry best practices suggest that centralized help desk operations can significantly reduce support costs by investing in smart technologies. These include software that allows the assistor to take over a user’s workstation remotely or self-help technologies like password reset. Calls resolved from the help desk via remote technology, rather than dispatching a technician to the user’s desk, can reduce per-call cost by as much as 80 percent.
End user self-service capabilities are major components of the EUES ESD implementation. On November 19, 2002, the MITS Services organization implemented the new Web Ticketing, Password Management, and Get Answers self-service desk tools. However, the EUES organization has not developed a call reduction strategy or taken actions to aggressively reduce call volumes. Industry best practices state that in order to have a successful help desk operation, an organization must develop a call reduction strategy. The most common approach to call reduction requires a monthly root-cause analysis, which categorizes calls by type and technology and identifies the common causes for the calls.
Although
the EUES organization projects that the self-service desk tools, if
appropriately used, will reduce call volumes by at least 20 percent, management
has not required that customers use them.
In addition, calls for password reset and unlock account for approximately
32 percent of the service desk call volume.
However, the self-service password management tool is not available for
end users. It was disabled 8 days after
implementation because of security concerns.
Currently, management is assessing other self-service password
management tools for implementation.
In FY 2002, the IRS help desk operations nationwide received a total of 614,172 calls. Of the total calls, 195,332 (32 percent) were requests for passwords to be reset or unlocked. According to industry standards, the average cost for resolving these types of help desk calls by an assistor is $25 per call, while the cost for using on-line self-service tools is only approximately $2.50 per call. Based on the IRS’ FY 2003 budget for the ESD, the average cost to the IRS for resolving requests for password reset and unlock by an assistor is $29 per call. Table 1 presents the estimated cost to the IRS for resolving password reset and unlock calls.
Table 1 – Password Reset and Unlock Call Cost Analysis
|
Problem
Ticket Resolution Method |
Number of
Calls Received in |
Cost Per
Call |
Total |
|
Enterprise Service Desk Assistor |
175,799 |
$29.31 |
$5,152,669 |
|
On-line Self-Service Tool |
175,799 |
$2.50 |
$439,497 |
|
Potential
savings from using self-service tool |
|
|
$4,713,172 |
Source: The IRS’ Enterprise
Service Desk and IHS Support Solutions
The potential cost savings to the IRS resulting from the use of the on-line self-service tool for password reset and unlock rather than an ESD assistor is approximately $23.6 million over 5 years (see Appendix IV). The efficiency gains from the self-service desk tools are not being maximized because EUES management wanted to provide users with as many service options as possible without requiring their usage.
In addition, EUES management advised that they have established a quality control coordinator to review the quality of the call tickets and problem tickets, first-call resolution, and the balanced measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation. However, the coordinator’s responsibilities do not include identifying call reduction opportunities by analyzing calls to determine the root cause. Until a password management self-service tool is made available to end users and its usage is required and the root cause of calls is analyzed, the ESD will not achieve optimum efficiency.
The Acting Deputy Commissioner for Modernization & CIO should:
3. Ensure that the self-service desk tools are available to end users and require the use of these tools.
4. Develop a call reduction strategy to reduce the number of calls received at the service desk. The strategy should include a periodic (e.g., monthly) root cause analysis of the calls.
The OMB
Circular A-123 and GPRA provide guidance on establishing, managing, assessing,
and reporting on management controls and performance measurement goals. Managers at all activity levels should
review performance reports, measure results against targets, and analyze
trends.
On
March 22, 2000, the IRS Commissioner and CIO formally approved the performance
measures for the MITS Services organization to analyze and improve operations
and service delivery. On August 14,
2001, the IRS implemented the Performance Measures for ITS to deliver a
web-based means for management officials to create operational performance
reports by time period, location, and organization. Currently, four of the MITS Services Balanced Measures are used
to measure the performance of the ESD.
These include:
1)
Percentage resolution at first
contact.
2)
Percent on-time ticket
resolution.
3)
Ticket activity – open and
closed.
4)
Mean call queue time.
The established performance measures are consistent with those
identified in industry best practices; however, the IRS should consider
additional measures to provide management with sufficient information to assess
the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESD program. For example, the CIO Magazine article, Good Help – Meta View (dated
May 1998), states that at a minimum, help desk performance goals should also include cost per call,
call abandonment rate, and call handle time.
In addition, studies published by an industry leader in comprehensive training programs and educational resources for call center management, report that over 90 percent of call centers conduct live monitoring of calls on a continuous basis to evaluate individual performance and identify training and coaching needs. These forms of monitoring include real-time remote monitoring, call taping,side-by-side monitoring, and mystery shopper calls (where a supervisor poses as a customer to evaluate performance).
According to industry best practices, individual assistors must also be measured against a set of performance goals such as calls per month, customer satisfaction, and first-call resolution rate. Currently, the EUES organization has not established any measures to assess employee productivity because management did not negotiate an agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) to allow the ESD assistors to be evaluated based on productivity. IRS management is working on an agreement with the NTEU to allow monitoring of ESD telephone calls to evaluate the quality and efficiency of the assistor responses.
Without clearly established performance measures and
indicators for monitoring and assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the
ESD program activities and individual assistor performance, management may not
have the necessary data to ensure that intended business results are achieved
and accurately reported. In addition,
valuable opportunities for optimization of ESD resources may be missed.
The Acting Deputy Commissioner for Modernization & CIO should ensure that:
5. Additional measures (e.g., cost per call and call abandonment rate) are established to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESD program.
6. Performance measures for ESD assistors (e.g., call handle time) are established and monitored to ensure the quality and efficiency of assistor performance.
7. Efforts are continued to reach an agreement with the NTEU to allow the monitoring of ESD assistor calls.
Appendix I
Detailed Objective, Scope, and Methodology
The overall objective of this audit was to evaluate the readiness of the End User Equipment and Services (EUES) organization to provide an enterprise-wide help desk function. To accomplish this objective, we:
I. Determined the resources that have been allocated to the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 by identifying budgeted staff years, labor costs, and non-labor expenditures, including the costs for contractor support. Reviewed the organization charts for authorized staffing levels.
II. Identified the mission and objectives for the ESD by reviewing the Modernization, Information Technology, and Security (MITS) Services Strategy and Program Plan for FYs 2003-2004, and the mission statements and Master Service Level Agreement for the EUES organization.
III. Evaluated the performance measures program established for the ESD by interviewing EUES management and reviewing the MITS Services Business Performance Review. Also compared the ESD performance measures to those identified by industry best practices.
IV. Assessed
the methodology used in determining the number of service desks sites and
geographic locations for the ESD by interviewing management and reviewing
studies or analyses supporting the consolidated service desk environment. Also reviewed best practices for determining
the appropriate operating environment for service desk support.
V. Interviewed
management and reviewed documentation to assess the methodology used in
determining the number of service desk assistors and their associated grade,
including analyses to identify the required skill level and efforts to
determine the type of problem and level of difficulty of calls. Reviewed industry best practices for
determining the required number of service desk assistors and their grade
levels.
VI. Evaluated
management’s efforts to ensure a successful transformation to a single
enterprise-wide service desk by determining if management established an
implementation team to manage the transformation, established a timeline for
key implementation goals, and implemented a communication strategy to report
progress. Reviewed the process for
staffing the service desk and addressing impacted employees.
VII. Evaluated
management’s efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESD
assistor by interviewing management to identify the measures for assessing
employee productivity, quality assurance process for evaluating assistor
responses, independent testing to validate reported results, and tools
available to assistors. Assessed
efforts to reduce call volumes including development of a call reduction
strategy, implementation of the self-service desk tools and the associated
usage and costs of calls, and utilization of the telephone script. Reviewed industry best practices for
assessing performance of service desk assistors.
Appendix II
Major Contributors to This Report
Gary V. Hinkle, Acting Assistant Inspector
General for Audit (Information Systems Programs)
Danny Verneuille, Acting Director
Van Warmke, Acting Audit Manager
Kevin Burke, Senior Auditor
Michael Howard, Senior Auditor
Olivia Jasper, Auditor
Kim McManis, Auditor
Appendix III
Commissioner N:C
Deputy Commissioner N:DC
Chief, Information Technology Services M:I
Director, End User Equipment and Services M:I:EU
Director, Portfolio Management M:R:PM
Chief Counsel CC
National Taxpayer Advocate TA
Director, Legislative Affairs CL:LA
Director, Office of Program Evaluation and Risk Analysis N:ADC:R:O
Office of Management Controls N:CFO:AR:M
Audit Liaisons:
Chief, Information Technology Services M:I
Director, End User Equipment and Services M:I:EU
Manager, Program Oversight and Coordination M:R:PM:PO
Appendix
IV
This appendix presents detailed information on the measurable impact that our recommended corrective actions will have on tax administration. These benefits will be incorporated into our Semiannual Report to the Congress.
Type and Value of Outcome Measure:
· Inefficient Use of Resources – Potential; $23.6 million (see page 7).
Methodology Used to Measure the Reported Benefit:
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2002, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) help desk operations nationwide received 195,332 calls from employees requesting password reset and unlock activities. Based on the IRS’ FY 2003 budget for the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD), the average cost to the IRS for resolving requests for password reset and unlock by an assistor is $29 per call. According to industry standards, the cost for using on-line self-service tools is approximately $2.50 per call.
Assuming that some password-reset calls will continue to be received by the service desk after the implementation of the self-service tools, we reduced the total number of calls (195,332) by 10 percent (19,533) for a total of 175,799 calls. The potential cost savings to the IRS resulting from the use of the on-line self-service tool for password reset and unlock rather than an ESD assistor is approximately $4.7 million annually and $23.6 million over 5 years. The following is a computation of the potential cost savings:
|
Problem Ticket |
Number of
Calls Received in FY 2002 |
Cost Per
Call |
Total |
|
Enterprise Service Desk Assistor |
175,799 |
$29.31 |
$5,152,669 |
|
On-line Self-Service Tool |
175,799 |
$2.50 |
$439,497 |
|
Potential
savings from using |
|
|
$4,713,172 |
|
Potential
savings over 5 years |
|
|
$23,565,860 |