How to Process Service Desk Tickets Intelligently

Service desks are tasked with resolving as many tickets as possible each day. But in today’s age of instant gratification and rising customer expectations, we’re seeing an increase in the number of tickets received each day, which has lifted the curtain on inefficiencies within the ticket resolution process.

It’s easy for management to hand down ticket-reduction initiatives, but implementing those initiatives is challenging on the front line when buried in service tickets and the SLA clock is ticking.

The good news is that intelligent solutions can achieve more transparency and efficiency within this process. Imagine if you had technology that attached itself to all the event logs in your call center or service tech systems - providing greater visibility into where things are getting held up and for how long.

Using this type of data allows you to tap into the entire story and make decisions that drive real change. But what is intelligent technology for the service desk, and how does it work?

Leveraging artificial intelligence to improve efficiency

Using artificial intelligence to process service desk tickets creates an environment that intelligently analyzes data 24/7 to trigger improvements faster. This is exactly what the Celonis Action Engine does. Using artificial intelligence, the Action Engine generates consistent, personalized actions across the entire organization.

A study was conducted on 20 cases implemented using Action Engine, and the results showed that all cases experienced 100 percent on-time shipments and benefited from a comprehensive, proactive solution. The technology affects many parts of the organization, including:

• The human workforce. Employees are empowered when intelligent actions are triggered proactively. Prioritize specific checks to meet delivery dates.

• Systems and processes. Keep your master data and processes up to date. Adjust price in the material master to get rid of manual changes.

• Digital workforce. Trigger your bots intelligently and increase automation to boost efficiency and make more accurate decisions faster.

The technology is analyzing data across modules, systems, and processes to improve performance. What’s more, it’s constantly setting up new use cases to continually improve the efficiency of handling service tickets. The technology judges objectively, based on “as-is” data and actual cycle times. Since AI is leveraged, accuracy increases as the system works 24/7 to constantly develop up-to-date recommendations and insights.

Understanding the benefits of intelligent ticket processing

Fully understanding the benefits of integrating AI into your service ticket process can guide your decision on the best way forward. A few key benefits can have a sizable impact on your business, including:

• Reducing manual slowdowns. If a service team averages 30 minutes to resolve a ticket, but repetitive manual tasks, such as data entry, take up 10 of those minutes, there is a clear case for reducing workload with automation to speed up ticket resolution. Areas that are heavy in manual work are easily found and improved through automation.

• Shrinking the manual cost to resolve tickets. AI technology allows companies to “shift left,” which refers to empowering people to solve problems earlier in the resolution process. The technology allows companies to identify areas that are best suited for this shift left and to make the process change intelligently instead of haphazardly.

• Creating a catalyst for change. Intelligent business systems create total transparency into how service desk processes function. The underlying technology powering these systems is called “process mining,” which uses the event logs that exist within all IT systems to visually re-create and analyze how processes are really running. Using process mining technology, businesses can lead the way toward efficient and effective ticket resolution—increasing productivity and transforming their organizations.

Realizing business results that drive change

Using intelligence to process service tickets helps decrease error rates. For example, Action Engine was able to reduce business error rates by up to 30 percent. This technology is continually learning not to make the same mistake twice through countermeasures that eliminate problems before they exist.

Procurement is also improved when technology helps manage suppliers efficiently, reducing purchasing spend and minimizing rework. IT management benefits when there’s an increase in the number of SLAs met and confirmed effective ticket assignments—avoiding multiple hops. The technology fits into your business needs and self-adjusts based on your business reality.

Moving forward with greater efficiency

Elevating the customer experience and improving service ticket cost through intelligent systems is a smart way forward for most businesses. Maximizing transparency into the service ticket process with the tools required to make fast, real-time adjustments helps position your organization to thrive in the future.

Intelligent technology drives meaningful change that won’t only improve employee performance but will also create satisfaction that will trickle down to the customer experience and, ultimately, your bottom line.

Matthias Hoefler

Contributing Writer

Matthias is a ServiceNow Specialist, experienced strategist and core member of the Global Business Development Group at Celonis. As a former management consultant his key areas of expertise are strategy roadmap definition, process optimization initiatives and client transformation journeys.