Module in focus: Operations management
“What should I do with frequently occurring activities in my organisation? Where do I register recurring management tasks? And how do I reschedule these work activities?” During the last few years, our help desk has responded to questions like these and more. For TOPdesk this was the starting signal to examine the wishes of users under a magnifying glass and to begin working on the development of a new module.
The recurrence of countless work activities is common place within many organisations. These can be activities geared towards the management of ICT equipment, such as the preventive maintenance of computers or creating backups. Consider also regular maintenance tasks concerning non-ICT related company assets, such as cleaning the coffee machine or painting the building. One-off activities such as replacing the air-conditioning system are also an exemple of this.
These activities, no matter how varied, all have the same aim - to prevent problems in the future. For this reason they are often referred to as operations management tasks. Whilst the focus of Incident management is on resolving incidents, Operations management is geared towards the maintenance of company assets and the prevention of future problems.
It is important that these operations tasks are registered correctly. Managers need to be able to register information regarding the tasks, such as when, how often and by whom these tasks should be carried out. They also wish to keep their employees updated regarding their assigned activities. Managers can save much time when they are able to schedule periodic activities more than once. The persons involved also require an overview of the scheduled tasks in order to be able to check whether activities are carried out on time for instance. Furthermore it is important to keep track of how much time and money the preventive maintenance costs the organisation.
In 2004 TOPdesk began developing the Operations management module and the 3.7 version is soon to be released. A number of important improvements have been included in this release, such as registration of the time and costs, extensive reporting options and a clear, graphic overview of the planning. These additional options have led the Operations management module to become even more user-friendly.
Increasingly more organisations are recognising the importance of Operations management. This isn’t unusual. Operational work activities already make up a great component of daily procedures in every organisation. These preventive maintenance tasks are brought under various different processes. Operations management enables you to incorporate all these tasks in a single process; whereby planning, execution and monitoring of the maintenance tasks can be coordinated from one clear overview.
Operations management in short
+ One process for all activities concerning prevention and maintenance
+ Insight into how often, when and by whom tasks are carried out
+ Those responsible are notified via a to-do list regarding the activities to be carried out
+ Large management routes can be divided up into phases and activities
+ Graphic overview of the planning of all maintenance activities
+ Easily link activities to items in Configuration management
+ Minimise problems through preventive maintenance
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