SDI Individual Certification

Since 1988, SDI (formerly HDI - The Help Desk Institute) has delivered a wealth of help desk and IT support training, membership and event-based services.

Over 12,000 people are trained in our vocational standards and thousands of companies globally have benefited from SDI certification and consultancy.  Many more IT service professionals have enjoyed and taken advantage of our seminars, conferences, publications, research and expertise.

After 20 rewarding years of successfully helping thousands of organizations and individuals to improve the quality of their help desks, HDI decided to move with the times and remain aligned with key industry developments.  On 9 April 2008, HDI evolved from The Help Desk Institute into SDI - The Service Desk Institute.

Dedicated to setting the standards for the industry, SDI delivers knowledge and career enhancing skills for IT service professionals and enables you to deliver exceptional results for your organization.

Service Desk Analyst Certification

Essential development and a recognized qualification for IT service and support analysts

What is it about?

Excellent service desk support is vital to ensure a company consistently delivers the required IT service levels. The responsibilities of the support analyst are many and they evolve constantly, so a diverse skill-set is required to meet the challenging demands placed on them. This course equips the support analyst with the skills essential to deliver excellent levels of customer service and support.

What will I get out of it?

·         A thorough grounding in the skills, competencies and knowledge required of a professional and effective service desk analyst

·         Essential skills and competencies to deliver efficient and effective support in the service desk environment

·         Practical knowledge of how to use these skills to deal effectively with a variety of situations

·         A clear understanding of how to identify customer needs and motivations, and how to handle difficult situations

·         The importance of teamwork in the support environment

·         Knowledge of core service management processes and the role and importance of the service desk within these

·         Practical problem solving techniques

·         An understanding of service desk metrics, service level agreements,  customer satisfaction surveys, and the latest service desk tools and technologies

·         Practical preparation for passing the Service Desk Analyst examination

·         A recognized qualification

Service Desk Senior Analyst Certification 

Develop the skills that lead you and your organization to the highest levels of customer service.

What is it about?

This program is designed to develop the Service Desk Analyst grow in to the role of a more senior team member before becoming a Service Desk Manager.  This exclusive program offers delegates two key areas of support:

·         A two-day group training workshop to develop the more advanced skills required of a senior analyst and to discuss career development.

·         Individual mentoring in two telephone sessions following the training workshop with your allocated SDI trainer to set goals, aid development and review progress.

What will I get out of it?

·         Development of the advanced knowledge and skills required of a senior service desk analyst

·         Effective communication, problem-solving, project management, report writing and presentation skills

·         Understanding of the service desk market place, key trends, current tools and vendors

·         Knowledge of how to define your service desk's requirements for product specification and selection

Service Desk Manager Certification

Develop the essential skills for inspirational and effective service desk leadership.

Who is it for?

The course is designed for both new and experienced service desk managers, team leaders and supervisors.  Between 3 and 5 years experience of the service desk environment is ideal.

What is it about?

Being an effective service desk manager requires a broad range of talents, from people-oriented abilities and an awareness of logistics to financial acumen and presentation skills. This course provides a thorough understanding of, and qualification in, service desk management.

What will I get out of it?

·         A thorough grounding in the skills required to lead, motivate and manage a service desk team

·         The complete Service Desk management tool kit

·         An internationally recognized SDM qualification

Customer Service for Technical Support Personnel

This course is specifically designed for those in the industry with great technical skills, but need to smooth out customer interaction. Included is a newly developed section on writing skills.  This course can be delivered onsite and tailored to meet your Team’s specific areas for improvement.

Get Tough with Stress Training and Workshop

Stressed out?  Smooth out the rough spots during the “Get Tough with Stress” training workshops, presented as a Stress Management Specialist through Townsend International.














 

Support Center Best Practices and Process Improvement

SDI Service Desk Certification  

The SDI Service Desk Certification program is the only industry standard based program designed to recognize truly excellent service desks.

By achieving SDI's internationally acclaimed Service Desk Certification, you are able to demonstrate that your support operation is truly dedicated and committed to providing enhanced IT service and support in line with best practice industry standards.

Based upon the European framework for quality - the EFQM Excellence Model - the Service Desk Certification (SDC) process looks closely at all aspects of the service desk operation in terms of management, staff, resources, tools, training and delivery. It reviews the development and integration of a number of key ITIL/ITSM processes including:
• incident and problem
• change and release management
• service level management
• availability and capacity management
• configuration management
• business continuity and financial management
• knowledge management
• customer relationship management

SDC also reviews the approach to strategy, planning and continuous service improvement.

Call for further information about time and cost investment.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library

ITIL is the Key to Managing IT Services. ITIL (the Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally. It is supported by a comprehensive qualifications scheme, accredited training organizations, and implementation and assessment tools.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library - ITIL is rapidly becoming the "de facto" standard methodology for internal IT service delivery processes. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management. Used by many hundreds of organizations around the world, a whole ITIL philosophy has grown up around the guidance contained within the ITIL books and the supporting professional qualification scheme.

ITIL consists of a series of books giving guidance on the provision of quality IT services, and on the accommodation and environmental facilities needed to support IT. ITIL has been developed in recognition of organizations' growing dependency on IT and embodies best practices for IT Service Management.

The Donna is available to assist you as you adopt the ITIL framework. The one-day ITIL Awareness Seminar is designed to give you an overall preview of this process improvement ideology.

ITIL Awareness Seminar/Executive Overview - Four-Hour Presentation 

This half day event explores the concepts of IT Service Management and provides a high level introduction into the world of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Who Should Attend?

• IT senior executives seeking a high level overview of the ITIL Framework of best practices
• Senior level manager of all business units dealing with IT process improvement
• Anyone seeking to improve the IT Department’s awareness of and how to align themselves with the business of the company

What You Will Learn

• The driving force behind IT Service Management
• An overview of the ITIL Framework
• The elements of each of its processes and functions
• The benefits of Best Practices and Process Improvement

ITIL Foundations - V2

What You Will Learn

• The benefits of adopting the fundamentals of the ITIL Framework of best practices
• The essential elements of managing each of the ten ITIL processes and the role of the Service Desk function
• The guidelines for sitting for the ITIL Foundations V2 Certification Exam

For a more detailed course description click ITILF

ITIL Foundations Certification - V3 

Version 3 offers a wider view of IT Service Management by introducing a lifecycle of Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operations and Continual Service Improvement.

Who Should Attend?

• IT associates seeking an understanding of the ITIL Framework of best practices
• Senior level managers of all business units dealing with process improvement
• Anyone seeking to improve the information technology department’s awareness of and how to align themselves with the business of the company

For a more detailed course description click ITV3F.

ITIL After Dark - Instructor-Led Webinar

• Want ITIL V3 Certification, but just can't take time away from work?
• Can't travel to take the class?
• Budget issues?

This course was developed with you in mind. The same great instructor with the same great course curriculum! Take the certification exam at your nearest Vue Testing Center!

This instructor led course is presented via webinar and given over a two and a half week period on Tuesdays and Thursdays evening from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM Pacific. Call for next scheduled course. (Some courses are held during other time zones.)

What You Will Learn

• The benefits of adopting the fundamentals of the ITIL Framework of best practices
• The essential elements of managing each of the ITIL processes and functions
• The guidelines for sitting for the ITIL Foundations V3 Certification Exam

Curriculum

• A brief history of the process and an introduction into the structure of the library
• An overall description of the IT Service Management Lifecycle and Continual Process Improvement
• Explanation of the goals, activities, relationships/dependencies, success factors, challenges and benefits of each of the following ten management processes:

Certification

The Foundation Certificate for IT Service Management is presented upon successfully sitting for a 60 minute, 40 multiple-choice question, examination - proctored by an independent testing organization.

ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle Stream Boot Camp:  Service Strategy (SS) and Service Operations (SO)

Both certification courses are given during the same calendar week and each can be attended as a stand-alone course.

Service Strategy :

Presented Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. An optional Certification Exam is available at the end of class.

Course Description :

This course builds on the general principles covered as part of the ITIL® Foundation course. It covers the lifecycle aspects of Service Strategy and covers the management and control of the activities and techniques within the Service Strategy stage of the lifecycle but not the detail of each of the supporting processes (which are covered in detail in the capability courses). Additionally the course looks at the concept of Service Strategy as a practice and at the interfaces between Service Strategy and the other stages of the ITIL Service Lifecycle. For a more detailed course description click ITV3SS.

Service Operations :

Presented Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday. An optional Certification Exam is available at the end of class.

Course Description :

In order to provide effective and efficient delivery and support of key services and to ensure fair value for the customer and service provider, IT departments must successfully implement ITIL Service Operation best practices. In this course, you learn how to plan, implement and optimize the Service Operation processes and gain the skills required to take the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Service Operation Certification Exam. For a more detailed course description click ITV3SO.

ITIL Intermediate Qualifications Stream - Operational Support and Analysis (OSA)

Course Description :

Successful implementation of ITIL Operational Support and Analysis best practices enables IT departments to reduce downtime and costs while improving customer satisfaction. In this course, you learn how to plan, implement and optimize the Operational Support and Analysis processes and gain the skills required to take the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Operational Support and Analysis Certification Exam. For a more detailed course description, click ITV3OSA.

ITIL Intermediate Qualifications Stream - Release, Control and Validation (RCV)

Course Description :

To implement new services in a controlled and cost-effective manner, IT departments must successfully implement ITIL Release, Control and Validation best practices. In this course, you learn how to plan, implement and optimize the Release, Control and Validation processes and gain the skills required to take the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Release, Control and Validation Certification Exam. For a more detailed course description, click ITB3RCV.

Support Center Best Practices Through Process Improvement 

Business alignment and enabling your customers to be productive are two areas where your Team can best contribute to your company’s bottom line.  This interactive workshop focuses on the gaps between the Support Center and both its Support Teams and its Customers.  By performing a self-assessment, we will identify those gaps in your organization and learn how to create stronger alliances with each of these groups.  Donna uses real-life examples from her career as a Help Desk Manager, trainer, consultant and international speaker to help you develop a plan for your Team to bridge the gaps in communication to provide better support, and gain a better understanding of how you can align your Team with corporate goals and objectives. 

Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences and results.  Ideas and suggestions will be captured and made available to all attendees. 

Learning Objectives:

• Perform a self-assessment
• Identify gaps that exist between the Support Center and their Support Teams
• Bridging the Gaps
• How to avoid the high cost of turnover
• Business alignment
• How to measure and market successes

Who Should Attend:

• Support Center Supervisors/Managers/IT Directors