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Call Registration Management

Description/Summary

Call Registration Management deals with the registration of incoming calls related to the IT software and infrastructure. Call Registration Management is triggered every time a request, information or other part of information on IT-systems is addressing the IT.

Each Call is classified by determining

  • the caller and its authorization for call issuing
  • call content
  • call priority
  • call urgency

After a call is registered the call receiver has to decide on next step and dispatch/ forward the call to the relevant IT Management Process. Call Registration is an entering gate for all incoming calls that are IT relevant.

Objectives

The purpose of Call Registration Management is to establish standardized procedures for the reception, handling, documentation and forwarding of of IT-related requests.

Call Registration Management contributes to an integrated Service Management approach by achieving the following goals:

  • Every Call is recorded.
  • Every Call is documented.
  • Every Call is handled.
  • Every Call runs through a set of standardized activities and procedures in order to ensure effective and efficient processing and monitoring of Calls.

Roles & Functions

Call Registration Management specific roles

Static Process Roles

See Call Registration Management section, Service Management Roles x Person for details

Call Registration Process Owner
Initiator of the process, accountable for defining the process strategic goals and allocating all required process resources. See Continual Process Improvement Management for a detailed description of these activities.
Call Registration Process Manager (Call Registration Manager)
Manager of the entire process, {responsible en} for its effectiveness and efficiency. Team leader of the function „Call Registration Management Team“. See Continual Process Improvement Management for a detailed description of these activities.
Call Registration Management Team
Team associated to the Call Registration Management Process.
Senior Management
Senior Management of the IT provider

Dynamic Process Roles

These roles are dynamically created during the Call Registration Management Process. See the process-specific or activity-specific rules for details.

Call Owner
The attribute in the records contains the value of the Role/Function currently accountable for the Call Registration (but NOT for the Call Registration Management Process). The Call Owner can be changed with the help of a Hierarchical Escalation.
Call Agent
The attribute in the records contains the value of the Role/Function currently {responsible en} for either an activity or task within the overall activity of the Call Registration. The Call Agent can be changed with the help of a Functional Escalation, if permitted by the Rules.
Call Registration Requester (Caller)
This is the person who triggers a Call Registration via a Request for Call Registration or Call. Each call is recorded and documented in a call (CF) form.

Service Specific Roles

Roles depending on the affected service are found in the Service Description. The Service Description, including the service specific roles, is delivered from the Service Portfolio Management.

Example: Service Description

Service Expert/Service Specialist
They can consult and/or act as
  • Call Process Tester
  • Call Responder
Service Owner

Customer Specific Roles

Roles depending on the affected customer(s) are found in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The Service Level Agreement for the customer specific roles is maintained by the Service Level Agreement Management.

Customer(s)
Customers of the affected Service with a valid SLA

Example: Service Level Agreement Management

Information artifacts

This section describes information/data required or recorded by the process. In general, a Process Record (here: the Call Registration Record) represents the current progress of a process and will contain all information related to the execution of that process. Additional information items (artifacts), such as the Call or other in the context of Call Registration Management, typically can be realized by considering the information out of one or more (up to all) process records and either filtering, merging, correlating or interpreting these information, sometimes with regard to the context of other data and information sources.

Call Registration Record

The Call Registration Record is the record holding any management-relevant information and history of a specific Call. On creation, it is based on (filled with) the information provided by the Caller.

  • Unique identifier : Call Registration ID
  • Process instance : Unique Identifier of the Process Instance triggering the Call Registration Management Process. This can be a Call Registration Instance also.
  • Status : Status of the Call Registration. Is set when passing a Control Activity
  • Services : Service(s) affected by this Call
  • Customer : Customer(s) affected by this Call
  • Caller: Person issuing the call
  • Receiving agent: Person recorded the call
  • Call Description : The description of the Call including the Call Registration Argument
  • Call Category :
  • Call Priority :
  • Call Authority :
  • Risk & Impact analysis: Information to be filled in if given by the caller
  • Date and time of Call:
  • Call communication way: Call received via Email, telephone call, personal contact, other?
  • Call handling: How was the call handled?
  • Additional Remarks : Text for additional information

Call Handling Policies

Process documentation and a set of policies for the call handling agents how to handle specific calls. This handling policies to be defined by the process manager.

Call Handling Additional Documentation

Documentation for the call handling team necessary to handle the calls. This documentation is service and customer depending and might contain:

  • telephone numbers of other call handling teams
  • escalation procedures
  • service and SLA descriptions
  • other

Key Concepts

Call Classification

Classification of calls is done individual by each organization. In general three basic classes can be defined:

  • Informational: Calls not requiring actions and not representing exceptions
  • Warning: Calls generated when a threshold is reached by a system or service. In those cases an action is recommended.
  • Exception: Calls providing the information on malfunction of a system or component. Incident or Problem Management should be informed by the Call Registration Management Process.

Call Category

Typically calls of the class „warning“ and „exception“ are divided in three categories:

  • minor: Minor issue is reported. The call needs to be handled but no significant influence on IT system are expected
  • medium: Medium IT system related issue is reported. Call need to be handled in
  • major: Major issue. Related IT-systems are heavily influenced and the call need to be handled urgently

Call Priority & Emergency Call Registration

Call priority is typically defined as follows:

  • normal: Calls need to be handled according to the agreed SLAs
  • urgent: Calls need to be handled in first row, before all other calls. In case of more than one urgent call to be handled, the calls are handled in chronological order or by decision of handling agent. Emergency calls are always urgent.

Emergency Calls are usually performed in order to avoid or resolve serious service disruption, degradation in service quality or eliminate a potential security risk. Therefore it is always related to one or more Major Incidents.

Call Registration Controls

Process

High Level Process Flow Chart

This chart illustrates the Call Registration Management process and its activities as well as the status model reflected by the Call Registration Record evolution.

Critical Success Factors

Critical Success Factors (CSF):

  • Clear process definition
  • Reachability
  • Information from Service Level Management
  • Information from Configuration Management
  • Support of the Incident and Change Management
  • Helpful & friendly staff

Performance Indicators (KPI)

  • Reachability
  • Average/min/max idle time
  • Average/min/max duration of registration and forwarding
  • Misrouted forwarding / total number of forwardings

per service, per user, per customer, per location, per category, …

Process Trigger

Event Trigger

For more information see the relevant Process Interface Description in the Process Interfaces Overview

Time Trigger

  • None (Call Registration Management is typically event-triggered)

Process Specific Rules

  • every call triggers the creation of a new Call Registration Record.
  • the Call Registration Agent is responsible for documenting each activity in the Call Registration Record
  • the Call Registration Owner has to control the Call Registration Agent
  • the Call Registration Owner and Call Registration Agent can only transfer their duties if the new person or group agrees
  • the subsequent Call Registration Owner or Call Registration Agents must then be recorded in the appropriate attribute in the Call Registration Record.
  • the Call Registration Owner and Call Registration Agent should preferably be a person rather than a group.
  • refer to the Service DescriptionService Level Agreement and Customer Record (CRM Process) in order to take service specific and customer specific rules into account

Note: for the different types of rules see Rules.

Process Activities

Call Recording and Authorization Check

The Call is checked for completeness and formal correctness; i.e. it is verified that all mandatory information has been provided by the requester. If this is not the case, or if the requester is not authorized to issue calls in general, the call can be rejected. The Call Registration Record is then shifted into the status „recorded-accepted“, „recorded-emergency“ or „recorded-rejected“.

Call may be received on different ways:

  • Via email
  • Via forms in Internet
  • Via paper based forms
  • Via telephone
  • Other

The caller is obtaining an information that:

  • call was rejected when call is rejected

Activity Specific Rules

  • Caller is set to the person who triggered the Call Registration
  • Call Sponsor is set to the person who triggered the Call Registration if no other sponsor is known
  • Call Registration Agent is set „Call Registration Management Team“ if there is not a person as Call Registration agent available
  • Call Registration Owner is set „Call Registration Management Team“ if there is not a person as Call Registration owner available
  • Call Registration Description The call registration form must contain a meaningful description of the Call as well as a comprehensible rationale stating the reasons for the Call.
  • Call Registration Priority is set to „normal“ if no other priority is known. When issuing an emergency Call the priority has to be „urgent“
  • Process Instance which triggered the Call Registration It should be referred to the respective process instance e.g. Unique Identifier of the Call
  • Affected Service At least one service must to be defined
  • Inform caller on calls rejected

Call Classification

The classification of a Call aims at providing a control factor for the Call, which will be used for factual decision making with respect to Call scheduling and forwarding. In order to classify a Call, its Priority and category are determined. While the Call priority often depends on the urgency and impact of related issues, reflecting the degree of importance to handle this Call

In this activity every call obtains a category and classification. This category and classification defines the order of call handling in the next category.

Activity Specific Rules

  • Define „Call Priority“
  • Define „Call Category“

Call Handling Decision

In this activity, the call agent decides how to proceed on the call. The decission is based on

  • call handling strategy
  • call handling policies
  • Service Description
  • Other

Possible alternatives for the call handling are:

  • Forwarding call to the Incident Management (call record in transferred in a Incident Record)
  • Forwarding call to the Problem Management (call record in transferred in a Problem Record)
  • Forwarding call to other Service Operation Processes
  • Information on call in the customer record for CRM Process

Activity Specific Rules

  • if call is an incident report – forward call to Incident Management
  • if call is an problem report – forward call to Problem Management
  • then document call in customer record

Call Transition and Documentation

In this activity the call is transited to other Service Operation Process according to the decision from the activity before. The decision and the forwarding activity are documented. The caller is obtaining an information that:

  • call was received
  • call was accepted
  • call was handled
  • other process will inform the caller on further steps in call handling

Activity Specific Rules

  • inform caller on
    • call was received
    • call was documented
    • call was precessed on
  • depending on decision forward call to other service operation process
  • put call i status „documented“
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