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Benchmarking

On 18 June, TOPdesk Netherlands organized the eighth edition of the Symposium a day on which we invited business relations of TOPdesk in Holland to attend an informative day about service management. Back in the day, it was a meeting of around twenty clients in the assembly hall of Delft University, but has now expanded into a full-scale service management event for 800 visitors. Something that has not changed over the years, however, is the way TOPdesk operates. As you may already know, our organization is all about doing things in-house. The same goes for organizing events. Some of our colleagues, who normally work as consultants or account managers, were transformed into part-time event organizers. By the time the show approached, they were even committed full-time. So why do we do everything ourselves? We learn from taking on new challenges. An added plus is that it turns out that we are actually good at organizing professional events. Drawing inspiration from other companies is always important. A few months ago, for example, we attented a client day of a TOPdesk client (ADP: a software supplier for payroll and HR). It was a great opportunity for us to see how they organized such an event. How do they handle logistics? How are the badges distributed?

Is the lunch any good? It was a very instructive example of how to organize a client day. I was actually so busy with all the lunch and badge details that I didnt even focus on the content of the presentations. At the end of the day, I left with a page full of notes. The desire to compare yourself with others is also something that concerns our clients. They want to learn from other organizations and see how their own business measures up. This process has a more common name: benchmarking. As a result, you can develop plans for making improvements within your own organization. We are currently using benchmarking for a new service desk presentation in which we use results from a survey we sent to all our clients. Benchmarking also played a significant role in the Symposium. Consultant Auke Hover gave a presentation on the ins and outs of benchmarking. Participants of this benchmark were evaluated by our panel of judges and had a chance at winning one of the Service Management Awards. It was a great end to a great day. ADP's client day went off with a big bang with a performance by illusionist Hans Klok. Now it was our turn to use the benchmarking theory and live up to our own expectations. Come and see for yourself at one of our TOPdesk shows!

TEXT: ARJENNE BASTIAANSEN

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