CRA originally purchased Help Desk Institute (HDI) certification services four years ago because of an interest in having Service Desk functions recognized as 'best in class' in IT support services for the CRA. The Help Desk / Service Desk operations have undergone a number of benchmarking exercises in the past few years and this certification has assisted us significantly in providing quality data. Significant organization changes have also occurred. There is now a need to re-certify the National IT Service Desk and to expand certification to additional sites across Canada as meeting the certification standards by reviewing CRA’s Service Desk processes and by interviewing CRA staff to ensure Service Desk standards are being met or exceeded.
The current need that must be met is for credible, internationally-recognized certification specific to IT help desk operations so that the strategic objectives of the IT Transformation Agenda within the CRA and the National IT Service Desk are achieved. National IT Service Desk requires a certification standard that combines aspects of the service/support call centre environments and IT industries. The National IT Service Desk operates as a centralized support call centre and therefore has operational challenges/opportunities that are unique from other IT support organizations within the CRA. A certification standard that places emphasis on customer service, support industry, knowledge management, process development/continuous improvement and leadership/workforce management would provide a holistic approach to providing the NITSD management team and analysts the competencies and framework they need to achieve its vision. The Help Desk (re)certification being sought is unique. At this time, the Help Desk Institute is the one provider.
Expected deliverables include: provision of a Certified Auditor to perform the Support Center Certification Audits.; provision of the Support Center Standard; provision of access to the Support Center tools to assist CRA client in determining its readiness for the audit; provision of the Support Center Certification Audit Preparation Package; logistics planning; onsite audits; review of all supporting documentation and auditor scoring recommendations; determination whether CRA has met the requirements to qualify as a Certified Support Center; provision of a full report that will include the final rating scores along with remarks; provision of addendum to the report for each site audited including rating scores for each site; and, if certification is not being granted, provision of a full report of the deficiencies as well as recommendations for remediation.
