Co-op Banking Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 4, 2012 -- The Co-Operative Banking Group achieves 3 star SDI Service Desk Certification for their IT service desks
14 December 2011: Howard Kendall, founder and chairman of the Service Desk Institute, presented Keith Greatorex, service desk manager of The Co-Operative Banking Group, with their 3 star Service Desk Certification award.

Following the merger with Britannia in 2010, the Co-Operative Banking Group now has nine million customers, over 300 high street branches, 20 corporate banking centres, major presences in Manchester, Leek, London, Plymouth, Skelmersdale and Stockport. The Banking Group has now just been granted preferred bidder status by Lloyds Banking Group in the process currently being run for the sale of 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches.
The Group’s 12,000 strong staff is supported by the service desks which are located in Leek and Skelmersdale raising around 13,000 incidents per month and 5,000 service requests. The team comprises a total of 42 staff of which 27 are service desk analysts looking after incidents, five manage service requests, four oversee the transition of projects while the rest of the team manage high impact incidents and provide 24x7 out of hours support.

Susan Storey, SDI auditor, commented “The Co-Operative Banking service team showed insight, commitment, understanding and the desire to deliver excellent customer service and it was very clear during the audit process how highly the team is regarded by their customers. The aligning of the separate service desks as one has been a real success and this is a sound base for making the on-going incremental improvements required to become a 4 star service desk.”
In just nine months the dedication and hard work of the Co-Operative Banking Group’s service desk team has proven them to be very worthy recipients of the 3 star rating and, overall the service desk was seen to excel in the areas of customer satisfaction statistics, people management, policy and strategy and social responsibility.

On achieving their 3 star certification, Keith Greatorex, service desk manager, said “Our service desk is a great place to be at the moment. We have come on a huge journey, from two diverse desks with a zero star assessment in March 2011 to a single 3 star customer-led service desk in November 2011 which is a fantastic achievement.”
Customers International Ltd trading as SDI – The Service Desk Institute
Registered Office: Lynwood House, Crofton Road, Orpington, Kent BR6 8QE ● Company Registration No. 2535318

“On taking over the service desk management role in November 2010, I recognised immediately that I needed to benchmark our desks; without that benchmark I could only ever compare the two desks and needed to obtain a broader view. The key challenge was getting the team to see things differently - from an industry perspective - and I wanted them to open their eyes to the bigger picture. Our nine month journey on SDI’s service desk certification programme has certainly helped us achieve that goal and we now look forward to the next phase of development.”

Howard Kendall, chairman and founder of SDI added “This is an excellent first audit result achieved in a period of immense change and as Co-Operative Banking Group is becoming more prominent. This certification is a great reward for the hard work that has been put in by both service desk teams in such a short space of time. SDI has set out a very clear road map of improvements that should be put in place over the next 12 months and the positive air of underpinning enthusiasm will cement the participation required by every member of the team as the bank’s customers demand better and better service. I very much look forward to seeing the team progress even further in 2012.”
The Service Desk Institute’s SDC audit evaluates service desk operations against an internationally accepted global standard for best practice, providing companies with a benchmark to form a baseline for service improvements. Based around ITIL and ITSM frameworks, the certification evaluates companies in the following areas: incident and problem resolution; change and release management; service level management; availability and capacity management; configuration management; business continuity and financial management; knowledge management and customer relationship management.

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