Hornbill Systems, a leading provider of Service Desk Management platforms has become the first vendor partner of the Service Desk Institute (SDI) to provide SDI accredited training courses. The courses are designed to equip Service Desk staff with the skills to interact effectively with people, whether managing a team, working with colleagues within their own team or from other areas of the business, and with customers. The courses enable delegates to more fully understand their role within a service desk team, to manage conflict and issue resolution, to organise and run teams, and to learn project management and core communications skills. The courses also introduce delegates to service desk best practice and how to achieve it by implementing appropriate processes and procedures.

Hornbill will be running three SDI courses that focus on the 'soft skills' side of the Service Desk environment;
Service Desk Foundation, a 2 day course which is an introduction to the Service Desk environment aimed at new service desk employees.
Service Desk Analyst, a 3 day course aimed at support analysts with at least nine months’ experience, examines the responsibilities of the Support Analyst and equips the delegate with the skills essential to deliver excellent levels of customer service and support.
Service Desk Manager, a 4 day course designed for both new and experienced Service Desk Managers, team leaders and supervisors, develops the broad range of talents from people-oriented abilities and awareness of logistics to financial acumen and presentation skills. The course gives candidates a thorough understanding of and qualification in Service Desk Management.

Candidates taking the courses that subsequently pass the concluding exam will receive exactly the same level of certification as that offered directly by the SDI.

The courses, which will be open to both Hornbill customers and non-customers alike, are launched at the Hornbill User Group, at the Royal Society in London, October 14th, when a range of dates for the courses will be published. The public courses will be run at Hornbill's purpose built training centre in West London, which will further expand the range of locations already offered by the SDI. In addition, Hornbill customers will have the option to hold the training on their own premises, or at a third party location of their choice. The cost of the courses will be at SDI member rates.

Gerry Sweeney, founder and CEO of Hornbill Systems commented, "We are delighted to partner with SDI to provide these courses and see this as a natural extension to Hornbill’s 'Human Touch' philosophy. Hornbill already supplies the technology to enable Service Desks to comply with ITIL best practice, we are now offering the people skills to make ITIL processes more personable and therefore more effective."

Tessa Troubridge, Commercial Director of the Service Desk Institute said, "We are delighted that Hornbill has partnered with SDI to offer its service desk best practice training and qualification programme. This fits very well with Hornbill's 'Human Touch' philosophy. The education team at Hornbill has a wealth of hands-on, industry-based, people-skills experience, which coupled with their technology expertise and processes know how, makes them an idea partner to deliver SDI's best practice service management training."

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NOTES TO EDITORS
About The Service Desk Institute
SDI is the new driving force for the ITSM and service desk industry with a vision of being recognised globally as the professional body that drives exceptional IT service and support. As the leading authority on Service Desk and IT support related issues, SDI will enable organisations to enhance the value of business and IT integration through exceptional IT service and support. SDI is responsible for setting global industry standards, delivering thought-leadership and knowledge, and influencing service improvement for individuals and organisations. SDI sets the standards for the IT support industry and is the conduit for delivering knowledge and career enhancing skills to the professional community. Its members span numerous industries and include, Camelot, Kerry Foods, Rushmoor Borough Council, South Hams District Council, Arco Group, and Advantica.

Further information about SDI can be found at
www.sdi-europe.com