Zendesk Features and ITIL Compliance

Zendesk is an ISTM tool that integrates all communication media on a single platform to simplify communication with customers. It can be used at the service operational level to add value to the customer. Zendesk provides features for managing ITIL processes like request fulfilment, incident management, problem management, and change management. It is marked in the leaders quadrant by Gartner in 2018 report for its ability to execute ITSM projects and achieve vision of the organization.

Table of Contents
Purpose:......................................................................................................................................2
ITIL service lifecycle.................................................................................................................2
Zendesk Features........................................................................................................................3
Gartner Magic Quadrant for ITSM tools...................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5
1

Purpose:
Zendesk is an ISTM tool that is used for providing services like call centre, live chat and help
desk for customer relationship management. It integrates all the communication medias
including phone, email, social media and chat on a single platform. The purpose of this
software is to simplify communication with customers (Capterra, 2019).
ITIL service lifecycle
ITIL service Lifecyle consists of five stages that include service strategy, designing of the
service, service transition, service operation, and continual improvement. Zendesk can be
used at the service operational level as it can add value to the customer by providing
communication platform that can address customer concerns and keep the customer
informed.
For example, if a customer wants to connect to the representatives of an organization to lodge
a complaint, he or she could call the company, post message on social media, email the
service representative or SMS on the company number. The customer can use any form of
communication to reach the company service representatives through the help centre who
will have a single platform to receive all these complaint and would be able to respond to it
fast irrespective of the mode of communication. Multiple communication channels would
also allow customer service teams to continuously keep gathering the data of communication
with customers and analyse the same to come up with the opportunity for continues
improvement which is the next stage in the service lifecycle.
2

Zendesk Features
Features of Zendesk include channel integration, ticketing, SLA views, multilingual support,
multi-brand support, guided mode for response, collaboration, personal views, private apps,
personal workspaces, Net Promoter Score survey, CSAT, performance dashboards, customer
reports, and other integrations (Zendesk , 2019).
ITIL compliance needs a software to provide features for managing ITIL processes that
include request fulfilment, incident management, problem management, and change
management. Zendesk provides features like service desk function that can take care of
request fulfilment and incident management which makes the software compliant with ITIL.
Help Desk can also be used for problem management an change management (Svane, 2007).
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Gartner Magic Quadrant for ITSM tools
In the Magic Quadrant, Zendesk is in the leaders quadrant on the basis of its high score for its
ability to execute ITSM projects and achieve vision of the organization. It was marked in the
leader quadrant by Gartner in 2018 report which is a reflection of the big customers that
Zendesk is able to successfully serve such as AirBnB and Tesco.
Completeness of Vision: Gartner evaluates vendors on the basis of the completeness of their
vision which is determined by their understanding of market, building strategies for
marketing, sales, product offers, and industries, business model, innovation and geographic
strategy. Zendesk fairs well in most of these criteria and have clear strategies developed for
marketing, sales, products, and industry verticals. Zendesk today has more than 101,800
customers and have become a preferred vendor because of their ability to innovate which
reflects through its high rating in the Gartners magic quadrant for ITSM vendors (Zendesk,
2017).
Ability to Execute:. It also evaluates a firm on the basis of its ability to execute projects. The
criteria on the basis of which Zendesk was marked included product, service, viability, sales
execution, pricing, market responsiveness, marketing execution, customer experience, and
operations. Zendesk fairs well in most of these criteria including marketing, service, sales,
responsiveness and customer experience which is why it is placed in the leader quadrant. The
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help desk service of Zendesk provides its workforce an ability to communicate with
customers through a single channel while customers have the freedom to communicate
through any channel of choice. This gives a delightful experience to the customers (Black &
Thomas, 2013).
References
Black, D. & Thomas, J., 2013. How Gartner Evaluates Vendors and Markets in Magic
Quadrants and MarketScopes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2560415/gartner-evaluates-vendors-markets-
magic
[Accessed 10 March 2019].
Capterra, 2019. Capterra. [Online]
Available at: https://www.capterra.com/p/157821/Zendesk/
[Accessed 10 March 2019].
Svane, M., 2007. So, You’ve Implemented ITIL? (Pants on Fire). [Online]
Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/so-youve-implemented-itil/
[Accessed 10 March 2019].
Zendesk , 2019. Zendesk Support. [Online]
Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/support/features/
[Accessed 10 March 2019].
Zendesk, 2017. Gartner’s 2017 Magic Quadrant for CRM | Zendesk. [Online]
Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/resources/gartner-2017-magic-quadrant-crm/
[Accessed 10 March 2019].
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