There is no denying that the CERN Service Desk has made work around the Organization more fluid since its creation in 2011 – but what exactly has the service been up to in those ten years of existence?

The Service Desk was born out of a desire to centralise requests for information and assistance from the CERN community and to process them using standard procedures, regardless of which services they related to. The goal was to ensure that international best practices of service management were applied in order to help end users, safeguard data integrity and streamline communication channels across the Organization.

Since 2011, the close-knit team of seven dedicated agents has been upholding these efficient and proven service-management principles – successfully so, as the close monitoring of the service’s activity consistently demonstrates. Guiding the CERN community through the Organization’s numerous services is about more than answering calls and managing tickets: the team must possess both an extensive knowledge of the Organization in all of its aspects and the distinct mental flexibility to jump between requests of fundamentally different natures: today, the Service Desk actively supports over 300 services across CERN.

Aside from these skills, contract manager Isabel Fernandez and operations manager Emilie Kirschner are keen to stress their colleagues’ compassionate working style: “Our team has demonstrated great empathy and listening capabilities to provide an excellent and noteworthy service in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

We wish them all the best for ten more years and beyond!