London IT Managed Services Provider The Internet Group Retains 3 Star SDI Certification

London-based IT managed service provider, The Internet Group has retained its 3 star SDI (Service Desk Institute) certification for a second year running. The Internet Group was awarded the covetable 3 star rating for its open and direct communication with clients. The IT service specialist maintained its previous high scoring in the areas of leadership, policy and strategy, and customer satisfaction.

As the only standards based accreditation programme in the industry, SDI certification is the hallmark of a service desk dedicated to best practice. Created by some of the IT sector’s thought leaders, the standards benchmark just how well a service desk operates and performs from a global perspective. It uses a total of nine concepts for assessment purposes; leadership, policy and strategy, processes, people and management, partnerships and resources, people satisfaction, customer satisfaction, performance results and social responsibility.

Adam Maurice, managing director of The Internet Group said, “I am delighted that we have received confirmation of our 3 Star SDI certification for a second term and pleased to report that we increased our score in a number of areas.”

“Our fundamental focus as an award winning IT service management provider is to continually improve the service offered to our clients while simultaneously increasing our customer satisfaction levels. To that end we have made a number of changes in the past year to improve the nine concept ideas that the SDI score against and excelled in a number of concept areas. This helped us provide a continued high level of service. Well done to our support team for making this happen.”

To be defined as a Service Desk provider by SDI, the service desk in question must resolve more than half of incoming issues without escalation deliver superior customer satisfaction, keep company running costs low and help to keep client businesses running efficiently.

Howard Kendall, founder of the Service Desk Institute, comments: “It is sometimes difficult to maintain high levels of service in a tough economic climate and I am delighted that The Internet Group continue to deliver significant improvements in several areas of their Service Desk Certification scores. This is testament to their unfailing commitment to continual service improvement. We urge all customers of managed IT service providers, large or small, across the world to demand the same level of commitment from their supplier."

In addition to their 3 star SDI accreditation, The Internet Group was also awarded the IT Service Excellence Awards ‘IT Service Supplier Of The Year’ award in 2010. Its IT outsourcing services are tailored to small, medium and large businesses with managed IT services based on the internationally recognised ITIL v3 and SDI frameworks. In addition to its service desk solution, The Internet Group also provides a host of other IT management and IT support services. These include compliance checks, disaster recovery, infrastructure audits and network management.

About The Internet Group: The Internet Group is a multi-award winning specialist provider of managed IT services to UK and International businesses. The company provides a complete range of IT solutions – from remote support and additional resource, through to a fully outsourced solution – to help its customers ensure operational excellence at all times. Through its team of highly skilled engineers, consultants, procurement officers and project managers, The Internet Group provides clients with a solution tailored to their individual business needs, helping to turn IT from an overhead into an asset.

By utilising the best practice frameworks of ITIL and through its work with the SDI and adoption of their standards based accreditation programme, The Internet Group provides a high level of service management. As a result, the company was awarded a 3 star SDI accreditation in November 2009, in recognition of its customer-led approach to IT support. To reinforce this accreditation in June 2010 The Internet Group won SDI’s IT Service Excellence Supplier of the Year award (as nominated by their clients) and IT Service Excellence Professional of the Year award.

The Internet Group has also been recognised by Computer Weekly as the Best Place to Work in IT (2008) and included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (2008), due to its exceptional business growth. The company works with clients across a range of industry sectors, including professional services, recruitment, retail and manufacturing.

About The Service Desk Institute (SDI): Founded in 1988 by Howard Kendall, the Service Desk Institute (SDI) is the leading authority on service desk and IT support related issues, providing specialist information and research about the technologies, tools and trends of the industry. It is Europe’s only support network for IT service desk professionals, and its 800 organisation members span numerous industries.

Acting as an independent adviser, SDI captures and disseminates creative and innovative ideas for tomorrow's service desk and support operation. SDI sets the best practice standards for the IT support industry and is the conduit for delivering knowledge and career enhancing skills to the professional community, through membership, training, conferences, events and its publication SupportWorld magazine. It also offers the opportunity for international recognition of the support centre operation through its globally recognised Service Desk Certification audit programme.