Assess risk easily with TOPdesk Impact Analysis

In every organization, change is integral to growth and development. But with change comes risk, and assessing risk well is key to success. Let’s imagine the following situation: we’re looking to buy a brand-new kitchen. Of course, choosing a model that we can afford is the first step. We also need to consider the kitchen’s installment, however. So, alongside the primary question of pricing, we need to ask ourselves questions like: What material should the cupboards be made of? Do we need a plumber for the dishwasher installation? What about an electrician? And how will the new kitchen fit with the aesthetic of the rest of our home?

The takeaway is: we surely do not want to look at our new kitchen in dismay, after weeks of hard work and a substantial financial investment, only to wish we could take back some of the decisions we made.

Informed decision made for successful changes

Essentially, to be able to make the best decision about getting a new kitchen—or implementing any other big change in our home or life—we will have to consider and analyze the impact of all risk factors we face. In a business scenario, this looks a bit different, but the gist is pretty much the same: you want to make the most informed decision about a change management process, and you also want to always keep in mind the impact that decision will have on the rest of the business. That’s where impact analysis comes in: the identification of the potential consequences of a certain type of change.

If you are reading this blog, you probably already do impact analysis in your work. Or perhaps you’ve asked yourself questions, such as: "I'm planning a change, what assets and services are affected if I touch this asset?" or "If asset X has a disruption, which services and users might be affected?".

Impact analysis as one process in one tool

Up until now, answering these questions in TOPdesk was not always the most straightforward. For instance, you had to manually create an impact analysis report yourself, in either Word or Excel, or sometimes in Teams. This meant you had to make a new file for each change request, save it, and upload it as a file to a change. While this process can be successful, it is also way too time consuming, limiting and decentralized. Doing impact analysis already involves a lot of hard work, and it’s only logical to want to make the operation itself as easy as possible. That’s why we decided to develop and release impact analysis as an asset in TOPdesk Change Management. One process in one tool, but with so many more possibilities.

More flexible and customizable

Now, you can simply go to the impact analysis tab in your Change Management request and fill out the fields based on the possible implications of making that certain change. Removing the need to manually create impact analysis files in another tool makes everything much more uncomplicated. Besides, the fields are also customizable. You get to add whichever categories you find suitable for your own change process. As you can imagine, this added flexibility offers more possibilities to create an analysis that suits your process. And the more to-the-point your analysis is, the more well-defined your risk-taking will be, which is essential to carrying out a successful change.

Just as importantly, doing your impact analysis within TOPdesk Change Management allows you to have the entire change process in one place. This means that the operator that needs to approve of and carry out the change has access to the full contents of the impact analysis in the change card. And, as a result, the history of new additions and adjustments to the impact analysis asset card is also available. This means you get a much better overview of the entire process, increasing your ability to assess potential risk and ensure a successful change.

Putting that extra love in your impact analysis will pay off

All in all, doing impact analysis—and doing it well! —is key to successful change processes. It’s always a good idea to take the necessary time and put in the effort to map down the risks you are facing when implementing an organizational change. Of course, changes differ in scope, and so does the impact they might have. Regardless, if you would like to get closer to a smooth change process, make sure to give some extra love to your impact analysis. And now that this is much easier and more flexible to do in TOPdesk, you are off to a good start with any change process you plan to undertake.

Watch our webinar 'Registering Extended Impact Analysis in TOPdesk' to see how you can easily set this up in TOPdesk.