Breaking the Capacity Code: How Benchmarking Reshaped Our Service Desk

How do you know when your service desk has reached its limit—before it breaks? This session explores how I used SDI benchmarking and Erlang modelling to calculate our true capacity, identify performance gaps, and build a smarter resourcing strategy. I'll share not only the math behind our model but also the cultural and operational shifts it has enabled. If you're still planning headcount by gut feel or best guess, this session will show you a better way.  Key Takeaways: - Benchmarking turns metrics in to meaning It’s not just about the numbers it’s about the context. SDI benchmarking helped us to understand where we stand, where we excel and where we need to improve. - Capacity isn’t just a number, it’s a strategy With the right model we have been able to align resources to demand while avoiding burnout. We have also been able to justify strategic hiring decisions with confidence. - You don’t need perfect data to start. We began with some real data, but we also had to use estimates, refined our assumptions, and adapted as we learnd. Despite data gaps benchmarking still provided valuable insights that led to meaningful improvements and more informed decisions.