Support Strategies: Mastering Help Desk Excellence

The IT Infrastructure Library, abbreviated as ITIL®, is a library of guidelines that were first introduced by the British government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) during the 1980s that outlines a complete list of best practices to be adopted for delivering IT services. The guiding principles listed in ITIL have undergone several revisions over time after they were first introduced and currently include five books, each dealing with different aspects of IT services, with one unit of the ITIL System focusing on the 7 guiding principles.

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The troubled Service Desk manager called the ITIL Guru and asked to see her right away. When he arrived, he had a panicked look on his face. The ITIL Guru calmly asked, "What has got your feathers ruffled?"

The manager said, "I just received an email from the CIO asking about my department's metrics. He says that they don't look great compared to top service desks. Before I respond, I wanted to get your opinion."

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The Service Desk Manager arrived at the ITIL Service Manager's office and found her staring out the window. He politely knocked, and the manager invited him to sit down, saying, "Glad to see you back. How is your SLA project going?"

"Progressing, thanks to your guidance."

"That is great! Tell me what you have done so far."

"I met with several key business leaders and explained the project and what a Service Level Agreement is. They are excited about us addressing their critical needs, and they are looking forward to a continuous improvement process partnership. However, I am not experiencing the same excitement from the various IT departments. I thought they would love to know what the business needs."

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When the young man arrived at the ITIL Service Manager's office, he found her reading a book. He politely knocked, and the manager invited him to sit down, saying, "What can I do for you?"

The young man said, "My manager asked me to write an SLA for my Service Desk, and I don't know where to start. Another manager told me you know everything there is to know about IT best practices."

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IT Change Management stakeholder feedback into Continuous Improvement Practice is the best and fastest way to transform Information Technology (IT) into a strategic asset for your company.

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IT departments have always lived in a world of balancing two opposing activities with limited resources:

1. Maintaining user productivity by responding when something breaks (an Incident) or a user request for services (a Service Request).
2. "Maximizing the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that risks have been properly assessed and authorizing changes." ¹

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From the right tools to adequate staffing, customer service can turn out to be an expensive venture for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Most of the expenses incurred come from in-house teams, usually those working in a call-center. If customers get off of the phone with your in-house team and still don't have a resolution to their issue, that can also be seen as both time and money wasted. This is especially true if the customer decides to forego your business thanks to that particular experience.

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With continued growth in computer and hand-held device use in the lives of many brings increasing technical questions and problems that arise. And so, the field of supporting these systems grows along with it, which brings business opportunities for entrepreneurs, and employment opportunities for support personnel.

But there are different types of support needs accompanied by varying required responsibilities and skills. The following are the differences between, and skills required for, three common areas of support: Help Desk, Technical Support, and Desktop/Deskside Support.

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Help desks are typically grouped according to their form of deployment, the size of a client's business and whether the software's source code is accessible and easy to alter. When searching for the perfect help desk, you must take these elements into consideration. The following is an explanation of the five main types of help desk examples currently on the market:

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