First Help Is Best

Computerworld - It's one of the realities of his job, says David Harkett, that almost anyone can recognize the costs of a badly run help desk, but few people understand the value of a help desk that solves problems quickly, consistently and with the fewest possible resources.

"The costs of a help desk is a bottomless black hole—problems never go away," says Harkett, the help desk practice technical solutions manager at London-based BT Group PLC's BT Global Services unit. "It's not so much the money but how you spend it, how you maximize support while not overstretching your resources."

That's no easy balance to maintain when the scope of the task is exploding. "Five years ago, IT help desks were supporting an average of 25 applications, a number that grew to 200 in 2001. Today, some are supporting in the range of 300 applications," says Kris Brittain, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "With the service and support delivery model, there's such pressure to deliver. But cost is king, so there's a real need for process refinement."

This need is bringing unprecedented attention to help desks' ability to resolve users' problems during the initial call and is driving them to automate support in areas such as diagnostics, self-healing, asset management and electronic software distribution. Not only are businesses increasingly implementing self-service channels and building knowledge bases to enable users to solve problems themselves whenever possible; they're also empowering front-line agents as never before. Remote support tools that were traditionally the province of Level 2 and Level 3 engineers are now in the hands of Level 1 agents—and those tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated in using the Internet to deliver diagnostic, collaboration and problem-resolution capabilities.

"The automation segment is getting very interesting: From the mid-'90s until now, there's been a lot of focus on what's happening in Tier 1 support, so there's been consistent improvement at what's available at the agent level," says Brittain.

Although help desk managers still worry about security when supporting machines outside corporate firewalls—and dealing with users who are reluctant to hand over control of their machines—the ability to cut costs while keeping workers productive takes precedence.

"Assisted help technologies are adopted because they increase first-call resolution rates and reduce escalation to Level 2 support," says John Ragsdale, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "Average costs for Level 3 support [deskside visits] are between $85 and $120, and companies see 40% to 50% of that reduced by remote support. It's very challenging to walk people through a fix over the phone, particularly if they're not tech-savvy, and remote support eliminates that concern."