Roles

Introduction and background to the research

The role of the help desk in the strategic managemen managementt of informat inf ormation ion sys systt ems

The help desk can be much more than a reactive crisis center coping with the problems encount ered by its customers: customers: it can be used as a diagnostic and predictive tool, acting as a nexus for for information and com mu nication. nication. T he help desk has reached a critical point in its development, with the increasing complexity of  IT systems, systems, the growing growing deman ds and expectaexpectations of users, users, and its move move into a m ore customer – rather t han t echnology-oriented echnology-oriented ph ase. ase. T his paper draws on a recently completed British British L ibrary Research Research and D evelopment evelopment Departm ent (BLR&DD (BLR&DD )-funded )-funded project, project, the aim of which was to investigate the key factors in help-desk success, by identifying those areas critical critical to help-desk development development and functionality ality.. T he project m ethodology and results are briefly sum sum marized; and the d iscussi iscussion on t hen focusses specifically specifically on th ose results wh ich feed into a discussion of the potential of the help desk in enabling an organization or its customer s to gather data on systems systems use, plan and implement IT development development strategies and assess the impact of such strategies on attitudes to IT. For t he pur pose of the research, research, a definition of the help desk was developed by the authors: an accessible accessible service point which will provide provide on-dem and ad vice, vice, inform inform ation or action to aid the u ser in carrying carrying out an IT-related IT-related task. Beyond this basic definition, the role of the help desk is often extended to that of a t echnology facilitator, achieved by the gathering and analysis of data at the help desk to manage end -user techn ology proa ctively ctively.. T he definition was further developed to establish a definition of what what m ight ight be t ermed a dedicated or “real” help desk. desk. T he definition identified identified three essential character istics: istics: (1) centrali centralize zed d or mu ltiple ltiple help help d esks esks,, (2) staff staff worki working ng exclusiv exclusively ely,, on rotation, on secondment (i.e. staff who work at the help desk who are not just answering the telephone while doing another job), and (3) manning by experts experts or staff staff with with basic basic knowledge knowledge who can p ass on prob lems (excluding those where staff approach the relevant expert directly).

 Rita  R ita M arce arcella lla and  an d   Iain M iddle iddleton ton

The aut hors The Rita Marcella and Iain Middleton are both at the School of Information and Media, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. Abstract Draws on a recently completed British Library Research and Developmen Developmentt Department-funded Department-funded project i nves nvestigat tigat ing key factors in help-desk success. Describes the methodology of survey by questionnaire questionn aire and case case studies studi es.. S Summarizes ummarizes the results briefly and focusses specifically on the results which feed into a di scuss scussion ion of the potenti al of the help desk desk in enabling an organization or i ts customers customers to gather data on systems use, plan and implement IT development strategies and assess their impact on attitudes to IT.

OCLC Systems & Services Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · pp. 4–19  © MCB University Universit y Press Press · ISS ISSN 1065-075X

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

T he help desk is a relatively relatively new phen omen on and does not fit neatly into a single-subject discipli discipline: ne: it is of concern t o th e compu ting, information science and service service management comm unities. unities. As a result, there h as been little research research to date: one p roject roject u nder way at Stanford University includes analyses of help desk softw software; are; Morgan and T horp ( 1995) h ave ave investigated the use of desktop videoconferencing products to support advisory activities. Various undergradu ate and postgraduate academic papers have have been written and a nu mber of  higher degree studies are und er way: way: M oorley at Stanford and Popejoy at the U niversi niversity ty of  N orth Texas Texas are working working towards towards PhD s on help desks; Kahalewai at the University of  H awaii awaii is is a Ph D candidate researching researching helpdesk organ izational izational str ategies.

reported on help desks, Hayward (1995) has described the role of the help desk as the approachable, pub lic lic face of IT within within th e organization and a probing and highly critical tool. Pancucci (1995) argues that t he help desk  may take on th e broader r ole of acting acting as the front line line for IT with with a m ove ove toward a more expert service acting as advisors advisors in d ecision ecision making and direct involvement in systems development. Four specialist user groups have been established: the Help Desk Institute (HDI) in the U SA has approximately approximately 5,000 memb ers; the Albuquerque Help Desk Association is a regional user support group; in the UK the H elpdesk elpdesk User Group (H UG ) had 910 members in 1995 ; and the In ternational Associa Association tion for Management Automation (IAMA) was instituted instituted in 1995 to “ …fur …fur ther the image of  the help d esk and to b e part of its its evolution, evolution, along with with its managers, to a true corp orate management centre” ( S ervice M anagement  anagement  1995). T here are also also a nu mb er of offici official al and qu asi-official asi-official groups which o ffer ffer advice and guidance to help-desk providers, such as: UC T LIG/UC ISA a group concerned concerned with user user support in universities; the Central Computer and Telecommu Telecommu nications nications Agency Agency (CC TA) set up by the Government to promote business efficiency and effectiveness through the use of  information systems; systems; and the C all Cen tre Institute for Qu ality ality (CC IQ) establis established hed in 1995 to act as a center for the exchange of best practice. None of these groups has existed for more t han eight eight years and th eir appearance is a sign of the growing awareness of the importance of the help d esk, esk, not just in insuring the effective use of IT but in maximizing exploitation of the inform inform ation-gathering ation-gathering role of the help desk, as an aid to organizational decision making. A growing number of specialist consultancies are appearing: the MUNS Group provides advisory services and customized contract research; research; the Gar tner G roup p rovides rovides a subscription service and has produced several hundred researc research h notes; the MET A Group has carried out studies on issues such as costs of  suppor t an d help-desk softw software. are. Ot her signifisignificant companies include Nolan Norton, Ovum and the Bentley Com pany. pany.

‘… There are a growing number of professional journals either focussed specifically on the help desk such as LifeRaft  and Customers , or dealing with the broader field of customer support…’ Literature on the subject of help desks consists largely of isolated isolated jou rn al art icles, icles, citing examples of help-desk use in industry or dealing with h elp-desk software: typically typically they ident ify ify problems but lack solutions. solutions. T here are a growing number of professional journals either focussed specifically on the help desk such as ealing with with t he  LifeRaft  an d Customers, or d ealing broader field of customer customer suppo rt, such as S ervice M anagement  anagement , Call Centre an d Service. Articles occasionally appear in computing and information science journ journ als, als, such as N etwork  etwork  inforComputing an d  InfoWorld . M uch of the informat ion available available on help d esks derives derives from industry experience and is available through seminars and a growing number o f consultanconsultancies. cies. A few books have appeared, ran ging from the p ractical ractical Help Desk Handbook  (1994) to examples which d eal with specific types of help desk, such as  Implementing an IS Help Desk  (Plunkett, 1993). Four titles (Gallagher (n.d.), Czegel (1995), Bruton (1995) and Staffi ng the the Management Group, 1995) Call Centr C entree (T CS Management were published in 1995, evidence of a growing awareness awareness of a dem and for inform inform ation and guidance. Among those auth ors who have

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

The Internet and e-mail communities have been invaluable in the course of gathering information in support of the project. project. Particularly useful have been: the Support Technology Foru m[1]; a dedicated help-desk e-mail e-mail discusdiscussion sion list[2]; list[2]; the H D I hom e page[3]; page[3]; and Verghis’ frequen tly asked asked q uestions r esource[4 ] which is a valuable guide to other sources of  information.

145 m anagers, a 36.25 percent response rate rate (cf. 1994 H elp Desk Institute’s Institute’s 22.4 percent mem bers’ survey). survey). T he data resulting from from the present q uestionnaire will will be biased biased more toward th ose organizations organizations which which d o operate help d esks. esks. T he sample frame frame for the qu estionnaire estionnaire consisted of 400 UK organizations, evenly divided divided between between t he pu blic blic and the pr ivate ivate sector: (1 ) Private Priv ate sector  sector – ten sets of 20 by primar y SIC (sector of industr y code 0-9), each code group further split by size of company, ny, with only companies with with m ore than 50 employees included, providing a statistically defensible defensible and represent ative crosscrosssection of all types of pr ivate ivate com pany. (2 ) Public sector – the selection of organizations in the p ublic sector sector was dictated dictated b y the nature of the sector, but sought to cover cover the m ajor subsectors: subsectors: • central gov government (18), • local author ities ities (146), • higher higher education education (21), • National Health Health Service Service (15).

Methodology A full literature search was carried out initially and was supported throughout the project by continued background research and communication with centers of knowledge. The survey by questionnaire Initially a survey by postal questionnaire (see Appendix) was carried out t o gather data on: • incepti nception on and devel developme opment, nt, • o p er er at io io n , • monitori monitoring ng and eval evaluati uation, on, • u sa g e , • st af affin g, g, • scal scalee of the operat operatio ion, n, • definition definition and formali formaliza zation tion of of the help help desk, • structure structure of the hel help desk desk wit withi hin n the organization.

A modified, smaller scale scale but mo re comprehensive survey was carried out of online host or customer suppor t help desks. desks. T his questionquestionnaire was tested by a help-desk software manufacturer. T he types of company company targeted included included all UK -based online hosts (plus (plus one European and one US-based), and a represenrepresentative sample of companies that provide remote customer support via a help-desk facility. Ninety-seven questionnaires were disseminated and responses were received from 40, a response rate of 41.23 p ercent.

T he br ief and simple simple qu estionnaire estionnaire consisted consisted of  25 questions, primarily multiple choice from closed closed questions. Much t hought went into the framing of the questions, so so that they should be intelligible to all respondents. Care had also to be taken in interpreting th e responses, responses, owing to the lack of a “comm on vocabulary” vocabulary” amon g respondents. The Help Desk User Group’s survey of its membership was also used as a developmental developmental m odel. T he questionnaire was tested on ten individindividuals: academics; experts and practitioners via Inter net d iscussi iscussion on lists; lists; a local authority and a system system s analysis/desi analysis/design gn con sultancy. Som e minor modification, in areas such as clarification of language, resulted from the piloting process.

Case studies T he sur vey vey was followed followed by 14 case stud ies, including including both IT help desks and h elp desks desks which have an explicit informational role or which service the information industry, providing a greater greater depth of understand ing of the issues issues of concer n in providing help-d esk facilifacilities, as well as the realities and constraints of  the operational environm environm ent. A case-study case-study prototype had been carr ied out prior to the research project, helping helping to refine the proform a that was designed designed to carr y out interviews. Participants for the case studies

T he response response T he questionnaire was disseminated disseminated to IT man agers, agers, accompanied by an explanatory letter. Completed replies were received from

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

were identified identified from the q uestionnaire. EightyEightythree (57.2 percent) respondents from the sur vey expressed a willingness willingness to p art icipate in follow-up follow-up inter views, views, in itself a positive positive response. A diary of visits was constructed. T he case studies covered covered a wide ran ge of organizations nizations in order t o make comp arisons arisons between the p ublic and private private sectors, inhouse and outsourced h elp desks, desks, and emp loyloyee- and customer-based help desks, including including providers of online database services[5]. Each case was provided with details of the areas that would be addressed during interviews, allowing withdrawal if there were any doubts about involv involvement. ement. Two companies had concerns about identification identification for reasons of commercial confidentiality, but still participated. T he case stud stud ies required the p articipation articipation of a num ber of key key personnel, chosen chosen on the basis of their familiarity with help-desk operation, their length of service in the organization and their role in in its management. Each case study consisted of two stages: (1) An intervi interview ew based based on a structured quesquestionnaire which which gathered data on a nu mber of areas: internal processes; historical and organizational factors; personnel; manning; methods of evaluation; user groups; information flow; and costs and benefits. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. (2) An analysi analysiss of the facili facilities ties and docu mentation available to help desk and of data gathered from documentation used in the evaluation, operation or usage of the help desk.

T he d efinition efinition of “help desk” is not u niversal niversally ly agreed on: while two-thirds two-thirds of responden ts described them selves selves as having having help d esks, esks, furt her an alysis alysis of respon ses reveals reveals the figure to be closer to half.

‘… There are often f ew resourc resources es at t he help desk apart from staff expertise, and generally the bulk of staff come from an IT/computing background… background…’’ T he help desk is generally an in-h ouse function, usually part of the IT function, but now often und er the auspices auspices of customer suppor t. It typically typically suppor ts about 6 00 users (2,000 users in the case of dedicated help desks), and is primar ily respon sible for for an swering swering software applications queries, making repairs or adjustments to systems and installing software. Many are also responsible for inventory management, sourcing of equipment and statistical statistical report report s, but less than half have involvement in training. PC s and networks are prime responsibili responsibilities ties.. Only one-third of help desks restrict their service to a defined set of products, and fewer than half operate service level agreements. Over two-thirds have no charging/costing mechanism for their servic service, e, but two-thirds report some defined p rocedure to be follow followed ed in con tacting them. T he use of help-desk software software is becom ing comm onplace (almost two-thirds), two-thirds), although the use of ar tificial intelligence/k intelligence/knowledge nowledge bases is still still limited. T here are often few resources at at th e help desk apart from staff  staff  expertise, and generally the bulk of staff come from an IT /computing background. Staff with with prior experience of help desks are still rare, and degree qualifications qualifications are uncomm on. F ewer ewer than h alf of the respond respond ents had ded icated, icated, full-time help-desk staff, the majority providing the service while performing their usual duties, and 20 percent op erate a rotational sys system. tem. Staff generally act as front -line prob lem solvers, solvers, although a significant significant propor tion operate a logging-only service. T he incoming call volume to the help d esk  will obviously vary in line with the size of its user base and the comp lexity lexity of the IT environm environm ent (for examples see see Lusher an d

N o significant significant problems were encountered in execution of the methodologies. Any dubiety of  interpretation in th e data resulting from from t he questionnaire or the case studies was fully acknowledged.

Summary of project results T his section section contains a summ ary of project project findings: full results are available in the form of  a BLR&DD BLR&DD report (M arcell arcellaa and Middleton, 1996). Current help- desk provision provision in the UK U ser support within within U K organizations organizations exis exists ts in man y form form s with with varying varying d egrees of form form ality. ality.

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

M cCor mick, 1995), but typical typical figures figures are 30 calls per day, or 50 to a dedicated help desk. Resolution statistics vary vary widely, widely, with even dedicated help desks reporting 50 p ercent or fewer solved at first call. Training is still scant at the help desk, but better for “real” help desks: only just over half  of the cases give training in the systems they support, while only two-fifths give training in telephone an d commu nications nications skills skills.. Nearly all cases compile some sort of information, and the majority of cases gather call resolution statistics. User surveys are conducted by less than half. “Real” help desks were more inclined to gather inform inform ation: 58.1 percent cond ucting surveys surveys and 86.5 percent gatherin g statistics. statistics. M ost help desks desks (over (over 80 percent) use the information t hey gather to help in ident ifyi ifying ng regular faults. More than half use it in identifying the training requ irements of the organization, bu t fewer fewer (37 percent) actu ally ally produced reports for use at a higher management level, and less than a th ird reported t hat information was fed back into identification of users’ processing cessing requirements. Some cases cases reported that their information was used for pu rposes such as billi billing ng their u sers. sers. T he pr ivate ivate sector mad e more u se of inform inform ation than t he pub lic lic sector, sector, while “real” help desks exceeded both in all aspects. T he major ity of help desks have come int o being by “evolutionary” means, developed in reaction to demand . Where an organized organized approach has been taken, it has generally been by the use of internal workgroups (a third of  cases), with minimal use of outside consultants.

a distinct general shift toward a culture of  customer service service and a consequent requirement to be more sensitive to users’ needs.

‘… Common uses uses of help-des help-de sk informat ion are t o highlight highlight training needs, needs, identif y common causes of problems, or provide supplementary customer information for sales teams…’ Practices within within the help desk are becoming better d efined, with pr ocedures being develdeveloped and docum ented n ot only for for solving solving problems, but for managing the whole call call cycle cycle and for comm unication, including producing reports for management to monitor help-desk perform perform ance, and reports which enable the organizati organization on to u nder stand the requirements of its its users better. Comm on uses of help-desk information are to highlight training needs, identify comm on causes of problems, or provide provide supplement ary customer information for sales teams. Staff training training and career development development and progr ession ession specifically specifically for for t he h elp desk are increasingly becoming a major consideration. Some m anagers consider consider it it impor tant th at staff  staff  are not having variety in operational tasks: their dut ies often include include report produ ction, site site visits or producing documentation. “Burnout” is a recognized problem in the stressful helpdesk environm environm ent. T he docum entation of the above factors factors is key to ISO accreditation, accreditation, and a n um ber of the cases were ISO accredited or in the process of  becoming so. T his is a clear clear marker t hat th eir comm itment t o operational and service service standards is high. T he use of help-desk call logging logging has become prevalent, with very few exceptions. While the software in man y cases cases is greatly improving resolution times and effectively tracking problems through the entire call cycle, some features features are used more than ot hers. More sophisticated capabilities such as knowledge bases and expert systems are often yet to be implemented. Effective reporting facilities were cited in a number of cases as being essential in  justifying resources for the help desk. Configuration man agement was also also a primary concern of some organizations, and the capability of the

Case studies Many of the help desks visited were at present in, or about t o enter into, a phase of restructuring/reorganiz ing/reorganization. ation. T he remainder h ad plans which m ight result in some level of reorganization or restructu ring. T his finding ill illustrates ustrates the dynamic nature of user support, and the fact that p ractices ractices as well well as as IT environment environment s and organizations themselves are constantly encount ering change. User support is having having to adapt to changes in technology and its ever more widespread use, and to changes in in th e structure of the organization which it serves. T here is also also eviden eviden ce from from the case stud ies of 

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

help desk to act as the centr al customer function within an organization organization has been noted by some. T he m otivators otivators for help-desk development development are usually those factors noted above: growth in use and variety of IT and a customer service focus. Generally speaking, those within the organization who provide motivation for helpdesk developmen t are tho se directly involv involved ed with with providing providing suppor t or, in some cases, higher levels of management – often when a chan ge in bu siness practices forces forces a realization that maintenance of acceptable service levels is critical to retaining business. T he help desk is well well placed placed to gather and mon itor data on performance, and can p rovide rovide valuable inforinformation abou t users, part icularly icularly in the context of a customer help desk: in these situations, organizations have found that the help desk is a positive business, rather than simply a technical asset. Despite many achieving greater recognition, most of the cases examined expressed their need for b etter resourcing. It is often the case that m anagement is giving giving its “consent” “consent” to th e help desk to develop, without giving the “backing” necessary necessary to resource this. T he qu estion estion of  resourcing has been less of a problem for customer help desks: in their role as point-ofcontact for the p aying aying customer, their importance is much better recognized because it is mu ch easier easier to quan tify tify. C ompu serve, serve, for example, is working in a highly comp etitive etitive industr y where quality quality of supp supp ort may be as important to the customer as the product itself. T his is is also also seen seen as an impor tant factor by FT Information, who see quality quality of supp supp ort as the “distinguishing factor” of their service. In the case of Abtex, the cu stom er services divisi division on is fronted by the help desk, and th ere has been considerable investment in developing first-line suppor t and integrating integrating all customer and staff  staff  information on t o their service service management system. system. T he more ob vious vious the conn ection between quality of suppo suppo rt an d revenue, the better resourced the help desk is likely to be. Reorganizations within the public sector have have resulted resulted in a m ore fragment fragment ed IT environenvironment as central resources are replaced replaced by individual departments contracting out IT to private private comp anies. anies. D efinition efinition of the

help-desk’s role and appropriate resourcing is less easy than in a commercial context. Problems and issues T he problems which support organizations organizations are now facing include: • the expl explos osio ion n in use of IT and the grea greater ter variety of software and hardware; • organiz organizati ational onal restructuring, restructuring, with with res resultant ultant fragmentation of IT; • elic eliciti iting ng support from from operationall operationally y disc discrete rete technical and support groups; • lack lack of information information from from devel development opment groups about n ew product roll outs; • r es eso ur ur ci cin g; g; • servi service ce defini definiti tion on and monitori monitoring; ng; • advic advicee on devel developing oping the servi service. ce. T he m ajority ajority of help help d esks esks today are in an ongoing process of change resulting from changes in the IT environment and changes within within t he organization organization stru cturally and commer cially cially. T he prob lems they face are compoun ded b y inadequ inadequ ate resourcing resourcing to tackle the problems thus precipitated. T he pressure pressure of  increased call volum volum es is, is, for m any, heightened by a lack of information to the help desk concerning new p rodu ct releases, releases, or chan ges/i ges/internterruptions to service and a lack of response/communication in dealing with problems assigned by the help desk to the suppor t team.

‘…The image of the help desk among both users and management is decisive in the allocation of resources, and all too often it is poorly understood, even vilified, by both…’ C learly learly then, the help desk faces faces problems which may be beyond its own control: issues such as communication with other departments cannot be solved unilaterally, and require the coordinated efforts of various levels of management. T he image of the help desk  amon g both u sers and m anagement is decisiv decisivee in the allocation of resources, and all too often it is poorly understood, even vilified, by both. T he help-d esk’s esk’s tradition al image is is that of an isolated isolated function, and it has often been th e case that it is something of a “dead end” both in

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

terms of function and of staff career progression. T he generally generally “reactive” “reactive” app roach to helpdesk provis provision ion has meant that t he poten tial of  the help desk has not been fully realized. Even where perform perform ance measurement d oes take take place, it is often on ly in in h ighly simplistic and mechanistic terms, e.g. numb er of incoming incoming calls, calls, num ber of problems closed. closed. T he “youth” of the help desk means that expertise expertise in the field field is underd eveloped. eveloped. Man agement in par ticular have have been in need of “direction” and are often unaware of or cannot afford afford t he sources of expertise available.

Performan Performance ce measure m easurement  ment  Performance can be measured in a number of  ways, ways, and requires the con sideration sideration an d analyanalysis of both quantitative and qualitative data: • Call statistics. Call volume, call capture, call length, waiting times, second-level response times, resolution resolution times, num ber of calls calls closed. • Feedback . U ser surveys surveys or rand om call follow-up. • “M ystery caller posed caller” ”. Samp le questions posed anonymously and evaluated by caller. •  Benchmarking. G enerally enerally by consultancy company: “league table” of help desks against which the tested service is compared.

Current developments Consolidation of the help function T he need for a single single help help d esk has been been p recipitated by the need to remove confusion over “who to call,” call,” and to redu ce the demand on suppor t staff staff from from d irect irect approaches. T he consolidated consolidated help desk encourages better commu nication bet ween IT specialists in previously distinct distinct grou ps: it also also br ings about econom ies of scale scale in term s of equipmen equipmen t and data sharing. Tools Software began to be developed for call logging in the late 1980s, and has very very rapidly extendextended its functionality functionality into nu merous oth er aspects, such as knowledge bases, expert systems, problem management and change management. Its use has become prevalent prevalent am ong dedicated help desks, and there is now a large number of packages on the market, possibly in excess excess of 200. In addition, d atabases of problems with solution s are now available available on CD-ROM, which can be integrated into helpdesk software. Prospective purchasers of tools are faced with an array of choices, and are often poorly prepared to select select a suitable product. T his situation situation itself itself has created created a market for expert expert guidance, with with n um erous pub licalications resulting resulting (Brown and Burrows, 1995; Computing, 1995; Muns, 1995). Standards D efining standard standard s has been been found to be essenessential by many organizations, both: internally in term s of procedures and training of help help d esk  staff via ISO 9000; and externally via the establishm lishm ent of service-lev service-level el agreemen ts.

Professionalism As the need for trained sup port staff staff has become recognized, recognition of the profession sion and its practitioners practitioners h as correspondingly risen. risen. C ertification ertification is now possible, possible, and N VQs have been developed specifically for support staff. Commentators have noted that the employees employees of IT d epartm ents are becoming more like “employees of the company” than  just “technical people” (Leung, 1995). The development of organizations representing the profession has been a facilitator to professional recognition as well as developing pract ices. ices. Outsourcing T he experience of some cases shows shows that, while there may be benefits to out sourcing, such an approach must be used selectively and with care (Hayward, 1995). Cost containment is a positive positive factor but , str ategically ategically, it is possible for the client organization to lose touch with trends. O utsourcing is considered considered by many to be best suited to stable/s stable/standard tandard problem domains, e.g. standard applications (Blaisdell, 1992). Efficient outsourcers will provide relevant statistics to prevent “out of sight, out of  mind” syndr syndr ome. T he success success of outsourcing of any function is an area where research on costs and b enefits is urgently urgently needed.

Key factors factors in help-de sk developm ent T he help desk has resulted out o f necessity necessity,, usually reactively, and is generally still in a state of development, development, albeit albeit that development development is highly accelerated. T he help d esk is is developing developing at t wo levels: levels: at at t he “ micro” level, level, developdevelopment s are taking place within within the h elp desk 

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

itself, defining how it carries out its remit of  user suppor t; and at the “m acro” level level the role of the help desk is being better defined within organizations in terms of its integration with the bu siness siness of the organization, organization, and comm unication with other u nits and man agement levels levels.. Figure 1 illustrates the significant factors in help-desk development which may have influenced its sphere of influence. Definition of the service, including consultation of standards, is vital to successful implement ation and service service delivery delivery.. M anagement and users must b e apprised as to what services services they can expect, and b e assured assured of certain certain levels levels of service service via via on going perform ance m easurement. The planned services must match the spectru m of users’ requirements, which may be d iverse iverse and not solely solely technically related: in creasingly, creasingly, h elp desks are d ealing with

clients on a global b asis with with varying varying levels levels of  techn ical familiarity familiarity (Call Centre Europe, 1995).

The potential of the help desk in the strategic management of information systems T he potent ial of the help desk to act as a management asset is beginning to be recognized. T he developmen developmen t of customer service orientaorientation has shifted the emphasis away from the help desk as IT ’s technical problem fixer to the help desk as the front-end to a service provider. The help desk as an automated management center, acting as the nexus for the full integration of IT and cu stomer service service into into t he organization, is evidence both of an increased recognition of the role which the help desk can play strategically strategically and a signal of the expan sion

Figure 1 Path of help-desk development Motivation A motivator is required in the first instance, to identify the need for a help desk, need desk, or a change change to it. i t. Mot ivators tend to be those involved w ith it h current service provision: managers, managers, team leaders at t he point of contac contactt

Backing The backing of management is then required. This can be gained by highlighting current current problems and their cost cost t o the various departments in terms of time t ime and money.The marketing of the concept to management is crucial, since considerable financial and organizational backing may be required required to get any development

Definition The service service should should be defined rigorously ri gorously with wit h the participati part icipation on of all necessary groups. This includes internal and external procedures procedures and the application of appropriat ed standards

Marketing The new service must be marketed to the users

Monitoring Once operational, the service must be rigorously monitored in order to ensure that it is achieving achieving it s goals and meeti meeting ng standards

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

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Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

of the help help desk in in a man ner that m ight ight n ot have have been pr edicted from its original original “m op u p” role. If the tr aditional help help d esk can can b e regarded as “a bucket under neath a leak, leak,” the m odern help desk could be said to be fixing the leak, and looking looking out for more bad weather: weather: problems are not solved by the bucket, they are solved solved by preventing the need for on e. T his is is encapsulated by the slogan for the Service Management Europe 1996 C onference onference:: “Stop fixing, start solving”. Blaisdell (1995) states that t he pu rpose of a help desk is is in fact “to prevent support calls.” T he presence of the help help desk is not an “ad mission of failure”: u sers will will always always require support in the face of the inevitability of  change and the growing complexity in IT environments; the level of ability among users is highly variable and, despite education and training, they will will continu continu e to operate on a “need-to-know” b asis. asis. Whatever Whatever other m eans of support are available, it has been established (Waern et al., 1991) that u sers prefer prefer help provided provided by the hu man voice. oice. T his project project would suggest suggest that, far from b eing doomed to extinction, extinction, th e broader r ole of the help desk as a comm unicator, facili facilitator tator and coordinator will will ensure ensure an import ant con tinuing role for for the help desk. While reducing “problem” calls, calls, the help desk may take on the b roader role of  acting as the front line line for IT with with a move toward a more expert service acting as advisors in decision making and direct involvement in development development (Pancucci, 1995) . Table I illusillustrates the d irection irection which the most responsive responsive and “ mod ern” help desks desks are taking. taking. The move from traditional to modern help desk is a move toward the help desk as an embod iment of IT within within the organization, organization, aware, aware, informed and inform inform ative. ative. At its most highly developed, the help desk can be the approachable pub lic lic face of IT within within th e organization and a probing and highly critical tool (Hayward, 1995). The new approach to the help d esk represents represents a parad igm igm shift shift in th e understanding of the role it plays within an organization. While efforts have tended to focus on how the help desk can organize itself  better internally, it is now recognized that actually to provide service to a user, the help

Table I Traditional versus modern help desk

Tradit ional help desk

M odern help desk

React ive Fixes the results of results of the prob proble lems ms,, no nott t he causes A dead end: f or inf ormat ion f or careers Technically-orient eed d st st aaff f Isolat ed No influe influenc ncee on ma matte tters rs extern xternaal to help desk St ruggling f or resources Pass assive ive – awaiti awai ting ng cus custt omer approaches Demand driven

Proact ive Fixes ixes prob proble lems ms at source  Gat hers and disseminat es inf ormat ion Provides a w ort hw hile career pat h Cust oom mer se service-orient eedd st af f In Inte tegr graal A key mot ivat or and aid t o management ddeecisions Justifi es resourcing Aggressive – market ing it s services Strategy driven The public face of the organization

desk must be an integral part of the IT and customer service process. T he help desk is at at th e nexus of a web web of  depend ency and the F igure igure 2 illustrates illustrates the links links that m ay potentially potentially be m ade throu ghout and outwith an organization. organization. T he significance significance of the help d esk to the provision provision a nd developmen t of effectiv effectivee information systems has yet to be fully established: however, there are a number of ways, outlined briefly below, in which the help desk can be used, an d is already being being used by some organizations, to improve information systems provisi provision on and support . Gathering data on present patterns of  systems use It has been found th at 86.5 percent of dedicated h elp desks gather gather what can frequent frequent ly be quite simple statistics on usage. Statistics have a number of very valuable potential uses: as a source of information on th e nature of problems encountered at present; to mon itor usage usage of systems and the spread of users for each; to identify training needs; to identify gaps in provisi provision on and dup lication lication of data input; and to assis assistt in the m apping of the present present p attern of  information collection, collection, d isseminati issemination on and use within within th e client client b ase. From the results of the survey, more than half of all help desks are at present using such information to identify identify

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

Figure 2 Help-desk dependencies

Help desk dependent on

Dependent on help desk Quality management – user satisfaction, efficiency

Support groups – second level problem solving

Development teams – product feedback

Development teams – new product/change product/change information

Help desk

Sales/marketing – user profiles, histories

Users Users – feedback, informal info rmal surveys, etc. Client lientss to justif y help desk desk Users Users‘‘ – point of contact for problems, queries, comments Management Manageme nt – resourcing, buy-in Training department – users‘ users‘ training t raining needs Account managers – representing users‘ and other management needs

Account managers – representing help desk to users/management

training requirements. More than 80 percent of  all help desks use the information they gather to identify regular faults, while less than a third reported that th e inform inform ation was fed fed back into the identification of users’ processing requirements. So there is evidence that valuable information is being gathered gathered b ut it is clea clearr that at present only a minority of help desks are using the inform ation to assis assistt in the futu re developdevelopment of systems. Improving intra- and interdepartmental communications At the help desk, information is gathered which may have have value value to oth er functional departm ents within the organization in developing, for example, a better understand ing of customer needs. Such information m ight ight be u sed, for instance, by a marketing departm ent t o develop develop new prom otional campaigns campaigns or b e fed back into the pr oduct development development cycle. cycle. T he help desk’s desk’s role as a commun icator icator can insure that the d iffe ifferent rent arm s of the IT

operation are kept informed of each each oth ers’ actions and intent ions. Facilitating the management of change As a nexus for for information, t he help desk may ease the processes of change by maintaining continual contact between the groups concerned, insuring that plans are not executed executed without prior knowledge of those affected. T here are numerous mut ual dependencies dependencies throu ghout any organization, organization, and t he help desk  is either either at the center, or h as a contribution to make there (see F igure igure 2) . Where p rocesses rocesses are are in place which involve the help desk in communication nication and decision decision m aking, aking, situations can b e avoided where departments or divisions work  counter-pr oductively oductively.. As the p art of IT which which is most visible and familiar to users, the help desk is ideally situated to act as a disseminator of change-related change-related inform inform ation. C oordination is a vital vital component of change management: M organ (1996) states that “th e help desk can also ensure that each department continues

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

achieving their assigned roles under the enterprise goals.” Developing a responsive and interactive relationship via the help desk’s desk’s interface with customers T he results of the project project illustrate illustrate the p otential of the help desk to act as a link between IT and the customer, so th at the help desk may act as a point of inform inform ation interchange, feeding feeding information from the custom er into developdevelopment teams and feeding information information back out from the developm developm ent teams to th e customer. Overall, user surveys are conducted by less than h alf of the respond respond ents but 58.1 percent of dedicated help desks conduct surveys of user satisfaction. satisfaction. T he help desk has a cent cent ral position within within many organizations, organizations, interacting with with b oth staff and customers. It is in in a u nique position position to d evelop evelop a relationship relationship that not only provides provides support to bot h groups, bu t also gains gains input from t hem in term s of their needs and operational requirements. Often the help desk  is the IT point of contact within the organizaorganization, whoever is served, and has a role for the help desk to p lay in prom oting the organization. In particular with with th e development development of  online help desks, desks, the promot ional role role of the help desk may be further em phasized. phasized. U sers may com e to a help d esk’s esk’s World World W ide Web pages for advice and guidance, but they will go away with an image of the company and information ab out its products and service services. s. A shift toward a customer service rather than a technology orientation is taking place, and evidence evidence of that tr end is drawn from the case stud ies. ies. In a climate where IT is a prime cand idate for outsourcing – as evidenced evidenced by the N ational Health Service case study and the proliferation of literature literature on the sub ject ject – IT operations mu st show themselves themselves to be in tou ch with the client client b ase’s ase’s requirements, or IT solutions solutions m ay be found elsewhere. Collecting data on IT needs, both present and future T he help desk can gather gather data con tinuously: tinuously: therefore, it has an inherent advantage over other m eans of needs-asses needs-assessment sment an d p erforman ce mon itoring. While While the periodic review review has in the past been a standard way of assessing

needs, this may be troublesome, expensive and result in sudden changes. It gives only a snapshot of a situation. If the information which the help d esk can gath er is used effectiv effectively ely,, req uirements and performance may be monitored on a continual basis, making use of knowledge gained over time concerning users and systems. Investigating Investigating the im pact of IT developments developments and strategies strategies on customers and functions T hrough the h elp desk’s desk’s two-way two-way commun ication with its customers it is able to collate information on the effectiveness of current strategies, either by soliciting soliciting cu stom ers’ views views or by the inter pretation of incoming call call data. Productivity losses may be correlated against changes in in th e IT environm environm ent and areas targeted for improvement. improvement. T he knowledge knowledge thus gained gained can be used in future imp lementations, to preemp t prob lems which which have have occurred in the past. Facilitating software/product software/product implem entation entation and development T he requ irements definition process is vital vital in in the developmen developmen t of any produ ct, and t he help desk is an ideal instrument for gathering information on user needs and preferences. preferences. If a continual profile of the u ser base is maintained, maintained, produ cts may be d eveloped eveloped which are targeted toward their requirements, or upd ated in response to suggestions or difficulties. The process of produ ct testing need not end at a certain point: it can be continuous and ongoing, using help-desk data dynamically to maintain customer satisf satisfaction. action. Producing managem ent reports reports consolidating information gathered in a way that that may be of use to m anagement in developing IT/IS strategies and future future plans As we we have seen, only 37 p ercent of all help desks produ ce reports for use by management. Although there is ample evidence that a great deal of data are being gathered, there is equally evidence that at present only a minority of help desks are using the data in a constructive way in order to assist assist h igher igher m anagement d ecisi ecision on making. It is often often t he case that help-desk data is seen as being t he h elp desk’s desk’s business: higher

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

levels of management are insufficiently concerned with the d etails etails of IT, and d o not yet comprehen d th e value value of information from this source. The challenge for the help desk is to analyze analyze the data gathered presently in in t erms of  their utility utility for for higher man agement agement and to make the case for for their value value in future IT and information systems strategy development. U ltimately, ltimately, it is possible to iden tify thr ee core functional roles for for th e help desk in ter ms of information: (1) monitoring monitoring information information syste systems ms use and satisfaction; (2) disse disseminati minating ng information information about systems systems and future plans; (3) promoting the organiz organizati ation on to staff staff and clients.

help-desk, help-desk, bu t also the n ew means by which help-desk suppo suppo rt can be provided, provided, t hat is by Inter net b oth via e-mail and World World W ide Web. Web. Verghis’ FAQ facility has links built into a host of different h elp d esks available available via via t his medium . T here are implications implications for for users and providers in this new form of provision which have yet to be researched. While there are burd ens for providers providers in having having to sup port technologicall technologically y the development, development, the potential is there to encourage self-sufficiency in users and to m inimize inimize expense in staffing staffing and dealing dealing with individual calls. Harris (forthcoming) argues that one immediately apparent effect is the growth in t he nu mber of trivial trivial calls, calls, but that the number of complex calls has also grown (see also Mumford, 1996). There are also security issues. issues. H owever, owever, t he growth in deman d is not as a result of the help desk  being avail available able on th e Inter net, bu t rath er from the growth of Internet u sers, sers, often nontechn ological users. T his is is evidence evidence th at the need for help-desk support will will continue continue t o grow: that there will be a greater need for helpdesk support within within t he comp lex organiza organizational tional IT enviro environment nment and that the dem ands that are mad e of the help desk will will grow grow in num ber and complexity. From the evidence of the past, help-desk managers must n ot simply react react to these changes but use them as a way of signaling the real benefits that can accrue to an organization from an effective help-desk operation. This project has demonstrated that the mod ern help desk is not just a reactiv reactive form of  user suppor t, but has a role to play play in in th e support of management, in the developmen developmen t of IT strategy strategy and in sales sales and promot ions. ions.

Conclusions If the help desk is to insure management backing rather than simply consent consent it m ust make its case in terms which management understand. T he successful successful help desk uses the inform ation which it gathers to make the business case for receiving receiving resour cing, or to give give its voice influ influ ence. The help desk is increasingly seen as a business rather th an a t echnical function, and must align itself accordingly. Its operation must contribut e toward th e greater organizational organizational goals goals (Bultema, 1996 ; LaBount y, 1996) , showing itself not simply to be an overhead, or cost center, but an asset, asset, or profit center (Bultema, 1995) . T his is is borne out by the case case studies which which found that resourcing for the help desk is much less of a problem where its performance is directly connected with revenue, as in the cases of help desks serving paying customers. T he key to the success of the h elp desk is its “front-line” position which allows it to gather data from users over time, thus not only solving their problems as they call but eliminating these problems at source and improving improving services in line with business needs. Whereas the traditional metho ds of qu ality ality assess assessment ment and requ iremen ts an alysis alysis involv involvee p eriodic review review, the help desk can dynamically provide data as a part of a process of continual change and improvement. It is import ant t hat we acknowledge acknowledge not just the chan ging and d evelopi eveloping ng role of the

Notes

15

1

Acce Accesss via Comp Compus user erve ve:: “ GO CSTECH” .

2

Send e-mail e-mail containing containing “ subscrib ubscribee HDE HDESK-L K-L” to [email protected].

3

http:/ http ://www. /www.he helpd lpdeeskins kinst.com t.com

4

http://www.d http:/ /www.duk ukee.e .edu/ du/~pve ~pvergh rghis is/hd /hdes eskfa kfaq.h q.htm tm

5

Two privatiz privatized ed former former pub public lic utilities utilities;; one one hhighe igherr education educ ation institution; instit ution; one systems systems supp supplier; lier; one health service; one airline; one library system supplier; one information informati on service service provider/online host; one online host; one local authority authori ty (outsourc (out sourced); ed); one car car spares manufacturer and supplier; one software

The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

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Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

house; one central government department, one computer systems systems manufacturer. manuf acturer.

Lusher, C. and McCormick, C. (1995), Introducing the t he Help  Help  Desk Prediction Cell Model , Model , Gartner Gartn er Group (key iss i ssues ues K-350-053).

Blaisdell, Blaisdell, M. (1992), “ Marketing the benefits of an internal help desk,” desk,” InfoWorld , August 31, p. 49.

Marcella, R. R. and Middleton, M iddleton, I. (1996), Key Factors in Help  Desk Success: An Analysis of Areas Critical to Help Desk  Developme Development nt and Functional Functionality, ity, BLR&DD Report No. 6247, The The Brit Brit ish Libr Library ary,, London.

Blaisdell, Blaisdell, M . (1995), Performance erforman ce Measurement Conference , e-mail (71333.2116@c (71333.21 [email protected] ompuserve.com), om), December December 20.

Morgan, J. J. (1996), “ Help Help desk fundamentals,” fundamentals,” unpublished internal paper.

Brown, D. and Burrows, C. (1995), Ovum Evaluates Desk  Tools , Ovum, R. [i [email protected] [email protected]]. rve.com].

Morgan, S. and Thorp, M. (1995), Videoconferencing on  Unix Workstations to Support Helpdesk/Advisory  Activities , University of Liverpool, Advisory Group on Computer Graphics, 1995.

References

Bruton, N. (1995), Effective User Support: How to Manage  the IT Help Desk , McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Bultema, P. (1995), “ From cost centr centre e to profi t centre,” LifeRaft , LifeRaft , Vol. 7 No. 2, March/April, pp. 3-4. Bultema, P. (1996), “ What does the fut ure hold for t he business of support?,” LifeRaft , LifeRaft , Vol. 8 No. 1, January/February, pp. 12-5. Call Centre Europe (1995), Europe (1995), “ PC help in five fi ve languages,” languages,” Vol. 7, pp. 19-20.

Mumford, A.M. (1996), (1996), “ Networking Networking multi med media ia – a supporters nightmare,” Information Services & Use , Vol. 16, pp. 43-50. Muns, R. (1995), Selecting Customer Customer Support Technology: Technology: 23  Important Conside onsiderations  rations , The Muns Group, Colorado Springs, CO.

Computing (1995), Computing (1995), “ The focus: help help desk soft soft ware,” (editorial), April 27, p. 35.

Pancucci, ancucci, D. (1995), “ Int Internal ernal help hel p desk fuels Texaco’s Texaco’s business,” Customer (Service (Service Management)  M anagement) ,, September pp. 38-9.

Czegel, B. (1995), Runni unning ng an Effecti ve Help Desk  Desk , John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.

Plunket lunkett,t, J.R. .R. (1993), (1 993), Implementing an IS Help Desk , Computer Applications, New York, NY, 1993.

Gallagher, R.S. (n.d.), Effective Software for Customer  Support , Support , International Thomson Computer Press, New York, NY.

Service Management  (1995),“ BSI BSI standar standard d for help desk management,” Service Management  Management ,, October.

Harris, A. (forthcoming), (fort hcoming), “ Surfing urfi ng users users create create support burden,” Service News , (http://ww (http:// ww w.service w.servicenews news.com) .com)

TCS TCS Management Group Inc., (1995), (1 995), Staffing the Call  Centre: The Art and Science of Workforce Management , Management  , TCS TCS Management Group Inc., Nashville, Nashvill e, TN. TN.

Hayward, D. (1995), “ System Samarit Samarit ans,” ans,” Computing , April 27, pp. 35-6. LaBount LaBountyy, C. C. (1996), “ The best best pl ace to start is i s the beginning,” Service News , Vol. 16 No. 7, June, (http://www.servicenews.com). Leung, Leung, L. (1995), “ The metropolit an li ne,” ne,” Computing , May 18, p. 44.

Thomas, A.H., The Help Desk Handbook (1994), Handbook  (1994), Van Nostrand tran d Reinhold, New York, NY. NY. Waern, Y., Malmsten, N., Oestreicher, L.J., Hjalmarsson, A. and Gidlof-Gunnarsson, Gidlof-Gunnarsson, A. (1991), (1991), “ Office automation and users’ need for support,” Behaviour and Informa-  tion Technology  echnology , Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 501-14.

Appendix. IT help desks and user user support support – quest quest ionnaire A B ritish Library funded funded research project project We would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to answer the following questions and return this form in the envelope provided, even if your organization does not have a “help desk” as such: we are interested in how support is provided, if at all. In t he case of a help desk contracted out t o external company (outsourced), questions should be answered with reference to the client company. Where more than one help service exists, please answer the questions with reference to a single one dealing with IT queries. All responses are given in strictest confidence, and names of individuals and organizations will not be divulged.  If appropriate, tick more than one response, adding annotations where necessary • To help help users of IT and computer technology technology,, does your your organiza organization tion have: have: s A single, central help desk specifically for the purpose s

M ore than one such helpdesk, If so:

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s s s s

How many? ………… Are they split: s Geographically s By area of exper tise/responsibility tise/responsibility A department which does not exist exclusively to provide a help desk, but which deals with IT-related IT-related queries D esignated esignated “supp ort groups”, i.e. not paid suppor t staff, but n etworks etworks of employees employees with with sufficie sufficient nt expertise expertise to help others T he organization relies on com mer cial vend vend ors’ after-sales after-sales sup sup por t service Oth er (please describe) describe) ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .. ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .. ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .. ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ..

• Is the help help service service outsourced, i.e. is is an an external company company contracted to provide provide it? s Yes s No • Which departm ent(s) is responsible responsible for for the help service, service, or managing its its outsourcing? outsourcing? ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• H ow would would you rate th e help service’ service’ss lev level of auton auton omy (i.e. its lev level el of decis decision-making ion-making indeindependence) from its parent department? ver y low 1 s 2 s 3 s 4 s 5 s very high • Approximately Approximately,, how large large is is the user group, i.e. the numb er of people who who may potentially potentially require help from this source? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • Over Over how many sites sites (approximate (approximately ly)) are these users users distributed? distributed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • For which of the follow following ing tasks tasks is your h elp servi service ce responsible? responsible? Providing com puting systems systems s Providing s Repairing or adjusting users’ s O rd rd er er iin n g eq ui uip me m en t an d sp sp ar ar es h ar ar dw dwar e o r so so ft wa wa r e s User training s Software applications queries Statistical/management /management reports lling software s Statistical s Insta lling s IT inventory management s Other (please describe below) ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• Does the help help servi service ce deal deal with with queries: queries: s For a wide, un specified specified range of IT produ cts – any quer y at all all s For a certain number of specified supported products s For very specific, organization-wide systems only s Networks s PC s s Mainframes s Other • D o es es th th is is in in cl clu d e: e: (Please describe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• Is the help servic servicee provided provided on a service service level level agreement/contract agreement/contract basis? basis? s Yes s No • Does the help help servic servicee charge charge for for its serv servic ice? e? s Yes s No • Are users users required to foll follow ow a specific specific procedure in approaching the help servic service? e? s Yes s No • What means are used used at the help serv servic icee in order to solv solve problems? problems? s Product instruction s Reference sources: printed/online instruction manu als als logging/tracking software comp uter access to the prob lematic s C all logging/tracking s Remove comp xp er er t sy syst em em /k /kn ow owled ge ge b as ase syst em em s E xp s Staff expertise s Oth er (p lease lease describe) ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

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...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• At one time, time, how how many many staf stafff: Only answer answer ph ones, passing passing on problem details details ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... .......

Only resolve problems ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

Answer phones and  resolve problems ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• Do staff staff work work at at the help help servi service: ce: s exclusively while performing oth er du ties s on secondment s while • Approximately Approximately,, how many calls calls are receiv received daily? daily?

s s

on a rotational basis other

...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....

• Approximately Approximately,, what percentage of call callss are: solv solved ed at the first call? ...... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ..

%

require further analysis ...... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ..

%

• How are are incomi incoming ng cal calls ls handled? handled? taking the calls calls s H elp desk is manned by experts taking irectly to relev relevant ant expert or team for specific specific problems s Con tact is made d irectly s Calls are handled by staff with basic knowledge and passed to expert or team if not capable of immediate solution s Receptionist Receptionist h andles all calls calls and adds to “job list” list” – no direct comm unication with experts describe) s Oth er (please describe) ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... .. ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... ..

• If known, known, how many staff staff had the follow following ing attributes attributes prior to joining joining the help desk? desk? . . . . . . . . I T /c /co m pu pu t er exp er ien ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . h elp d esk e xp e r ie n c e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r eleva n t d e gr e e . . . . . . . . gen er al ad m in ist r at io n skills experienc encee of this this orga organiz nizati ation on . . . . . . . .other .other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . experi • What training do staff staff receiv receivee for working working in the help servic service? e? systems suppor ted s Learn ing piecemeal piecemeal on the job s Training in the systems s Telephone/communication skills s other (please describe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. • In an alyzi alyzing ng the help service’ service’ss perform perform ance, which which of the follow following ing are compiled? compiled? s Users’ perception surveys s Call response/resolution statistics describe) s Oth er (please describe) .............................. ............................. .............. ............................ ............................. ............... ............................ ............................. ............... • H ow is is the information information which which is genera generated ted through help-desk help-desk operati operation on m ade use of? of? s Identification of user training needs s Identification of regular hardware/software faults processing requirements s Identification of trend s in u sers’ processing s Information is used at higher levels of management, e.g. strategic planning describe) s Oth er (please describe) ............................ ............................. ............... .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. ..............

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The role of the help desk in strategic management of information systems

OCLC Systems & Services

Rita M arcella arcella and Iain Mi ddleton 

Volume 12 · Number 4 · 1996 · 4–19

• For how long long has the help help function function existe existed d in its present present form? form? .............................. ............................. .............. • H ow did did the help function function as it currently currently exis exists ts come into into being? being? s “G rew” informally s Independent consultants brought in informally as need arose assigned ned s Inter nal work group assig s Other similar organizations consulted (Brief description) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. • Briefly Briefly, what do you perceive perceive as the major problem(s) facing facing the help service, service, or ways ways in which which service service could be impr impr oved? oved? (C ontinue on a separate separate sheet if if necess necessary) ary) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. .............................. ............................. .............. We would like to be able to use these questionnaires in order to identify suitable organizations for further study this year. Would you be willing to participate in a follow up study? s Yes s N o If “Yes”, please ensure that we have the correct details for contacting you: N a m e: D e p a r t m en t : L o cat io n : Telep h o n e:  If you have any queries regarding this questionnaire, please do not hesitate to contact: Iain A. Middleton SL IS Tel: d ir ect lin e: ( 0 1 2 2 4 ) 2 6 2 9 5 4 T h e R o b er t G or or d on on Un U n iv iver si sit y S ec r e t a r y 2 6 2 9 5 1 3 5 2 K in g S t r eet F a x: 2 6 2 9 6 9 Ab e r d e e n A B 9 2 T Q E -m ail: i. m id d let o n @r gu . ac. u k   Further comments, answers you would like to enlarge on, or areas of significance you feel we have neglected neglected m ay be continued on an other sheet, or add ressed ressed to t he above. above.

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