Panic at the help desk - reorganizing user-support teams - includes related article on outsourcing - Technology Information

Software Magazine, Oct, 1997 by Rick Whiting

New technologies, more users, and new responsibilities are forcing many organizations to reorganize their ser-support teams

Willamette Industries Inc. once had an in-house, five-person help desk that, frankly, often wasn't a lot of help. The help desk, the first line of defense for computer support for all 13,700 employees of the Portland, Ore.-based paper and wood products manufacturer, would take down all the necessary information about user problems. Then they would frequently just pass it along to the next level of application support services, who would turn around and ask the users all the same questions.

"The users found that redundant and time-consuming. They wanted help right aways," says Cam Henderson, corporate IS manager at Willamette Industries. To deal with this and other inefficiencies, Willamette earlier this year completed a six-month overhaul of its help desk operations.

Willamette isn't alone. Rapid changes in technology and the growth of distributed client/server computing arc putting great strains on help desk operations at a time when IT managers are under pressure to cut costs and provide greater service to their "customers." For example, the Meta Group estimates that help desk call volume is growing an average of 25% per year. Of the help desk managers surveyed in 1996 by the Help Desk Institute (HDI), Colorado Springs, Colo., 68% said that newer, more complex technology was a factor fueling the increase in calls, while 60% said more users also was a factor.

At the same time, many help desks -- originally created to support a few PCs and a LAN -- are now being given new responsibilities, such as asset management, change management, and deffect tracking. "The fact is that some of these people are being asked to do much more," says HDI Executive Director Emil Kobylecki.

The result of all this is that IT managers arc looking for a better way to provide help desk services, rebuilding help desk operations from scratch, and even outsourcing some or all of their help desk functions.

The clearest trend is help desk consolidation: Nearly 40% to 50% of organizations are moving toward a consolidated help desk, estimates Tummy Kirk, a senior research analyst at the Gartner Group.

Help desk consolidation means that the various support resources -- people, data, software tools -- and processes such as problem resolution and change management, are rearchitected to work together. This is not necessarily the same as centralization, where outlying help desk operations are eliminated or moved to a central location to cut expenses, says Kirk. Consolidation also means creating common practices, training, and standards across a corporate support organization -- no matter how widely dispersed.

Centralization and consolidation sometimes happen simultaneously. Consider Kawneer Company Inc. The Norcross, Ga., aluminum manufacturer has been consolidating its help desk operations since July. Company officials say the consolidation will cut costs, improve efficiency, and align the operation with the rest of the company's recently centralized structure. Previously the company had nine help desk personnel scattered throughout sites in the U.S. and Canada delivering first-line services. Those positions have been eliminated and two help desk workers -- with two more to be added-- are left at Kawneer's headquarters.

Although the cost savings of the nine eliminated positions will be very real, judgments about whether Kawneer's help desk can function with so small a staff -- let alone whether real operating efficiencies can be achieved -- will have to wait until after the reorganization is complete. "Give us six months," pleads help desk analyst Sandy Duffey.

Nike Inc. is about halfway through a consolidation and centralization. The Beaverton, Ore., athletic shoe manufacturer is recentralizing its help desk resources to cut costs. The main goal is to reduce this year's budget for help desk staff by 21%, says Patrick Taylor, Nike technical services manager; he declines to disclose dollar figures.

Nike once had a centralized help desk, but employee satisfaction with help desk operations was low, says Taylor, and workers outside of Nike headquarters preferred onsite help desk personnel. So the operation was decentralized. "Users loved it," Taylor says.

Decentralization had a price, however. Costs were higher because more help desk technicians and analysts were needed. And each had to be a jack-of-all-trades to handle a broader range of problems and technologies. Finding people with such a breadth of experience was becoming increasingly difficult, according to Taylor.

Nike concluded that the cost of providing Cadillac-level help desk service was prohibitive. The current recentralization effort across Nike's U.S. facilities will pull help desk services back to the company's headquarters, including telephone support, technical services (second- and third-level software support), hardware repair, and other vertical services.

Given that about 75% of all Nike help desk inquiries can be resolved on the first call, Taylor estimates that a centralized help desk employee will be capable of handling up to 300 calls per month, compared with the 75 to 80 calls each field support person could handle.