I just read a fascinating Q&A over at Information Week. The topic was why CIO’s should pay more attention to their helpdesk functions. Probably the most compelling reason is that something like 84% of users formulate their impressions of how well IT is doing its job from their interactions with the service desk!
The question that has to be asked is, how well equipped is the help desk to resolve the calls which it addresses? How easy is it for them to update common changes to Active Directory user attributes like name changes, title changes, location changes or password resets?
Or, do you even want your help desk spending time on those kinds of calls? If you implemented a web based Active Directory self service product which allows users to update their own profile would that free up the help desk to provide faster ticket close times on more complex and business critical issues? Could it also reduce your total cost per incident?
John Baschab, Managing Director of the boutique IT and management consulting firm the Provali Group thinks so. He maintains, “The best help desk ticket is the one that never happens.” You can read the rest of his comments here .
There is another benefit here. In the end user’s mind it seems that the less that they interact with the helpdesk, the better job IT is doing! It’s kind of like that old story about plumbers. When they do a great job, no one notices.
Can it be that you can actually increase end user satisfaction by letting them do more work on their own?
Jonathan Blackwell
View ProfileSince 2012, Jonathan Blackwell, an engineer and innovator, has provided engineering leadership that has put GroupID at the forefront of group and user management for Active Directory and Azure AD environments. His experience in development, marketing, and sales allows Jonathan to fully understand the Identity market and how buyers think.