Implementing a Successful Help Desk

Michael Wood - June 30, 2009 Many IT folks think that the key in implementing a Help Desk / Incident Management function is all about finding the right software; nothing could be further from the truth.  Believe it or not, users like being able to stop an IT person in a hallway and casually share needs.  Having this level of access, even though mostly ineffective and ultimately frustrating as results fail to appear, has become something of a security blanket to many users.  The thought of having to make service and improvement requests via a help desk conjures visions of an impersonal black hole where the voice on the other end has no idea how to solve the issues at hand.  This is a fear well grounded in experience, especially for those who have had to deal with vendor service desks that have under-trained problem solvers at the other end.

Overcoming resistance to change has been and continues to be the biggest challenge facing IT on many fronts, not just help desks.  Ironically, there is nothing in IT focused curricula that provides IT professionals with the facilitation and collaboration skills needed to be competent to lead change within an organization.  Thus, the disconnect between IT and the rest of the organization is wider than ever before.  How bad is it?  Well, according to Harvard Business School professors Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria, PhD, 70 percent…

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