Desk A few years ago we thought the help desk could do it all. Now there are many innovative ways of sharing the responsibility. Southern Oregon University emphasizes customer service, the issue of ownership and follow-up on help desk calls. Several schools noted the importance of teaching and stressing customer service along with continual technical training. Everyone agreed that having hardware and software standards would help improve support.
Problems come with the rapid changes in the hardware market and resistance from customers.
Generally hardware is the easiest piece of the problem. Indiana State University seeks agreement from the community to limit supported things. Good support requires limiting what will be supported. Service Level Agreements with customers are a way to manage expectations. Constituent Group Future Time prohibited a lengthy discussion, but there was unanimous agreement to continue holding User Services group meetings.