Building and Managing A World Class IT Help Desk at Dominant Systems Book Store

Many companies start out by delivering a product or a service to customers, but as they move past the initial stages, it becomes evident that some sort of support for users is necessary. Wooten, an experienced information technology (IT) help desk professional, offers valuable suggestions and real-life scenarios to companies looking to create their first help desk and those wanting to improve existing conditions. Topics include standard business practices such as defining processes, budgeting, and hiring, but they are specifically geared toward the IT help setting. A good book for managers and businessowners. (Library Journal )

Customer Reviews & Comments
This is an excellent beginner's book for implementing and/or managing help desk operations that are focused on desktop support and infrastructure issue management. Part I thoroughly explains the basics, including concepts, budgeting, and a business case for implementing a help desk. Part II covers the essentials of people, processes and tools. It also covers how to go about defining requirements and setting goals. I like the way the author steps you through the "As-Is" and "To-Be" planning because this is the foundation from which the help desk will be aligned to business and user requirements within a budget and the context of service level objectives. This part is process-oriented (as it should be) and gets you thinking in those terms. For readers who already staff or manage a help desk Part III will be especially valuable. Here the author discusses the realities of managing your staff, retaining them in a relatively sane state and ensuring that they have training opportunities. What I like, though, is the additional processes that are introduced, including change management, service level agreements and metrics. In fact, the chapter on metrics is excellent and hits all of the key points. Part IV is devoted to fixing existing help desk operations and is worth the price of the book if you are managing an operation that seems to forever be behind the power curve. Common causes of complaints are addressed in a methodical manner, which will provide you with the basis of a "get well" plan. If you are starting up a help desk this part of the book will show you pitfalls to avoid as your operation matures. Part V takes the people-process-tools discussed earlier into a greater amount of detail. Each topic is thoroughly covered and each provides excellent advice for increasing the effectiveness of your help desk. The appendices are also valuable. Appendix A is a set of sample job descriptions and Appendix B is a sample service level agreement (this sample covers all of the key elements of a good SLA). Although I found this book to be basic I also thought it is complete for desktop support and infrastructure-oriented help desks. For managed support operations where the help desk functions as an issue broker I prefer IT Problem Management by Gary S. Walker and/or Delivering World-Class Technical Support by Lori Laub et al, both of which are most applicable to enterprise application support. If you are starting a help desk or are managing one that is focused on desktop and infrastructure support this book will serve you well.

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