New Service Desk Survey Reveals Ease-of-Use Trumps ITIL and Advanced Features

Dell KACE today announced the results from a new global survey of almost 850 IT professionals on service desk trends. Conducted by Dimensional Research and commissioned by Dell KACE, the survey revealed 71% of small and midsized organizations (SMBs) did not consider ITIL support as a factor during the purchase of their service desk tool, even though half indicated having adopted ITIL in some form. An overwhelming majority, 92%, indicated they have either not adopted ITIL at all or only use it as a guideline. Additionally, the survey showed SMBs preferred ease-of-use over advanced features. Almost all reported integration of service desk with a desktop management tool as beneficial, though most SMBs reported that they did not have an integrated solution.

“Our survey revealed IT departments believe they can achieve increased efficiencies by integrating their service desks with other processes to rapidly provide complete information about the endpoints they service,” said Diane Hagglund, senior research analyst for Dimensional Research and the study’s author. “Although most organizations see the value in integrating their service desk solutions with other systems, few SMBs have been able to implement this important integration.”

Service desk (also commonly referred to as help desk) tools are seen as the face of the IT organization by employees, and interactions and successes with a company’s service desk have become the primary manner that corporate IT is judged. The primary goal of the “Current Trends with Service Desk Tools: A Survey of IT Professionals” study was to gather data about the current trends in service desk solutions, particularly among SMBs. Although the majority of SMB organizations strive to optimize their service desk by integrating with desktop management, 71 percent feel cost factors or technical complexity have hampered their ability to make the integration.

Key survey findings include:

71 percent reported they did not consider ITIL support when purchasing their service desk solution;
SMBs ranked ease-of-use higher than advanced features when asked to rank a list of service desk features. Web-based interface was the highest ranked service desk feature;
71 percent of survey respondents reported the reputation of corporate IT is significantly impacted by service desk interactions;
92 percent reported seeing a benefit in integrating service desk to desktop management tools with 71 percent stating the integration enables faster time-to-resolution;
87 percent of SMB’s surveyed reported they have not completed this integration due to cost or technical factors.

Understanding the needs of IT organizations to optimize their desktop management capabilities, the Dell KACE Systems Management Appliance™ offers an appliance-based approach to service desk that is fully integrated with its asset and configuration management features. The appliance offers advanced functionality to help automate repetitive management tasks as well as provides real-time incident management as end-user issues arise. This integrated approach to processes and incident management reduces errors stemming from manual methods assuring high service levels and end-user satisfaction.

“Our latest research underscores what our customers already say about the importance of the service desk to their overall business success,” said Rob Meinhardt, president and co-founder of Dell KACE. “IT organizations of all sizes are continually graded on how well their ‘tech support’ optimizes end-user performance and this research shows reputations are on the line here. The integrated service desk and desktop management capabilities of Dell KACE appliances offer both IT and end-users better performance and faster time to resolution, helping to save IT administrators’ time and their organizations' money.”

Survey Methodology

In April 2011, an independent database of IT professionals world-wide was emailed and invited to participate in a web survey on the topic of trends in service desk tools. A total of 844 respondents completed the survey. Participants included hands-on IT professionals (43 percent), IT managers (36 percent), IT executives (18 percent) and others. Participants represented a wide range of company size and industry verticals. Respondents were not compensated for participating in this survey except to be offered a copy of the final report. The full report can be accessed at: https://www.kace.com/resources/Service-Desk-Survey-2011.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com/kace or follow the conversation at http://twitter.com/DellKACE.

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