Simply purchasing a Help Desk to use on an already poor Help Desk model will not help matters.  A good organisation model needs to be established before any software is used.  The range of services, SLA (service level agreements) and levels of support need to be considered.    Off the Shelf products give better solutions than using in-house software simply because these off the shelf products are tried and tested by the best in the industry.

As discussed in the chapter these off the shelf packages have call tracking databases, expert’s systems technology, reporting tools and web access.  These features are often contained in one software product.  For example, a manager may purchase the call-tracking module of the vendor’s software, after using this they may wish to purchase the expert systems technology module and then this could be deployed using the Web knowledge base module.  The other option is to purchase these tools separately, although it is better to use one vendor.

In the chapter the various types of expert system technologies were discussed in this chapter, in reality a Help Desk software product may use all these techniques or only a few of them.

Knowledge bases and web support are popular in large first line support environments where the nature of support is repetitive therefore managers need to decide how may similar call are coming in and whether this warrants building a knowledge base.  Good reporting tools give an indication of the range of call and are essential in planning the Help Desk.  Self support tools are relatively new and are being used in external Help Desks, but they will make their way into Internal Help Desks.  These are the different way of cutting down on the barrage of call received by first line support environments.  The problem they receive range from simple problems and queries that can be solved by a user finding the solution over the web or by Non-IT staff using a knowledge base.

Not only are knowledge bases useful for first line support but they increase the overall knowledge and learning in the organisation.  Therefore, everyone in the organisation benefits with an well-organised and efficient Help Desk.  The use of software tools is one element in organising an effective Help Desk.  Other elements such as getting the right staff, Business Alignment, problem management, communicating with Users, integration with Change and Asset Management are beyond the scope of this project.  They will only be discussed briefly in areas where the effective use of software is blurred in the final recommendation in Chapter 3.