Lesson 1: Icebergs and Undergrounds

In the common view of desktop application support, calls typically account for less than 5 percent of help desk volume. Very often, the percentage is even less than 1 percent. The visible portion of the “iceberg” is quite small.

But, like an iceberg, what you see on the surface (that is, what most CIOs see when reviewing help desk metrics) is merely a fraction of what truly exists. The reality is that the demand is there; it’s just being absorbed by the organization in other forms:

• Peer support (Joe asks Mary for help)
• Abandoned support (Joe gets stuck and walks away from the task altogether)
• Rework (Joe can’t figure out how to make the software do what he needs so he re-tools his work to get around the problem)
• Self-help (Joe wastes time consulting the software help feature, scouring the Internet for help, reviewing manuals, etc.)

The productivity impact of these “underground” support channels averages three hours per solution at a cost of $48 to $196 per solution (depending on salary). And this doesn’t even account for the additional cost of the peer’s time (e.g., Mary in the example above). In comparison, the average solution with a best-of-breeds software application support provider is less than $25.
The true level of demand typically ranges from 5 percent to 15 percent of all help desk call volume, assuming all troubled end-users are reaching out to the help desk instead of consulting their underground channels. When a company is migrating to a new software suite or version, or rolling out additional mobile devices, the surge in demand for support can reach 40 percent or more of help desk volume.

Lesson 2: Contrasting Models

There is a significant contrast between supporting desktop applications under the standard help desk model versus employing a best-of-breeds approach for “how-to” support.
The standard help desk model employs a tiered support structure where only a relatively small percentage of issues (around 20 percent) are resolved on the first call, another roughly 35 percent require a few days to turn around, and the remaining 45 percent either take longer than a few days, or sometimes never find resolution.
This model staffs agents for things like break/fix, network connectivity issues, and hardware and software installs. They are, by design, generalists that have little knowledge on desktop applications and mobile devices (“jack of all trades, master of none,” to borrow a phrase). Additionally, the typical help desk is built on the premise of “lean staffing,” meaning nominal off-hours coverage, fewer bodies than required to meet peak calling periods, and frequent “leave a message” instances for troubled end-users.

In sharp contrast, a best-of-breeds sourcing partner does not employ a tiered support structure, leading to 90 percent or more of issues being resolved on the first call, and virtually no issue outstanding beyond 24 hours (excluding certain time-intensive development projects). Unlike the typical help desk model, a best-of-breeds sourcing partner employs certified software specialists on the front lines that focus exclusive attention, day in and day out, on desktop application and mobile device support. In this model, response time is critical, listening to music in queue is offensive, and leaving a voicemail is completely unacceptable.

Additional contrast stems from that exclusive focus. A best-of-breeds sourcing partner solves the real problem, not merely the symptoms described by the end-user, in addition to identifying related topics, delivering multiple solutions on the same call, and recommending future courses of action for training. The specialist, by virtue of experience and expertise, can solve today’s issue and reduce tomorrow’s need for similar support. That translates into dramatically enhanced ROI for an organization’s investment in software and mobile devices.

Lesson 3: Apples & Oranges, and How Much They Really Cost

The typical perception of specialized desktop application support is that it is expensive compared to average help desk metrics. The reasoning follows a general pattern: Our average call lasts X minutes and costs Y dollars. The average call to a niche, “how-to” support provider is expensive when compared to our internal cost per call for help desk assistance.
But that’s comparing apples to oranges.

For starters, comparing “costs per call” completely misses the key distinction between a “call” and a “solution.” While a typical help desk call may focus on an isolated, solitary issue and the associated solution such as “connecting to the web,” desktop application support generally requires the delivery of multiple solutions on a single call.

A customer calling in about Excel, for example, may need help fixing a formula, formatting cells, and modifying a pivot table before the support session can be successfully ended. The end result is a much lower cost-per-solution delivered – and one that no doubt required a much higher level of experience and expertise to address.

So, while typical calls to a help desk may cost an average $80 per solution, a specialized partner can deliver solutions for a fraction of this cost.

Aside from getting the terms right, it is also inaccurate to compare the average help desk call with the average “how-to” solution. A help desk handles a disproportionately high number of quick-fix issues (such as password resets, which can average 30 percent or more of all help desk service requests).

Such quick-fix calls skew the average length and cost of a help desk call. If that same help desk examined average minutes spent on just one subset of its data – namely, desktop application and mobile device issues – the numbers tell a very different story.

Lesson 4: A Breakfast Analogy

Training and support are not the same. Training complements support, like milk complements Cheerios, but training is not a viable substitute for support. Still, many IT managers will reason that, since all employees go through training when they are hired and perhaps even periodically thereafter, there is no need for desktop application support. This is flawed for two primary reasons.

First, while training is effective at addressing common and repeated needs, it is highly ineffective – and inefficient – at meeting specialized needs at unpredictable times, which is the very nature of a desktop application support issue. For example, if my company is switching from Lotus Notes to Outlook, it is smart to offer upfront training to teach employees how to attach files, use distribution lists, make calendar entries, etc. – tasks everyone needs to know how to do from the start. But if I cannot figure out why my net present value calculation in Excel is yielding a negative number for the interest rate, training is of no help to me, even if I was the star pupil at every class the company offered.

Beyond that, even a well-trained knowledge worker is highly likely to forget what he/she learned when the time comes to use a key feature or apply a technique within the application or device. Think about the student who studies, aces the exam, and, two months later, cannot remember a lick of what he learned.

Lesson 5: Full-Circle

The presence or absence of quality desktop application and mobile device support feeds a recurring cycle of events.

When support is poor, end-user satisfaction is low. This leads to a low number of calls to the help desk on “how-to” questions and an increase in the need for support, as evidenced by end-users seeking help from peers or other time-consuming sources. This gap in support costs companies an average of three hours of lost productivity per “how-to” issue (see Lesson 1: The Iceberg). But an organization will never see this gap by merely looking at its help desk stats. It is hidden from plain view.

On the contrary, when the gap is bridged with top-notch support, end-user satisfaction increases, as does the number of calls for desktop application and mobile device support. It seems paradoxical, but consider this: When the availability of quality, prompt support becomes known and is then reinforced by experience, the demand shifts from peer support to the newly enhanced help desk. Bridging this gap brings an immediate productivity gain (i.e., winning back the three hours per solution) and a future productivity gain.

An IT manager may ask: Why would I go looking for additional calls? After all, I’m trying to decrease help desk call volume. The real question should be: Why would I allow my company to continue wasting $48 to $196 per “how-to” solution when an alternative model could yield the same solutions for $25?

Have you asked yourself that question? (Jen Darr, Stephanie Maurer)

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In an e-mail response, a reader pointed out an even greater obstacle, something he called the infuriation factor.

“The reason I don’t call our help desk is because it is outsourced to desks outside the U.S.,” he wrote. “The ‘Help’ can’t speak English adequately enough to understand or communicate effectively. A problem which should only take five or 10 minutes to resolve sometimes takes as long as an hour and a half.”

He has a point, and it’s a biggie, for sure.

“Desktop application support is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal.”

Most of us have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where we were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny ’80s Lite rock, only to be “helped” – eventually – by someone whose English was so-so, and who was proficient only in gatekeeping.

I’m not by any means xenophobic, and I’m not offended if an ATM asks if I’d like to bank in Spanish, Hindi or English, but the point of desktop application support – or any support – is to clear up conundrums. That’s hard to accomplish if the people involved cannot communicate with each other. It’s even more difficult if the help desk employs a tiered structure and bounces callers around until they get a technician who can actually help.

The language issue is a symptom of a larger outsourcing problem. That is, that because the need for desktop application support isn’t easily quantifiable, and because it’s difficult to prove return on investment with such services, it’s is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal. This not only sullies the help desk’s image, it also tarnishes the IT department’s reputation overall.

Recent industry publications have suggested that multimillion dollar outsourcing deals are the stuff of history, and that companies have begun opting for nimbler, best-of-breed help desk outsourcers. Still, the challenges remain: how to change the help desk’s reputation, how to prove its value, and how to keep an eye on the budget. (Jen Darr)

Is your IT department all-in-one or best-of-breed? Tell us in comments or send us an e-mail.

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Fear of asking “stupid” questions is the culprit for many misunderstandings in life, and it clearly plays a standout role in this case. Inserting footers and page breaks shouldn’t be so hard to figure out, right? For a fresh-faced techie, who has immersed himself in software all of his adult life, yes, asking how to fix footers qualifies as stupid.

But for those who started out in business using a typewriter, electric or manual, inserting a footer meant simply typing it at the bottom. Adding a page break was as easy as pulling the paper out of the machine. They did not concern themselves with section breaks, be they even, odd or next page; nor did they care about field codes to insert current date and time, file name or page numbering style. Heck, they may even have brought in a mariachi band for presentation sound effects. (OK, that’s a stretch.)

Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer has catching up to do, plus a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.

So, for many, “How do you make the same footer appear on all but the first two pages?” is not an inane question, especially when considering how much has changed in the past 20-odd years. The Internet and computers have had a profound impact on the 21st century, more so than any other technological advance. Each new development requires new skills and understanding. Computer literacy is no longer a special talent; it’s a necessity.

There’s no argument that all corporate workers need technological skills to do their jobs — not developer-level or expert knowledge, mind you, but practical training and ongoing support. Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer clearly has catching up to do, not to mention a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.*

The question for CIOs and other IT leaders is: How will you give your employees those skills?

Will you force them “underground” for software support, to huddle and hatch costly, time-consuming workarounds, or will you encourage them to solve their problems productively with the proper training and support? (Jen Darr)

*Source: Ezziane, Zoheir: Information Technology Literacy: Learning and Teaching.

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After more than an hour of trial and error, she couldn’t find the feature she used in previous versions, so she devised a workaround with the space bar to nudge and align.

She asked two of her fellow teachers for help. They couldn’t figure it out either, and they too were using the spacebar fix.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience?

“It sucks. I hate it.”

Teacher A spent more than an hour coming up with her Band-aid workaround. But her solution isn’t a solution at all: She now spends more time on each presentation nudging and aligning.

If she would have called her school district help desk, a consultant would have solved her problem in less than half the time. She could have passed along the information to her colleagues, saving them each an hour. She may have even learned how to use tools that are new to the version.

When asked why she didn’t call the help desk, she said she didn’t think the question was important enough. Besides, she added, she didn’t have time to waste on the phone.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience? “It sucks. I hate it.”

This is typical in workplaces. Even at companies where quality desktop application support is offered, employees hesitate to utilize the service.

One reason is to avoid embarrassment. Many workers have learned their computer skills informally on the job, so they are reluctant to call the help desk for what they perceive is a “stupid” question.

Another reason, and chief among them, is an assumed time investment. Most people have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where they were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny, instrumental versions of Cat Stevens hits, only to be “helped” — eventually — by someone who is familiar with everything but proficient in nothing.

So instead, they tap the office software “expert” for help, pulling her away from her job and wasting twice the company effort. Or they fruitlessly scan Microsoft Help files and search the web.

The result is a whopping waste of investment in software. The point of an upgrade is to give users new, usually improved and expanded capabilities. If employees do not have access to training and support, they will naturally come to the conclusion that Office 2007 sucks. That sucks for your bottom line. (Jen Darr)

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Software migrations will no doubt cause disruptions in at least three areas over several months. But if you approach it with a thought-out plan, you can lessen the sting.

Where’s the File Menu?

The first and most obvious impact will be on your employees. Features they have used for years are suddenly, um, somewhere else. The interface changes in Office 2007 are substantial enough that without training and support before and throughout a migration, even the savviest users will be lost.

“How will an overall decrease in productivity affect your company’s numbers? In a word, nightmarishly.”

Callers are in Queue

Immediately after deployment, employees will bombard the internal help desk with support questions, on top of their regular requests for forgotten passwords and more mailbox size. It’s hard to keep up a balancing act like that, even more so when employees make it over the initial learning hump and begin finding features that are new to the version. That’s 2.0.

The Bottom Line

How will an overall decrease in productivity affect your company’s numbers? In a word, nightmarishly. If John Q. Embeeay is churning out a dozen reports a day using Access and Excel 2003, how long will it take him to get back up to that level using 2007?

Whether it is learning how to use the new ribbon interface or adjusting to file formats, employees and help desks will face a learning curve of some capacity. Productivity, the backbone of a company, will suffer without a migration partner and plan in place. (Jen Darr)

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Not everyone knows what a mouse is, or what a gigabyte is, or how the Internet works.

To people who have used computers since the 1990s, this is an unnecessary dialogue. Doesn’t everyone know what a mouse is?

No, not everyone does. Nor does everyone know what a gigabyte is, or how the Internet works, or what a virus does, or the difference between Office 2003 and Office 2007. It’s called the digital divide, and it’s still an issue.

Granted, the digital divide really isn’t an issue in most office environments — you can expect your colleagues to have experience with computing and the Internet. But the fact that it still exists, even when computers are so inexpensive and ubiquitous, should remind us that we are not all at the same level, and it’s not always for lack of interest or aptitude.

I’m on this kick because I recently had the opportunity to spend a few hours with a half-dozen senior citizens teaching them basic computer skills*. We covered a range of topics, including search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo; e-mail, including attachments, replies, forwards and address books; and how to avoid being scammed.

While explaining e-mail, I mentioned in passing the utility of spam filters. Spam naturally led to mentions of phishing, malware, spyware and CAPTCHA programs. But I was way ahead of myself. I had to stop, back up. I realized they didn’t know what spam was. The challenge was explaining in a way that was jargon-free, and not condescending.

In a post I wrote last week, I talked about the importance of help desk staff knowing how to explain technical terms in plain language, and how such a skill can can encourage IT/business alignment.

Here’s what I think should be mandatory for all IT personnel: Spend a day or two teaching people who have never, ever used a computer. It would do wonders for IT/business alignment — plus give staff some much-needed perspective.

*I found the opportunity through the nonprofit Greater Philadelphia Cares, which uses volunteers for dozens of projects. For information, visit the organization’s web site (www.philacares.com).

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Even those with jobs have problems with tasks they are expected to perform daily.

But it’s not just the jobless who are struggling with rudimentary computer skills. Even those with jobs have problems with tasks they are expected to perform daily.

For example, if an employee cannot get the page numbering to work in the departmental report he is working on, where will he go for help? He probably will not call the IT help desk; that’s just for when computers are on fire or when networks are down (that, he’s learned from experience). Or, he might browse Microsoft’s notoriously useless help feature.

Another option is to wheel his chair in the aisle and ask a colleague in the next cubicle, because maybe he remembers him working on a report in Word at one point or another. Now two employees are trying to figure out the page-numbering riddle, and they are getting no further. That’s twice the wasted time and money.

Quality desktop application support usually is the first to go when budgets are cut. After all, it’s hard to quantify its return on investment, and the demand for such support is often hidden. But the skills you give your employees benefit you, the company, most of all.

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Everyone wants to be more productive, especially in a time when some workers are being asked to “do more with less,” and to itemize or quantify what they’ve accomplished in a day.

The new Compare feature.

Help your employees out by sharing this list of nine things to know about Microsoft Word. By doing so, you may help enhance your help desk’s image. You could even improve employee performance and ultimately the company’s bottom line.

1. STYLES: With styles, you can create better-looking documents in less time. While the 2003 version enabled you to save a smidge of time with styles, 2007 includes a full gallery predefined styles, table formats, list formats, graphical effects, and more.
2. TEMPLATES (namely, Normal.dot and, in Word 2007, Normal.dotx): A common complaint about Word 2007 is its maddening default line spacing and Calibri font. Save time and grief by changing the defaults in your normal template (normal.dot in 2003; normal.dotx in 2007).
3. AUTOTEXT/QUICKPARTS: Also known as QuickParts in Word 2007, this feature is so undervalued, so underused. If you find yourself typing and re-typing the same text over and over again, in every document you create (your title, for example, or a company disclaimer, etc.), you’d be wise to learn how to use Autotext/QuickParts. It enables you to type entire words or phrases with one or two keystrokes and saves you time and unnecessary typing. Very handy.
4. ADDING A SPACE BEFORE & AFTER PARAGRAPHS: Everyone does it – adds the additional hard returns before and after a paragraph so the text doesn’t meld together into one block of gray on the page. Stop, already. It’s monotonous and it invites trouble into your document layout. Instead, use Format | Paragraph | Space Before/After (in 2007, go to Page Layout Tab| Paragraph Section | Spacing) for foolproof page design.
5. USE HARD SPACES TO KEEP NAMES TOGETHER ON A LINE: The more formal the document, the more important it is that names not break across lines. Checking for this can be tedious. You’d be better off using hard spaces from the get-go. Just hold down control + shift + spacebar. You can also add hard spaces to autotext/QuickParts.
6. IMPROVED COMPARISON FEATURE: If you rely on the Compare and Merge feature in Word 2003 when you forget to track changes, you’ll be delighted when you get a look at the 2007 version. (See image.) Instead of just showing you the changes in one document, Word 2007 shows you the deleted, inserted, and moved text clearly marked in a third version of the document.
7. CUSTOMIZABLE STATUS BAR: If you are working in a document with multiple sections and pages, like a contract or lengthy agreement, a customized status bar will do you good. Right-click on the gray bar and take a look at what you can show or hide. The status bar can also help you troubleshoot problems like misbehaving headers and footers. In previous versions, this feature was not customizable; it was either enabled or disabled.
8. MINI TOOLBAR: One of Word 2007′s standout additions, in my opinion. It’s a context menu that automatically appears when text is selected. It’s meant to provide easy access to commonly used formatting commands without having to right-click the mouse. Mini productivity-enhancer.
9. IMPROVED SPELL-CHECKING: Finally! Contextual spelling. Although it’s not foolproof, nor should it be substituted for good old -fashioned editing, Word 2007′s new spell check is smarter than its predecessors. It will politely let you know if you used “its” when you meant to write “it’s.”

Did we miss something? Send us an e-mail or post a comment to let us know about it.
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It brought to mind the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy presidential debate. Although I didn’t see it live, I learned about it in college as an example of how your image can negate your message. Here’s the clip from YouTube: JFK vs. Nixon, 1960 debate.

After the debate, radio listeners deemed Nixon the victor. They didn’t see him darting his eyes, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, or dabbing the sweat from his mug with a neatly folded hanky. But for those who watched on TV, they named the charismatic Kennedy the winner.

Too many people, C-levels included, fail to realize how vital presentation skills are. If you sweat, stumble and lack confidence, your message will be lost.

Nixon, scowling; JFK, poised . (Source: YouTube)

Personalities aside (some people just weren’t meant to present), command of the subject and of the software play an important role, too. I have sat through webinars and presentations created by esteemed CIOs and CEOs that were horrendous. I was surprised that people with so much knowledge failed to grasp basics like slide transitions.

But it’s not so surprising, considering how much “oversoftwaring” occurs in business, and how some firms upgrade simply because a new version is available. Training on the new software or versions is an afterthought.

The fact is, we all need a little schooling and assistance – regardless of our title. (Jen Darr)

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What a frightening, unnecessary drain on productivity.

Below are five more snags that can tie up employees for hours. With a little basic upfront training, plus assistance from a support desk, these issues could be solved in minutes.

1. Outlook – offline: Networks sometimes hiccup and bump users offline. It’s usually so quick that employees do not notice and are reconnected. Still, the reconnection can fail. We’ve seen people go an entire day without being able to figure it out on their own. If it’s a result of an interrupted connection, reconnecting is just a matter of deselecting the “work offline” item in the File menu, or a reboot.

CTRL+S is the most valuable keyboard shortcut anyone can learn. Left pinky and left ring finger. Repeat often.

2. Outlook – mailbox full: When a mailbox reaches its limit, Outlook yanks the ability to send e-mails. The next to go is receiving messages. E-mails are held hostage in the Outbox, and the user is tied to his computer until he frees up enough space. Instead of cleaning up a mailbox message by message (which is a common approach and quite tedious), he can organize his mail by size and move large mail to a Personal Folders File (.pst). Once he’s caught up, he can set up auto-archiving to prevent future mailbox clogs. A few steps compared to a few hundred.

3. Word – document closed without saving: CTRL+S is the most valuable keyboard shortcut anyone can learn. Left pinky and left ring finger (or left pinky and left middle finger, depending on the size of your hands). Repeat often. It will save your employees hours of retyping and begging IT to trashpick temp folders looking for a document that doesn’t exist.

4. Excel – dragging a formula to paste it to thousands of rows: What does an employee do when she has a formula that she needs to copy and paste to 14,000 adjacent rows? If she is like the majority of Excel users, she will grab the bottom right corner of the cell, and drag it down to row 14,000. She’d be better off double-clicking the fill handle (the little black square in the bottom right of the selected cell). When she sees how much time she saves, she’ll be thrilled.

5. Windows – meandering through six levels to reach a folder used every day: Say, for example, an employee’s files are stored on the Z drive. Within that drive is a folder for his department. Within that department folder is a folder for this fiscal year. Within that is a folder for a specific project. And on and on. He takes this scenic route three to five times a day. If he created a shortcut, he could make the trip in one click. (Jen Darr)

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