IT Service Desks Being Asked to Support More Requests with Fewer Staff
Numara Software Survey Also Finds IT Roles Are Becoming Increasingly Complex
Tampa, Fla. (September 23, 2008) –
Numara Software, a global leader in service management solutions for IT professionals, has released the results of its recent user survey, which polled more than 500 IT professionals about the current state of the IT and service desk industry. Trends in the responses revealed that IT service desks are being asked to field increasing numbers of requests without increases to their staffing levels.
Service desk employees also reported a trend towards an increasingly complex and fast-paced environment in their departments, according to the Spring 2008 survey. While the majority of respondents reported that they expected their budget to stay the same or increase, nearly 75 percent of those surveyed said they had seen no staffing increases in recent years.
“More than 90 percent of our respondents reported that their roles and responsibilities have become more complex,” said David Giles, vice president of services and support, Numara Software. “Numara Software has continued to be instrumental in providing the kinds of solutions that help IT departments manage their resources in response to both internal and external requests. Our tools enable service desks to continue providing high-quality service in these complex environments despite the other challenges they might face.”
The 500 IT employees surveyed are all users of the Numara Software flagship service desk products, Numara FootPrints and Numara Track-It!. The findings, listed below, gave insight into the current state of the IT and service desk industry. For example, more than 90 percent of the respondents reported that their roles and responsibilities have become more complex. This is supported by:
* More than 62 percent of those surveyed said they have seen an increase in service requests or trouble tickets over the past several years.
* Nearly 50 percent of the respondents indicated that there has been an increase in first call resolution over the past year.
* More than 71 percent responded that the number of channels for service has increased beyond email and telephone to include live chat, web forms and text messaging.
* 5 percent said there was an increase in compliance requirements.
Even though the findings in this survey suggest an increasingly complex and fast-paced environment in their department, staffing is not increasing at the same pace and the majority of the respondents reported that they expected their budget to stay the same or increase,
* Nearly 75 percent of those surveyed said they had seen no staffing increases in recent years.
* Of those surveyed, 66 percent said their staffing levels had stayed the same in recent years and 8 percent reported a decrease in staff.
* More than 59 percent of respondents said they expected their IT budget to stay the same or decrease in the next quarter.
“Numara Software products are particularly valuable in a tight budget because they are often deployed in other departments,” said Giles. “We have long known that our customers are using our products beyond the service desk environment, allowing them to maximize their investment in Numara Software asset and process and change management tools to other parts of their organizations.”
Some of the other items found in the survey that will impact the service desk in the future are virtualization, mobile challenges, wireless devices, unified communications, security, electronic medical records software, new VOIP, PCI compliance, SharePoint and Asset management.
* 68 percent see virtualization as the technology that will most impact their service desk in the future.
* 67 percent don’t employ mobile service desk with no plans in the future. Only 9 percent are considering implementation. 24 percent use it, but 80 percent of them rate their reliance level at 4 or less.
* 55 percent of customers don’t currently use self-service however, 45 percent responded saying that issues resolved through self service will increase over the next few years.
Numara Software regularly polls its vast customer base in order to gain their perspective on the industry, best practices, and product features that shape Numara Software’s solutions. Below are industry related questions from the survey.
Raw Data: Numara Survey Questionnaire
1. Approximately what percentage of your IT budget do you currently spend on internal IT service and support? (List percentage ranges)
* 0-10%: 28.1%
* 11-25%: 19.91%
* 26-50%: 18.97%
* 51-75%: 7.49%
* 76-100%: 25.53%
2. Do you expect the budget for internal IT service and support in to increase or decrease over the next 2 years? (Please provide estimated numerical value if possible
* Increase by in %: 38.4%
* Decrease by in %: 10.4%
* Remain the same in %: 48.2%
* No Response: 3%
3. On a scale from 1-10 (1 = not complex, 10 = extremely complex) how complex has your IT environment become over the past year?
* 1: 1.39%
* 2: 2.38%
* 3: 3.37%
* 4: 6.73%
* 5: 20.20%
* 6: 14.26%
* 7: 20.59%
* 8: 19.41%
* 9: 5.74%
* 10: 5.94%
4. On a scale from 1-10 (1 = not complex, 10 = extremely complex) how complex has your role and responsibilities become over the past year?
* 1: 1.19%
* 2: 1.19%
* 3: 2.57%
* 4: 3.76%
* 5: 18.42%
* 6: 13.07%
* 7: 23.56%
* 8: 21.39%
* 9: 6.53%
* 10: 8.32%
5. How has the following service desk levels changed over the past year? (Please provide estimated numerical values if possible)
* Incoming Service Tkts
o Increased: 62%
o Decreased: 26%
o Remain the same: 11%
6. Through which channels do you currently handle service requests?
* Email: 39.82%
* Phone: 37.96%
* Live chat: 5.13%
* Web form: 12.12%
* Text message: 2.83%
* Standard mail: 2.12%
7. How has your channel support changed over the past year? (Please provide estimated numerical values if possible)
* Number of channels for service
o Increased: 71.43%
o Decreased: 26.03%
o Remain the same: 2.49%
8. Do you expect the percentage of issues solved through self service to increase or decrease over the next year? (Please provide numerical value if possible)
* Increase by 45%
* Decrease by 6.8%
* No Change 48.2
* Don’t Know 16.8%
9. How have your customers satisfaction changed since implementing your Numara Software solution? (Please provide numerical value if possible)
* Increase by 53.4%
* Decrease by 28 %
* No Change 1.8%
* Don’t Know 16.8%
10. What percentage of your service desk issues are resolved through self-service?
* 0%: 1%
* 1-10%: 30%
* 11-20%: 8%
* 21-30%: 3%/li>
* 31-40%: 1%
* 41-50%: 1%
* 51-60%: 1%
* 61-70%: 1%
* 71-80%: 55%
* 81-90%: 1%
* 91-100%: 1%
11. Do you currently employ a mobile service desk model (i.e. your agents can provide support from mobile devices)?
* Yes: 32.3%
* No: 66.7%
12. (If yes to question 18) On a scale from 1-10 how reliant is your company on a mobile service desk (1 = not reliant, 10 = very reliant)? Please explain.
* 1: 73%
* 2: 3%
* 3: 2%
* 4: 2%
* 5: 3%
* 6: 1%
* 7: 4%
* 8: 7%
* 9: 3%
* 10: 2%
13. On a scale from 1-10 (1 = no involvement, 10 = very involved) what is your level of involvement in your companies annual business plan? Please explain.
* 1: 6.53%
* 2: 4.75%
* 3: 5.35%
* 4: 5.74%
* 5: 12.67%
* 6: 9.7%
* 7: 16.04%
* 8: 20.99%
* 9: 9.90%
* 10: 8.32%
14. Which new technologies do you expect will impact your service desk in the future?
* Virtualization: 70%
* Software as a Service (SaaS): 20%
* New Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requirements: 19%
About Numara Software, Inc.
Serving over 50,000 customer sites worldwide, Numara Software is a global leader in providing practical software solutions for service management to IT professionals. From a single technician running a help desk to 1000 technicians managing a complex service desk, IT organizations of all sizes trust our award-winning solutions, featuring Numara Track-It! and Numara FootPrints, to track requests, automate workflows and support internal and external customers.
Unlike other complex, difficult-to-implement, and costly products, we offer robust, affordable and easy-to-use solutions that can be quickly deployed without disruption to your business. Our flexible solutions can be implemented right out of the box or configured to match your unique IT environment and business processes. They can also be leveraged to support non-IT operations, such as human resources and facilities, allowing you to optimize your investments in licensing, maintenance, training, and support.
We’re passionate about helping people successfully manage their IT environments. Find out how we can help you by visiting: www.numarasoftware.com.
Contact:
John Machonis
Numara Software, Inc.
813.227.4538
john.machonis@numarasoftware.com
Liz Boal
Greenough Communications
617.275.6522
lboal@greenoughcom.com
“Numara” and the Numara logo are trademarks of Numara® Software, Inc. “Track-It!” and “FootPrints” are registered trademarks of Numara Software, Inc.
Source: Numara