DESKTOP SUPPORT EDITION - Remote Desktop - · PDF fileor new or upgraded software, then the service desk would open a service request and desktop support would ... DESKTOP SUPPORT

Desktop Support MetricsWritten by Mike HansonData analysis by Jenny Rains

HDI Research Brief September 2013 | 1

SEPTEMBER 2013

At the beginning of my career as a desktop support manager I searched everywhere

for examples of industry-standard measurements for second-level support organi-

zations At that time my search was in vain because desktop support was in its

infancy There were plenty of metrics for help desks but nothing concrete for desktop support

teams or individuals

DESKTOP SUPPORT EDITION

Today Irsquom happy to report thatrsquos no longer the case The

support profession has matured and is now recognized

as an integral part of IT and the business There are

even organizations that specialize in measuring support

teams and there are now a number of common metrics

used across a variety of industries In this brief we

will focus on the metrics commonly used by desktop

support This data is based on the 2013 HDI Desktop Support Practices amp Salary Report From November

2012 through January 2013 HDI surveyed a cross-

section of more than thirty industries with the 978

respondents representing multinational organizations

that are either based in or provide support to end users

around the world

THE FOUNDATIONDepending on the size of an organization or the type

of business desktop support can mean different things

have different scopes or even have different names

(eg second-level support field services) For the

purposes of this paper desktop support refers to the

IT organization thatrsquos responsible for responding to

incidents questions and service requests that involve

desktop hardware software and operating systems

Theyrsquore also usually responsible for fulfilling service

requests related to desktop hardware and deploying or

updating software on a clientrsquos local workstation

Desktop support tickets are categorized as desktop

support based on the type of issue (64) the individual

assigned to handle the issue (45) and the manner

of resolution (17) Incident refers to a problem the

customer is having with hardware or software (ie

therersquos something broken that needs to be fixed)

Conversely service requests are scheduled events

If a customer needs a new computer or peripheral

or new or upgraded software then the service desk

would open a service request and desktop support

would schedule the work Forty-one percent of

organizations track these two ticket types separately

In these organizations on average 56 percent of tickets

are incidents and 42 percent are service requests

Thirty-five percent of organizations donrsquot differentiate

while the remaining 25 percent distinguish between

them but donrsquot track them separately

Desktop support organizations operate in almost

every industry serving a variety of business types and

supporting a range of client bases from very small to

very large Thus desktop support presents a unique

challenge Over the years certain metrics have bubbled

to the top as standards but the interpretation of those

metrics may not be as consistent as you might find in

a more structured environment like the service desk

Nonetheless a good baseline of organizational metrics

can help us manage our operations properly and

respond more effectively to the businessrsquos needs

THE METRICSDesktop support gets its work from a variety of sources

Depending on how large the organization is or how

mature the support teams are there may be multiple

avenues for work to make its way into the support

queue The support center is the primary channel with

46 percent of tickets assigned to desktop support

from there In some organizations customers are able

to contact desktop support directly via phone (22

of tickets) or email (14 of tickets) Web requests and

walk-upsdrive-bys constitute the remaining 17 percent

of tickets Regardless of intake channel there are some

metrics that are common across industries

56of organizations saw an increase in the number of tickets received by desktop support

Assigned by support center End user calls desktop support directly

463 223 144

102 0464OtherWalk-upsdrive-bysEnd user submits a web

request (ie does not involve the support center)

End user emails desktop support directly

Desktop Support Metrics

Percentage of tickets assigned to desktop support from each of the following channels


VolumeFor forecasting purposes the most common metric is

volume or the number of incidents and service requests

(or both) assigned to the desktop support team This

is an important measure because it gives management

an idea of how much work is coming to the support

team and it allows them to staff the team appropriately

to deal with that incoming work Tracking this data

over time can provide historical perspective enabling

managers to identify certain times of the week month

or year that may require more resources In 2013 56

percent of organizations saw an increase in the number

of tickets received by desktop support

More than half of the organizations surveyed measure the

percentage of tickets handled by desktop support For

those organizations that separate incidents and service

requests 255 percent report that more than half of all

incidents are assigned to desktop support the median

is 25ndash30 percent The numbers are similar for service

requests with 305 percent reporting that more than half

are being by desktop support the median here is 41ndash45

percent As we might expect desktop support handles

more service requests than incidents This is even true

in organizations that donrsquot distinguish between the two

ticket types with 365 percent receiving more than half

of all tickets assigned (median = 41ndash45)

Volume is also important at the individual level as it

helps managers understand what individual desktop

support analysts can accomplish Almost 60 percent of

organizations surveyed measure the average number

of tickets resolved by a single technician in a month

In 21 percent of organizations analysts handle more

than 200 tickets each month but the median is 101ndash125

tickets per month

ResponsivenessResponsiveness is just as important as volume More than

half (53) of organizations measure responsiveness

which tells managers just how fast the support team

can get to a typical incident or request (not including

high-priority or urgent issues) This metric also helps

management understand how well the support team is

meeting customer expectations

The survey revealed that 48 percent of organizations

that measure responsiveness are able to respond to an

incident in an hour or less with the median response

time being 1ndash2 hours Service requests conversely donrsquot

follow a clear pattern with those response rates showing

a high degree of variability For example 159 percent of

organizations respond in 8ndash24 hours while 142 percent

get back to the client in 30ndash60 minutes (median = 2ndash4

of organizations report that desktop technicians handle more than 200 tickets each month

21




hours) In organizations that donrsquot distinguish between

incidents and service requests 427 percent respond

in an hour or less 404 percent in 1ndash8 hours and the

remaining 138 percent in 8 hours or more (median = 1ndash2

hours) This variation is likely the result of the fact that

the definition of a service request is broader than that

of an incident The type of activity a service request

requires very much depends on the size and type of

organization whereas incidents are almost universally

considered to have priority

EfficiencyThere are a number of metrics that measure the

efficiency of the IT organization Some of these metrics

relate directly to desktop support while others focus on

the flow of incidents in and out of the support center

Depending on the complexity of an issue a support

ticket can move between several support groups before

being resolved to the clientrsquos satisfaction

In most organizations the service desk owns the issue

and determines who should be engaged to resolve the

problem Ideally the incident should be resolved by

the service desk because that gets the customer back

to work without delay and keeps costs down Some

organizations (34) actually track the incidents that

reach desktop support that should have been resolved

by the service desk (level 1)

For those that measure ticket types separately 32

percent of respondents reported that more than 20

percent of their incidents could and should have been

handled by the service desk Likewise 32 percent of

respondents indicated that more than 20 percent of

their service requests could and should have been level

1 issues In organizations that donrsquot distinguish between

incidents and service requests the number is higher

37 percent report that more than 20 percent of their

tickets should have been resolved before they reached

desktop support However the median for all three

groups is the same 11ndash15

of desktop support organizations measure average time to respond

53

of the tickets sent to desktop support should have been resolved by the service desk

11-15

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know

INCIDENTS SERVICE REQUESTS

Percentage of organizations Percentage of organizations

89

89

207

186

181

169

198

194

152

152

84

63

13

0

76

72

68

64

107

119

115

115

214

136

167

157

184

213

81

38

64

68

Average time to resolve desktop support tickets (from the time a ticket is received to the time it is resolved)




Once an issue reaches desktop support it becomes

a question of how quickly and efficiently the desktop

support team can resolve the problem Of the

organizations surveyed 49 percent measure the

average time to resolve desktop support tickets

Predictably incidents are handled faster than service

requests since resolving a problem is not the same

as fulfilling a request Almost half of the respondents

(48) indicate that incidents are generally resolved

within one business day (8 hours) An additional 198

percent resolve incidents within 24 hours The remaining

respondents take 1ndash5 days or more

Service requests nearly always take longer with 214

percent taking 8ndash24 hours to resolve 167 percent

taking 1ndash2 days and 184 percent taking 3ndash5 days Only

29 percent are resolved in less than 8 hours Service

requests also impact those teams that combine their

tickets 175 percent of such requests are resolved in

8ndash24 hours while 183 percent take 1ndash2 days

Like the service desk the desktop support team may

also track how often a ticket is resolved on the first

attempt On the service desk this is usually called first

call resolution (FCR) For second-level support we swap

call for contact first contact resolution Regardless the

median for tickets resolved by the technician on the

first attempt is 70ndash80 percent

There are always circumstances that require desktop

support to engage other support teams which obviously

adds time to the duration of an incident For this reason

some teams also track ticket escalation Of the survey

respondents 39 percent say they measure this metric

and the median for escalations from desktop support to

other levels is 11ndash15 percent

However therersquos a clear difference between the amount

of time it takes to resolve an incident and the amount

of time or effort an analyst or technician puts into the

resolution of the incident Time to resolve is the duration

of the ticket how long it takes to reach a resolution

from the time the ticket is opened to the time itrsquos

closed Effort is the actual time the analysttechnician

spends working on the problem For example if an

issue requires a desktop computer to be reimaged the

entire reimage job may take several hours The actual

effort put in by the analysttechnician may be far less

(ie however long it takes to set up and kick off the

job) While that job is running the analysttechnician

can work on other tasks The effort measure represents

only the time they spent directly working on the issue

Whatrsquos surprising is how few organizations attempt to

measure effort Therersquos significant value in this metric

because it shows how much time the analysttechnician

is spending on core work It also allows managers to

gauge how much time and money specific types of

tickets require Of the organizations surveyed only 25

percent reported measuring effort For incidents 695

percent of organizations are spending 2 hours or less

on each ticket compared to the duration metric of 8

hours For service requests 62 percent of organizations

report that less than an hour of effort is typical In mixed

environments a little more than 50 percent show effort

of an hour or less

SatisfactionSupport organizations exist to resolve the customersrsquo

technical issues Most of the metrics noted above

objectively show how well desktop support is able to

handle its volume of work What they donrsquot speak to

the customerrsquos perception of desktop support Thatrsquos

where customer satisfaction metrics are valuable

Many organizations distribute customer surveys to get

feedback on individual and process performance Thirty-

five percent of the organizations surveyed have some

mechanism for capturing this information The survey

shows that 158 percent solicit feedback from a random

sampling of customers while almost 10 percent send

out surveys for all tickets The remaining respondents

collect data on a regular schedule

Very satisfied Satisfied

Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

12

2652

31

Percentage of organizations

Average desktop support customer satisfaction rating




For all available HDI Research Briefs visit wwwThinkHDIcomBePartOfTheCorner

Copyright copy 2013 UBM LLC All rights reserved

Sponsored by

By far email is the most common method for distributing

surveys (266) Customer-facing websites are the next

most common (131) followed by phone interoffice

mail postal mail and other methods

The good news is that across all industries 96 percent

of desktop support customers are either satisfied or

very satisfied just 32 percent of organizations have

customers who are dissatisfied or worse

ConclusionTherersquos an old saying that you canrsquot manage what you

canrsquot (or donrsquot) measure Thatrsquos very true in the world of

desktop support Effective metrics helps management

focus its attention on whatrsquos important They tell us

where wersquore going where wersquove been and how to

prepare for the future They allow us to set realistic

goals and they tell us when we achieve those goals

A meaningful program of metrics and measures is well

worth your time and energy

If yoursquore a desktop support professional I encourage

you to pick up a copy of the 2013 HDI Desktop Support Practices amp Salary Report It expands on the information

in this report and much much more

Median

Incidents Service Requests

Percentage of total tickets handled by desktop support 25-30 41-45

Average number of tickets resolved by one desktop support technician in a month 101-125

Average time to respond (includes only typical tickets not urgent or high-priority tickets)

1 - 2 hours 2 - 4 hours

Percentage of tickets sent to desktop support that could have been resolved by the support center (level 1)

11-15 11-15

Average time to resolve a desktop support ticket (from the time a ticket is received to the time it is resolved)


Percentage of tickets resolved by the technician on the first attempt 70-80 70-80

Percentage of tickets escalated to another department or level 11-15

Average amount of dedicated work time (effort) a desktop support technician spends on a ticket


Summary of desktop support metrics

Incidents Results for tickets for unplanned work required to fix something Service requests Results for tickets where nothing is broken but a service is needed


Assigned by support center End user calls desktop support directly

463 223 144

102 0464OtherWalk-upsdrive-bysEnd user submits a web

request (ie does not involve the support center)

End user emails desktop support directly


Percentage of tickets assigned to desktop support from each of the following channels


VolumeFor forecasting purposes the most common metric is

volume or the number of incidents and service requests

(or both) assigned to the desktop support team This

is an important measure because it gives management

an idea of how much work is coming to the support

team and it allows them to staff the team appropriately

to deal with that incoming work Tracking this data

over time can provide historical perspective enabling

managers to identify certain times of the week month

or year that may require more resources In 2013 56

percent of organizations saw an increase in the number

of tickets received by desktop support

More than half of the organizations surveyed measure the

percentage of tickets handled by desktop support For

those organizations that separate incidents and service

requests 255 percent report that more than half of all

incidents are assigned to desktop support the median

is 25ndash30 percent The numbers are similar for service

requests with 305 percent reporting that more than half

are being by desktop support the median here is 41ndash45

percent As we might expect desktop support handles

more service requests than incidents This is even true

in organizations that donrsquot distinguish between the two

ticket types with 365 percent receiving more than half

of all tickets assigned (median = 41ndash45)

Volume is also important at the individual level as it

helps managers understand what individual desktop

support analysts can accomplish Almost 60 percent of

organizations surveyed measure the average number

of tickets resolved by a single technician in a month

In 21 percent of organizations analysts handle more

than 200 tickets each month but the median is 101ndash125

tickets per month

ResponsivenessResponsiveness is just as important as volume More than

half (53) of organizations measure responsiveness

which tells managers just how fast the support team

can get to a typical incident or request (not including

high-priority or urgent issues) This metric also helps

management understand how well the support team is

meeting customer expectations

The survey revealed that 48 percent of organizations

that measure responsiveness are able to respond to an

incident in an hour or less with the median response

time being 1ndash2 hours Service requests conversely donrsquot

follow a clear pattern with those response rates showing

a high degree of variability For example 159 percent of

organizations respond in 8ndash24 hours while 142 percent

get back to the client in 30ndash60 minutes (median = 2ndash4

of organizations report that desktop technicians handle more than 200 tickets each month

21










































53


11-15

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know



89

89

207

186

181

169

198

194

152

152

84

63

13

0

76

72

68

64

107

119

115

115

214

136

167

157

184

213

81

38

64

68

































































of an hour or less
















Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

12

2652

31








Sponsored by





















Median







11-15 11-15


















































53


11-15

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know

Less than 1 hour

1 ndash 4 hours

4 ndash 8 hours

8 ndash 24 hours

1 ndash 2 days

3 ndash 5 days

More than 5 days

I donrsquot know



89

89

207

186

181

169

198

194

152

152

84

63

13

0

76

72

68

64

107

119

115

115

214

136

167

157

184

213

81

38

64

68

































































of an hour or less
















Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

12

2652

31








Sponsored by





















Median







11-15 11-15








































































of an hour or less
















Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

12

2652

31








Sponsored by





















Median







11-15 11-15














Sponsored by





















Median







11-15 11-15










Documents

DESKTOP SUPPORT EDITION - Remote Desktop - · PDF fileor new or upgraded software, then the service desk would open a service request and desktop support would ... DESKTOP SUPPORT