What are the origins of the help desk?

In the United States, the help desk evolved out of necessity, when, in the 1980s, personal computers started to replace terminals on the desktop and the local area network emerged. In most cases, there were a few people within the company who were perceived as being "computer experts." Before long, these individuals were stopped in the hallway, lunch rooms--just about anywhere--and asked computer-related questions. They ended up with stacks of telephone messages or 'yellow stickies' surrounding their computer monitors--all calls were from internal employees who needed assistance with a computer problem.

The quick solution for IT (then MIS) managers was to put a body in front of the telephone to start answering the pleas for computer support. It became known as the "helpline" or "hotline." Shortly thereafter, tracking and logging systems were developed in-house to log and dispatch service tickets. This was the humble beginning of the help desk, as we know it today.

Since that time:

• Customer expectations have increased significantly.
• Support calls continue to grow in volume.
• The trend in global marketing, now makes multi-lingual customer support a necessary requirement.
• Help desk analyst talk times to solve problems are increasing in duration, due to the complexity on the desktop.
• Customer relationship management systems have become very sophisticated.
• Multiple service channels are now available and offer a desirable option to telephone support.

Help desk or helpdesk is probably the only transnational name that is well recognized. Moving away from the idea that the help desk is a "complaint line," some of the more popular names are centered on the help desk's ability to assist customers in increasing their productivity. They include:

• Customer assistance
• Customer care center
• Customer productivity center
• Knowledge or information center
• One point
• Service delivery center
• Solutions center
• Technical resource center
• Technical response center