What is the future in this industry?

From a process perspective, the following objectives are achievable today:

• Reduce the total cost of computing by defining hardware and software standards, based on business needs.
• Offset the cost of dispatching field technicians by implementing infrastructure management tools.
• Ease the overall cost of customer support by shortening the time to problem resolution and increasing customer productivity through the use of multiple service channels, and a self-help knowledge-base.
• Establish visual control of worldwide customer information through the use of web-based technologies.
• Increase employee retention by providing a flexible work schedule and state-of-the-art workplace.
• Expand the available resource pool by transitioning to a location-independent help desk model.

From a technical perspective, history has been our teacher and proven that technology is never static:

1980s+	Year 2000+
Desktop (personal) computers were made available.	Wireless technology has found a niche in the market because of its versatility.
Microsoft operating environments and applications moved processing to the desktop.	Web browsers are putting the processing burden back on the servers.
Core data slowly started moving from the mainframe to centralized servers.	Critical information resides on application and database servers.
The LAN / WAN evolved.	It is now difficult to distinguish between the LAN and the WAN. The network, instead of the office, can be considered a standard workplace.
Centralized information source / retrieval.	Web-based information delivery.
Communication systems emerged.	VoIP technologies continue to develop and run over the network.
The help desk was centralized and the telephone response became the leading method for providing customer support.	The help desk is dispersed geographically and utilizes multiple service channels to assist customers.