Conventional wisdom has it that technology is becoming more user friendly and users are feeling more confident in their own IT capabilities. Despite this buzz, users called the help desk more in 2010 than ever before, ComputerWorld's Patrick Thibodeau reports.

Sixty-seven percent of help desk operations saw an increase in reported incidents, according to a study by the Help Desk Institute (now called HDI). The rise in calls can be attributed partly to the trend toward help desk centralization, HDI found. Incident data is being collected more effectively, and users may be more inclined to ask for help when there is a central desk to call.

However, the rising demand for support is likely also the result of increasingly complex IT, particularly mobile devices. Approximately 41 percent of the organizations that reported an increase in help desk calls attributed it to changes or upgrades in products or infrastructure.  

As the calls for support have risen, the number of help desk employees has fallen, the study found. The reduction "represents a relatively substantial dip and indicates that providing high-quality support to users assumed a lower priority amid the wave of operational budget-cutting and staff reductions that accompanied the official end of the recession," the report found.

For more:
- see Patrick Thibodeau's article at ComputerWorld

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