Most companies believe that the cost of desktop support consists entirely of the personnel, technology, and facilities that comprise the desktop support organization. From a pure accounting perspective, this may be true. However, there are many other, less obvious costs (some would say hidden costs), that must be taken into account when determining the true cost of Desktop Support. These include the cost of defects, the “penalty cost” for not following a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) support model, and workload costs that are a direct result of the IT environment itself.
In this blog we use benchmarking data to demonstrate that the true cost of Desktop Support is often much higher than expected.
Three Critical Cost Drivers
The true cost of desktop support must take into account three important cost drivers. These include:
1. The Direct Costs of the Desktop Support Organization
2. The Cost of Defects
3. Workload Costs that are a Function of the IT Environment Itself
Each of these costs is discussed in more detail below.
The Direct Cost of Desktop Support
The direct cost of desktop support includes the following components:
• Salaries and Benefits for Desktop Support Technicians
• Salaries and Benefits for Indirect Personnel (Team Leads, Supervisors, Workforce Schedulers, Dispatchers, QA/QC Personnel, Trainers, and Managers)
• Technology Expense (computers, software licensing fees, etc.)
• Telecom Expense
• Facilities Expense (office space, utilities, insurance, etc.)
• Travel, Training, and Office Supplies
As you might expect, the vast majority of direct costs are personnel related, accounting for approximately 70% of direct costs for the average desktop support organization.
The Cost of Defects
One of the eight essential KPI’s for desktop support is the % Resolved Level 1 Capable. This metric is a proxy for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and is a critical measure of overall End-User Support effectiveness. It is also a measure of defects since every ticket resolved at desktop support that could have been resolved at level 1 incurs substantial additional support costs.
At an average cost per ticket of $22 for the level 1 service desk, and an average cost per ticket of $62 for desktop support, each ticket that is escalated to desktop support that could have been resolved by the service desk generates $62 in wasted expense! The sad truth is that more than 20% of all tickets resolved by desktop support fall into this defect category: they could have been resolved at level 1!
Defects are not only a function of tickets that are escalated unnecessarily from the service desk. They are also the result of sloppy practices by desktop support organizations that do now follow a strict SPOC model for end-user support. We have all heard the terms “drive bys”, “fly bys”, and “snags” in reference to a desktop support technician being grabbed without warning, and asked to resolve a computer issue on the spot. The vast majority of these drive bys should be resolved remotely, by the service desk. But by giving in to the demands of the user, the desktop support technician is violating the SPOC support model, and incurring significant additional support costs for the organization. Strict enforcement of the SPOC model would have the desktop support technician tell the user to start by contacting the level 1 service desk to report any computer-related issues.
Workload Drivers
The final factor that drives the true cost of desktop support is the workload. While this may seem obvious, what is not so obvious is how dramatically the workload can vary from one company to another, even for organizations that are supporting the same number of users!
The workload is driven by numerous factors outside the control of desktop support. This is part of the reason why the number of tickets, incidents, and service requests can vary so dramatically from one organization to another. One important implication of the workload drivers is that desktop support organizations should not be staffed based upon the industry average ratio of users (or seats) to desktop support technicians. Depending upon the workload, the ratio of seats supported to desktop support technicians could be as high as 697 to 1 (one desktop support technician for every 697 seats), or it could be as low as 5.5 to 1 (one desktop support technician for every 5.5 seats). Staffing decisions should be based on the workload – incident and service request volume – not on the industry average ratio of users (or seats) to technicians.
Although the workload drivers are outside the direct control of desktop support, some of them can, in fact, be controlled by other groups or managers within IT. Controllable workload factors include such things as the average age of the devices supported (related to the device refresh rate), and the degree of standardization and virtualization of the desktop. As a rule, organizations with a standardized desktop environment (e.g., limited number of standard images, lockdown safeguards, etc.) will generate far fewer tickets per user, and hence have lower desktop support costs. Likewise, a managed/virtualized desktop, has proven to lower the costs of desktop support, sometimes significantly. These controllable workload factors, and the cost savings that are possible in a well managed desktop environment, are sometimes enough to justify funding for projects such as desktop virtualization, or an enterprise-wide device refresh.
An example of a non-controllable workload factor would be the user population density. Desktop support technicians working in a high density user environment (e.g., a high-rise office building with lots of cubicles) are able to handle a larger volume of tickets per month than a technician supporting numerous smaller work environments that are spread across a vast geographical area (think desktop support for a retail bank with hundreds of branches across the country).
Controlling the Costs of Desktop Support
The obvious question now is: What can be done to control and minimize the cost of desktop support? The answer is twofold: 1) the desktop support organization can take steps to minimize the number of defects, and 2) IT management can take steps to minimize the number of tickets generated.
The primary KPI for tracking defects is the % Resolved Level 1 Capable. The first step in reducing defects is to simply track this metric. By tracking this metric, enforcing a strict SPOC model, and eliminating drive bys, desktop support has the power to greatly reduce defects, the cost of desktop support, and indeed the Total Cost of Ownership for end-user support.
IT management is similarly obligated to implement actions that will reduce the number of desktop support tickets, and hence the total cost of desktop support. The primary strategies that accomplish these objectives include standardizing the desktop image, and virtualizing the desktop environment. MetricNet’s database shows that the number of tickets, and hence the total cost of desktop support, is substantially lower in a virtualized desktop environment than in a traditional, distributed desktop environment.
Conclusions
The true cost of desktop support is much greater than most companies realize. It goes well beyond the obvious costs of personnel, technology, and facilities. A full reckoning of desktop support costs must include the cost of defects – tickets resolved at desktop support that could have been resolved at level 1 – as well as costs that result from the IT environment itself. These environmental factors include the mix of incidents and service requests, the user population density, the number of mobile devices, and the standardization of the desktop.
The benefit of understanding the true cost of desktop support is that processes and practices can be adopted that will serve to contain, reduce, and minimize the cost of desktop support. These include tracking and minimizing desktop support defects, following a strict SPOC support model, and standardizing and virtualizing the desktop.
You can register for MetricNet's free webcast on Desktop Support Best Practices by visiting our webcast page.
MetricNet conducts Desktop Support Benchmarking for organizations worldwide. For more information, please visit our benchmarking store, or contact MetricNet.
