which one a Technical Support or Help Desk

Sun Mar 4 06:41:58 UTC 2012

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 10:46 AM, Tarig Adam <tariq198487 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am working for a new Small ISP and we are trying to establish a
> center for receiving technical calls and inquires from customers and
> the technicians in this center may do some basics troubleshooting.
>
> What is the suitable title for this center and what we should call
> this people who do this job? Technical Support, Helpdesk, or Call
> Center. does each term has a specific meaning?
> And is there any standard structure of this center? And what is the
> relation of this people with other network/software Engineers?

Is your organization adopting any governance frameworks?

In ITIL-speak, the function you are describing is called the Service
Desk (but could actually be called anything you'd like-- i.e, The
Genius Brothel, etc)

>From the ITIL description of the Service Desk function:

"The Service Desk acts as the central point of contact between service
providers and users on a day to day basis. It is also a focal point
for reporting incidents and for service requests. It can also provide
an interface, for other service management activities (such as change,
problem, configuration, release and continuity management)."

I'd add to this description that it's a single point of contact (first
in, last out) for any and all types of requests, including change
management and internal requests. They also recognize that some
organizations would also have local premises service desks where
people could actually walk up to or be helped in a matter of minutes--
and that this function would be considered a "help desk", but only as
*part* of a larger service desk.

For more details on how ITIL structures this function, check the
wikipedia page- they have some basic info that can get you started.

-Dan