Help Desk - Help Desks in Schools

Help Desks in Schools

Some schools offer classes in which they perform similar tasks as a help desk. In the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, within companies adhering to ISO/IEC 20000 or seeking to implement IT Service Management best practice, a help desk may offer a wider range of user centric services. Under the ITIL framework, the help desk function is referred to as a service desk in order to emphasize the ITIL focus on services. The name technical support organizations give themselves varies across the industry. The 2012 HDI Practices and Salary Report reported that for the first time in the 20 years of the report, that Service Desk (at 32.3%) is used more than Help Desk (at 26.6%) or other names (sum of which total 40.1%).

The Help Desk Institute (HDI) was formed as a professional association in 1989 focused on the professional development of technical support professionals and the sharing of best practices. The Help Desk Institute was officially renamed to HDI in 2004 to reflect the maturing of the support industry and the expansion of technical support to include functions like desktop support as well as support centers that provided technical support for the organization's customers.

While the term help desk initially implied the place where employees received technical support for the organizations IT infrastructure, that scope has broadened widely in meaning and use. Help desks today serve as a single point of contact for a variety of services.