Absolutely
Whenever you mention the word 'Helpdesk' or 'Servicedesk' to IT staff they immediately have this superior look on their face, as though you barely rate as being in the IT dept.
The real situation however, is that the Helpdesk IS the IT dept, all the other little groups contribute to the operational picture: Data base admin, Network Admin, Online services (Internet services) but the people out there that use all this stuff interact with the Helpdesk primarily. A good Helpdesk Engineer is worth their weight (and more) in Platinum, they have a handle on all the administrators and systems in use, together with the operating system and standard operating environment. The Helpdesk contributes more to the overall productivity of an organization than just about any other aspect of IT operations. Sadly, a lot of IT managers and directors forget this golden rule, and opt for cheap ego and status attitudes, looking down on their Helpdesk team as 'plebs'. To actually be a good, functioning and effective Helpdesk Engineer takes a very broad range of technical skills together with a high 'EQ'-the major players have twigged to this, but the smaller IT departments often harbour old-fashioned attitudes when it comes to their Helpdesk Support teams.
