This article really hilights the gap of understanding between management and IT in many places. Gray is lamenting what IT is doing. Management sets the direction and priorities for IT. Now, IT is not blameless. Often, IT presents management with too much data and not enough interpretation covering opportunity costs. That said, how many articles have been written over the years for IT managers as they try to squeeze budget enough budget dollars out of a company to effectively support growth targets?

Many IT pros who serve at a Helpdesk know that the much of the time they answer the phone, they face an angry, resentful, confrontational person on the other end through no fault of their own. They have to be part psychologist in addition to an all system knowing oracle. Many helpdesks would love to give that "value-add" of workstation visits and friendly chats over what mobile device works best for your daughter, but when the call queue is backed up on Monday morning because it seems like 20% of the company can't remember a password over the weekend and managment won't fund a self serve option, or worse, end users won't USE a self serve option, well, it is difficult to feel the love.

More specifically, one of the biggest understanding gaps for help desks is that the metrics of speed of answer, customer satisfaction, and first call resolution all pull in different directions. It is up to management to set the priorities and in order to keep staff costs down, first call resolution often suffers. When you ask management to prioritize, they often answer "yes", meaning they want it all, including boat rides and castles. Meanwhile, upper management threatens IT management over costs by labeling a potential strategic edge as a commodity. In case Mr. Gray hasn't noticed, Disneyland costs big dollars.

Further, IT can't spend 20 minutes on an initial call helping someone who was never properly TRAINED to use the software because there are 10 people in Mr. Gray's dreaded hold queue.

In example after example, the help desk is used to mask poor planning and implementation elsewhere in the company.