ABSTRACT
How many staff does your user support department need? Different sources give different numbers. It depends on several factors, including the range of services you will be providing and such performance indicators as spot rate, fixes per resolver, and so on (see Chapter 22 for a fuller explanation). The range of services will depend on what ‘computer user support’ means in your organization. Before computers were downsized to the extent they are now, ‘user support’ was typically just one of a number of groups in the IT department, and things like user training, computer operations and software development sat outside. Now in many companies, the developers have been replaced (either by off-the-shelf software or contractors brought in on a project-by-project basis), computer operations has been subsumed into the computer support department, and user training is commissioned from outside by the user’s own line manager. Of course this is not the case everywhere, but the various permutations of computer support structures complicate still further the process of deciding how many people you actually need.
