Language can define thinking. This has happened through the history of our industry.

1. Customer Support
2. Helpdesk
3. Monitoring
4. Remote Support
5. Managed Service

                              Time for a change !

Evolution of support has evolved for a long:

• Customer Support - First we had customer support. It is up to the end user to call us up and tell us about an issue, and rather than fixing the issue,we support the caller/end user to fix the issue. We assist the caller and he fixes his own issue.
• Helpdesk - Next came the helpdesk. So now we provide a desk. At least the end user can get help, but notice that we're still only helping them to solve the issue.
• Monitoring - The next step was monitoring. Finally, this is something that doesn't involve the end user - we monitor what is going on for them. But wait, once we find an issue, we're back to just supporting the person while they fix it.
• Remote Support - The first big "revolution" was remote support. With this, we can remotely support the device itself, without the involvement of the end user. Of course, the user has to sit by idle while we do this. Remote support is exactly the same as onsite support without driving out to the site.
• Managed Services - Now we have managed services. Here we define a short list of services, like software updates, that we are comfortable with and pretty sure we can manage. We even set up service level agreements, promising certain parameters about how we manage those services.

This is great, we get to define what the end users need, and then sell it to them! Of course, end users don't always fall for that, so we have to augment the managed services with the old standbys- helpdesk and remote support. Also, in order to manage the services, we just use monitoring and remote support ourselves.

Time for a change

The whole support industry is built around this framework, even though it still generates a significant amount of inconvenience and hidden cost for end users. Obviously, it must be worth a lot to end users to have their device issues taken care of, regardless of the hardship but there is a paradigm shift around the corner. We are coming to the end of the line with traditional support processes and tools.

• Hardware costs are falling
• Devices are becoming more mobile
• Software is becoming more complex and interrelated

The fundamental problem is that computers are causing the problem, but human beings are in charge of the solution. If we continue down the path where Moore's Law is driving support issues up exponentially on one end, and incremental improvements that are fundamentally based on human labor are bringing costs down linearly on the other end, then support costs will increase without bound.