Copyright ©2007 HDI All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN: 1-57125-018-2 HDI 102 South Tejon Street, Suite 1200 Colorado Springs, CO 80903 U.S.A. U.S. and Canada: 800.248.5667 www.ThinkHDI.com HDI is a registered trademark of ThinkService, Inc. ITIL is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. IT Infrastructure Library is a registered trademark

4. Who the Data Represent: Demographics ............................................................................................................... 15
Industry
Number of support centers within the support organization
Location of support organization
Location of the support center’s customer base
Type of support provided by the support center
Number of customers supported by the support center
Support centers that provide multi-lingual support
Size of the support center’s staff
What support centers are called this year
Incident Management ........................................................................................................................................ 23
Incident Management Summary
Percent of support centers who receive incidents through and measured through each channel
Average fully burdened cost for the support center, per incident resolved by each channel (U.S. data only)
Why the number of incidents is increasing for some support centers
Why the number of incidents is decreasing for some support centers
Percent of day support staff spends on incident management
Percent of incidents resolved at each point
Incident tracking systems currently being used
Handling incidents when the support center is not staffed
Incident backlog management
Reopened incident rate
Support Tools .................................................................................................................................................. 35
Support Tools Summary
Which tools are being used?
An effective support organization must have this tool
Are the features of the Service Management tool being fully utilized?
Are the features of the Asset Management/CMDB tool being fully utilized?
Are the features of the Knowledge Management tool being fully utilized?
The Knowledge Management tools used by support centers are…
Self-help tools: Percent of support centers that provide them
Is ITIL alignment an important aspect of choosing support tools?
Process, Procedures, and Strategies .................................................................................................................. 43
Process, Procedures, and Strategies Summary
Practices or frameworks: Percent of support centers that are using, planning to use, or have used them
What percent of support centers have implemented ITIL processes?
What percent of support centers are maintaining Service Level Agreements?
How are support centers charging for their support services?
What percent of support centers are calculating the cost of downtime to the business?
To what do support centers align their objectives?
Outsourcing......................................................................................................................................... 50
Which functions are being outsourced or being considered for outsourcing?
Why aren’t support organizations outsourcing more?
What are outsourcing expectations for the next year?
TABLE OF
4

5. Performance Metrics ...................................................................................................................................... 53
Performance Metrics Summary
Do support organizations report their performance metrics?
How often are support center metrics reported to stakeholders?
Phone Metrics ..................................................................................................................................... 5 5
What is the average speed to answer (speak to a human) on the telephone?
What is the target average speed to answer (speak to a human) on the telephone?
What is the abandonment rate for the telephone?
What is the target abandonment rate for the telephone?
How is First Call Resolution being calculated?
What percentage of incidents taken over the phone are resolved on the first call?
E-mail Metrics ..................................................................................................................................... 0
What is the average time for a human to respond to a customer about an incident reported through e-mail?
What is the target time for a human to respond to a customer about an incident reported through e-mail?
Of the incidents received through and resolved via e-mail, how many e-mail exchanges does it take to solve one incident on average?
Approximately what percent of incidents reported through e-mail are converted to telephone support before being resolved?
Customer Satisfaction........................................................................................................................ 2
How is customer satisfaction being measured?
What is the customer satisfaction rating?
Support Center Staff: Training, Certification, and Satisfaction ................................................................................. 5
Support Center Staff Summary
Training ................................................................................................................................................ 9
In what areas do support staffs receive formal training?
Days per year spent on formal training of each member on the support staff
What methods are being used to train new hires to the support center?
Primary training focus for new hires
Time to proficiency for a new hire to the support center
cation......................................................................................................................................... 1
Certifi
The industry’s position on certification
Which certifications are valued as important for a support staff to have?
Certified employees are described by those have who them on their staff to be…
Employee Satisfaction........................................................................................................................ 2
How often is support staff satisfaction being measured?
What is the support staff satisfaction rating?
Support staff attrition rates
Average tenure for each level in the support center
HDI Annual Salary Survey ................................................................................................................................. 5
Salary Survey Summary
Country Analysis
Salary Frequency Distribution
U.S.A. Regional Analysis
Salary by Education
Are employees or potential hires that are certified paid more than those who are not certified?
Factors determining salary increases
Are employees financially rewarded/paid for...
Who receives bonuses?
On what are the bonuses based?
What most motivates people to do their job?
What is anticipated/planned for the next year?

6. 07 Copyright ©2007 HDI® • All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN: 1-57125-018-2
HDI ®
102 South Tejon Street, Suite 1200
Colorado Springs, CO 80903 U.S.A.
U.S. and Canada: 800.248.5667
www.ThinkHDI.com
HDI assumes no liability for error or omission.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
consent of HDI, with the exception of trade publications reporting
on the data. In such cases, credit must be given to HDI.
Executive Summary
Ron Muns, Founder and CEO, HDI®
Peggy Libbey, President and COO, HDI®
Statistical Analysis
Jenny Rains, Research Analyst , HDI®
Executive Editor
Rich Hand, Executive Director of Membership, HDI®
Robert Last, Content Manager, HDI®
HDI® is a registered trademark of ThinkService, Inc.
ITIL® is a registered trademark, and a registered community Editor
trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and Julie Neider
is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
IT Infrastructure Library ® is a registered trademark of
the Office of Government Commerce.
Art Director
Scott Hanson

7. Introduction
About the Report
HDI
publishes its annual Practices and Salary Survey in order to supply the industry
with a valuable and convenient tool which can be utilized for several purposes.
The Practices and Salary Survey provides an overall look at the state of the industry;
it also offers an inside look at the practices used by support centers throughout the industry. This
allows support center managers to validate existing practices, and discover new ideas for improving
the current operations in their support center. In addition, the survey provides a set of data to which
support centers can benchmark against. With the idea of benchmarking in mind, this year’s results
are reported not only for the industry as a whole, but key metrics are also broken down by the most
requested demographics.
With the 2007 Practices and Salary Survey, HDI has begun its
goal of aligning the survey with the Support Center Certification
(SCC) Standards. This effort will continue in future publications
of the Practices and Salary Survey. Throughout the report you
will see an icon next to the graphs that align with the SCC Standards.
Changes and additions have been made to the survey in order to align it with the
SCC Standards, as well as to keep the terminology and desired information current
for the industry. Additionally, membership feedback has helped shape the survey
into a valuable tool for support center managers.
Below is a table that helps to clarify some of the terminology used in the survey
and report.
Company
Support
Organization
Support Support Support
Center 1 Center 2 Center 3

8. INTRO cont.
Navigating the Report Industry
Number of Surveys
The most commonly requested industry metrics have Included in Results
been organized into an easy-to-read matrix located Banking 73
at the front of this book. The Executive Summary is
Education 99
followed by the Demographics section that illustrates
the make-up of those who participated in this year’s Government 99
survey. The body of the report follows with Incident Healthcare 118
Management, Support Tools, Process, Procedures, Insurance 56
and Strategies, Performance Metics, and Support Manufacturing 61
Staff sections. Each of these sections begins with Outsourcer 61
the breakdown of results by demographics and a
brief summary of the overall results for the section. Type of Support
The report concludes with the annual HDI Salary Blended 423
Survey results. External 111
Internal 471
Practices Survey results have been broken down Number of Customers
in three ways. First, results are reported for seven Less than 2000 342
industries which had 50 or more responses. All
2000-9,999 318
levels of government (federal, state, local, and other)
have been combined to create one comparison 10,000 + 345
group. Second, results are reported by the type of
support the center provides, internal, external, or a
blend of the two. Last, results have been analyzed
by size of support center. This breakdown is based
on the number of customers the center supports
(both internal and external). The number of survey
responses included in the results for each category
can be seen in the table to the right. Appreciation
HDI acknowledges the time that it takes to participate
in this survey, and would like to thank all of this year’s
respondents. It is because of the large response
in 2007, that analysis was possible for the select
demographic groups. 2007 provided the largest
complete set of data for both the Practices and
Salary Surveys. Thank you.
8

9. HDI’s Most Requested Metrics for 200
Support Center Industry Statistics 9
Metric 200 Survey Results
Average Speed to Answer Phone Percent of Support Centers
10 seconds or less 37.8%
30 seconds or less 71.5%
Abandonment Rate
5% or less 65.1%
Response Time for E-mail
Less than 15 minutes 11.4%
15 minutes to 1 hour 34.8%
1 to 4 hours 35.0%
4 to 8 hours 10.5%
More than 8 hours 8.2%
Average Number of E-mail Exchanges to Resolve
an Incident (1 exchange = 1 receive + 1 send)
1 28%
2 44%
3 21%
4 5%
5 1%
More than 5 1%
Percent of Incidents Resolved at Each Point Percent of Incidents
Self-help 3%
Level 1 56%
Level 2 17%
Level 3 8%
Desktop Support 14%
Other 2%
First Call Resolution Rate (telephone) 64.8%
Target FCR 70.9%
Fully Burdened Cost per Incident (U.S. median)
Chat $10
E-mail $15
Phone $17
Walkup $20

10. The 2007 Practices and Salary Survey was This year’s survey results show that telephone and
completed online by over 1,000 support center e-mail continue to be the most widely used channels
managers or other appropriate positions. Results for reporting incidents. However, with benefits such
are based on responses provided by 1,005 people as lower median costs, and the ability to free up
representing support centers in five countries. phone lines for urgent incidents, less used channels
The United States makes up the majority of such as auto-logging, chat, and self-help might begin
responses with 84%. Canada is represented to see more utilization by the industry in the future.
by 8%, and 8% of responses are from other
countries including Brazil, India, and Australia. While not unexpected, it is disturbing to see so
This year’s survey results include support centers many support centers taking advantage of the
from over thirty industries with various staff and various channels for receiving incidents, but not
customer demographics. measuring them. For instance, 90% of support
centers receive incidents through e-mail. However,
Incident Management only 67% of support centers measure this channel’s
In keeping with previous years, the majority of effectiveness. When support centers do not measure
support centers are seeing an increase in the the channels they are using, they are ignoring an
number of incidents they receive. Similar to 2006 opportunity to evaluate valuable information about
this increase is being attributed to changes in the problems and concerns of their customers.
infrastructure and/or products. This trend suggests
that managers must constantly be embracing and Support Tools
preparing for changes within their support centers. With 81% of support centers currently using remote
In addition, support center staffs are spending monitoring/support tools, and 68% of them having no
approximately three-fourths of their day on incident plans to make changes to these tools, this is one of
management. the most stable set of tools used in the industry. While
88% of support centers are currently using Incident
Also consistent with 2006, level 1 support remains Management software, 30% of them are planning to
the dominant level at which incidents are being replace/update it. Also, 25% of support centers are
resolved. Historically, the higher an incident planning to add self-help tools to their toolbox.
progresses upwards in an organization, the
more expensive it becomes. Therefore, on the Responses related to the use of online chat,
positive side, it is encouraging to see the majority self-help tools, and e-mail management tools
of incidents being resolved at the lowest level. are lower than expected. While these tools are well
However, also seen with these results, is the use of known and technologically stable, their use lags
self-help not gaining as much “market penetration” behind the traditional support tools. This might
as anticipated. Its success in resolving incidents suggest that the underpinning policies, processes, and
remains low. procedures that go into using these tools in the best
manner are still weak and need to be strengthened.
There seems to be some differences in tool
utilization related to support center demographics.
For instance, far fewer small support centers
(which serve less than 2,000 customers) are using
Automated Call Distributors than large support
10

11. 11
centers (serving 10,000+ customers). It appears that used frameworks come from opposite ends
some tools have a greater return on investment for of the Atlantic. SOX is a peculiarly American
support centers predominantly due to their needs. creation and ITIL is a uniquely British
These needs are often determined by the support invention. Also interesting is the rank of
center’s demographics such as the number of the HDI Support Center Certification
customers, type of support, and type of industry. program (third place) and the
appearance of Knowledge-Centered
In choosing support center service management tools, Support (KCSSM ) in the list of
it is common to encounter the perception that tools frameworks and best practices.
are “aligned with ITIL®.” While ITIL as a framework Different programs have value
has no recognized process to “align” itself with any to different businesses and
software package, 31% of respondents, in both 2006 organizations. This can be
and 2007, believe it is a necessity to choose tools that seen in the industry
are in alignment with ITIL. breakdown at the
beginning of
The tendency of support centers to purchase complex the Processes,
tools and then fail to utilize them is consistent with Proceedures,
2006 findings. This year, 66% of respondents have
and Strategies
purchased, but have not fully implemented, if at section.
all, the capabilities of their Service Management
tools. Asset Management/CMDB tools have been
fully implemented by about 20% of the centers that
have purchased them. While only 24% fully utilize
their purchased Knowledge Management tool. Also
noteworthy, is that a quarter of the support centers
have no Knowledge Management tool at all.
Processes, Procedures, and Strategies
In regards to practices and frameworks used in
2007, the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002 (SOX) is clearly seen by the 42.5%
of respondents that are currently using
this process. Interestingly, after SOX,
the next most used framework is
the increasingly well-known
Information Technology
Infrastructure Library
(ITIL); the two most
Ron Muns
HDI , Founder and CEO
®

12. Performance Metrics
Performance metrics are being produced by 74%
of support centers, and reported to some level of
stakeholders. A closer look at this data showed that
more large support centers (10,000+ customers) are
reporting metrics at 85%, in contrast to the 59% of
small support centers (less than 2000 customers)
producing and reporting their metrics. About half
of all support centers are sharing their metrics
with external stakeholders such as customers and
support partners. This is up from previous years.
Overall, the telephone metrics have remained stable
for the last few years. For instance, in both 2006 and
2007, 71.5% of support centers have average speed
to answer (ASA) times of 30 seconds or less. This
is roughly 1 to 6 rings. Since most adults become
annoyed at 5+ rings, this is a positive industry
metric. So, while no noticeable improvements have
An increase in the use of ITIL® has been seen across been made by the industry for this channel, some of
the board. Incident Management is the most widely the results are still encouraging.
adopted of the ITIL frameworks, followed by Change
Management and Problem Management. A large It does appear that e-mail processes might be
percentage of support centers are using some improving slightly. About 93% of incidents reported
processes other than ITIL, and disturbingly, through e-mail are being resolved in 3 exchanges or
many support centers have no formal less. This is up from 88% in 2006. E-mail does tend
processes at all. to remain a “delayed response tool.” About 35%
of support centers are responding
The prevalence of Service Level Management (SLM) to customers about incidents
is evident in this year’s results. The use of SLM is a reported through e-mail
practice that is encouraged and one that benefits
within 15 minutes to an
support operations and customers alike. Of concern, hour. Another 35% are
however, is that 23% of survey respondents are not responding in 1 to 4
using Service Level Agreements, Operational Level hours. These results
Agreements, nor Underpinning Contracts. are neither good nor
bad; they are simply
In 2007, support centers appear to be outsourcing an indication
less than in the previous year. Last year’s survey that customer
reported 57% of support centers contracting with expectations
outsourcers for IT functions. This year, 58% of need to be
support centers report that they do not outsource, managed in
nor do they plan to outsource. The most reported regards to
reasons for not outsourcing more are control of
service, service quality, customer acceptance, and
then cost. Of those who are outsourcing, hardware
support and repair continues to be the most
contracted service.
12 Peggy Libbey
HDI , President and COO
®

13. submitting incidents via this channel. E-mail is Results are also reported by level of education.
a good tool for some incidents, but may not be As expected, and consistent with 2006, higher
13
appropriate for all incidents. education results in higher salary.
Traditionally, the two most common approaches While employees with higher levels of education are
used to measure customer satisfaction are to paid more, those with industry certifications are not
measure 100% of all incidents closed and a random necessarily paid more. While more companies find
sample of closed incidents. The results of the survey these employees to be valuable in comparison to
validate this tradition. While customer satisfaction 2006, 5% fewer companies are paying them more.
ratings might seem high (76% reporting 4 to 5
ratings on a 1 to 5 scale), they do align with the 30% of companies reported that they do not
results found in the HDI Customer Satisfaction offer bonuses to any of their employees. This has
Benchmarking Study. decreased from 2006 (38%). Of the organizations
that pay bonuses, about 35% base their bonuses
Support Staff solely on the company meeting its objectives rather
A central theme seen in 2007 is the rising emphasis than on individual performance.
put on customer service. Support centers are
focusing as much on training staff on customer Respondents were asked to choose the five most
service skills as they are on technical skills and important factors in determining salary increases
product knowledge. This is especially true for for each level of employee. For all levels, salary
support centers with larger numbers of customers. increases are being determined by 1-Quality of work,
2-Meeting job metrics/standards and 3-Customer
In addition, the certifications that hold value in the
service skills. Experience in support is an important
industry are a mix of both technical and customer factor for call screeners, level 1, and level 2
service certifications. Support centers are hiring and
employees, while leadership skills are an
providing support staffs with a blended set of skills. important factor for both levels of managers.
In addition to customer satisfaction, awareness of
employee satisfaction seems to be increasing. While, Anticipations/plans for support centers next year
almost half of the support centers did not measure include increased hiring for 45%, and layoffs for
employee satisfaction in 2006, this is down to 30% only 5%. One of the concerns around this has
in 2007. carried over from last year’s results; it is anticipated
that there will be a lack of qualified workers to fill
HDI Annual Salary Survey these positions.
This year’s Salary Survey was based on 785 U.S.
responses and 80 Canadian responses. The data
are reported separately for each country. Overall,
salaries are only slightly higher than 2006, and there
are no substantial changes in any one category.
U.S. results are reported for East, Central,
and West regions of the country as well. The
Western region is paying the highest of
the three regions, followed by
East, then Central.

14. 14

15. Who the Data Represent:
Demographics 15
The 2007 Practices and Salary Survey was completed online by over 1,000
support center managers or other appropriate positions. Results are based on
responses provided by 1,005 people representing support centers in over five
countries. The United States makes up the majority of responses with 84%.
Canada is represented by 8%, and 8% of responses are from other countries
including Brazil, India, and Australia. This year’s survey results include support
centers from over thirty industries with various staff and customer demographics.

16. Who the Data Represents: Demographics
Company's Industry Industry
Accounting .4%
Advertising/Marketing .5%
Aerospace .3%
Automotive .9%
Chemical/Biotechnical .3%
Computers/Hardware 1.2%
Computers/Software 8.6%
Construction/Development .7%
Consulting 2.4%
Consumer/Products 1.1%
Distribution .9%
Education 10.0%
Entertainment 1.0%
Financial Services/Banking 7.4%
Financial Services/Securities 1.7%
Food and Beverage .7%
Government/Local 3.1%
Government/State 2.4%
Government/Federal 3.8%
Government/Other .8%
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical 11.9%
Insurance 5.6%
Legal 2.6%
Manufacturing (non-computer) 6.1%
New Media/Publishing 1.4%
Nonprofit or Association 1.6%
Outsourced Services Provider 6.2%
Retail 4.2%
Telecom 1.7%
Transportation 1.0%
Travel 1.7%
Utilities/Energy 3.0%
Other 5.2%
Percent
1
Dem

17. Number of Support Centers Within the Support Organization
Larger organizations have better representation in 2007 than in 2006.
1
13% 1
13% 1
2
9% 2
9% 3
3
46%
46%
4% 4% 4
4
6% 6% 5
5
9% 9% 6 to 10
6 to 10
12% 11 or More
12% 11 or More
© Photographer: Masta4650
Agency: Dreamstime.com
mographics

18. Location of Support Center(s) Within the Organization
Onsite Only
30% 27%
Single Site/Single Country
(Not Onsite)
Multiple Site/Single Country
9%
Multi-country
34%
Location of Support Center’s Customer Base
19% Single Site/Single Country
32%
Multiple Site/Single Country
Multi-country
49%
Type of Support Provided by the Support Center
Internal Only
42%
47%
External Only
Blended
11%
18

19. Number of Customers Supported by the Support Center (Includes Both Internal and External)
5%
10% Less than 100 19
7%
100–499
11% 500–999
1,000–1,499
23%
8% 1,500–1,999
2,000–5,000
4% 5,001–10,000
11% 10,001–50,000
22% Over 50,000
27%
Yes
Support Centers that Provide Multi-lingual Support No
73%
9%
5 or less
7% 19%
6–10
11–15 4%
16–20 4%
Size of the Support Center’s Staff
21–30
9%
31–40 24%
41–50
51–100 9%
More than 100 15%

20. 20

21. 21
What Support Centers Are Called this Year
What Support Centers are Called This Year
Help Desk 37.4%
Service Desk 18.5%
Technical Support 9.2%
IT/IS Support 7.9%
Customer Support Center 6.9%
Support Center 5.7%
Support Services 4.0%
Customer Service Center 3.4%
Service Support Center 3.3%
Call Center 2.6%
End-user Support 1.3%
In 2006, “Help Desk” and “Service Desk” were the top two selections followed by “IT/IS Support,”
then “Technical Support.”

22. 22

23. Incident
Management 23

24. Percent of Support Centers that Receive Incidents through the Following Channels
Industry Auto-logging Chat E-mail Fax Phone Self-help Walkup Web Request
Banking 35.6% 12.3% 84.9% 16.4% 97.3% 35.6% 52.1% 43.8%
Education 25.3% 15.2% 99.0% 25.3% 100.0% 36.4% 85.9% 63.6%
Government 18.2% 5.1% 94.9% 25.3% 98.0% 25.3% 63.6% 36.4%
Healthcare 35.6% 13.6% 86.4% 27.1% 100.0% 37.3% 48.3% 51.7%
Insurance 30.4% 8.9% 91.1% 14.3% 98.2% 26.8% 57.1% 44.6%
Manufacturing 29.5% 19.7% 98.4% 21.3% 98.4% 32.8% 77.0% 57.4%
Outsourcer 47.5% 18.0% 88.5% 24.6% 98.4% 31.1% 31.1% 60.7%
Type of Support Auto-logging Chat E-mail Fax Phone Self-help Walkup Web Request
Blended 33.3% 18.0% 91.5% 24.1% 98.1% 35.2% 58.6% 49.2%
External 27.9% 17.1% 89.2% 35.1% 99.1% 35.1% 9.9% 51.4%
Internal 25.9% 8.9% 89.0% 16.3% 98.9% 26.8% 63.9% 45.4%
Number of Customers Auto-logging Chat E-mail Fax Phone Self-help Walkup Web Request
Less than 2,000 27.6% 13.9% 92.0% 15.4% 97.9% 25.5% 37.4% 42.4%
2000-9,999 30.5% 9.7% 92.8% 22.3% 99.1% 28.6% 37.7% 47.2%
10,000 + 29.6% 16.8% 85.8% 28.4% 99.1% 39.1% 42.6% 47.2%
Percent of Incidents Resolved at Each Point
Industry Self-help Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Desktop Other
Banking 3.3% 60.7% 16.6% 5.9% 11.4% 2.2%
Education 3.5% 51.9% 13.0% 7.5% 23.2% 1.0%
Government 2.3% 50.1% 18.5% 7.5% 20.0% 2.0%
Healthcare 3.9% 56.4% 14.6% 8.1% 14.8% 2.3%
Insurance 1.5% 62.6% 16.2% 6.8% 9.0% 4.0%
Manufacturing 3.0% 54.4% 17.4% 7.8% 13.6% 2.8%
Outsourcer 1.9% 54.9% 20.3% 6.6% 14.4% 1.9%
Type of Support Self-help Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Desktop Other
Blended 3.6% 53.8% 17.3% 8.2% 14.6% 2.6%
External 5.2% 62.1% 18.4% 6.9% 4.0% 3.4%
Internal 2.4% 55.7% 16.5% 7.2% 16.7% 1.6%
Number of Customers Self-help Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Desktop Other
Less than 2000 3.8% 49.4% 18.8% 8.5% 17.0% 2.5%
2000-9,999 2.4% 55.4% 17.1% 7.5% 15.9% 1.7%
10,000 + 3.3% 62.0% 15.1% 6.9% 10.5% 2.3%
24

25. Incident Management Summary
In keeping with previous years, the majority of support centers are seeing an increase in the number of 25
incidents they receive. Similar to 2006 this increase is being attributed to changes in infrastructure and/or
products. This trend suggests that managers must constantly be embracing and preparing for changes
within their support centers. In addition, support center staffs are spending approximately three-fourths of
their day on incident management. Also consistent with 2006, level 1 support remains the dominant level
at which incidents are being resolved.
Historically, the higher an incident progresses upwards in an organization, the more expensive it becomes.
Therefore, on the positive side, it is encouraging to see the majority of incidents being resolved at the lowest level.
However, also seen with these results, is the use of self-help not gaining as much “market penetration” as anticipated.
Its success in resolving incidents remains low.
This year’s survey results show that telephone and e-mail continue to be the most widely used channels for reporting
incidents. However, with benefits such as lower median costs, and the ability to free up phone lines for urgent
incidents less used channels such as auto-logging, chat, and self-help might begin to see more utilization by the
industry in the future.
While not unexpected, it is disturbing to see so many support centers taking advantage of the various channels for
receiving incidents, but not measuring them. For instance, 90% of support centers receive incidents through e-mail.
However, only 67% of support centers measure this channel’s effectiveness. When support centers do not measure
the channels they are using, they are ignoring an opportunity to evaluate valuable information about the problems
and concerns of their customers.
Percent of Day Support Staff Percent of Support Centers Percent of Support Centers
Spends on Incident Management Providing 24 Hour Incident Support Collecting Backlog Data
Industry Industry Industry
Banking 77.5% Banking 41.1% Banking 35.6%
Education 70.9% Education 3.0% Education 30.3%
Government 71.2% Government 25.3% Government 33.3%
Healthcare 77.8% Healthcare 46.6% Healthcare 37.3%
Insurance 75.0% Insurance 25.0% Insurance 32.1%
Manufacturing 72.1% Manufacturing 31.1% Manufacturing 32.8%
Outsourcer 69.4% Outsourcer 70.5% Outsourcer 49.2%
Type of Support Type of Support Type of Support
Blended 70.9% Blended 38.1% Blended 38.5%
External 73.2% External 39.6% External 42.3%
Internal 74.1% Internal 29.5% Internal 32.1%
Number of Customers Number of Customers Number of Customers
Less than 2000 67.5% Less than 2000 20.8% Less than 2000 31.8%
2000-9,999 76.3% 2000-9,999 28.6% 2000-9,999 35.5%
10,000 + 74.3% 10,000 + 52.5% 10,000 + 40.9%

26. 2

27. Percent of Support Centers that Receive Incidents through, and Measure Incidents Received
through the Following Channels
2
29.3%
Autologging 23.5%
13.6%
Chat 8.4%
90.0%
E-mail 66.6%
22.1%
Fax 12.8%
Phone 98.6% Receive Incidents
85.7%
Measure
31.2%
Self-help 19.8%
55.7%
Walkup 34.6%
47.7%
Web Request 39.1%
8.4%
Other 6.9%
Average Fully Burdened Cost for the Support Center, Per Incident Resolved by Each Channel (U.S. Data Only)
Autologging $14.30
$10.00
Chat $19.92
$10.00
E-mail $21.84
$15.00
Fax $15.67
$11.50 Mean
Phone $24.37 Median
$17.00
Self-help $12.44
$8.00
Walkup $25.98
$20.00
Web Request $20.08
$15.00
Cost per Incident
Canada
Mean Median
E-mail $ 22.81 $ 15.00
Phone $ 26.83 $ 20.00

28. Why the Number of Incidents Is Increasing for Some Support Centers
15% say their number of incidents have not increased. Of those who have seen an increase,
44% believe it is due to changes such as upgrades, conversions, and installations.
3% 3%
6% Infrastructure or Product Changes:
Upgrades, Conversions, Installations
More Customers
Expanded Service Offerings by the Support Center
21% 44%
Increased Awareness of the Support Organization
Customer Competency
Product Quality
24%
Why the Number of Incidents Are Decreasing for Some Support Centers
Of those who have seen a decrease, 40% believe it is because systems are more stable.
1%
8%
Systems Are More Stable
11%
Problem Management Within Organization
40%
Increased Product Quality
12% Self-help Tools
Customer Competency
Fewer Customers
12%
Reduced Scope of Services
17%
28

29. 17%
29
Percent of Day Support Staff Spends on Incident Management
27%
Incident Management
Other Activities
(Projects, Meetings, Training, etc.)
73%
The HDI Practices and Salary Survey
is very easy to understand, and helps us
understand what other organizations are
doing in order to make sound business
decisions. The survey is instrumental for
our ongoing performance improvement
and metrics program.
Amado Cruz
Division Director,
Miami-Dade County Enterprise Technology Services

30. Percent of Incidents Resolved at Each Point
2% 3%
14%
Self-help
8% Level 1
Level 2
56% Level 3
17% Desktop Support
Other
BMC® 25.7%
FrontRange Solutions TM 13.7%
HP ® 10.3%
Homegrown 9.8%
Numara SoftwareTM 6.1%
CATM 5.5%
Oracle® 3.3%
NortelTM 2.3%
IBM® 2.1%
30 GWI 2.0%
SymantecTM/AltirisTM 1.4%
Axios Systems TM 0.4%
Other 17.8%

31. Incident Tracking Systems Currently Being Used
There were 352 “Other” responses originally. Almost half of these fell into one of the below
categories and are reported there. 179 responses are still included in “Other.” Responses add
up to more than 100% due to support centers using more than one system.
31
BMC® 25.7%
FrontRange Solutions TM 13.7%
HP ® 10.3%
Homegrown 9.8%
Numara Software TM 6.1%
CA TM 5.5%
Oracle ® 3.3%
NortelTM 2.3%
IBM® 2.1%
GWI 2.0%
SymantecTM/AltirisTM 1.4%
Axios SystemsTM 0.4%
Other 17.8%
None 1.6%
Percent of Support Centers Using the System
Handling Incidents When the Support Center Is not Staffed (select all that apply)
Of the 661 support centers that this applies to, the majority is using voice-mail, answering machines, or
answering services to take after-hours calls. And of those, half are also using e-mail, and a quarter of them
are forwarding to staff cell/pager as well.
Many of the 8.3% of “Other” responses fell into the categories of outsourcing after-hours incidents,
having staff on-call, and logging incidents until regular business hours.
Voicemail, Answering 54.5%
Machine, or Service
Forward to Staff Cell, 36.8%
Pager, etc.
E-mail 34.2%
Forward to 12.3%
Another Department
We Have No 8.8%
Off-hour Procedures
Other 8.3%

32. Incident Backlog Management
While almost half of the support centers are collecting backlog data,
only a quarter are updating and using the information.
Collecting Backlog Data 47.4%
Routinely Updating It 26.0%
Comparing It to Their Goals 24.3%
Use Their Backlog Data for
25.0%
Planning and Scheduling Resources
Percent of Support Centers
8%
5%
Based on the Number of Incidents
and Their Age
32 Based on the Number of Incidents
and Hours of Work Possible
26%
Other

33. When it comes to calculating backlog, of those who do collect it, 62% calculate
based on number of incidents and their age, 26% calculate it based on the
number of incidents and hours of possible work, and 5% calculate it in some
other manner. 8% did not respond to this part of the question. 33
8%
5%
Based on the Number of Incidents
and Their Age
Based on the Number of Incidents
and Hours of Work Possible
26%
Other
62%
No Response
Reopened incident rate
Reopened Incident Rate
26% of centers do not measure their reopened
incident rate. Of the ones that do, the breakdown
26% of centers do not measure their reopened incident rate. Of the ones that do,
ofthe breakdown of the rates is as follows.
the rates is as follows.
4%
1%
13%
2%
29%
3%
4%
17%
5%
6–10%
5% 19% More Than 10%
13%

34. 34

35. Support
Tools 35

36. Percent of Support Centers that Are NOT Using, nor Planning to Use the Following Tools
Automated Customer Incident Knowledge Remote
Online
Call Satisfaction Management Management Monitoring/
Chat
Distributor Tool Software Software Support Tools
Industry
Banking 26.0% 23.3% 5.5% 12.3% 50.7% 5.5%
Education 39.4% 20.2% 5.1% 22.2% 55.6% 15.2%
Government 32.3% 28.3% 9.1% 19.2% 65.7% 11.1%
Healthcare 23.7% 15.3% 7.6% 11.0% 55.1% 5.9%
Insurance 23.2% 12.5% 5.4% 21.4% 57.1% 5.4%
Manufacturing 39.3% 21.3% 8.2% 13.1% 54.1% 6.6%
Outsourcer 9.8% 13.1% 4.9% 13.1% 45.9% 6.6%
Type of Support
Blended 30.0% 19.9% 6.4% 14.9% 49.6% 8.5%
External 26.1% 14.4% 8.1% 12.6% 52.3% 16.2%
Internal 30.1% 19.7% 7.0% 17.2% 61.1% 8.9%
Number of Customers
Less than 2000 50.4% 27.9% 10.1% 23.1% 62.0% 10.1%
2000-9,999 23.9% 17.6% 5.7% 14.5% 57.2% 8.5%
10,000 + 13.6% 11.9% 4.6% 9.0% 47.2% 9.9%
3

37. Asset Configuration E-mail
Self-help
Management Management Management
Tools
Tool Tool Tool 3
23.3% 15.1% 28.8% 27.4%
16.2% 27.3% 38.4% 31.3%
29.3% 19.2% 29.3% 36.4%
23.7% 19.5% 28.8% 27.1%
28.6% 25.0% 30.4% 30.4%
24.6% 16.4% 34.4% 36.1%
31.1% 27.9% 27.9% 29.5%
23.6% 24.3% 30.0% 27.9%
20.7% 40.5% 41.4% 33.3%
29.7% 20.0% 35.9% 38.4%
32.0% 24.0% 37.7% 33.8%
26.7% 22.6% 36.5% 33.6%
19.4% 25.5% 28.1% 32.8%
Support Tools Summary
With 81% of support centers currently using remote monitoring/support tools, and 68% of them having no plans to
make changes to these tools, this is one of the most stable set of tools used in the industry. While 88% of support
centers are currently using Incident Management software, 30% of them are planning to replace/update it. Also, 25%
of support centers are planning to add self-help tools to their toolbox.
Responses related to the use of online chat, self-help tools, and e-mail management tools are lower than expected.
While these tools are well known and technologically stable, their use lags behind the traditional support tools. This
might suggest that the underpinning policies, processes, and procedures that go into using these tools in the best
manner are still weak and need to be strengthened.
As seen on the previous page, there seems to be some differences in tool utilization related to support center
demographics. For instance, far fewer small support centers (which serve less than 2,000 customers) are using
Automated Call Distributors than large support centers (serving 10,000+ customers). It appears that some tools have
a greater return on investment for support centers predominantly due to their needs. These needs are often determined
by the support center’s demographics such as the number of customers, type of support, and type of industry.
In choosing support center service management tools, it is common to encounter the perception that tools are “aligned
with ITIL®.” While ITIL as a framework has no recognized process to “align” itself with any software package, 31% of
respondents, in both 2006 and 2007, believe it is a necessity to choose tools that are in alignment with ITIL.
The tendency of support centers to purchase complex tools and then fail to utilize them is consistent with 2006 findings.
This year, 66% of respondents have purchased, but have not fully implemented, if at all, the capabilities of their Service
Management tools. Asset Management/CMDB tools have been fully implemented by about 20% of the centers that have
purchased them. While only 24% fully utilize their purchased Knowledge Management tool. Also noteworthy, is that a
quarter of the support centers have no Knowledge Management tool at all.

38. Automated Call
Self-help Tools
Support Tools
Configuration
Management
Management
Management
Management
Management
Satisfaction
Online Chat
Monitoring/
Distributor
Knowledge
Customer
Software
Software
Incident
Remote
Which Tools Are
E-mail
Asset
Tool
Tool
Tool
Tool
Being Used?
We Use this and Have No 51.6% 48.4% 57.4% 36.2% 21.0% 68.0% 29.8% 36.6% 26.5% 39.8%
Plans to Replace/Update
We Use but Are Planning 12.4% 14.4% 30.3% 23.1% 4.5% 13.3% 17.1% 17.4% 12.0% 10.6%
to Replace/Update
We Do Not Use but
4.1% 16.1% 3.7% 23.0% 16.9% 7.1% 25.2% 15.7% 19.8% 9.5%
Are Planning to Add It
We Do Not Use 29.7% 19.2% 6.9% 15.7% 55.3% 9.6% 26.2% 24.1% 34.0% 33.4%
I Don't Know 2.1% 1.9% 1.6% 2.0% 2.2% 2.1% 1.7% 6.1% 7.6% 6.6%
100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
An Effective Support Organization Must Have this Tool
Incident Management 97.3%
Customer Satisfaction Tool 93.0%
Knowledge Management 92.2%
Remote Monitoring/Support 91.3%
Self-help Tools 81.0%
Asset Management Tool 80.7%
Automated Call Distributor 79.2%
Configuration Management 74.5%
E-mail Management Tool 73%
Online Chat 39.8%
Percent Who Agree
38
Sup

39. Are the Features of the Service Management Tool Being Fully Utilized?
14% 39
4% 20% Have Implemented to the Limits of the Tool
Use Some Features but Have Not
Implemented to the Capability of the Tool
Have Bought a Tool but Have Not Yet Implemented
No Service Management Tool
62%
Are the Features of the Asset Management/CMDB Tool Being Fully Utilized?
13%
Have Implemented to the Limits of the Tool
33%
Use Some Features but Have Not
Implemented to the Capability of the Tool
Have Bought a Tool but Have Not Yet Implemented
41%
13% No Asset Management/CMDB Tool
Are the Features of the Knowledge Management Tool Being Fully Utilized?
18% Have Implemented to the Limits of the Tool
26%
Use Some Features but Have Not
Implemented to the Capability of the Tool
Have Bought a Tool but Have Not Yet Implemented
15%
42% No Knowledge Management Tool
pport Tools

40. Knowledge Management Tools Used by Support Centers Are...
24% 23% Stand Alone
Integrated with the Incident Management System
12% Included in the Service Management Suite
Do Not Have a Knowledge Management Tool
41%
Self-help Tools: Percent of Support Centers that Provide Them
FAQs 48.7%
Access to Incident Problem 42.2%
Access to Knowledge 38.0%
Documentation Library 33.5%
Password Reset 32
32.1%
Downloads 24.2%
Self-diagnostic 5.7%
Self-healing 4.8%
We Do Not Have Any Available 27.5%
Is ITIL ® Alignment an Important Aspect of Choosing Support Tools?
15%
31% It Is a Necessity
Very Important but Not Necessity
27% Somewhat Important
Not Important at All
27%
40

41. I find the HDI Practices
and Salary Survey extremely
valuable when preparing my
fiscal budget for next year. 41
It is a great reference point
for me to use. I have been
using this survey for years
now and enjoy reviewing
the yearly findings.
W.T. (Bill) Auvil, Jr.
Vice President, Global Customer Services,
FrontRange Solutions
© Photographer: Ben Goode | Agency: Dreamstime.com

42. 42

43. Process, Procedures,
and Strategies 43

44. Percent of Support Centers Currently Using or Implementing These Practices/Frameworks (select all that apply)
Capability HDI Support
Maturity Model COBIT® Center ISO® 9000 ISO® IEC 20000 IT Governance
CMMI® Certification
Industry
Banking 16.4% 13.7% 24.7% 13.7% 11.0% 34.2%
Education 1.0% 2.0% 22.2% 1.0% 0.0% 12.1%
Government 9.1% 3.0% 21.2% 10.1% 7.1% 15.2%
Healthcare 10.2% 5.9% 25.4% 10.2% 5.1% 23.7%
Insurance 10.7% 16.1% 33.9% 10.7% 5.4% 39.3%
Manufacturing 6.6% 14.8% 26.2% 32.8% 11.5% 27.9%
Outsourcer 19.7% 9.8% 29.5% 31.1% 14.8% 27.9%
Type of Support
Blended 12.1% 8.5% 27.0% 17.0% 10.2% 24.8%
External 9.9% 5.4% 25.2% 20.7% 8.1% 12.6%
Internal 5.5% 8.3% 23.6% 10.6% 3.8% 22.7%
Number of Customers
Less than 2000 7.7% 7.1% 22.0% 13.1% 5.6% 14.5%
2000-9,999 6.9% 7.2% 26.4% 11.6% 4.4% 22.6%
10,000 + 11.6% 9.9% 27.2% 18.6% 10.7% 30.4%
Percent of Support Centers Maintaining Service Level Agreements (select all that apply)
Underpinning
Single SLAs Multiple SLAs OLAs None
Contracts
Industry
Banking 39.7% 45.2% 37.0% 12.3% 17.8%
Education 43.4% 36.4% 29.3% 5.1% 30.3%
Government 34.3% 45.5% 38.4% 8.1% 26.3%
Healthcare 35.6% 52.5% 33.9% 10.2% 24.6%
Insurance 32.1% 51.8% 41.1% 10.7% 21.4%
Manufacturing 39.3% 27.9% 23.0% 4.9% 36.1%
Outsourcer 34.4% 23.0% 44.3% 29.5% 8.2%
Type of Support
Blended 33.8% 55.6% 37.6% 11.6% 19.6%
External 43.2% 56.8% 27.9% 19.8% 14.4%
Internal 35.7% 38.6% 31.0% 5.9% 28.9%
Number of Customers
Less than 2000 36.5% 39.2% 23.4% 6.8% 30.3%
2000-9,999 33.6% 45.9% 31.8% 8.2% 24.2%
10,000 + 37.1% 58.6% 44.9% 14.5% 15.4%
44

45. Knowledge- Process
Sarbanes Total Quality
ITIL® ITSM Centered Maturity Six Sigma ®
Oxley Management
SupportSM Framework 45
45.2% 23.3% 31.5% 6.8% 64.4% 32.9% 11.0%
14.1% 7.1% 13.1% 0.0% 13.1% 2.0% 1.0%
39.4% 24.2% 15.2% 3.0% 10.1% 6.1% 13.1%
32.2% 20.3% 27.1% 5.1% 31.4% 22.9% 13.6%
46.4% 23.2% 26.8% 5.4% 57.1% 21.4% 14.3%
26.2% 19.7% 18.0% 4.9% 62.3% 32.8% 21.3%
54.1% 27.9% 23.0% 8.2% 54.1% 24.6% 21.3%
34.5% 20.1% 27.2% 6.6% 40.9% 21.3% 16.3%
23.4% 10.8% 32.4% 9.0% 43.2% 23.4% 17.1%
32.7% 18.0% 16.6% 4.2% 43.7% 13.6% 10.4%
26.4% 14.5% 18.4% 5.0% 29.4% 9.2% 10.7%
29.9% 15.7% 18.9% 3.1% 46.9% 17.3% 11.9%
41.2% 24.1% 30.4% 9.0% 51.9% 27.2% 18.0%
Process, Procedures, and Strategies Summary
In regards to practices and frameworks used in 2007, the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)
is clearly seen by the 42.5% of respondents that are currently using this framework. Interestingly, after SOX,
the next most used framework is the increasingly well-known Information Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL®); the two most used frameworks come from opposite ends of the Atlantic. SOX is a peculiarly American
creation and ITIL is a uniquely British invention. Also interesting is the rank of the HDI Support Center
Certification program (third place) and the appearance of Knowledge-centered Support (KCS) in the list
of frameworks and best practices. Different programs have value to different businesses and organizations.
This can be seen in the industry breakdown on the previous page.
An increase in the use of ITIL has been seen across the board. Incident Management is the most widely
adopted of the ITIL framework, followed by Change Management and Problem Management. A large
percentage of support centers are using some processes other than ITIL, and disturbingly, many support
centers have no formal processes at all.
The prevalence of Service Level Management (SLM) is evident in this year’s results. The use of SLM is a
practice that is encouraged and one that benefits support operations and customers alike. Of concern,
however, is that 23% of survey respondents are not using Service Level Agreements, Operational Level
Agreements, or Underpinning Contracts.
In 2007, support centers appear to be outsourcing less than in the previous year. Last year’s survey
reported 57% of support centers contracting with outsourcers for IT functions. This year, 58% of support
centers report that they do not outsource, nor do they plan to outsource. The most reported reasons for not
outsourcing more are control of service, service quality, customer acceptance, and then cost. Of those who
are outsourcing, hardware support and repair continues to be the most contracted service.

46. Practices and Frameworks: Percent of Support Centers that Are Using, Planning to Use, or Have Used Them
Capability Maturity Model CMMI® 8.8% 7.2% 6.5% 77.5%
COBIT® 8.1% 6.3% 5.8% 79.8%
HDI Support Center Certification 25.2% 19.8% 11.1% 43.8%
ISO® 9000 14.4% 3.2% 8.0% 74.3%
ISO® IEC 20000 7.0% 6.6% 4.6% 81.8%
IT Governance 22.5% 7.7% 6.6% 63.2%
ITIL® 32.4% 27.0% 4.3% 36.2%
ITSM 18.1% 15.9% 4.1% 61.8%
Knowledge-Centered SupportSM 22.8% 26.6% 6.3% 44.3%
Process Maturity Framework 5.8% 7.8% 4.3% 82.1%
Sarbanes Oxley 42.5% 6.0% 3.3% 48.2%
Six Sigma® 17.9% 6.9% 7.7% 67.5%
Total Quality Management 13.6% 7.7% 11.3% 67.3%
Currently Using or Implementing
Planning to Implement
Have Used in the Past
Have Not Used and Do Not Plan to Use
4

47. What Percent of Support Centers Have Implemented ITIL ® Processes?
100%
90% 21.6%
15.1% 4
22.8%
28.7%
80% 35.2%
42.5%
37.3% 34.7%
45.6% 45.6%
70%
60% 44.4%
44.5% 44.9%
50%
42.9% 54.6%
40% 45.2%
43.4% 51.1%
40.0% 40.8%
30%
20% 40.5%
33.9% 32.3%
10% 21.9% 20.1%
14.4% 13.6% 14.1% 16.7%
11.5%
0%
No Formal Process
An increase of ITIL processes was seen in every catagory since 2006. Have a Process But It Is Not
Based On the ITIL Process
Follow the ITIL Process
Percent Who Followed the ITIL Process in 200
Availability Management 10.5%
Capacity Management 9.9%
Change Management 25.2%
Configuration Management 14.6%
Continuity Management 10.9%
Incident Management 33.6%
Problem Management 25.1%
Release Management 13.0%
Security Management 11.6%
© Photographer: Edyta Pawlowska
Agency: Dreamstime.com”

48. © Photographer: Pedro Nogueira
Agency: Dreamstime.com
The HDI Practices and
Salary Survey is an excellent
reference for your IT support
organization. We use some
of the information from it
as reference points in our
monthly service delivery
metrics reports to show how
we are doing in comparison
to industry practices.
It is a great reference
for benchmarking.
Marc A. Heppding
Director, IS Customer Services/Help Desk,
MedStar Health Information Services
48

49. What Percent of Support Centers Are Maintaining Sservice Level Agreements? (select all that apply)
Single Service Level Agreements 35.7%
49
Multiple Service Level Agreements 47.8%
Operational Level Agreements 33.4%
Underpinning Contracts 9.9%
None of These 23.4%
How Are Support Centers Charging for Their Support Services? (select all that apply)
Corporate Allocation/No Direct Charge to Customer 70.6%
Fixed Allocation to Business Units Departments 17.6%
Fixed Fee Service Contract 16.1%
Fixed Fee Per Incident 9.7%
Based On Length of Call 3.4%
Other 3.4%
What Percent of Support Centers Are Calculating the Cost of Downtime to the Business?
(downtime is the the time when any service is unavailable during its agreed service time)
7%
9%
Do Not Calculate the Cost of Downtime
Calculate It for Some Critical IT Applications and Systems
Calculate It for All IT Applications and Systems
25%
59% NA