When Help Desk troubleshooting is not able to resolve the user’s issue, the first response is often to return the device for service. While this overnight response can put the user back into productive mode in short order, taking a single mobile device out of service has implications far beyond that single device. Many internal Help Desk staff are trained to resolve user problems quickly and easily by simply returning the device for service. However, this process can sharply increase the costs of maintaining a spare pool inventory of devices to swap, inbound shipment of the “bad” devices for repair, troubleshooting these devices which may or may not have actual deficiencies, and lost productivity for end users. Often, device swaps have nothing to do with actual device failure which could instead be caused by faulty software settings, user error or network failure.
To better understand the cost impact of swapping devices, please see the two examples in this white paper.
All of these factors make it nearly impossible for IT to stay current, have expertise on every possible mobile combination and properly staff the support function as mobility expands further across the enterprise. The job of supporting end users is particularly daunting when you consider that a minority (34%) of IT organizations were expecting to add staff in the second half of 2017 and into 2018, up from 16% in the first half of 2017.
It is interesting to note that although most IT organizations won’t be adding staff, half planned to increase the amount they spent on mobile in the second half of 2017 and into 2018.
When one major customer found mobile users’ satisfaction declining and the cost of mobility skyrocketing, they looked at how their internal Help Desk staff responded to inbound trouble-ticket calls. For one high-profile set of users who traveled daily and
whose jobs were critical to the company’s operation, the Help Desk team “resolved” each inbound support call by asking that the user return the device. The Help Desk staff then immediately issued two new devices to the user – one dispatched from the location closest to the end user for same-day delivery, and one to the user’s home. These new devices were dispatched before troubleshooting the problem thoroughly to determine if the original device was faulty. This procedure created a huge cost burden on the enterprise. That cost came from the number of spare devices required daily and the operating costs of:
1. Tracking the location of those three devices over time
2. Motivating users to return the extra devices for restocking into the spare pool inventory
