Are you overworked, unappreciated and under-resourced? This book understands you, and provides years and years of User Support experience packed into one volume. The 'How To' book that every IT department needs, it will help turn your helpdesk into a company asset. How to be successful at probably the most stressful job in IT. This book offers tools for measuring productivity and features ten key steps for successful support, while User Support successes and failures are revealed in true life case studies. This book gives you techniques for: justifying staff and other expenditure; gaining senior management support; getting the users on your side; running a motivated and productive team; and designing and managing services and service levels. The second edition of this popular book brings updates to several of the author's ideas, strategies and techniques with new material on: Customer Relationship Management - definition and the role of the helpdesk; E-Support and the Internet; Contrasting the Call Center and the Helpdesk; first, second and third line support; Operational Level Agreements; Strategies for backlog management; and Telephone technologies in user support. In addition there is: a new Template for a Service Level Agreement; an improved cost justification model for the Internal Helpdesk; and a New cost justification model for the External Helpdesk. New topics include: Lines of support; The rise of the call center; Knowledge bases; The Intranet; The Internet; The external helpdesk; Backlog management; Industry standards; and Calculating headcount. It reflects technological advancements in software and the Internet, and covers new ways of working: teleworking; virtual offices; keeping staff and customers connected through corporate networks from remote locations.