Gartner issues self-service reality check

Gartner says most users are still reluctant to help themselves

Analysts at Gartner have warned enterprises not to put too much faith in their self-service support systems, as most end users are still unwilling or incapable of taking advantage of them.

The firm said that almost half of all service desk or support queries could be solved through IT self-service, but warned that in the main, just five per cent are actually tackled by end users.

This trend is likely to change, but not by much. In fact, the analyst said that by 2015 just 10 per cent of "contact volume managed by IT self-service" will be self-administered.

"IT self-service is a great concept, enabling and empowering end users to solve their own IT problems, thereby allowing support organisations to gain efficiencies through a reduced incident and request workload," said David Coyle, research vice president at Gartner.

"However, building a best-in-class IT self-service portal does not guarantee that end users will utilise it."

Gartner said that there were four ‘myths’ surrounding self-service that, when combined with a lack of experience and maturity in service desks, prevented firms from realising the full potential of their systems.