SupportWorld Submission Guidelines

Want to add "author" to your credentials? Will your research, analysis, or product comparisons benefit others? Do you have an engaging case study? We want to hear from you!

HDI welcomes article submissions on a broad array of topics related to technical support that may be of particular interest to customer service professionals, frontline technical support agents, desktop support professionals, external support professionals, and service desk executives. We encourage contributions from experienced and novice writers, IT service and support leaders, ITIL experts, CIOs, business analysts, or anyone working in the field of technical service and support.

SupportWorld is published six times a year, with a distribution of 6,500 per issue in the United States and Canada. International subscribers receive an electronic copy. All articles are published in English. Submissions will be judged on a variety of criteria, including professional qualities and the degree to which the content is of interest to a technical support audience.

If you would like to write an article for one of the categories below, please contact Megan Selva. 

• Strategy: In these articles, readers will find expert commentaries on the newest processes, trends, and strategies in the industry, from budgets and goal-setting to blended contact centers and ITSM. 
• Leadership/Management: These articles introduce readers to HR issues, training strategies, and team-building techniques designed to promote success. 
• Company Profile/Vertical Markets: These articles provide an inside look into other organizations and market sectors, with in-depth case studies describing day-to-day processes and exploring how these organizations consistently deliver world-class service and support. 
• Metrics and Measurements: These articles focus on the metrics and measurements every successful support organization should track. 
• IT Service Management: This category features articles and case studies that address the alignment of IT services with the needs of the enterprise, most notably the customers, by focusing on key ITIL v3 strategies and processes. 
• Frontline: These articles tackle issues relevant to frontline service and support analysts, focusing on topics like professional development, skills-building, career-pathing, training, and evaluation. 
• Innovation: These articles introduce new ideas, methodologies, and practices for the support industry. 
• Customer Service: Discover tips for improving and personalizing support service, find out why customer service is important internally and externally, and learn how to empower teams for extraordinary results. 
• Technology: Learn about the effects of migrating to other platforms, find out how other organization use a variety of service and support tools, and take a look at the future of technical service and support. 
• Desktop Support: This section covers emerging trends in desktop support, including industry standards, performance metrics and measurements, best practices, and other key concepts related to desktop support management. 
• Tech Trends: In a series of three short essays (<300 words), three industry experts will debate the relative merits of new or existing support technologies.

Guidelines and Deadlines 

Articles should be 1,500-2,500 words and must be submitted electronically, in .doc or .docx format. Illustrations and graphics should be submitted in .jpg format; they must be clear and must include captions. (Note: For each graphic, deduct 250 words from the total article length.)

Publication is at the sole discretion of the editor and all articles will be edited for consistency and clarity (including grammar, formatting, and style). Authors will be notified via e-mail when/if their articles have been selected for publication. If an article is selected for publication, the editor will contact the author for a short biography (less than 100 words) and a high-resolution, color headshot.

Upon publication, authors will receive an electronic copy of the article and five complimentary copies of the SupportWorld issue in which their article appears.

The deadlines for 2012 are as follows:

We encourage you to submit articles on any topic relevant to technical service and support, as the article themes are not intended to dominate a given issue. So please keep both the themes and categories in mind. We look forward to working with you!