Colorado Springs, CO — February 13, 2007 — HDI, the world's largest membership association for IT service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today released the findings of the annual HDI Practices & Salary Survey. The study highlights important trends in the help desk and IT service and support industry. HDI collected data from 1,141 respondents during 2006. Some of the key findings in this year’s report include:

Phone-based support is still most popular, with an average of 70% of incidents being handled via telephone. Help desks are discovering ways to increase productivity and lower the cost of phone-based support. Average costs per incident have decreased from $27.60 in 2005 to $24.08 in 2006.
Sixty-one percent of support organizations report that incidents are increasing. Changes, upgrades, conversions and installations are the primary reasons for the increase.
The majority of IT service organizations (57%) outsource some aspect of their support operations, an increase of 9% over 2005 (48%). The most likely area to be outsourced is hardware support (31%).
Support organizations are not satisfied with the tools and technologies they have deployed. With regard to CRM and knowledge management tools, the largest percentage of respondents said, “We use some features, but have not been able to implement to the capability of the tool.”
Respondents were asked what they would do regarding the tools and technology used in their support organizations “if money were no object.” A large percentage said they would “throw it all away and start over.”
More than 50% do not measure employee satisfaction at all, and of those who do, nearly 63% indicated that employee satisfaction was quite low, demonstrating a need for more focus on employees.
ITIL® adoption is still on the rise in the U.S. Many respondents’ organizations have adopted some ITIL® process. ITIL® Incident Management has the highest adoption rate at 34%. “We have seen the adoption of each ITIL® process increase over last year,” commented Jenny Rains, research analyst, HDI.
Only slight changes (if any) were seen in the average salary paid at each position from 2005 to 2006. In general, the Western region has the highest paid employees and the central region pays employees the least of the three regions for both 2005 and 2006.
More than 50% of the respondents plan to hire additional staff for their support centers over the next 12 months. However, nearly one-fifth (20%) believes there is a shortage of qualified professionals for these positions.
More than one-third of all respondents (34%) stated the most important factor motivating them was their desire to contribute to their companies.

“Overall the survey indicates that the industry is continuing to mature, is focused on the importance of IT to the business, and is continuing to strive to get the job of supporting the business done in the most efficient manner possible. The trend is definitely toward improving IT as a business,” commented Ron Muns, founder and CEO, HDI.

Pricing and Availability
The HDI Annual Practices & Salary Survey is available via the HDI eStore www.thinkhdi.com/estore/, or by calling (800) 248-5667. HDI Member Price: $59.; Non-Member Price: $79.

Media and analysts who would like a complimentary copy of this report or a briefing with HDI’s research team should contact Tiffany Keller at (719) 785-5350 or [email protected]

About HDI
HDI is the world’s largest IT service and support membership association and the industry’s premier training and certification body. Guided by an international panel of industry experts, HDI is the leading resource for help desk/support center emerging trends and best practices. HDI provides members with a vast repository of resources, networking opportunities and the largest industry event - the HDI Annual Conference and Expo. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, HDI offers training and certification in multiple languages and countries. For more information, visit http://www.thinkhdi.com or call +1 719.268.0174.

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Media Contact:
Tiffany Keller
HDI
(719) 785-5350
[email protected]