HDI Announces Release of 2011 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report

Colorado Springs, CO – November 9, 2011 - HDI, the world's largest IT service and technical support association, announced the release of the 2011 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report Further proving HDI's dedication to the advancement of the industry, the report features research pertaining to industry trends, tendencies, and best practices, utilizing statistics and data provided by IT service and technical support professionals themselves.

"Every day of the year, HDI actively gathers research data directly from support industry professionals to track trends and practices," said Cinda Daly, HDI's director of business content. "This annual report represents the current state of the support industry, revealing some hard and surprising trends that will help leaders set their future course." This year's edition of the report, distilled from nearly 800 survey responses, sheds light on everything from incident management and processes to performance metrics and compensation practices.

"An informed organization is a more efficient organization," said Jenny Rains, HDI’s research analyst. "The goal of this report is to provide support centers with information relevant to their day-to-day operations." Some highlights from the 2011 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report:

• Support centers continue to see an increase in ticket volume; sixty-eight percent saw an increase in 2011.
• New customer equipment, devices, and applications are the number-one factor in ticket volume
• Support centers are shopping for technology this year; more than fifty percent of support centers will be adding, upgrading, or replacing their knowledge management and self-help tools.
• Fifty percent of support centers are using social media to provide support.
• For the first time in the survey's history, the term service desk is being used more than help desk.
• There is greater utilization of less expensive channels of support, such as web requests and auto-logging.
• Two-thirds of the industry distinguishes between incidents and service requests, but only forty-three percent of support centers are measuring them separately.
• Forty percent of support centers have staff working remotely and an additional ten percent plan to implement remote support in the next twelve months.
• Smaller support centers pay higher salaries than their larger counterparts for staff-level positions (non-management).

  The 2011 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report, like many of HDI's other offerings, is free to HDI members and available for purchase by non-members. Learn more about the benefits of HDI research and membership from the videos on HDI’s YouTube channel , or stay in touch with HDI via Twitter , Facebook , and LinkedIn

  About HDI
  HDI is the leading professional association and certification body for technical service and support professionals. Facilitating collaboration and networking, HDI hosts industry conferences and events, produces comprehensive publications and research, connects solution providers with practitioners, while certifying and training thousands of professionals each year.

  HDI serves a community of over 110,000 members, followers, customers, solution providers, and contributors throughout the service industry, supporting sixty local chapters across North America. Guided by an international panel of industry experts and practitioners, HDI is the community’s premiere resource for best practices and emerging trends. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, HDI offers training in multiple languages and countries. For more information, visit http://www.ThinkHDI.com or call +1 719.268.0174. HDI is a part of UBM TechWeb.

  About UBM TechWeb

  UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its core business—media solutions, marketing services, and professional information—UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications, and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT support managers, Web and digital professionals, software and game developers, government decision makers, telecom providers, and business executives) actively participate in UBM TechWeb’s communities. UBM TechWeb’s brands include: global face-to-face events, such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat, and VoiceCon; large-scale online networks, such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Gamasutra; research, training, and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research, and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines, such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology. UBM TechWeb is part of UBM, a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets. For more information, visit http://www.informationweek.com/.