CompTIA's Trends in Help Desk survey explores the areas businesses are focusing on as they manage their help desk function, including IT priorities, required skills, and emerging technologies.

1. Help DeskTrends

2. Operational Approach to Technology
39%
49%
12%
Heavy use
of third
parties
Building
technology as
an internal core
competency
Selectively
balancing
internal and
external
resources

3. Approach to Help Desk
49%
46%
5%
Exclusively use
external
resources
Exclusively use
internal
resources
Use both
internal and
external
resources

4. Satisfaction with Help Desk
37%
46%
12%
3%
1%
Completely
satisfied
Mostly satisfied Somewhat
satisfied,
somewhat
dissatisfied
Mostly dissatisfied Completely
dissatisfied
67% of executives
report being completely
satisfied, but only 28%
of business staff and
37% of IT staff

5. Factors Impacting Satisfaction with Help Desk
42%
42%
37%
34%
50%
51%
52%
55%
Turnaround in resolving problems
Variety of communication channels available
Support for remote work
Ability to solve technical problems
Positive Impact Negative Impact

6. Desired Changes to Make Help Desk More Effective
39%
40%
49%
56%
Broader help desk contact options
Better procedures for hardware issues
Better self-support resources
Better way to access user system

7. Change in Demand for Various Help Desk Issues
Increasing
Significantly
Increasing
Slightly
Stable Decreasing
Slightly
Decreasing
Significantly
Cybersecurity 36% 34% 18% 8% 3%
Securing networks 31% 36% 22% 6% 2%
Remote/WFH support 31% 36% 22% 7% 2%
Mobile device issues 27% 33% 28% 6% 4%
Virtualization 26% 37% 25% 5% 2%
SaaS/Cloud support 25% 32% 27% 6% 3%
End user support 24% 29% 33% 7% 2%
Disaster recovery 24% 28% 34% 8% 3%
Hardware issues 23% 32% 33% 7% 3%
Software issues 22% 34% 33% 7% 3%
MS Windows 22% 30% 35% 6% 4%
macOS 21% 29% 31% 8% 5%

8. Importance of Skills for Help Desk Technicians
Critically
Important
Very
Important
Somewhat
Important
Not Very
Important
Not At All
Important
Cybersecurity 39% 37% 14% 5% 3%
Networking support 29% 41% 19% 6% 3%
Mobile device support 29% 38% 23% 7% 3%
OS support 27% 43% 19% 5% 4%
Software support 26% 45% 19% 7% 3%
Cloud/SaaS support 24% 43% 21% 7% 3%
Hardware support 23% 46% 20% 6% 3%
IoT support 23% 37% 24% 8% 5%
Virtualization support 20% 41% 24% 9% 4%
Command line tools 20% 38% 26% 7% 5%
Programming/scripting 20% 37% 21% 13% 4%
AI application support 20% 36% 20% 12% 8%

9. Minimum Amount of Experience Needed
1%
9%
20%
30%
19%
11%
6%
3%
None
Less than 6 months
6 months to 1 year
1 year to 2 years
2 years to 3 years
3 years to 5 years
5 years to 10 years
More than 10 years

10. Change in Priority for Hardware Issues
4%
14%
28%
39%
14%
4%
10%
24%
38%
25%
1%
6%
19%
40%
34%
Significantly lower
Slightly lower
No change
Slightly higher
Significantly higher
Large Medium Small
9%
15%
30%
23%
23%
3%
13%
27%
43%
14%
1%
5%
17%
39%
38%
Significantly lower
Slightly lower
No change
Slightly higher
Significantly higher
Core competency Balanced resources Outsourced
Company Size View on Technology

11. Change in Priority for Cloud Issues
1%
7%
34%
39%
18%
1%
8%
19%
42%
30%
2%
3%
19%
29%
47%
Significantly lower
Slightly lower
No change
Slightly higher
Significantly higher
Large Medium Small
2%
10%
31%
23%
33%
2%
7%
30%
41%
21%
1%
4%
16%
36%
42%
Significantly lower
Slightly lower
No change
Slightly higher
Significantly higher
Core competency Balanced resources Outsourced
Company Size View on Technology

12. Metrics for Measuring Effectiveness
38%
48%
52%
65%
ROI for help desk spending
Number of tickets resolved
Speed of ticket resolution
Customer satisfaction

13. Technologies Used for Help Desk Operations
29%
31%
35%
40%
41%
49%
49%
52%
Artificial intelligence
Automation
Social media
Ticketing system
Data analysis
Telephone
Mobile device
Chat software

14. Uses of Artificial Intelligence
50%
55%
56%
72%
Curating knowledge base
Finding patterns in tickets
Chatbots
Classifying/routing requests

15. Uses of Automation
50%
57%
59%
62%
66%
Asset upgrade notification
End user password reset
Ticket followup
Single sign on
Status updates

16. Uses of Data Analysis
54%
60%
71%
72%
Forecasting demand
Finding ticket patterns
Tracking satisfaction
Analyzing technician performance

17. Avenues for Finding Help Desk Technicians
34%
35%
36%
38%
54%
High school graduates
Apprenticeship
Hiring from other company
Boot camp
4-year college degree