Chapter 1. Introduction to Problem Management

Problem management is a business function comprised of people, processes, and tools organized and chartered to resolve customer problems. This function has traditionally been the responsibility of and managed by the help desk. As companies have drastically increased spending on technology, the visibility of the help desk and the pressure on it to perform have increased dramatically as well. The complexity of so much new technology and the rapid distribution of it into the customer environment has made the once straightforward job of the help desk very difficult. The breadth and depth of expertise now required to support a common infrastructure is practically unimaginable compared to the mainframe environment of the 1970s and 1980s. It has become more difficult to support external customers as well, because of the complexity of their environments and the "standard" services they so often demand. Most customers expect "on-demand " services with a variety of access options to those services—telephone, Internet, email, and more. If you can't provide these services, customers will take their business to someone who can.