This is a tricky one. How much demand will there actually be? We need to assess
this for each of the services the group will eventually produce. The two main ways
of doing it are by using data from benchmarks (there are a number of companies
providing these, best known being the Gartner Group). But even these tend to be
limited to simple things like ratios of service staff to user or machine populations,
and all that tells you is what happens in terms of headcount, or what companies
happen to be doing now rather than what is possible. In my own experience of
benchmarking helpdesks, for example, the figures show that the average
performance of helpdesks, especially second-line support staff, is adrift of what is
possible by factors of up to four. In other words, the best helpdesks are not just a
little bit more efficient than the average, but up to four times as efficient. Given a
difference as stark as that, the value of benchmarks becomes questionable.