• What is being supported: only the PCs or the LAN itself? All PCs no matter what OS is being used, or only certain OSs and certain revisions? Which applications are being supported? How are unsupported platforms handled?
• Who will be supported: a particular department, building, division, enterprise, university? What if a person has offices in multiple buildings, each with its own helpdesk? Only people who pay? Only people of a certain management level and higher (or lower)?
• Where are the customers? This question is similar to who if one is supporting, for example, everyone in a particular building or location. However, where also includes support of traveling customers, customers visiting external customer sites, customers performing demos at trade shows, and people working from home. When is support provided? Are the hours of operation 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday? Howare things handled outside of these hours? Do people have to wait until the helpdesk reopens, or is there amechanism to reach SAs at home? If there is no support in the off hours, what should facilities management do if environmental alarms sound or if there is a fire?
• How long should the average request take to complete? Certain categories of requests should be instant; others should take longer. Establishing these goals sets expectations for the staff and customers. Customers expect everything to be immediate if they aren’t told that certain tasks should be expected to take longer (see Section 31.1.3). A tiered structure might list certain things that are to be fast (5 minutes), slow (1 hour), and long (requests for new service creation).