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What is Service desk?

A single point of contact (SPOC) that receives all inquiries, failure reports, service requests and the like from users. It records what it receives, resolves what it can itself, escalates what it cannot to specialist technical teams and others, tracks progress and informs users of the outcome. Forms include a local service desk at each site, a centralized one in a single location and a virtual one that links staff in various places over a network.

Japanese name: サービスデスク

Service desk appears in 6 practice questions across 2 topics, including IT Service Management and Systems Audit, Probability, Statistics and Queueing.

Field: IT Service Management and Systems Audit

Try it: questions about Service desk

Inquiries to a service desk arrive at random, independently of one another, at an average of 3 per hour, and the number arriving in one hour follows a Poisson distribution. Taking e⁻³ ≈ 0.0498, which of the following is closest to the probability that exactly 2 arrive in a given hour?

  1. A0.050
  2. B0.149
  3. C0.224
Show answer and explanation

Answer: C. 0.224

For a Poisson distribution with mean λ, the probability of k events is P(k) = λᵏ × e^(−λ) ÷ k!. With λ = 3 and k = 2, P(2) = 3² × e⁻³ ÷ 2 = 4.5 × 0.0498 ≈ 0.224. The Poisson distribution describes how many times a rare event occurs in a fixed time or area, and it is also used for the number of defects on a wafer.

The service desk received a call from a user saying, "In the expense reimbursement system, the submit button does not respond when I attach an image of a receipt." The same symptom is registered as a known error, with the recorded workaround "the image can be submitted if it is first registered from a separate registration screen." Which of the following is the most appropriate action in incident management?

  1. AAsk the user to hold off on submitting expenses until the root cause is found and a permanent fix is completed
  2. BHave the service desk staff member guess the cause and fix the program in the production environment on the spot to prevent recurrence
  3. CTell the user about the recorded workaround so that they can continue working, and log the incident and link it to the known error
Show answer and explanation

Answer: C. Tell the user about the recorded workaround so that they can continue working, and log the incident and link it to the known error

The goal of incident management is to return the service to normal as quickly as possible and keep the effect on the business small. If a workaround is recorded for a known error, it is passed on so that the user can continue working. Logging the incident and linking it to the known error shows how often it occurs and provides input for judging the priority of a permanent fix. Resolving the root cause is done by problem management, and changes to the production environment go through change management.

Service desk in the explanations

Questions that mention Service desk (6)

  1. Inquiries to a service desk arrive at random, independently of one another, at an average of 3 per hour, and the number arriving in one hour follows a Poisson distribution. Taking e⁻³ ≈ 0.0498, which of the following is closest to the probability that exactly 2 arrive in a given hour?
  2. The service desk received a call from a user saying, "In the expense reimbursement system, the submit button does not respond when I attach an image of a receipt." The same symptom is registered as a known error, with the recorded workaround "the image can be submitted if it is first registered from a separate registration screen." Which of the following is the most appropriate action in incident management?
  3. Which of the following is the main benefit of setting up a service desk as a single point of contact (SPOC) that receives all inquiries and failure reports from users?
  4. An incident received by a service desk staff member was about to exceed the resolution target time set in the SLA. The staff member reported the situation to the service desk manager and asked for a decision on adding staff and on contacting users. Which of the following is this action?
  5. To achieve the service levels promised to users in an SLA, an IT service provider agrees with the network operations department and other departments within the same organization on the content and level of the work each is responsible for. Which of the following is this agreement?
  6. Which of the following describes a "known error" in problem management appropriately?

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Related terms

Problem management SLA (service level agreement) Poisson distribution Incident management Change management Escalation Audit trail BCP (business continuity plan) CAAT (computer-assisted audit techniques) Configuration management

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