In her article "Help-Yourself Help Desks," McCrea compared schools that have added a self-service element to their IT services. More and more schools are turning to self-service as their IT departments feel budget squeezes, but fortunately, many users actually prefer self-service for minor issues.

Saint Joseph's University (PA) and Seattle University (WA) have both added self-service options to their websites recently and report that, while the self-service portals took significant effort to set up and do have their limitations, they have helped to streamline the schools' IT service requests. Pepperdine University (CA) reports an especially positive experience with self-service, noting that it has helped them to reduce user wait times, streamline their communications, increase user satisfaction, and decrease frustration levels. Pepperdine's CIO recommends that any schools considering self-service ought to focus it on the areas where people are struggling the most.

Click here to read McCrea's article.