Many technical professionals struggle with properly understanding the role of the service desk when they are first introduced to ITIL. The misconception arises when they initially equate the service desk function to the technical support desks they frequently contact at software and hardware manufacturers. Though the standard tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 (and perhaps beyond) conventions are used to describe the stages of technical support and there are other similarities, the roles of the service desk and technical support are quite different.

The Service Desk is the customer …