Examine the Enterprise Desktop Support Technician role

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As an Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (EDST), your job is to increase end-user productivity by troubleshooting and trying to solve the computer and system issues that end users experience. This requires that you understand your role in the support environment. An EDST must fulfill several roles in the support environment. A good EDST possesses technical expertise in addition to nontechnical aptitude, such as excellent interpersonal skills, that enable you to build rapport with end users and other members and users of the support environment.

As an EDST, you should be:

• A good troubleshooter. An EDST can isolate an issue quickly by performing specific diagnostic tasks.
• A knowledgeable resource. You should be familiar with relevant products, and can perform hardware and software installation tasks, system monitoring, and maintenance.
• An effective communicator. Users may be distressed or upset, and you will need to manage these interpersonal and technical interactions simultaneously and effectively.
• An information source. Even if you do not know the answer, you need to know where to get the answer and when to escalate a problem.

Organizations typically structure their technical support into different tiers. The lowest tier typically manages end-user issues, and the highest tier responds to the most complex issues. New requests usually are assigned to tier 1, which most organizations refer to as the help desk. Tier 1 is where personnel categorize end-user problems and attempt to resolve them. If tier 1 help-desk staff cannot resolve the request, they typically will follow prescribed guidance within the organization’s troubleshooting methodology, and escalate the end user’s issue to tier 2 personnel.