Read the following Case Study and answer the questions that follow:
Tradeteam is a logistics company, which was part of Exel but is now a DHL company, which provides total logistics service to the brewing industry. The Tradeteam IS organization splits into three sections: systems development, support services which include helpdesk and change and configuration, management and technical support which concentrates on the hardware side.
The IS helpdesk service is provided by Computacenter at their call center in Milton Keynes. The helpdesk is manned by trained first-line analysts who are familiar with the Tradeteam configuration. The first line analysts are supported by second-line analysts and field engineers. There is a small group of Tradeteam analysts called the resolver group. In specific circumstances, calls can be passed onto third parties including Coors brewers, IUK, Digicam and BT. The helpdesk will still own the problem and incidents may not be closed until the user is satisfied with the outcome. Incidents may be logged on a 24×7 basis. Server management and Priority 1 are supported 24×7, Priority 2 are dealt with on a 9.00–5.00 basis. A small IT service group at Tradeteam oversees the outsourced IT services and provides some local support at headquarters.
Source: McBride, N. (2009). Exploring service issues within the IT organization: Four mini-case studies. International journal of information management, 29(3), 237-243.
a) Identify the main activities of the IT helpdesk.
b) Describe the helpdesk structure (i.e. local, virtual, central, follow-the-sun).