Dear Bob ... Thanks for taking a second try at my issue (Fix a broken Help Desk process or toss it out?). It was very helpful. BTW I like your on-line form solution. However, it would not work here for a reason related to the knee-jerk reaction to the words "won't scale." This is the knee-jerk reaction to anything implying user-trainability or intelligence on the part of users. Switching to an on-line form would Dear Bob …Thanks for taking a second try at my issue (Fix a broken Help Desk process or toss it out?). It was very helpful.BTW I like your on-line form solution. However, it would not work here for a reason related to the knee-jerk reaction to the words “won’t scale.” This is the knee-jerk reaction to anything implying user-trainability or intelligence on the part of users. Switching to an on-line form would take user cooperation and “we all know” that users are incapable. Be that as it may, the on-line form is a good approach for one aspect of the issue. But we also need to assume trainability and intelligence, not robot-like reactions, on the part of help-desk personnel, too. Not all related incidents are *directly* related; they are previously-resolved *versions* of the same problem, which may have happened to a completely different user. I’m saying the help desk personnel don’t use the ticket repository to do research, they start from zero every time. Apparently imposing this requirement doesn’t “scale well” because it’s too much to ask of standard help desk personnel.– Scaling the heights Dear Scaling …Thanks for giving me an opportunity to get back on an old soapbox. To anyone in earshot: IF THEY CAN’T FIGURE OUT AN ON-LINE FORM, WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO BLOCK THEIR ACCESS TO eBAY?Sure, some users won’t be able to cope. They’re the ones who already can’t cope with e-mail. Amazon.com and eBay proved a long time ago that the average American consumer can figure out an on-line form without breaking a sweat. And if your Help Desk staff can’t figure out that one e-mail reporting that e-mail is down (hey, wait a minute!) is the same issue as the last one on the same subject, you might as well fire the schlemiels right now. I’d have recommended a transfer to the mailroom except that the mailroom can’t use anyone this uninsightful.(Another tip: Add an automated greeting to the Help Desk telephone number and intranet form that informs users about known outages before they initiate a ticket.)Now if we’re talking about one of those sporadic problems that crops up twice a month, don’t ask the Help Desk staff to spot the trend. That’s the difference between incident management and trend-spotting. Ask the Help Desk staff to participate, of course, but this is a management responsibility, aided and abetted by the reporting capabilities of all but the most inept Service Desk systems. – Bob Technology Industry