User:NoelBruton/Lost User-Productivity (IT User Support)

Lost User-Productivity (IT User Support) new article content ... The ‘Lost User-Productivity’ Calculation (LUP) is a way of recognising and measuring the financial value of IT user support. It was devised by IT support consultant Noel Bruton, and first publicly documented in his book ‘Effective User Support’, and expanded upon in his later 'How to Manage the IT Helpdesk'. It forms part of Bruton’s ‘Methodology for IT User Support’ (MITUS2).

Bruton contends that rather than just repair failed computer systems, what IT user support actually does is effect the repair as a means to the end of restoring the productivity of the impeded computer user. That user productivity has a financial value, as the effort of any corporate employee ultimately contributes to making the organisation's turnover (revenue). An average employee contribution to turnover per hour is calculated through dividing the corporate turnover figure by the total annual employee hours worked. This figure is then modified by a percentage less than 100, known as the 'Computer Dependency Factor'. This is to reflect the typical real dependency of the user on the computer. The end result of the calculation is the typical hourly productivity of the computer user.

When the user is impeded by a failure in IT or its use (known in IT parlance as an "Incident", the elapsed time in hours until resolution can now be given a monetary value. The longer the incident remains unresolved, the greater the lost user-productivity, and so the greater the business cost. A more detailed description of the calculation is given at Bruton's IT Support Management blog.

The calculation can be used to decide the affordability of given service level targets.