The one thing the article didn't touch on, one that I feel is the biggest problem larger companies face, has to do with the constant cycling of the tier 1 and 2 support staffs. You have 3 different types of people that work in the lower tiers. The first being the hard working, knowledgable, and often fresh out of college/training people who are only going to be there for a few months before their potential is realized and they're snatched up by another deparment or (even worse) another company. The second group would be the ones who are good enough to keep their job; they show up, know enough to not fall on their face every day, but otherwise are not going to move up the ladder. The third group are the ones that simply can't hack it and are fired or quit after a few months, or sometimes years if they can fly under the radar often enough.

This leaves the teir 1 and 2 support staffs in a crappy condition. The only people worth keeping are the ones jumping at the first chance to get out of the 'helpdesk' role. So the IT deparment is left with their only real interface to the rest of the company being comprised of (often) barely adequate people. An individual's experience when contacting the IT department litteraly depends on who answers the phone; will it be a person from the first, second, or third group as mentioned above?

Hopefully the trend will change in the future, but it's probably going to require higher pay while allowing those people to also do more advanced things to keep them challenged/happy (that still may not be enough, because to be honest we don't like dealing with the regular day to day helpdesk-style problems anymore than anyone else in the company likes having them). Large companies are just too compartmentalized to do that, so we may all be doomed :(