Although replying to a message is easier than starting a new message, it creates additional work for the receiver since they must sort out your issue from the issues originally being discussed in a thread.

Another form of this problem occurs when someone introduces a new but similar problem in the middle of the thread for working on a problem.

In both cases the best outcome is that the receivers are confused by the two issues, at worst your problem gets completely lost. If you’re introducing a new subject, start a new thread.

Assuming the trend what the trade rags say is true, I think that firms are rethinking the idea of outsourcing internal IT operations. Cost is certainly a factor. Within an organization the external cost principle is at play - the user generating a cost by calling an outsourced help desk is not responsible for paying for it - which makes it difficult to control.

It’s difficult to control the cost of a service that doesn’t have simple interface between the two businesses involved. A service that is used by everyone in a firm can’t have a simple interface because it’s there’s too many parties onvolved. As a result extra controls must be put in place (usually by the the service provider), which add to the overhead costs allocated to each transaction.