7 Reasons Why Help Desk Support Should be Part of Your Managed IT Services Strategy
As companies begin to consider their services strategies for the upcoming new year, they should consider looking at how they provide end user or help desk support. While outsourcing is often discussed in financial terms, the impact of help desk outsourcing has a much broader reach. As seen through the following seven reasons, an outsourced help desk offers numerous benefits that can positively impact your entire team.
Reason #1. End User and IT Team Productivity
The age-old phrase, “time is money,” applies not only to your business, but also to that of the end user. When it comes to improving the end user experience, time is of the essence. No one wants to waste time (and, inevitably, money) as they wait around for answers to their questions. An outsourced IT team can often resolve the end users’ issues faster so that they can return to their work, thus increasing productivity levels. An outsourced IT help desk will also allow your internal IT team to focus on key business-centric IT issues rather than fielding an onslaught of end user questions, complaints and issues. With your entire team to performing at their highest productivity levels, your business becomes more competitive and profitable.
Reason #2. Analyze End User Trends
When you have all the help desk tickets stored in one place, you can more effectively analyze end user trends. Analyzing these trends can improve overall workflow. For example, you might notice that some users are having the same issues. Upon noticing this trend, you can create a training program to alleviate the common issues that they seem to be experiencing or replace aging technology that is causing the problem..
Reason #3. Access to Industry Experts
By its very definition, managed IT services companies are staffed with technology experts that stay up-to-date on the latest technologies. In fact, these IT experts are not only up to date on the latest desktop and end user issues, but they have also been trained to handle all sorts of technical situations. By using an outsourced service, your company can not only create a positive customer experience, but it can also showcase its status as an industry leader, which will give you another competitive edge.
Reason #4. Improved Support Past Normal Work Hours
We’ve all experienced it… a dreaded IT issue at 12:00 a.m. Your internal IT team won’t pick up the phone unless it’s an executive issue and, even if that’s the case, they won’t be happy about it. Fortunately, managed IT services companies are available for all of those instances when you are burning the midnight oil and run into IT trouble. In fact, not only can outsourced help desk support provide a better experience for you and your employees, but it can also create a better quality of life for your IT team, while simultaneously keeping C-level executives happy. It’s a win-win scenario that ensures an industry expert will be readily available to answer any and all questions 24/7/365.
Reason #5. Eliminate Wasted Time Spent Researching Issues That Have Been Solved
Reoccurring technology problems are often a waste of time and resources. This issue can easily be resolved with detailed notes in a ticketing system. In fact, through these notes, the recurring technology issues can be solved more quickly, and if it is a systemic issue, it can be addressed. In short, through the simple act of adding in notes to a centralized ticketing system, you can ensure that no time is wasted on researching issues that have already been solved on more than one occasion. This improved workflow reduces the time it takes to resolve help desk tickets, while simultaneously increasing productivity levels and enhancing the bottom line through workflow efficiencies.
Reason #6. Improved Response Times
Through a managed help desk, technology providers must meet established Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Generally speaking, these SLAs apply to ticket response, resolutions and escalations. If the SLAs aren’t met, then the managed help desk typically loses money (or, in some cases, the entire contract). Since internal teams don’t have the same SLA guarantees or pressures, they tend to give help desk tickets from end users a lower priority as they place the precedent on business-centric IT issues. While this help the IT team tackle their issues, your end users are left out in the cold.
Reason #7. Flexible Capacity
Many companies have seasonal upturn patterns. In other words, they often need more support during certain seasons and / or times of the day. Managed help desk services are able to provide extra support as it’s needed. The latter flexibility can often result in large cost savings. In fact, when you use an outsourced help desk, you don’t have to worry about hiring and training new employees for your busy seasons. Instead, you can simply turn to the outsourced solution and the readily available industry experts that they have for help scale up or scale down your end user support needs.
The Bottom Line: Choose the Right Line of IT Support
Many companies find that their internal IT teams are spread too thin. As these internal teams face a growing number of complex issues, including data and cloud challenges, evolving cyber-security threats, and the need to deliver more end user support, companies must determine if they want to overburden their internal IT teams or turn to a managed IT services provider. The potential benefits of help desk support as seen above may be a way for your business to keep both end users and your technology team happy and productive. Reach out to Comport for help with your unique needs.
