The purpose of the Help Desk is to provide users with a single point of contact through which their needs regarding the use of technology platform resources and services can be resolved and/or addressed, always in accordance with a standard adopted by the company. The objectives of a help desk include:
- Answer all incoming calls.
- Complete a high percentage of the work online.
- Online tracking of referred cases.
- Reduce recurring calls over time.
The scope of a help desk is very broad. Some of the categories into which we could group its various functions are as follows:
- Services
- Report Submission
- Terms of Use
- Training
- Recommendations
- Advertisements
- Publications
This service offers the following benefits to users and the organization:
- It provides a single point of contact where users can submit their questions or report issues.
- Centralized management of all requests and issues related to the IT platform is provided.
- Support is always available.
- It boosts user productivity by reducing the need to ask coworkers for help—which can lead to downtime—and by resolving a high percentage of requests within minutes.
- It alleviates a significant burden on IT departments—which typically handle this task—allowing them to focus on their core activities.
- It regularly provides information and recommendations for implementing continuous improvement measures.
- First-Level Support: This role serves as the first point of contact with the user. First-level support consists of staff responsible for resolving simple and/or procedural requests over the phone, based on previously established procedures for initial resolutions.
- Second-Level Support:This role is assigned to teams of technicians responsible for resolving requests that require a higher degree of expertise. Second-level support consists of more specialized staff who follow predetermined procedures based on their respective areas of expertise.
- Supervision:For the purpose of managing the service, the role of Supervisor is defined as the person responsible for ensuring and monitoring compliance with the predefined resolution time standards for all incoming calls, and will also monitor and verify compliance with resolution time standards for all problem reports, as well as the commitments made by the resolution units regarding the deadlines for resolving these reports. The Supervisor will then act as the first level of escalation for cases not resolved within the specified time.
In every implementation of a service of this scale, the following activities are carried out:
– Training of technical support staff on the client’s culture, objectives, and business processes.
– Regular training of the staff assigned to the Help Desk.
– Analysis and implementation of the Help Desk Management system, procedures, methodology, and controls, as well as feedback from the client to ensure the continuous improvement of said management system.
– System definitions: Problem categorization, appropriate and efficient assignment rules, impact levels, case prioritization based on criticality, and appropriate escalation policies to ensure that requests are reassigned according to their complexity while minimizing wait times for the end user, Notifications and alerts for servers and active equipment, Documentation of solutions to be applied to future resolutions (knowledge base).
– Testing of the model in accordance with the above.
– Documentation of procedures, methodologies, controls, model design, and use of the requirements management software.
– Installation and implementation of the requirements management software.
– Generation and documentation of management reports required by the client to evaluate and measure the level of service.
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Some of the challenges faced by organizations, and IT departments in particular, include:
– Justifying and reducing IT service costs.
– Increasing user satisfaction and productivity by allowing users to focus most of their time on their core tasks, while leaving the Help Desk to handle and resolve issues related to the software and hardware tools they use.
– Maintaining an “accurate” inventory of IT assets (fixed assets), including their usage, location, and accounting status.
– Resolving recurring issues and implementing software updates and patches, which can sometimes be time-consuming.
The Help Desk should regularly provide recommendations and reminders to its clients to reduce operational and support costs, taking the following factors into account:
– Financial:Management of owned and leased assets, budget reduction, justification of value and return on investment in systems, conversion of fixed costs to variable costs.
– Security:Regular patch updates and effective compliance with external audits and information security and risk policies.
– Technical:Product diversity, regular updates, limited time dedicated to business strategy.
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