IT support has always held significant value within organisations, playing a pivotal role in resolving issues and ensuring system uptime and employee productivity. However, technological advancements and increasing competition have created new challenges in the provision of effective IT support, whilst also magnifying its strategic importance. In this blog, we'll delve into the escalating importance of IT support and the growing trend of outsourcing, discussing the factors that are driving this.
What is the role of an IT Service Desk?
The IT service desk, also known as a Help Desk, refers to a team of support staff who serve as the primary point of contact for users within an organisation for providing technical assistance and resolving IT-related issues. These teams handle a wide range of IT issues, including hardware and software problems, network connectivity issues, security concerns, and more.
It provides technical support and troubleshooting assistance to resolve any IT-related issues, ensuring uninterrupted workflow and minimising downtime. Additionally, the service desk handles incident management, efficiently logging and categorising incidents, and working towards their timely resolution. It also plays a crucial role in fulfilling service requests, such as software installations, system access, and hardware provisioning. The service desk acts as a central hub for managing IT service disruptions and communicating relevant updates to users, ensuring effective incident communication and minimising business impact.
What is the strategic significance of an effective IT Service Desk?
An effective IT Service Desk holds strategic importance within organisations, acting as a crucial pillar of support and problem-solving for both employees and customers. By promptly addressing technical issues and providing reliable assistance, the Service Desk ensures uninterrupted workflow, boosts productivity, and minimises downtime. Its strategic significance lies in its ability to maintain the smooth functioning of IT systems, enabling employees to focus on their core tasks without being hindered by IT challenges.
An efficient Service Desk can also enhance customer satisfaction by swiftly resolving customer queries and concerns, fostering positive relationships and loyalty. It serves as a central hub for incident management, ensuring timely resolution of service disruptions and facilitating effective communication throughout the organisation.
Why are organisations increasingly outsourcing their IT Service Desk?
There has been a growing trend for organisations to outsource their IT Service Desk to a 3rd party provider or Managed Services Provider (MSP) for a number of reasons.
- The industry-wide technical skills shortage has made it harder for organisations to staff their own support services
- The rise of remote or hybrid workforces post-pandemic has meant that maintaining an in-house, 24x7 team is more difficult than it used to be
- Fluctuating economic conditions have put pressure on businesses to have flexible and agile services which are often hard to achieve in-house due to hardware, licensing and staffing requirements
What are the benefits of outsourcing your IT Service Desk?
Organisations can experience a range of key benefits by outsourcing their IT Service Desk. Firstly, it allows businesses to access a dedicated team of professionals who specialise in providing top-notch help desk support. They will have extensive experience across industries and technologies, and possess the knowledge and resources to ensure that technical issues are resolved promptly and effectively.
Outsourcing the IT Service Desk can also bring cost advantages. By partnering with external service providers, organisations can reduce operational expenses associated with hiring, training, and managing an in-house team. Outsourcing enables businesses to leverage economies of scale, benefiting from shared resources and infrastructure, ultimately resulting in significant cost savings.
Another significant advantage is the faster response times. External service providers often offer round-the-clock availability, delivering 24x7 support to address IT issues promptly. This ensures minimal downtime and maximises productivity, as businesses can rely on a responsive and accessible IT support system at all times.
Additionally, outsourcing the IT Service Desk allows organisations to allocate their internal IT staff to core business functions. By entrusting routine IT support tasks to external experts, internal teams can dedicate their time and expertise to critical projects and strategic initiatives. This streamlined approach increases efficiency and fosters innovation within the organisation.
Outsourcing your Service Desk can also be the best solution for businesses undergoing rapid business expansion, as the external provider will be able to quickly provide the resources to meet the increasing demand for IT support and support your organisation as it scales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the role of IT support in organisations is increasingly vital, not just for troubleshooting and maintaining systems, but for strategic operations as well. As the demand for efficient, round-the-clock IT services escalates, and as organisations grapple with internal resources and expertise, outsourcing the IT Service Desk emerges as a viable solution. By doing so, businesses can tap into specialist knowledge, achieve cost savings, ensure swift response times, and free up internal teams for more strategic work. Outsourcing the IT service desk is not just about offloading tasks but about enhancing the overall IT support experience, which in turn positively impacts productivity, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, the bottom line.
At Advanced, we can cater to these needs, providing tailored, high-quality service desk support delivered by our team of experts. Our service desk utilises an enterprise-class IT Service Management (ITSM) platform- ServiceNow, which underpins our entire support operation, providing ITIL v4 aligned capability. Our service desk accommodates various support scenarios, including standard business as usual support, tactical resource recruitment challenges, and supporting disaggregation from single suppliers, improving service quality and user experience. We can provide either dedicated or shared services, with tailored SLAs to suit your requirements.
Get in touch today to learn more.
