Innovations in process and technology enable organization to understand the importance of help desk operations and take it to the next level. Be it for a highly secured banking environment or SMB start-up, IT help desk always plays an important role in terms supporting the end customers as well as getting the necessary feedback to hold an upper edge with the competition.

While organizations can think of providing 24/7 availability of services to their customers, there is definitely a need for a continuously available, quality-driven help desk to create the confidence with the customers and improve the quality of the business. An efficient Helpdesk services will always enable organizations to avoid hidden costs and provide optimized service processes. But there is a catch – organizations invest a lot in the support function which may fall outside of their core business/ focus.

 So, what sounds like a cost-effective IT help desk solution to you? To decide on in-house vs outsourcing global help desk operations, what are the key elements you are looking for?

 As an IMS consultant, I believe customer centric “Help Desk 2.0” should:

  • Act as a single point of contact for all service incidents.
  • Enable customers with the unified communications environment (Web, e-mail, telephone)
  • Provide 24/7/365 Service Environment with tier 1-2-3 Support delivery
  • Have technically efficient and certified team of specialists / consultants
  • Focus on “first call resolution” concept
  • Follow proven and documented processes as per industry norms like ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), Lean Six Sigma, ISO and SAS
  • Maintain customer-specific knowledge databases for continuous service optimization
  • Adapt customer’s processes and tools if there is a specific business need
  • Agree to service level agreements (SLAs) and performance-based contracts

If you are still in the IT Help Desk 1.0, then it’s time for the change.