Before issuing an RFP to a list of potential Managed Service Providers, an organization must first define its support requirements.
Occasionally, these definitions require additional clarification or a glossary of terms to facilitate a proper solution match. Even when using a term as ubiquitous as "help desk," prospective customers may mean something entirely different. In reality, it is uncommon for two companies to speak the same language.
Then why is there a disconnect?
Even if you are not in the help desk support industry, it is common to use the terminology in alternative ways. Many companies define a help desk as any group of IT support professionals who provide phone support.
The term "help desk" is misleading even if it means that those experts quickly end the call and go to the end user's location to carry out hardware repairs or Installs, Moves, Adds, Alters (IMACs) of Desktop computers, laptops, monitors, and peripherals.
If the help desk consists of a team of technicians who spend the majority of their time performing hands-on tasks at the end user's desk, then their role is more accurately described as "desktop support."
What is a help desk?
A help desk is a call center with a single point of contact that manages incoming incidents, logs them into a ticketing system, and either resolve them at Level 1 or escalates them until they are resolved. Therefore, a key distinction is that help desks only provide remote support.
In a dedicated staffing model, they may be placed on-site at a client's location; however, support requests are still initiated via phone, email, or web form and resolved or escalated.
The help desk team typically operates from a separate, well-partitioned space separate if they share a building with the users they support to discourage end users from initiating support in person as this results in work interruptions as well as inaccurate documentation and reporting.
None of the solutions are identical
Sometimes, an organization's staff performs both remote help desk (Level 1) and on-site desktop (Level 2) duties. This model is adequate for smaller offices with support needs that are evenly divided between remote and on-site.
Or perhaps a combination of a stable IT environment and a culture of tech-savvy end-users is conducive to support staff serving in a more plug-and-play provisioning capacity. If so, classic Level 1 help desk tasks such as providing "how to" support for specific applications and resolving access and connectivity issues are minimal.
Because the help desk can utilize remote access tools such as TeamViewer and LogMeIn to perform troubleshooting procedures directly on the end user's desktop, the distinction between the help desk and desktop support is sometimes blurred.
However, these tools merely augment the capabilities of the help desk without redefining its role as anything other than a remote support entity.
Why should Managed Service Providers care about this distinction if they offer both?
The majority of Managed Service Providers indeed offer IT support of all types, including remote help desk, desktop, and infrastructure or server support. However, they must still align their solution with the client's actual needs, which requires defining support roles and separation of duties within an efficient and cost-effective workflow.
The optimal strategy involves the help desk serving as the initial point of contact for all incidents. This means that help desk agents handle incoming calls, emails, and web forms, then troubleshoot and resolve everything they can remotely (between 70 and 80% of incidents), escalating only those IT support requests that require an on-site presence or other access and permissions to resolve, such as an incident filtering system.
Assuming an IT Service Management platform or ticketing system is in place, the help desk can triage and document the issue, as well as include notes on previously attempted resolution procedures. So that on-site IT personnel, such as desktop support technicians, can identify root causes more quickly based on what has been eliminated during the triaging process.
This support symbiosis is effective because the help desk support and desktop support teams can concentrate on tasks that capitalize on their skill sets and assigned locale, thereby streamlining the resolution process.
On the other hand, larger, more dispersed businesses that mix Level 1 remote and Level 2 on-site tasks frequently encounter slower help desk response times when technicians are away from their desks.
Even with the most mobile-friendly ticketing system application, desktop technicians are more prone to forget to update the ticket and omit to document their support tasks than if the ticket were handled by a remote agent at their desk.
Technicians waste an excessive amount of time managing walkup support requests and roaming from desk to desk resolving issues that could have been resolved remotely in minutes, as a result of Level 1/Level 2 double duty.
Terminology matters and is essential to a cooperative conversation when speaking with prospective clients. For the Managed Service Provider, the distinction between help desk support and desktop support is determined more by the method of delivery than by the language itself. Otherwise, the solution would be without significance.