Common questions about help desks

IT service management solutions address the IT support needs of internal employees and external customers and are typically organized around an IT help desk or service desk.

Your organization may have different needs than others but they should be addressed with the right procedures and technologies.

SMA consultants are available to help you with your questions.

Below are answers to commonly asked questions about help desks:

1. "I'm looking for a Help Desk solution.  Where do I start?"

• Selecting a Help Desk System

2. "Is there an out-of-the-box customer service and support tool that also
      has options for reporting?"

• Many organizations use HEAT software to efficiently track and resolve customer issues. HEAT software's reporting and management options also help companies gain control of their service and support issues. HEAT software was designed with ITIL principles in mind.

3. "What kind of information and support do help desks provide?"

• The key requirement for the service management function is the creation and management of the IT Service Desk. 

  The service desk is the point of contact (usually the single point of contact) for providing your customers with a variety of information and support, including:
   

  • General information, hours of operation, procedures and processes, technology guidelines, etc.;
  • Tier 1 support for questions that can be answered in a short period of time;
  • Escalation of issues to Tier 2 or others who have specific expertise that is not available at Tier 1;
  • Tracking of problems and solutions;
  • Use of existing and creation of new knowledge to solve issues;
  • Use of IT asset information, if available, to solve issues;
  • Initiation of problem definition for use by other support personnel;
  • Creation of requests for Change (especially in ITIL-based processes);
  • And other functions that support customer requests.

4. "How can I optimize my organization's investment at our help desk
      and see a better return?"

• Increasing Help Desk ROI

5. "How do we follow ITIL Best Practices at our help desk?"

• In the past few years, IT service management has conformed more and more to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. 
  
  ITIL processes are defined in a set of books that define various aspects of the major functions performed by the service desk, including Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management, Configuration Management, Service Level Management and Self Service.
   

  • HEAT software delivers Pink Elephant verified enhanced ITIL Service Support in the following areas:

    • Incident Management
    • Problem Management
    • Change Management
    • Configuration Management
    • Service Level Management
       
  • ITSM and its modules deliver Pink Elephant verified enhanced ITIL Service Support in the following areas:

  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Change Management
  • Configuration Management
  • Availability Management
  • Release Management
  • Service Level Management

  Learn More About Following ITIL Best Practices with HEAT or ITSM

6. "I'm looking for consulting services for my help desk. What are
      my options?"

• Discovering Help Desk Services to Support Your Operation

7. "What do I need to know about a help desk assessment and finding the IT
      gaps at my support center?"

• IT Assessments and SMA's 5-Step Approach to Enhancing Support

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Please email or call us at 914.686.0300 to speak to an SMA representative to find out more about our services or to arrange a preliminary meeting with one of our consultants.