Moving from in-house IT Support Systems to Helpdesk Solutions
Many organisations build their IT support processes on in-house "bespoke" developed systems or use generic Office applications such as Outlook and Excel. This approach, especially favoured by smaller enterprises, can indeed help IT Departments deliver IT Support. However, as the organisation grows and its IT service requirements mature, in-house systems can severely restrict the ability to evolve and adopt their support processes in-line with the needs of the business. Typical limitations that organisations experience include:
- Difficulty in managing call volumes due to inefficient call handling processes and lack of management information to predict trends in call quantity.
- Lack of scalability to manage increases in end-users, multiple locations and various touch-points such as end-user Self Service Web portal access.
- Inability to adopt and benefit from Helpdesk software best practice processes such as Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Service Level Management.
- Limitation of support provision for example opening up access to support to end-users via automated email and web forms.
- Difficulty in training new staff in the use of support systems; most in-house solutions require people to use the system in a rigidly defined way and there is an over-dependency on people to know and drive forward the support processes.
- Poor or inaccessible information about incidents causing lost time looking for ways to fix issues and get help.
- Lack of integration with external business applications and external data sources that contain trusted sources of information; good examples of these are Microsoft Active Directory & Asset Discovery products such as SMS and Centennial Discovery.
- Limited or non-existent management information reporting, which can be used to measure and identify trends in support demand and fulfillment, including training, equipment and staffing requirements.
If organisations introduce Helpdesk systems many of these limitations inherent in-house systems can be addressed.
Business Benefits
From the perspective of an organisation utilising in-house developed IT support applications, there are a number of advantages to adopting specifically designed Help desk software with professional implementation services for deploying the Service Management software.
Looking at this from three perspectives, the business benefits are:
Help Desk Staff
- More incidents are resolved quicker.
- Increased first-time fixes through access to the helpdesk Knowledge Base and existing Problems, Known Errors & Workarounds.
- Better management of workload through faster response times and more effective support for end users by gaining access to the required information via the helpdesk system.
- Call volume is reduced through knowledge sharing & better informed users.
End-Users
- End-users are better informed which increases customer satisfaction levels.
- Faster, more accurate IT support by support staff having access to all the information they need from the central helpdesk software.
- Reduced downtime, making the workforce more productive.
Management
- Comprehensive, easily accessible reporting including Service Level Agreements (SLA) at all levels of the business.
- Increased visibility and understanding of the support operation via help desk software reporting.
- Identify bottlenecks in the support process and problematic IT equipment.
- Using ITIL Helpdesk software to gain best practices in service support.
- Identify training requirements for support staff and end-users.
- Establish appropriate staffing requirements.
Richmond SupportDesk
Richmond SupportDesk helpdesk software is designed to assist organisations with their help desk software needs to improve the speed, effectiveness and quality of IT service delivery to users and the business. It achieves this by providing a set of features and processes based on the industry standard best practices, including the ITIL Helpdesk framework for IT Service Support.
Key Features
Powerful integration
- External Data Integration with MS Active Directory for Computers & Users.
- Live links to Asset Discovery including MS SMS and Centennial Discovery database.
- External Data Integration (XDI) to OLE DB compliant data sources.
- Ability to launch PC Remote Control packages from within the Service Desk software.
Comprehensive Reporting
- Single-click Quick-access reports for ad hoc reporting.
- Over 60 report templates that can be easily personalised by IT Support Specialists.
- A wide range of exportable graphs & charts showing live data.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) with drill-down to individual incident level.
- Fast identification of problematic equipment and training requirements for users and helpdesk systems staff by analysing call patterns.
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys - automatically collect customer feedback and analysis the performance of the helpdesk.
Easily Configured and Low Maintenance
- Richmond SupportDesk is configured through a single Set-up Console and is very easy to change and maintain without the need for additional external consultancy enabling the helpdesk software to be rapidly deployed.
Simple Licensing Model
- Client licence includes all modules required by companies to successfully deploy helpdesk systems
- End-User Web licence provides unlimited access to the Richmond SupportDesk Self Service Portal.
Help Desk based on the ITIL Framework
- Incident, Problem, Change, Configuration & Service Level Management
- "ITIL Made Easy" means that ITIL Helpdesk functionality can be enabled and disabled allowing organisations to take a phased approach to best practice service management implementation.
Competitively Priced
Richmond SupportDesk benefits from more than a decade of development based on industry best practice and real-life customer experience and requirements.
Our approach provides a number of advantages over other best practice, ITIL compatible helpdesk systems, including:
- Rapid deployment following a well-structured methodology that typically results in a fully implemented help desk in a matter of a few days.
- Very easy to use, with minimum training requirements for the helpdesk system operators.
- A straightforward licensing structure with no hidden extras for server components, reporting modules, Helpdesk components and processes or integration with Microsoft Active Directory, business applications and company data sources.
