What is the difference between a service desk and a help desk? Why does it matter? In many ways, differences between them are comparable to differences between a managed IT partner and a computer repair shop. Service desks are proactive, addressing not just support issues but also assisting with requests for new services, knowledge management, and answering strategic questions that help businesses make informed decisions about their technology. A help desk is simply tasked with fixing what’s broken. Both are necessary for providing exceptional customer service.
Service Desk vs Help Desk: Aligning IT Strategy with Business Strategy
The primary focus of the help desk is to provide issue resolution. The help desk handles individual technical problems and user issues, such as software errors, password resets, and basic troubleshooting. The objective of the help desk is to quickly address and resolve the user’s immediate problems through email, live chat, or phone with exceptional resolution times and a positive user experience. Service desks also offer a self-service portal for their clients.
The service desk is built into your MSP service level agreements and has a primary focus of comprehensive service management and customer satisfaction. The service desk, therefore, is capable of managing a broader range of services, including upgrades, service requests, and large-scale problem resolutions. The overall goal of the service desk is to support infrastructure, provide guidance in aligning technology and business goals, and to provide reporting, knowledge bases, and information that leads to more strategic decision making with exceptional response times.
Because the help desk is designed to react to issues after they’ve happened, the role of the help desk is to quickly and efficiently address issues that come up during the course of operations. Help desks can be incredibly useful components of IT support, because they can rapidly address any unexpected issues that arise. But a help desk alone is not enough. Yes, it is a reactive, necessary measure, but for long-term strategy-driven decisions, your business needs more. So, if your Calgary business needs to address strategy alignment, additional services, technology adoption, and long-term planning, you will likely be appreciative of your MSP’s service desk capabilities. Indeed, your business may even benefit from both the competencies of a help desk and a service desk.
Benefits of a Help Desk
There is nothing more reassuring than being able to call your help desk when you’re in the middle of a crisis, whether it’s the blue screen of death caused by a CrowdStrike update or the accidental clicking of a phishing link. Having someone immediately available to help you quickly and efficiently resolve issues offers great peace of mind and minimizes damages to your operations.
Benefits of a Service Desk
An MSP’s service desk (often called a network operations center or NOC) expands on the help desk approach by providing a centralized hub that offers IT-related support and guidance to end-users, incident response, knowledge management, and service request fulfillment. The experts working in the service desk or NOC not only oversee the needs of the MSP client but also proactively manage services, track and manage change, analyze risk, update SLAs, and support clients as they grow.
What Should I Expect from the Service Desk at My MSP?
A well-implemented service desk solution is critical for enhancing both employee productivity and business continuity. With a centralized location to manage IT-related issues, service desk services play a key function in ensuring that business processes run smoothly. By handling incoming requests efficiently, the service desk solution can address everything from common issues to complex ones, reducing operational costs and supporting business objectives. Service request management, a critical role within the service desk, ensures that ticket volume is controlled, and ticket status is updated in real time, which in turn improves the end-user experience.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, service desk tools must accommodate the use of mobile devices, allowing both employees and desk technicians to resolve tech issues on the go. This ability to offer faster resolution times not only aids in customer requests but also plays a part in cost savings by reducing the average time spent on each ticket. Furthermore, self-service options empower employees to resolve common service issues on their own, freeing up the service desk to focus on more critical issues.
Services extend beyond mere problem resolution. They provide a single location for departmental knowledge, aiding in the training and onboarding of new employees and ensuring that business partners are well-supported. This centralized location helps in identifying potential issues before they become critical, maintaining service quality, and contributing to overall business objectives. By improving service request management and offering solutions that address both end-user and business partner needs, an MSP can support the organization’s long-term goals and strengthens its operational foundation.
Service desk operations should support your Calgary business by helping to streamline your business operations and deliver a great client experience. You should expect the following services:
Support for Complex Challenges Affecting Your Calgary Business
You can rely on your service desk to help address the larger technology challenges facing your business, from rolling out a new service to your customers that requires logistical IT support from your MSP to ensuring that your IT security sufficiently meets any required compliance standards.
Project and Change Management
The service desk is where you can turn when you need to institute significant changes within your organization. For example, if you’re implementing MFA protocols for all logins, you may need your service desk to help manage the project and address any stumbling blocks. Your service desk can also support you during migrations from legacy systems to cloud-based systems, major technology updates, and infrastructure support. The MSP service desk software will also offer self-service options.
Industry-Specific Support
The service desk can assist your organization with industry-specific support, including a significant knowledge base and knowledge base articles. Whether your Calgary company is in the medical, legal, energy, or any other industry, the service desk can help support the specific IT needs of your organization.
Why Calgary Businesses Should Expect the Best of Both Worlds from their MSP
When you have the right managed service provider for your Calgary business, you won’t have to wait for things to break to get help. In fact, the very goal of a great MSP is to make sure you never (or very rarely) need repair services, because they take proactive measures to ensure your uptime. However, disruptions do occur in which your MSP helps manage and remediate issues, whether it’s a cybersecurity issue or an external disruption.
Your team needs to be able to call service providers for quick remedies to their problems. The service desk at your MSP partner is often the go-to option, as they operate as your dedicated IT team or an extension of your internal IT team, helping to proactively manage your IT to prevent downtime, improve compliance, and achieve efficiency. While a help desk can assist with resolving on-the-spot technical issues, a service desk is designed to be more proactive and strategic. But in any company, you likely need both. That’s where The ITeam comes in.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Calgary face the constant challenge of remaining competitive while also maintaining a strong focus on cybersecurity. As a top-rated managed service provider in Calgary, we help SMEs achieve their goals by providing them with reliable and secure support. We can help your organization balance productivity and streamline operations, to deliver the best customer experience while simultaneously protecting your network and your customers’ data. Partnering with an experienced MSP like The ITeam can significantly enhance the efficiency and security of your SME by adopting a proactive approach to IT support and strategy. Request an assessment today.