Due to the contingency that we are experiencing because of the COVID-19, it is normal that you want to optimize your IT service desk. Trying to achieve a better service in 2020 (and beyond) is a healthy strategy. However, it is likely that many of the challenges of your IT service desk will be the same for some time due to this contingency.
For example, an increasing volume of IT support tickets is now being created. These tickets need to be handled effectively, but with minimal increase to your budget.
In addition, every day (and especially because of the mandatory quarantine) there are higher expectations from your employees. They expect IT service providers to allow them with capabilities on par with their personal environments.
Now, let’s take a look at the new improvement opportunities that are coming up in 2020. We’ll also help you address these in each of your key areas.
Start by organizing your ideas
Organizing a list of ideas of what could be areas of improvement for your service desk can be confusing. So, here are some groups to focus on in your areas of work:
- Motivating your IT service team in the best possible way
- Better enable your own personal IT support team.
- Go beyond traditional IT support.
Each of these (and their respective areas) can be covered in the following sections.
Focus on the value of your Service desks team
Make sure your team is able to answer the following questions:
- Do you know how to deliver an IT service that adds to your organization?
- How do you integrate IT service desk operations into this value?
- Do they keep track of their performance levels?
The answer to each of these questions should meet your organization’s minimum standards.
Improve the employee experience
The daily experience of your employees can affect many things, including the level of happiness of the IT team members. Your main motivation for proposing new strategies should be to enable your employees to progress towards a job they consider more important.
Therefore, a key question here to improve your IT service desk services with cost reduction strategies is:
- What is the business impact of each of these changes?
- Are any of these areas eroding the productivity of my employees instead of improving it?
Empower your employees
The main point to improve the results of your employees is to ensure that they use useful technologies. This will allow each employee to concentrate and get involved in the really important work.
Reduce high-volume and low-value tasks on your Service desks
A good resource for implementing this strategy is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. This will allow you to get rid of tedious processing tasks, with automatic learning for categorization, prioritization, and ticketing.
In addition, some tools allow you to automate the action of incidents and requests based on historical data patterns. It is also highly recommended to use chatbots as the first line of help for employees or customers.
Take advantage of advanced technology for your own benefit
In this case, we’re talking about making your IT service desk staff become better versions of themselves.
The use of virtual agents that increase the knowledge and capabilities of the analysts at the service desk is recommended. So is the application of AI-assisted decision support and trending. The latter can range from problem management to staff planning and optimization.
Measure your progress to learn how to prioritize positive behaviors
Having the right metrics to prioritize complicated behaviors. This is mainly because we are talking about many areas to cover, such as the already mentioned value approach, your employees’ experience, automation, etc.
For example: in terms of automation, service desk analysts will spend most of their time on complicated tasks. These tasks, which are often very time-consuming, cover many objectives.
If applying these strategies affects the average time for handling and resolving contacts, you should re-evaluate them.
Go beyond traditional IT support: Work towards the security of your information
No employee in your organization should be unaware of the risks and impact of security breaches or problems. But does your IT service desk do enough for your area?
If there is a lack of risk awareness in your business, it is likely that your IT service is contributing to the problem. For your desk’s analysts, there are several key security issues they need to consider:
They must know how they help keep the organization secure, especially by adhering to corporate security policies.
They should know the role they play in helping to ensure that others do not put your organization at risk.
Automation as the differentiating factor for your Service desks
As we already mentioned when talking about high volume and low-value tasks, automation tools are essential. Not only within your IT service desk but across your entire organization.
Rapid7’s InsightVM, for example, is a tool that allows you to automate patch deployment. In this way, you can minimize human interaction on mundane tasks, which reduces costs applied to trivial assignments.
In addition to enabling active workflow automation, vulnerability automation can also be integrated. This adds an extra layer of security to your insider information, without requiring extra staffing.
InsightVM is an automated solution that will help you improve the efficiency of every aspect of your business and computers. InsightVM provides clarity about the risks, the influence on your security, and the progress of your shared tasks.
If you want more information about this tool or guidance for your IT service desk, please contact us. At GB Advisors, we will help you reach the level you are looking for in your industry. We offer not only the best IT tools, but also a team trained to answer all your questions.
