What Is a Managed Helpdesk and Why Do You Need One?
There’s no doubt that technology and all its many applications are integral and helpful to your organization—but there comes a point when technology turns into a hindrance that slows down your operations. Providing employees with access to a helpdesk service can aid them by answering their general IT questions. But what happens when running a helpdesk hampers your internal IT team from focusing on more important projects that drive revenue and growth for your business?
That’s where partnering with a managed IT service provider for managed helpdesk services to support your internal team can prove to be the ace up your sleeve. Managed helpdesk services can optimize your company’s workflows, help you deliver a better customer experience to your internal users (or your external ones), make moves on strategic projects, and more!
Let’s answer the question of “what is a managed helpdesk,” highlight the benefits of leveraging this type of service, and briefly cover a few other types of managed IT services that your company could benefit from using.
What Is a Managed Helpdesk?
A managed helpdesk is a kind of managed IT service that steps in to help your business with technical issues, equipment questions, and other needs while your own IT team addresses more strategic projects that align with your organization’s vision.
For example, if a customer contacts your business regarding an issue with their application, then the managed helpdesk team takes the call instead of your internal IT professionals.
Managed helpdesk services, like almost all variations of managed IT services, can be applied to almost any industry and organization structure to empower your internal team to focus on other objectives while your internal users at all levels of the organization receive quality IT help.
The Difference Between Helpdesk and Service Desk
While the two terms might seem interchangeable, a managed helpdesk and managed IT service desk provide different types of support for your team:
Helpdesk
A helpdesk answers an end-user’s calls for help, whether that means troubleshooting an application, syncing their digital presence across platforms, guiding them through an equipment malfunction, or something else.
The helpdesk handles a variety of situations in order to help the end-user resolve whatever the problem is while delivering great customer service; sometimes these situations are basic in nature and repetitive. At other times, the helpdesk plays a pivotal role in responding to a new bug or technical issue.
Service Desk
While a helpdesk is reactionary in nature, the service desk takes a more proactive approach to support and maintain technical systems and infrastructure.
A service desk might create and manage a knowledge base with informational articles, offer self-service options for customers to resolve minor issues on their own, compile metrics for internal use and analysis, and more.
Benefits of a Managed Helpdesk
There are a handful of managed helpdesk benefits that your organization will greatly—and quickly—appreciate, including:
Cost-Effective
With a managed helpdesk service powered by a managed IT service provider, your internal team will no longer have to dedicate a budget to training, mitigating turnover, or the other costs of housing an internal helpdesk team.
Managed helpdesk services result in a better application of your resources and a consistent budget and performance. That makes it a cost-effective measure for your business to take!
Scalable to Your Needs
A managed IT service should be built to suit your organization’s needs—not simply one size fits all! With a managed helpdesk, you can scale up to address an abundance of calls and customer needs when the situation calls for it or you can reduce the level of helpdesk service you need once things settle down.
For example, migrating to a new cloud solution will likely increase your organization’s volume of customer calls and that’s when a managed helpdesk service rises to the occasion.
Support Provided 24/7
Your employees and your customers might be spread across the country or even spread around the world. Regardless of geographical location, managed helpdesk services are there to answer the call whether it’s 2 am or 7 pm. This improves your customer service experience by providing reliable, round-the-clock support for your customers’ needs.
Empower Your Internal Team
Customer support and performing helpdesk duties can be draining and time-consuming; your internal IT team can be empowered to focus on more innovative solutions and advancing core business objectives. This might include exploring cloud computing possibilities, machine learning and AI applications, internet of things (IoT) advantages, and more.
Partnering with a managed helpdesk services provider results in you getting the most out of your existing IT professionals without compromising the customer service experience.
Monitor Patterns of Tech Issues
With managed helpdesk services that support your customers 24/7, you’ll get a comprehensive understanding of what patterns of issues your customers are encountering. Gaining these valuable insights means that your internal IT team can look into whatever the recurring issue is and see if there are points of improvement that can reduce the frequency of the issue.
Other Managed IT Services That Can Help Your Business
If your internal IT team and IT resources are stretched thin, then it’s time to consider partnering with a managed IT services provider to optimize your operations! In addition to managed helpdesk services, there are a variety of managed IT services that can greatly help your organization, including:
- Co-managed IT Support to help relieve pressure on your existing IT team.
- Managed Detection and Response Services to monitor the health of the devices on your network and respond to any anomalies before they can become major data breach events.
- Managed Security Services, such as managed firewall, endpoint protection, email security, and web security to proactively protect your business from malicious actors.
Each of these services addresses important business needs and cybersecurity standards that keep you, your network, and your assets protected against digital threats and attacks.
Partner with Converged Technology Group to streamline your IT operations and make the most of your internal resources. Our experts are eager to help you and your organization!
