How Does Service Desk Outsourcing Work In Sync With Support Environments?
Many service desk outsourcing businesses claim that they can accomplish any remote solution with the right kind of training, documentation, and access. It is precisely the reason why a new team for service desk implementation spends most of their pre-launch activities for knowledge transfer. They put a proper focus on copying unique processes pertaining to client workflows
As IT desktop support professionals usually provide Level 1 skills for their end-user support pertaining to MS Office software and also handle connectivity and access issues, the focus on transition and training will be something new. Check out some instances below and the ways a service desk typically adapts:
1. Support for Dispatch
If any client is contemplating of using an outsourced service for its dispatch support, the first step for them is to set up the resolution needs prior to choosing between route call center, a log, and a true outsourcing partner for the service desk. For instance, if the clients simply expect their remote employees to log their issues into a ticketing application and dispatch, the local technicians of the client may find the call center support sufficient for their requirements.
As service desk providers hire IT support personnel with the necessary technical expertise for resolving remote issues, there is a tendency to be priced higher as compared to the call centers, particularly for an America-based solution. In comparison, contact centers have staff, which has higher administration than technical skills. As such customer service and data entry tasks are sufficient that leads to lower pricing.
In fact, when clients outsource their service desk, they end up paying more for problem resolutions with an aim to minimize internal costs, which a contact center would be increasing heavily. Eventually, everything depends on what priorities the clients give to such costs in the workflow and how the remote personnel would sequence them before the escalation. Creating specific documents for every trouble signal or alarm code on the administrative interface or on the panel would be a priority prior to training the agents.
Irrespective of the kind of support performed by the agents, it is imperative for the service desk to ensure easy accessibility as well as the searchability of the documentation using an online repository. In case it is not possible for the knowledge base to be stored within a ticketing solution, a good alternative is to have links to the resolution procedures via shared network drives or SharePoint. Since there could be certain incidents, which are rarely encountered by the service desk agents within a year; it is possible that resolution procedures are not the topmost priority. Hence, the next best alternative could be making them accessible quite easily using a few clicks.
2. Escalations, Notifications, and Outage Alerts
Apart from providing service desk support to the end-users, many IT support specialists provide network or infrastructure related help. However, for the sake of compliance and security reasons, several clients are demotivated to outsource these functions. So, in such scenarios, these clients will depend on a service desk to find out organization-wide root causes pertaining to the frequency and kind of related incidents. Alternatively, they may install an appliance for network monitoring, which can detect issues related to security, devices, or performance not adhering to compliance. Such appliances can also send out relevant email notifications. However, no matter what the case is, clients can still need the service desk for managing the process of escalation and notification.
Hence, the implementation team may come up with prerecorded IVRs, which can be put up on the ACD, communicating outages or performance issues to the callers for an impacted application or system. In case of end users wanting to get in touch with a service desk through the user portal or a web form, the desk should be ready for uploading the scrolling alerts instantly so that unnecessary contacts can be minimized while known problems are being handled but their resolution is still pending. Finally, although they could be added in the email list for distribution during outages, several clients may continue depending on a service desk for doing follow up by making outbound calls to the infrastructure services personnel for acknowledging receipt of those critical messages. It also means coming up with an escalation procedure for the network by adding a call list for all relevant staff, contact numbers, as well as the time intervals within which the agents should be calling them until they can have a direct access to the phone.
While the process may not be a complicated one, due to the urgency and the impact of the issue, proper training is given to the agents for avoiding any inbound calls until they have accessed the appropriate person.
All the above services or a combination of some of them can constitute an entire scope of services for many service desk clients.
Service desk outsourcing providers can frequently escalate break-fix/hardware issues to their in-house desktop support personnel with dispatch support. They can also forward their server issues to the in-house network engineers.
Similar to any other outsourcing services, clients can ask their service desks to bridge the operational gaps where it seems to be the most sensible option for them by streamlining the processes and holding internal costs. In case it signifies specializing in fields where the procedural and technical expertise should be deep and narrow, a service desk will adapt, prepare, as well as deliver on such requirements. With the right kind of training, documentation, and access, higher resolution for different kinds of technical support issues are not remote like the agents are.
3. Install Software at Remote Locations
There are a few Saas providers who have their in-house IT function for handling support and just require outsourcing their remote installations. Such scenarios may require leveraging the scheduling tools, particularly for time-consuming installations. The focus areas in such instances are training and documentation. In such cases, a service desk will also review remote tools for desktop access not following the industry standard, profile settings based on roles, departmental approval policies, and authentication techniques for the applications. Plus, knowledge base articles that include screenshots are also created, which can help the service desk agents with the scripts and installation process. Just like any other solution, live WebEx training modules are also conducted by the team leaders with the IT management teams of their clients. They welcome questions from agents through the perspective of a first-point-of-contact. Recordings of the sessions are then distributed to all those agents who were not present.
