Building a superior brand for IT with a modern service desk and an efficient incident management process
Changing landscape of the IT
The IT industry has been continuously shifting form over the years and decades. The proliferation of information consuming endpoints like laptops, tablets, phones, and more have played a major role in this change. The IT infrastructure landscape has diversified from on-prem servers, to cloud, to hybrid environments, and now includes the internet of things. The alarming increase in cyber threats, failure in internal process, compliance issues, and points of fatigue in the network have increased support requirement and workload on IT. In the wake of the recent events around the globe, work-from-home model has become inevitable and has been absorbed into the mainstream. Seamless experience across devices has become a necessity to maintain high productivity and customer experience. All these require high levels of capability and responsiveness from Network Operations team.
Role of Network Incident Management
The constant changes in the expectations from IT evokes the need for an efficient and responsive service management process. This is where the role of the Network Incident Management comes into play. Staff working on any network incident needs to set priorities, handle work efficiently, be effective in resolving and preventing issues and even provide self-service capability to the user. To put it in a nutshell, Incident Management should be equipped to restore service to the end user as soon as possible in case of an incident (outage, system lockout, etc.).
Seamless experience across devices has is a necessity to maintain high productivity and customer experience.
IT Service Desk – 1st level support of NOC
The IT Service Desk is the first level of support provided by a Network Operations Center (NOC). The end user connects here when a problem surfaces, which means that the IT service desk should have adequate staff with sufficient knowledge of troubleshooting. They need to be smart and quick to understand the cause of the problem and provide a solution. Only customer-oriented staff with broad understanding of technology stack and possible technology issues can make things work at the service desk. These personnel should also be good in decision-making and escalate the issue to the next level without delay, when the problem requires the expertise of more experienced staff.
Other aspects of NOC
The first level of the NOC would normally involve incidences like a password reset, access request, basic navigational training, system configuration/settings changes, etc. that can be solved by less experienced staff. When faced with bigger issues, the incident is taken over by the Level II of Technicians who have the ability to diagnose the issue and provide a solution. If the issue is complicated requiring a larger change or effort, then the Incident is handled by the expert level (Level III) in the NOC team or even a project team.
A business centric CIO would be well advised to build an efficient IT support structure and staff it with customer-oriented technicians.
Benefits of a good IT Service Desk
An IT Service desk support service is the face of the NOC. A strong IT desk can minimize 2nd and 3rd level support or escalation of incidents. They can be the voice of internal customer and provide feedback to IT Operations. This would help in proactive measures for preventing issues as well as help NOC to design effective self-service. In a way, the IT Service Desk acts as a brand ambassador of IT within the organization. A business centric CIO would be well advised to consider building an efficient IT support structure and staff it with customer-oriented technicians.
Outsourcing the IT Service Desk
Businesses normally staff the IT Service Desk with a select few for the IT backend support. Over a period, with expansion in IT operations, there may arise a need to employ more personnel with specialized skillsets and knowledge of best practices. As the business grows, the availability of the IT support is required 24/7 or 24/5 to account for emergency support and troubleshooting. The IT Service Desk may also need to flexibility ramp up/down to accommodate any seasonality of business cycle.
Engaging CES services
When the business does not have the enough in-house resources or is low on budget, outsourcing IT desk services would be a great option. CES is one of the recognized service providers with expertise in Network Operations Center and IT Service Desk. We provide a team of IT personnel with the right skillset and process knowledge to fulfill all the IT Service Desk needs 24/7. For more information or a conversation on how CES can handle IT Desk Services for your business with flexibility and expertise, please contact us at sales@cesltd.com.
