Computer Help Desk

Computer Help Desk is now a fundamental and core part of good business service and operation. However, addressing the tricky issues, selecting the right tools, and managing the Computer Help Desk correctly can actually be a very daunting task. Tracking issues and help desk inquiries can be a virtual nightmare without the Computer Help Desk.

Whether your organization is small, medium or large, keeping issues from falling between the cracks can be critical to maintaining relationships with customers and offering the kind of support and attention to detail that they require. And this is done correctly using Computer Help Desk. Are you looking for a solution designed to ensure your organization effectively communicates, organizes, tracks and reports the issues that matter the most to you and your customers? If yes then you are bound to get enough information.

So what are the typical Computer Help Desk functions, and why are they offered? What should you actually be looking for in a Computer Help Desk solution? This section explains what the typical functions are, and offers broad information on Computer Help Desk systems.

Common functionality of Computer Help Desk systems can be summarized as below:

• Computer Help Desk range in complexity from basic ticket logging to fully integrated CRM systems.
• Computer Help Desk functionality is varied but the essential core elements are the recording and tracking of support requests.
• Reporting is also key and often complimented by a third party application for user-definable reports.
• Service Level management is often crucial to the Computer Help Desk process as a measure of its success this is usually an automated benefit of the helpdesk application.

Selecting the right Computer Help Desk is extremely important. This section outlines the features of one of the leading players called SiteHelpDesk. On their site they have a free download page also.

SiteHelpDesk Computer Help Desk Software Features:

• Single user interface from a web browser
• No other client installation and most PC’s now have a browser preinstalled making the software immediately available to any one with network access and a link from a web or intranet site or know the support URL.
• Customers or internal staff may log support calls themselves and are given a ticket number – this lets them know that the call has been logged and an action will follow. Email notifications may be automatically initiated but are unnecessary and just promote the excessive use of emails.
• Access to the call history from the user/customer call log screen allows them to see the progress and status of the call they have logged without having to make follow up telephone calls, sending emails to the support desk or interrupting engineers out on call.
• To further reduce the load on the helpdesk we provide definable FAQ’s (with attachments of documents), links to other useful internal or external web pages and a ticker that gets displayed to the customer when they enter the support site. These tools can pre-empt a support call and reduce the workload.
• Common browser techniques ensure no training is required by customers/users even remotely familiar with a browser.
• Intuitive work flows and automation ensures support staff can use the application with little or no training.
• Enhanced with simple screen layouts ensures that technicians can quickly and painless maintain the system. This is especially important for technical helpdesk where staff is generally less prone to writing documentation or recording details of events.
• The applications naturally provide an ‘out of the box’ Intranet for that department and all their documents may be held or linked to from there to compliment their support process.
• To assist with recurring call types a quick call registration process is available with user defined templates of calls. This may be for an individual event such as unlocking a user account to multiple recurring events such as setting up a new user including a number of atomically generated calls for buying the PC, setting up their account, configuring, installing, training etc. There is also a button to instantly generate a new call from an existing one with all the same details brought across.
• Scripts may be set up to ensure that the appropriate information is recorded against a call type. These can also provide some resolution suggestions with OK, yes/no and text entry prompts.
• Follow up noted events may be recorded and Operators are presented with their scheduled actions when they access the helpdesk system.
• Time tracking and recharging of the service costs.
• To cater for emails requests that are received, there is integration with MS Exchange server to allow emails sent to a predefined support mailbox to generate a call when the email is opened.
• Telephone support requests may be entered very quickly via the New Call screen which has specially designed rapid search techniques to ensure the customer is not left waiting while the call is logged. The same scripting may be applied to collect more relevant information or resolve the issue immediately.
• SLA records and monitoring with traffic light flags to highlight calls that have exceeded the response or fix times along with email escalations and reports of the SLA target percentages achievement.
• Controlled menu options access for Operators and permission may be set to disallow call ‘closure’ or’ reassignment to other Operators’ for each individual Operator.
• Reporting is provided by ASP pages which provide drill down into more detail. There are also a number of automatically generated graphical representations. Crystal reports may be integrated but the flexibility of searches provided with user specified sort, display and the ability to export to Excel spreadsheets does not require it.

In recognition of the differences in support of internal and external customers, three versions of Computer Helpdesk Software are available, specifically designed for either general support (sitehelpdesk), IT support (sitenetdesk) or Customer support (sitewebdesk).

Many vendors attempt to wrap these up in a single application. This can makes their use overly cumbersome and some features rendered irrelevant, cluttering the process. We would suggest that ease of use is a very important issue. Please bear in your mind that we have provided this information for general information and don’t bear any responsibility, whatsoever!