Considerations for a Helpdesk Launch at Smaller Enterprise
Helpdesk. It’s a ragged term that often carries the stigma of “old fashioned” IT. But a well executed example is still a necessity in nearly every enterprise environment, small and large. Smart, forward thinking companies build for IT scalability from day one. That means baking a Helpdesk into your culture from the start.
Why Helpdesk?
I get it. You’re a smaller company trying to stay lean. Maybe you’re just starting to build your IT support infrastructure (or maybe you haven’t even started). Maybe you figure all these IT requests can be handled in Slack or email (perhaps with some apps bolted on) until some undetermined day in the future when the need arises for something more. Why invest in a Helpdesk now?
I’ve been down that road and it’s not I’d recommend. Once your users are accustomed to asking for everything in Slack or emailing you directly, it’s extremely difficult to change the company culture once you’re at 50 or 100 employees.
Managing User Requests
First and most obviously, a Helpdesk is a platform for managing requests. At most companies, IT workload is reactive at least 50% of the time—IT staff is simply responding to requests. Your team will need a way to accept these requests, assign them to the appropriate teammate, respond to them efficiently, and track them to completion. Additionally, your team needs a way of assessing its performance. What’s the average response time? Who resolves issues most quickly? What’s the typical volume of requests? What types of requests are we seeing most frequently? This type of data can be helpful with scheduling, knowing what skills to hire for, and necessary training in which to invest. This is not something you can handle in Slack.
Flattening the Curve with Self Service
Second, a Helpdesk should host self service documentation so users can discover their own resolutions. We read a lot about “flattening the curve” as it relates to managing Covid-19 within the capabilities of medical infrastructure. IT Support is not much different. Every user that finds their own answer is one less ticket. Fewer tickets means more time for infrastructure management. Better infrastructure translates to fewer tickets. And so on…
Documentation & Compliance
Third, a Helpdesk ensures requests are properly documented. This is not only invaluable for troubleshooting (“how did I fix that last time?”), but also plays an important role when your compliance manager comes calling: “How did so-and-so get admin access to that sensitive service? Let’s check the request and see who approved that…”
Additional Possibilities
Fourth, you hope you can do all this in one, easily accessible, integrated platform for you and your users. As a bonus, the platform might provide additional services that help provide a well-rounded ITSM approach, asset management, vendor management, change management, project management, employee on-boarding and off-boarding, etc.
At Updater, I was the first IT Manager to stick for more than 3 months. There was no Helpdesk (or any IT support infrastructure) at all when I arrived.
There are companies who attempt to manage requests of all kinds through Slack, but I’ve not seen it done effectively (mainly because Slack, though we love it, is a productivity killer).