What is a Service Desk
As your company becomes more technology driven, your company may need the services of an IT service desk. A service desk is an IT team that understands how your company uses information and ensures that you have the proper technologies to analyze, produce, and distribute your data.
The best service desk teams use Information IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices to manage and deliver your IT services, and should be your first contact for any and all IT questions.
According to ITIL, a service desk is the bridge between users and IT service management. Others define a service desk as the single point of contact between your customers, employees, and business partners.
Either way, your service desk exists to optimize your IT services on the behalf of your business and to oversee its functions. It handles all your IT incidents and requests, provides an interface for other ITIL processes, life cycle management, and communication with your customers.
Basically, your service desk ensures that your IT network is up and running at all times. It does this by managing and monitoring each of the following layers of your IT service.
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Network Operations: a service desk ensures your IT network infrastructure is optimized to meet your business needs.
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Systems Operations: your service desk performs all core systems management tasks such as performance monitoring, installation of patches, change management, account management and support for specific platforms, Linux, Unix, etc.
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Database Operations: Service desks provide database performance and fault monitoring, log reviews, access management, and database software installation
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Security Management: your service desk performs vulnerability scans, monitors your IPS logs for security breaches and regulation compliance.
Service desks provide these services through various types of hardware, software and delivery processes so that they all function seamlessly together. This helps you
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Minimize the business impacts of service failures
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Proactively manage the use of your IT network and best practices
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Resolve incidents and requests with minimal delay
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Facilitate the communication between you and your end users.
Service desks also help your company switch between technology-based and process-based IT service management. A service desk lets your company be less dependent on specific technologies letting you connect more easily with business partners and focus more on your core processes without having to deal with technical problems along the way.
A good service desk improves your company’s customer satisfaction by allowing you to concentrate on your core business operations, and not on its IT infrastructure. A good service desk will also help your manage your IT infrastructure costs, improve IT operations, and any network disaster that may strike. A good service desk will also keep you informed of the health of your network and solutions to problems that may crop up, and handle all issues as they arise.
While service desks are common among large enterprises, business of any size can benefit from them. You also do not have to have one in house. You can use the services of an IT support service provider to act as your company’s service desk. If you feel your company could use a service desk, feel free to contact us right away so we can help you determine your IT support needs.