What is an IT Help Desk Service: Difference between a Service Desk and a Help desk or Call Center?

The IT Help Desk Service is intended to be the primary point of engagement between the user and the IT organization. According to ITIL, the service desk is the only point of contact (SPOC) between the help desk service and the user for daily activities. A typical service desk handles incidents (service interruptions) and service requests (regular service-related tasks), as well as handles user communications, such as service interruptions and planned changes. Service desks are typically wide-ranging and designed to provide users with a single location to meet all their IT needs. As a result, the service desk will play a key role in facilitating the integration of business processes with the technology ecosystem and the broader service management infrastructure.

What Does The IT Help Desk Service Do?

The primary function of the IT Help Desk Service is to serve as the central point of contact for monitoring / owning incidents, responding to user requests/questions, and providing a communication channel between other service organization purposes and the user community. It is. In addition to these core features, technical support services often play an active role in capturing change requests, maintaining third-party support contracts, managing software licenses and assisting in problem management.

In some administrations, the service desk is combined with other business procedures, such as:

• ·         Incorporation of employees
• ·         Integration acquisition
• ·         Data access management
• ·         Incorporation and exclusion provider/partner
• ·         Management of reports and metrics.
• ·         Business continuity management
• ·         Infrastructure/service monitoring

Difference Between a Service Desk and a Helpdesk or Call Center?

Businesses often use the terms "call center," "help desk," and "service desk" interchangeably, which can be confusing. ITIL views call centers and help desks as a limited type of service desk and provide just a few of the features that service desks offer. This makes sense because ITIL takes a service-centric perspective and focuses on IT. For many companies, the definition of ITIL is inconsistent with operating practices, making the distinction much more complicated. It describes the help desk and contact center functions that can help provide a contrast to the IT Help Desk Service.

A help desk is a source considered to deliver clients or internal users with info and improve related to the company's processes, products, and services. The purpose of the help desk is to provide a central source to help answer questions, troubleshoot, and resolve known issues. Common examples of help desks include technical support centers, product support/warranty features, employee benefit desks, and facility service centers. Technical support is provided through a variety of channels, including physical locations, toll-free numbers, websites, instant messaging, or email.

A call center or contact center is the central point to manage customer contacts and interactions. Offices that generally handle large numbers of requests over the phone (but may also include letters, faxes, social media, instant messages, or email). Inbound call centers are often used for product support, customer service, order processing, and 24/7 phone service. Outgoing call centers are used for telemarketing, debt collection, market research, and more. Businesses have multiple call centers that support different parts of business operations (including IT) and can be managed internally or through third-party agents.

The  help desk support services focus on providing "help" and "break-fix" support. Help desks do not need to be IT specialized and can be used to support standard operational exceptions that occur across the enterprise—virtual participation by phone, email, chat, and other technologies.

Call centers are the most comprehensive in the scope of the problems to be covered, including technical and non-technical issues. Call centers do not interact directly with applicants and always use some form of intermediary technology to drive engagement.

The IT Help Desk Service focuses solely on supporting IT services but handles both reactive "help" services and support for day-to-day tasks such as resource provisioning and access management. It can be a remote operation like a call center. Those familiar with ITIL may say that help desks are tactical, and service desks are strategic. This depends on the organization.