What Is the Difference Between Help Desk And IT Support?

The terms "service desk" and "help desk" are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are some important differences between the two.

Technical support is technically a service to help IT teams in your company solving or solving IT problems. It generally does not focus on end user IT issues such as mobile device degradation or password requests.

Rather, the help desk service deals with IT support such as server failure, network downtime, and application failure / failure. As a result, the help desk works with the IT team.

IT Help Desk and Technical Support / Service Desk

As I mentioned on my MSP blog, there is a difference in approaches where one (help desk) responds mostly while the other (service desk) is proactive.

At Fusion, this process works with an IT team who contact the help desk as the first line of support. Therefore, even during company-wide downtime or other incidents, the IT team will contact the help desk. They can call us or use other means of communication, such as email or messaging.

From there, the help desk isolates the problem. Fusion does this in 15 minutes (fast response time in the industry). From there, the environmental help desk engineer (at Fusion all engineers are Level 2) holds the ticket until it is resolved or escalated.

But in essence, the help desk is reactive. Addresses corruptions / fixes and other issues, but there is no mechanism to prevent or resolve the underlying issue.

In contrast, the service table contains both reactive and preventive action components. Therefore, in addition to managing IT team and end user tickets, the service desk manages project requests and looks for automation opportunities (such as password reset and end user access / provisioning) and other preventive steps. 

As an example, the service desk may find that the server connects its CPU every time it performs a Windows update. Check with your surveillance system. After this happens multiple times, the monitoring system detects the pattern and signals that there is a problem.

The system will automatically generate a ticket from the service desk. The service desk automates the repair, allowing the service desk to address issues before they become incidents. Therefore, in a future situation, the script will instruct the server to manage the CPU (without human intervention) while performing Windows updates.

Conclusion

When the help desk support services focuses on technical issues, the service desk thinks from a business perspective. In other words, the service desk does not view IT issues in isolation from other factors, such as business processes. See the big picture and find opportunities to save costs and other benefits.

However, full-service desktop functionality comes at a significant cost. You need a team of IT professionals who understand the system, as well as various systems to integrate tickets and other support elements. Generally speaking, building a helpdesk alone is not feasible.

Instead, you can work with a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) that already invests in the people and systems you need for an effective service desk. In addition to receiving immediate support, you can also view MSP's support history and the skills and qualifications of its desk agents to see how MSP can provide support.