When Should IT Consider An External Helpdesk?

Help desk services can be a waste of IT. Organizations that need new options can outsource their help desk services partially or totally to make life easier for them.

The idea of IT outsourcing is probably annoying to most IT professionals. After all, nobody wants to outsource their work. Still, there are outsourced service desk within the company.

IT departments should not simply recommend outsourcing support services to their organizations as a way to reduce costs. This can not only harm a help desk technician, but can also adversely affect productivity.

Help desk internal workers are familiar with the organization. They know the system configuration and common problems to consider. Also, staff within the company generally knows who is a computer savvy and who tends to call the help desk when all is well.

When IT outsources help desk services, third-party companies may not have specific knowledge of this organization, and it may take longer to support troubled users. Furthermore, in many organizations that outsource their help desk support services to offshore providers, users often report language barrier issues.

When To Outsource Help Desk Services

There are situations that justify an outsourced help desk. If your organization's help desk staff is completely overwhelmed by call volume, outsourcing is a good option. The outsourced provider may reorganize to act as a secondary help desk.

Outsourced help desks only handle Level 1 support issues like username and password issues and excessive call volume resolution. With this approach, the organization retains the internal expertise of the help desk, and the help desk staff can continue to work.

A second option for external help desk support is to move existing help desk staff to IT administrative staff. The help desk team has a deep understanding of what works and what does not work for end users and can provide valuable information to other members of the administration staff.

If your organization outsources all other IT operations, you should also consider an outsourced help desk. While having the expertise of the internal help desk is really valuable, organizations that outsource all other IT operations simply don't control their operations. Help desk outsourcing frees these organizations from the latest internal IT disaster.