Help Desks and Support - of Outsourcing and Software

A help desk may mean a lot of different things. Basically, it is a source of information and technical support for products, hardware or software. Help-desks are generally staffed by people who can either directly solve the problem or direct the problem to the appropriate department for action.In some instances, a help desk is a call centre that is tasked to handle questions about products and services. Sometimes, it is synonymous of customer services, though oftentimes it is a specific service towards which customer services agents will direct clients. The question of help desks and support outsourcing and software is thus both generic and quite specific to IT alone. Though different companies may use other terms, in IT, we generally find it referred to as support (support service, support team…). It is the case for our product: TSplus Remote Support .

Help Desks: Calls, Emails and Contact Forms

A single point of entry is a common attribute of a help desk. A voice automated telephone system will usually allow users to navigate themselves to reach the correct department. Email or a contact form can be other ways for a customer to initiate contact, triggering a call-back by an available agent. Most help desks are external, but some large companies are able to maintain their own internal help desk functions.

Outsourcing Help Desks to Absorb Demand Peaks

An outsourced agency is best considered for a company when it experiences sharp peaks in calls throughout the day or numbers of available or qualified staff are insufficient to handle current call volumes. Another reason to do so is when certain support activities require expertise or knowledge in an area not frequently used by the company. Experiences of periods of high activity such as during the introduction of a new product or a product maintenance release may also be an appropriate time to make use of an external provider.

Other Help Desk and Software Outsourcing Advantages

Other reasons to test outsourcing are difficulty in supporting distant offices, large number of software packages or during a company’s internal transition such as upgrading of network or computer system hardware or software. Outsourcing the help desk may ensure support agents have the latest technology. It can be an alternative to large investments in support software you may not otherwise need. Outsourcing the support makes it possible to have teams with the latest knowledge and material at hand without needing to uphold an in-house IT team.

While these technology improvements may be very costly for an individual company, outsourcing facilitates the same advantage by giving the work to entities that are better equipped to handle the work. It can also spread out the cost among several clients over a period of time. In some fields, today’s global economy has made help desk access a requirement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to come out ahead of the competition. Not every business can span all continents and most time-zones with only their in-house staff like we do. An outside agency can provide valuable support especially out of business hours due to being organized specifically to this end.

Saas for Support Help Desks

The scope of a help desk service can be as varied as the products being serviced. Other than IT administrators and in-house teams being available, IT businesses such as software developers, providers or resellers and other SaaS or similar services can need to provide troubleshooting and maintenance. For example, our own support service comprises a technical team capable of remotely assisting customers and controlling their devices at a distance to solve any issues. They also have the know-ho to provide their clients with the appropriate information and knowledge to deal with situations themselves. Some providers may draw up service level agreements specifying the range of services to be provided as well as those not provided by the technical help desk support staff. Remote Access and Control forms a core part of the service IT help desks provide. Their work brings together multiple resources to address an issue.

Software for IT Support and Help Desks

The many features of a telephone help desk environment are automated through the use of specific call-management software. TSplus Remote Support software covers the second area IT is concerned with, namely remote control.

Some of the more typical telephone software tool functions include call management, call tracking, knowledge management, problem resolution and self-help capabilities. This software is provided for the use of all members of the support area from the first point of contact up to the staff that eventually receives the job request for resolution. These can be useful to sales and other teams as well as some technical teams.

Remote control software, on the other hand, is used specifically by technical teams and IT administrators. It serves to remotely control a device’s screen, keyboard and mouse and perform other specific actions meant to enable agents to fix issues from a distance.

Remote Support Software by TSplus

TSplus Remote Support is a screen, mouse and keyboard control software designed to be as simple and user-friendly as possible while nonetheless providing the essentials for a good job and keeping work secure. Basics such as chat box, file transfer, clipboard, send command are all there, along with multi-screen, invite multi-users, unattended access and device-list management . And because it is important for companies to provide a branded and company-coherent service, the appearance of our support software can be customised with colours, logos and brief messages.

To Conclude on Outsourcing Help Desks and Support

Outsourcing is fast becoming the choice option of many companies that seek to lower costs and improve service quality while taking their business capabilities to an entirely new level. The main point is to be able to outsource skilled or non-essential tasks to make it possible for the company to focus on core tasks within its capabilities, thus gaining the competitive advantage against its opponents. In some cases, outsourcing is crucial to business success and competitiveness.

Software is an essential tool and can make all the difference to any team within a company. Nowadays, rare are the teams needing no software whatsoever within their sphere of work or at least surrounding their jobs since even agendas and notebooks have become digital. Whether it is purchased or leased, much thought and preparation is in order if businesses want to keep the edge in certain areas.

The certain advantage of SaaS is the peace of mind it brings in return for the subscription. Indeed, leasing the software means Remote Support is updated to the latest version when you launch it. Since patching and updates are paramount for security reasons, it would be a winner even before knowing its maintenance is therefore covered. For MSPs, such a product is great for freeing non-IT companies to concentrate on the field of work. TSplus Remote Support is a SaaS with all updates and hosting taken care of. If you still have questions before you buy, be in touch or come and test it now for 15 days for free.