Today, service desks are a central point for organizations to provide necessary IT support to their users. They have evolved from being a secondary need to becoming an integral part of business processes. Service desks have grown by helping users maximize the use of technology, thus enabling productivity increases through effective tech usage.
However, as organizations expand, their support services grow as well. As tech leaders, our mission is to support and drive organizations in adopting the necessary technology and innovation to ensure that their IT areas enable them to produce more while minimizing the inherent increase in costs.
In this current landscape, user support processes are not exempt from review. This is where the concept of a high-performance service desk comes in. It refers to a service desk capable of absorbing increasing demand with minimal impact on response and resolution times and the cost per ticket.
When it comes to the cost of a ticket, the most expensive factor between opening and closing it is the time spent by the people involved in providing a solution. Thus, if we can contain and reduce the time spent by personnel, we can limit and even reduce the cost per ticket.
To make this possible, we now have technologies like artificial intelligence, scripting, portals, and other tools that facilitate the implementation of a high-performance service desk.
First, we need to establish the conceptual model: The cheapest ticket is the one that never reaches the service desk. Therefore, the first step is to bring the solution to the user (Shift-Left, a term coined by DevOps culture for early testing and resolution).
For this, we have tools like AI-based contextual agents and self-service portals with automated processes that provide solutions to requests.
From there, the user can also interact with a contextual agent to make inquiries. This agent can provide solutions based on information found in databases of similar previous tickets and procedure manuals.
Additionally, this solution can be complemented by second-line agents capable of managing escalations and automating processes through scripts, such as PowerShell.
Finally, if the user still needs to contact a technician, the technician will also have access to contextual agents that help them quickly find the solution with a lower margin of error.
Example of a Possible Implementation: (Graphic example taken from a Pink Elephant webinar on optimizing service desks)
With these types of implementations, service desks can not only remain a necessary and differentiating factor in business processes but also provide innovation, cost reduction, improved operational excellence, and serve as a model for other areas of the organization.