What Is Help Desk Support?

Whether a user can’t connect to a network, has received an email they suspect is phishing, or is stuck with a frozen workstation (and countless other issues), the right advice is to call IT support. Though some employees may think of themselves as tech wizards, chances are that time is simply going to be wasted trying to self-troubleshoot an issue. The best course of action, whatever the issue, is to submit a ticket.

This is true for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the sooner a ticket is submitted, the sooner your team can get back to work. But, it is also possible that an IT issue could signify a greater concern that may otherwise go undetected, at least in the near future.?

Remote Vs. On-Site Help Desk

Before diving into the various functions of an IT help desk, it’s worth elaborating on what a help desk actually is. Sure, if your organization has an in-house IT team, they may be located at a physical location in the office—maybe even behind a literal desk. Whenever an employee is having a technical issue, they may simply carry their laptop over to the desk and request service. Or maybe they submit a ticket via email and schedule a time to stop by.

However, it has been increasingly common in recent years (and especially over the course of 2020 and into 2021 with the COVID-19 pandemic) for organizations to adopt a remote support structure. Liss Technologies, for example, can supply virtually all the support, monitoring, and issue resolution that an on-site team would and is perfectly compatible with remote work.

In other words, remote and on-site help desks offer the same level of day-to-day IT support, but remote is generally more flexible.

Break-Fix: The Core IT Help Desk Service

There are countless issues that crop up with IT systems that hamper the everyday productivity of employees. A help desk’s primary role is to offer quick solutions so that your team is back up and running in as little time as possible.

Diagnosis

The first step in the process is diagnosing whatever issue a user is facing. This could be something simple like a failed software update or may involve damaged or malfunctioning hardware. Whatever the case, the diagnostic process begins with investigation and basic troubleshooting.

For remote support, IT professionals may actually commandeer the computer from a distance. In effect, this allows a support team to accomplish tasks just like they were sitting next to the user.

Escalation

Typically, IT support tickets are resolved quickly and employees are able to get back to work. However, after the initial investigation and troubleshooting, a larger problem may be revealed. Perhaps the issue was caused by a user clicking on a link in a phishing email and now malware is spreading across the network. Chances are this would have already been noticed, but it is an example of how issues can be detected.

If there is a greater issue, it will likely be escalated beyond the initial help desk and reported to more experienced IT professionals. When partnering with Liss Technologies, our clients find this process to be seamless. We’re taking the reins and mitigating as much risk as possible.

What support structure are you leveraging for your organization? We’d love to hear about successes and potential issues, so don’t hesitate to reach out.