What is the Difference Between an IT Service Desk and a Help Desk or Call Center?

Businesses often use the terms "call center," "helpdesk," and "customer service" interchangeably, which can be confusing. ITIL considers call centers and support services as limited types of services, offering only part of what a support service offers. With ITIL taking a service-centric perspective and focusing on IT, it makes sense. For many companies, the definition of ITIL does not correspond to operational practices, which makes the distinction much more complicated. Here are explanations of the helpdesk and contact center features to help you create a contrast to an IT service center.

Help desk

A help desk is a resource intended to provide the client or the internal user with information and assistance related to the processes, products and services of a company. The purpose of a help desk is to provide a centralized resource for answering questions, help desk problems and solutions. Common examples of help desk services include: technical support centers, product / warranty support functions, benefits offices, and facility service centers. Technical support can be provided through a variety of channels, including physical locations, toll-free numbers, websites, instant messaging, and email.

Call center

A call center or contact center is a central point to manage contacts and interactions with customers. office responsible for handling a large number of requests, usually by phone (but may also include letters, faxes, social media, instant messages, or emails). Inbound call centers are often used for things like product support, customer service, order processing, and 24/7 phone service. Outgoing call centers are used for things like telemarketing, debt collection, and market research. A company may have multiple call centers that support different parts of business operations (including IT) and can be managed internally or through an external agency.

As you can see, there are many overlaps between the definitions of helpdesks, call centers and IT departments. The distinction between them really centers on the scope of what the function covers and the way they are structured:

A helpdesk is focused on providing "help" and "fix" assistance. Help desks do not need to be IT-centric and can be used to handle exceptions to normal operations that take place across the enterprise. These can be physical locations that interact directly with applicants in person or remote / virtual locations using technologies such as phone, email, chat, and other technologies to facilitate virtual interaction.

Call centers are the largest in the scope of the problems they cover, including technical and non-technical issues. Call centers do not interact with applicants in person and always involve some form of intermediate technology to facilitate participation.

IT service centers only focus on taking care of IT services, but they handle both responsive "help" services and routine tasks like resource provisioning, access management, etc. . IT service desktops can be physical locations that users can visit in person, or they can be remote operations, such as a call center. Those familiar with ITIL may say that the help desk is tactical while the help desk is strategic; This may vary from one organization to another.

What is an IT Service Desk?

Helpdesk IT services are intended as a primary point of engagement between users and an IT organization. According to ITIL, the service center is the only point of contact (SPOC) between the service provider (IT) and users for daily activities. A typical service center handles incidents (service outages) and service requests (ordinary service activities) and manages user communications for things like scheduled outages and service changes. A service center is generally wide-ranging and is designed to provide the user with a place to go for all their IT needs. Consequently, the service center plays a central role in facilitating the integration of business processes with the technological ecosystem and a wider service management infrastructure.

Where do IT services come from?

The IT support function was born in the late 1980s as an ability to help solve IT problems. It was a highly technical feature focused on technology rather than end-users. Early IThelp Desk didn't have the concept of SLA or time-based goals for solving problems. It was only when ITIL entered the scene in the 1990s, capturing best IT service management practices, that the concept of user-centered IT service center began to emerge. The service center was considered an essential part of "IT management as a service".

In the mid-1990s, research by Robert Gordon University's Iain Middleton revealed that the value came not only from a responsive response to user problems but also from the help desk's unique position to communicate daily. with many customers or employees. Information obtained on technical issues, user preferences and what satisfies users can be invaluable for planning and developing IT services.

With the release of ITIL v2 in 2001, the Service Desk function and its role in incident and request management has become one of the essential components of IT service operations in many organizations. Over the decade, globalization and increasing pressures to reduce IT operating costs have led many organizations to centralize the functions of IT support services with much attractive third-party support partners to assist them. The outsourcing of IT service center functions has led to further standardization of processes and growth in the help desk ticketing software market.

Modern technological trends, including cloud services, the widespread use of third-party components in the IT ecosystem and advances in discovery and monitoring capabilities have led to the integration of autonomous ticketing assistance systems into more complete ITSM platforms that act as an operating hub not only for IT support, but for the entire IT function. As companies seek to modernize and pursue their digital transformation initiatives, the IT Service Desk is evolving again to become more focused on business, with greater awareness of business processes and data - in many cases, becoming an integral part of operations Corporate Help Desk companies.

What Is Help Desk Software?

Keeping customers and users happy is essential to the idea of ​​the success of most organizations. You could run a support table for a product that your company is selling or it could be an IT professional who runs a Help Desk IT for a large internal user base. The situation is generally the same (users of a service that occasionally has problems) of the objectives (solve problems quickly and make people happy). With these help desk platforms, the IT department can better manage user problems and shorten the time from termination to termination.

Help desk software is the heart of a well-managed help desk and is a vital consideration for business owners. In fact, it is one of a company's top priorities if it is a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a large organization. Fortunately, there is no shortage of options to choose from, as a wide range of help desk software is available. Some solutions are more suitable for SMEs, while others are more suitable for larger organizations; others are better for internal IT operations than for organizations that handle customer requests. Furthermore, not all help desk software is created in the same way.

For example, help desk software like Cayzu, Freshdesk, HappyFox, Vivantio Pro and Zendesk Support include social links that allow you to get tickets from social networking websites like Twitter. This could be an important feature for a company that deals with a large customer base, but it is not so important (or even relevant) for someone who uses the system simply as an internal IT service platform.

Other help desks software, such as Jira Service Desk, provides additional security measures and identity management features (mainly Single Sign-On or SSO), which can be key differentiators for some companies. SSO gives users the option of a set of login credentials for multiple applications. Watch for these types of security features.

In this summary, we test the 10 best help desk software offerings, including Agiloft Service Desk, Cayzu, Freshdesk, Freshservice, HappyFox, Jira Service Desk, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus 9.3, Vivantio Pro, Zendesk Support and Zoho Desk. All these help desk solutions are available as SaaS (software as a service) solutions. This means that it is not necessary to install any help desk software on a local computer. As SaaS solutions, all the tested help desk software can be run on someone else's servers, a fact that could attract many SME owners.

ITIL Adherence

During the tests, we found that some help desk software stood out from the others in an important way: joining the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL is a consolidated service framework used primarily by IT management companies. It is a set of best practices that includes many checklists, procedures, processes and activities. Making ITIL able to effectively govern the way your business does things can be restrictive and beneficial, depending on your specific industry. ITIL should be followed whenever possible, even if it seems to be a bit overwhelming for smaller companies.

The tested IT Help Desk Support is divided into two fields: those that follow the ITIL guidelines and those that do not follow them. The most advanced services tested follow ITIL, including Freshservice, Jira Service Desk and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus 9.3. It would make more sense for large companies working in the service management sector, perhaps overseeing data centers or large corporations where service level agreements (SLAs) and sanctions are more than just passwords. If your company follows ITIL, then you should opt for an offer of help desk software that adheres to the ITIL framework.

But not all companies that need help desk software follow ITIL or even need it. For example, if you are a software developer looking for something to handle incoming customer support requests, solid change management (something that governs ITIL) is probably not something you need. And it is likely that Freshdesk, one of the proven Service Desk Support offerings, is not useful for a company responsible for managing a large data center. Some companies that do not participate in ITIL could focus more on customer service where tickets generated by social networks are offered. These companies would benefit from help desk solutions like Cayzu, HappyFox and Zendesk Support. Therefore, first determine if ITIL is something that your company must follow and then buy accordingly