Help Desk Services

Help Desk vs Service Desk -What’s The Difference?

How do you currently define the IT assistance structure in your business? Does your team assist in resolving customers’ issues via a break-fix (incident management) process? Or, does it handle service requests and provide answers to generic IT questions?

What you say determines if the IT setup is help desk vs service desk. Though you felt these terms were interchangeable, they actually have different purposes according to the ITIL and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) definitions. For a more comprehensive look at these two desks, here are some commonly asked questions we can answer.

What Is an IT Help Desk?

A help desk is an organization’s primary point of contact for technical support. It provides information and assistance to users who have questions about their computers, software, or other technology. A help desk can be staffed by employees in the company’s human resources department or outsourced to a third-party provider. The goal of a help desk is to provide fast, accurate answers to user inquiries while also providing proactive solutions to prevent future problems.

What is the responsibility of the IT Help Desk?

The IT help desk services the hardware, software, and networks related to a company’s technology infrastructure. In most cases, they have little or no communication with the customer. Their correspondence is with service desk representatives. And this is normally in the form of an incident or request ticket.

An example of this is a company’s Network Operations Center (NOC). When there’s an outage, tickets are assigned to the NOC. In turn, they contact network and ISP providers to determine if the issue is on their end and when it will be repaired. Should customer interaction be needed, the NOC refers back to the service desk or a customer-facing network response team.

In some organizations, help desks are also responsible for asset management. Take computer imaging as a sample experience. If an employee requires a new laptop containing the company’s default profile, the request is sent to that particular help desk. From there, the laptop is primed with the latest image and shipped or hand-delivered to the employee.

The benefits of IT help desk services are in the form of SMEs with an intimate knowledge of the hardware, software, or infrastructure. This is different than a service desk SME who may know a little bit of everything to help troubleshoot an issue.

What is the responsibility of the Service Desk?

A typical service desk manages the day-to-day operations and problems of a company’s employees or a business’ customers. Their job is extremely important since they are the face of the organization’s IT troubleshooting arm.

Normally, customers are placed in a call queue for the next available representative. Once contacted, the service desk SME generates incidents and service requests for the matter. Next, they work to troubleshoot the issue from previous knowledge, notes from older tickets, or knowledge base (KB) articles.

If they are unable to resolve the issue, they escalate it to either a Level 1.5 representative or a Level 2 help desk SME. However, their responsibility doesn’t stop there.

Because they are a customer-facing group, the service desk needs to make sure the customer is updated on the ticket’s progress until it is resolved. Then, they may follow up to see if the issue reoccurred. If so, the process starts again.

There are a range of benefits for the service desk. One is the ability to resolve issues in a timely manner. Another is to determine if repeated calls about the same issue constitute a Major Incident (MI). A third is to gauge the customer base on the service desk’s performance and what, if anything, can be improved. This information can be fed to the help desk so they can tweak their operations as well.

What is the difference between the IT Help Desk and Service Desk?

Yes, it is. Established in the 1980s, the help desk’s goal was to correct issues with the infrastructure instead of directly dealing with customers. Conversely, the service desk is the single point of contact between the customer and the company’s IT environment. This can be an in-house location or outsourced.

In today’s IT environment, the question of the IT department being a help desk vs service desk is a moot one. In some companies, the help and service desks may meet if you add them to a Ven Diagram.

An organization may have its IT infrastructure split into levels. For instance, Level 1 helps the customer with generic issues. If they get stuck, then it goes to a Level 1.5 Subject Matter Expert (SME). In another example, the service desk is the primary access point to record incidents and requests. Issues due to internal problems or segmentation of duties would go to the Level 2 help desks.

What is Tech Support?

Tech support provides assistance to end users regarding how to operate and maintain computer equipment. End users often call tech support because they want to learn how to perform tasks such as installing new applications, troubleshooting problems, configuring devices, etc.

Help Desk vs IT Support

A help desk is a department that provides information and guidance to end users regarding how best to utilize the IT infrastructure. A help desk does not offer direct technical support to end users; rather, it offers general information and direction.

Technical support is the process of assisting end users with specific problems. Technical support involves diagnosing and solving problems using specialized tools and techniques. Technical support is usually provided by highly skilled professionals who work directly with end users.

What are the Functions of IT Support?

IT support functions are:

• Provide information and advice to end users regarding how they should use IT resources.
• Assist end users with basic PC operations including installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
• Provide access to training materials and documentation.
• Offer technical support to end users regarding how the organization uses its IT resources.
• Provide technical support to end users via phone, email, chat, web-based forums, and remote desktop connections.
• Provide technical support to end user’s PCs, servers, printers, networking equipment, and other IT assets.
• Provide technical expertise to assist end users with upgrading their technology.

Can a Company have an IT Help Desk and not a Service Desk?

The answer is yes. However, there is a caveat. It depends on the services the company handles. Take a wireless internet company as an example.

Those directly employed by this organization are SMEs in wireless network and security. They probably don’t know much about the UI/UX of the customer-facing website. If the website is operated by another organization, service desk calls would be directed to their representatives instead.

Conversely, a company can have a service desk and not an in-house help desk. In those situations, the technology SMEs could be outsourced from a company like ExterNetworks to provide the necessary 24/7 services.

The main benefit in connecting with a company like ExterNetworks is saving money. There’s no need to build a command center and train employees when you deal with an outsourcing agency. Instead, those who handle your IT issues are already SMEs in their fields.

Another benefit is constant coverage. While calls to your service desk may end at a certain time, the outsourced help desk works around the clock to review and repair ongoing issues. This is an advantage when your company runs on a 24/7 schedule.

Do you have any more questions on the main differences between the help and service desks? Feel free to contact us. We can answer your questions and provide you with further benefits on outsourcing your IT services.