If you manage an IT service desk, you know how complicated it is to manage everything that comes up in a given day. It’s unpredictable, and you might need to delegate to different team members or collaborate to problem solve at any given moment. You also want to be able to communicate efficiently with end users. Without the help of IT service desk software and an organized approach, you could get too bombarded to provide great service.
What Is IT Service Desk Software?
IT service desk software helps you organize a process around managing tickets, possibly engage automation to reduce manual work and execute more efficiently.
What constitutes a ticket? Everything from a request for help about a problem, perhaps the internet is down, emails are lost or laptops are broken. But requests can also involve some sort of service, like onboarding a new employee, which involves set up and access to numerous company software applications and programs. All requests need to be documented in the form of a ticket, so that they can be assigned and otherwise routed to the appropriate analyst, group or team for resolving. Details about the issue or request are noted in the ticket, which is assigned and completed through a work funnel or flow. Tickets are a key part of the structure that enable customer service.
How Do You Want to Manage Tickets?
IT service desk software can vary in ticket management structure and features. What is important to you?
For example, do you need the ability to transform social media posts into tickets? Or are you solely working through internal IT service channels like email, chat and phone calls? The ability to click and turn messages into tickets from any channel is an extremely valuable feature, particularly in supporting a hybrid workforce.
What Are the Key Points of Concern?
What functions would most help the service desk run smoothly? Does your team struggle with a ticket backlog or response time? More specific triaging could help. Is time wasted trying to investigate major events or patterns in ticket requests? The ability to relate and merge tickets could support this analysis.
It’s beneficial for the team to talk through process bottlenecks and explore ways to improve processes. This information will not only unify the team and support better delivery—it also helps you target key features you need in IT service desk software.
Must-Have Features
Although service desk software can come with flashy features, there are some that you absolutely need. First: accessibility. A cloud-based SaaS solution will help the service desk reach employees more easily wherever they are working.
You need to be able to create, assign, modify, close and track tickets. These features allow you to make updates and maintain a history and audit trail, while also having a clear way of knowing when the ticket is completed. After a ticket is closed the data is still important, since it informs reporting and setting performance metrics. So, look for software that performs these basic functions, while being able to seamlessly navigate. Admins and analysts need to be able to move freely through the ticket lifecycle.
Another thing you’ll want: the ability to build a response knowledge base or a self-service portal. Both allow end users to search for answers and troubleshoot via articles or FAQs. Some solutions use the knowledge base strategically to train artificial intelligence-powered virtual agents, which proactively respond to initial requests. Instead of the end user searching for answers, the answers are served to them.
This kind of system greatly reduces the team’s manual effort.
Does It Integrate with Current Software?
Standalone tools can be time-consuming to manage. But service desk solutions that integrate with Microsoft 365 give you more ways to take advantage of Microsoft functionality with one source of authentication. For companies invested in Microsoft technology, Tikit is one such service desk solution that is not only cost-effective, it is also built for Microsoft Teams and connects to the greater Microsoft ecosystem, offering scalability and interconnectivity with Microsoft tools. Tikit is developed by Cireson, Microsoft gold certified partners who have the full M365 suite top-of-mind.
What AI Software Does It Offer?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay, and for an IT service desk, it is an invaluable tool. AI can be used as a first line of defense to deflect common, repetitive requests, which help end users feel attended to and reduce bombardment for analysts. For example, if an end user is having trouble resetting a password and requests help, a virtual agent can respond with password reset instructions.
It takes no time at all for the virtual agent to create this response, but IT analysts are spared a lot of time and effort, allowing them to step in and help with more complicated issues. When done well, end users have no idea a handoff has happened. You can get a sense of the interaction in this demo.
With this kind of system, the more the service desk team adds information, articles and entries to the knowledge base, the more efficient the virtual agent will be in responding to requests.
Transform Your IT Service Desk with the Best Software
If your IT team is struggling to address incident and service requests, then an IT service desk application built in Microsoft Teams could be the answer. You can try our ticketing now with a free 14-day trial!
