You might recall the ‘old’ days of IT support when a technician actually sat at an end-user’s desk to conduct even the most menial tasks, such as password resets or setting up email. Support that is removed and remote is the present-day, practical approach to business IT.
The influx of work-from-home employees combined with cyber attackers that seem to be looming in all directions, has prompted increased and improved options for remote IT. Services available for outsourcing have formed into streamlined, seamless solutions that provide added value and promote health, wellness, and safety for your business and your employees.
Remote Relief
Outsourcing your IT Service Desk shifts management and maintenance responsibilities to an expert outside provider. From handling the basics to managing infrastructure changes and challenges, today’s interactive software provides technicians with access to issues, updates, and requests often without interruption to the end-user. Employing remote IT relieves HR overhead, alleviates the need for accommodations within your building, and removes your responsibility for managing licensing, training, and upgrading equipment. Additional advantages include:
- A multi-tiered support team employing the most up-to-date IT skills
- Techs that are nestled into tiers based on their skill levels which protects your bottom line by connecting the right skillsets with the appropriate job duties
- Fast implementation of new technology, upgrades and patches
- The expertise to pinpoint the technology that is best for your company
- Multitasking technicians that are able to handle more than one request at a time
- Remote help desks that have extended hours with many providing 24/7/365 support across multiple time zones
- Workstations prepared and configured off-site and sent to the end-user for easy set-up
- Up-to-date compliance and due diligence
- Models encompassing both onshore and offshore support which offer options in pricing, usability, service, and coverage
- Access to specialized expertise such as network security or software applications
- Newly found time and resources that allow for focus on core business activities such as marketing or sales
- End-user satisfaction which is on a proven, solid statistical climb due to improved response and resolution times
- Options for scalability up or down to meet the changing needs of your business without having to hire or lay off personnel
Bottom Line Benefits
From a financial perspective, outsourcing your IT service desk generates savings that can be allocated to other components of your business. The impact on bottom-line dollars can include:
- Lower ongoing maintenance costs
- Lower costs for server and storage
- Provider/supplier relationships that allow for businesses to receive new services, licensing and products at a reduced cost
- Elimination of overhead for IT employees such as PTO, travel time from site to site, and health benefits
- Recruiting, staffing, scheduling, and training that are managed and afforded by the IT provider
Metrics and Measures that Prove
In remote IT, your business utilizes financial resources in a partnership that is responsible for keeping data and operations running smoothly. Through KPIs and metrics, your service provider will offer feedback to allow you to see the effectiveness of your technical presence.
The remote IT model is one that promotes ease and usability in measuring the quality and effectiveness of the service provided, equipping your business with the ability to monitor the value of its ROI from several angles. Effective and efficient review of the IT ‘big picture' on a regular basis provides ongoing feedback regarding what is working well and what needs to be revamped.
Having a well-defined tier system is vital in remote IT. It assures that the level of support is appropriately aligned, matching the technician’s skillset and expertise with that of their position and responsibility within their tier. For example, an upper-level technician is designated to provide support at a Tier 2 or 3 level. For such expertise to perform Tier 1 support impacts the company by using time and hourly wages in a misappropriated manner.
Metrics guarantee that delivery is timely, and issues are addressed, alongside having the ability to measure technicians based upon their courtesy and fluidity in managing a service request.
Beneficial Resources
Technology is an ever-changing industry. New and improved ideas and resources are a constant. Businesses often (and sometimes unknowingly) impede processes by employing in-house IT resources who are limited or overwhelmed. With a remote service desk in place, your company gains benefits from enhanced support for systems and infrastructure in ways that improve the bottom line and protect the health and resilience of your employees.
