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What is a Help Desk?

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Overview

The help desk serves as a centralized platform that enables employees and help desk agents to efficiently access services and solve problems. Need to get your laptop fixed, reset your password, request a new badge, or update direct deposit info? With convenient self-service and request options, the help desk has you covered.

Modern help desks support both IT service management (ITSM) and non-IT enterprise service management (ESM) through knowledge articles, generative AI, and multichannel access—single service portals, mobile apps, and collaboration tools. They allow employees to access the support they need with ease and flexibility.

Help Desk

What’s the difference between the help desk and the service desk?

In IT, the help desk has expanded into what is commonly referred to as the service desk. The service desk plays a crucial role in managing incidents (unplanned interruptions to services), service requests (routine requests for services), problems (underlying causes of incidents), and changes (modifications to IT infrastructure or services). When issues occur, it restores services as quickly as possible to minimize the impact on business operations and ensure that IT services remain aligned with business needs.

The service desk is an evolution of the help desk approach as defined by ITIL. It expands the concept of help desk into more proactive work (such as notifying users of an outage before they start opening tickets) and supports ITIL disciplines such as change management (for example, by initiating a low-risk, after-hours script to update system software).

Outside of IT, the lines between help desks and service desks are often blurred. Corporations may refer to their help desk in various ways, such as customer support, user support, and even service desk. However, a helpful distinction is that departmental help desks specifically address employees’ immediate and individual needs for services and support. Unlike the broader service desk, the help desk can provide an excellent employee experience without requiring extensive features and functionalities.

What does a help desk do?

Many corporations have multiple help desks for various departments outside of IT. A help desk focuses on assisting your employees by addressing their issues, answering their questions, and fulfilling their requests.

For example, an HR help desk can address employee requests related to onboarding, offboarding, benefits, travel, payroll, compensation, and time off. Similarly, a facilities help desk can manage conference room availability, office relocations, enabling physical access to buildings, and responding to maintenance issues. Any department that receives requests—such as Legal, Finance, or Marketing—can use help desk automation to collect, prioritize and respond to requests more efficiently.

Is the help desk a ticketing system?

Ticketing is a core component of the help desk, used to manage and track issues, requests, and incidents reported by employees. Typically, employees submit their issues through help desk software, where tickets are prioritized and assigned to the appropriate IT agents, HR staff, or other support personnel.

But a modern help desk does much more than just ticketing. It encompasses a broader range of functionalities, such as knowledge management, self-service portals, built-in approvals, and automation tools—making it a comprehensive ITSM and ESM platform.

What’s an example of a help desk?

The help desk can be used across multiple departments to streamline support processes for all employees. Here are some examples:

  • IT help desk: Meets employee needs for software, hardware, and network support. For example, an employee uses the service portal to ask a generative AI virtual agent about connecting to the VPN. The virtual agent engages with the employee in conversational language and provides the answer, empowering them to resolve the request on their own. It also shares relevant knowledge articles for reference.
  • HR help desk: Handles employee inquiries related to benefits, payroll, and policies. For example, an employee submits a request to update their direct deposit information and uploads an image of their paycheck. The help desk tool extracts text from the image and triggers an automation flow to update the direct deposit information in the payroll system. Once updated, the help desk software sends a notification confirming the update.
  • Facilities help desk: Manages maintenance requests and facility-related issues. For example, an employee clicks on the "Request site access" offering from the service catalog. The employee is guided through the request and specifies the site for which access is needed. The request is then automatically processed, including an approval flow sent to the employee's manager. Once access is granted, the employee is notified.

What are the benefits of implementing consolidated corporate help desk software?

Help desk software is crucial for maintaining organizational efficiency. It ensures that technical problems and employee requests are resolved quickly, minimizing downtime and allowing employees to focus on their core tasks. A consolidated help desk delivers:

  • Improved efficiency: Resolve technical issues quickly, maintain productivity, and keep business flowing.
  • Lower operational costs: Reduce costs related to multitool maintenance, manual processes, and rising vendor expenses.
  • Enhanced employee satisfaction: Raise employee satisfaction with self-service options and streamlined processes.
  • Centralized support: Simplify the support process with a service portal for all employee questions and service requests—creating a seamless support experience.
  • Data and insights: Get real-time, automated reports that help you identify areas for improvement.

How OpenText Service Management meets your corporate help desk needs.

OpenText™ Service Management offers a comprehensive solution for organizations looking to consolidate, simplify, and modernize their help desk operations. With OpenText, you can streamline your support processes, reduce costs, and improve service delivery.

Key features of OpenText Service Management include:

  • Single portal: Access all services across IT and non-IT through a unified help desk.
  • Mobile app: Offer multichannel user support without additional configuration.
  • Codeless configurations: Design with ease and deploy rapidly without the need for developers. When it’s time to upgrade, seamlessly transition to the latest version without any maintenance changes.
  • Comprehensive ITSM: Manage the entire lifecycle of IT services and understand service context and impact.
  • HR case management: Leverage satisfaction surveys, privacy controls, integrated content management, and integration with Workday and SAP SuccessFactors.
  • Out-of-the-box content: Tap into ITIL-certified content for all key ITSM processes. Additionally, comprehensive offerings are available for HR case management.

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