One of the most important parts of an organization that enables them to remain operational even in the most testing of times is their IT service desk. However, never before the pandemic did the IT service disk of an organization operated remotely. This is another pandemic induced change in the world of work that no one ever envisaged. And the IT service desk having to operate remotely has become a necessity now because many employees are still working from home or a remote workplace.
The change in the working of the IT service desk can also be attributed to the need for its evolution that has not been addressed for years by I&O leaders. The pandemic only accelerated the process. With the subsiding of the effects of the pandemic in many countries and with vaccination drives in full flow across the world, many organizations have started calling some of their employees back to office. This workforce distribution and ensuring proper IT support to employees working remotely and from office would have been very difficult for organizations had they not adopted the newer IT service work models. The IT service desks are now well prepared and better equipped for the hybrid workforce that is going to be the future of work.
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There are many different ways that IT services desk at different organizations can continue serving the employees, irrespective of their location and even beyond the pandemic. The first that organizations need to do is provide their remote IT teams access to tools that can help them provide faster resolutions to queries. Most of the IT professionals are still working remotely, so it is imperative that they have the required tools and technology to fulfil their responsibilities. What they need is a remote workstation that has almost everything that their on-site workstation had. IT support teams functioning remotely would require access to communication devices, ITSM tools as well as endpoint management and remote control tools.
Organizations also need to work towards the reduction in demand for IT service desks. With the adoption of the new technology for the new world of work, most of the organizations across the world saw a gradual increase in IT support demand. The demand reached its peak at the start of the pandemic but is still on the higher side. It will continue to be high as many employees are returning back to office.
One way of bringing this demand down is by giving IT support seekers an alternative to Tier 1 contact channels that are usually phone-based. So organizations could direct some of the low-priority queries to other communication modes, such as email or live chat. These are not only much easier to access remotely but can also make way for urgent queries to be attended faster. Organizations can also make things easier for their IT service desk by promoting self-service and peer support channels for common issues. This will increase collaboration and lead to faster resolution.
Reference: How to Run an IT Service Desk in a Hybrid or Remote World |Gartner | Meghan Rimol | September 20, 2021
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