Computer software free downloads: antivirus, surveys, accounting, database, office, medical

Automating Your Help Desk Workflow

Do you know you can open, answer, close and report help desk information without human intervention?

Automation is a powerful feature provided by most enterprise level help desk products; however, most organizations rarely take advantage of these features. Based on a survey conducted by RightStar Systems, only 5% of the help desk managers interviewed were using automation to its fullest capacity. Most use it to some degree while others do not use it at all. Tom Jud, Emerging Growth Manager for BMC Software, has observed "... that the Business Rules Engine provided by the Magic Help Desk product, is the key feature that organizations should leverage to drive support efficiency and cost savings." He explains that the two main reasons for organizations not deploying workflow automation are 1) the perceived level of difficulty in implementing these functions and 2) The lack of workflow planning used in developing the helpdesk program. Once organizations learn the importance of workflow automation and the benefit gained, they embrace the feature and drive added value from their help desk product.

After having conducted over 600 site visits and product demonstrations, I have identified 4-main focus areas where organizations can benefit from deploying workflow automation.

Enforcing best practices through automation.

Companies looking to provided better and less expensive support services have adopted any number of help desk "best practices" guidelines. Automating workflow to enforce a help desk's best practices deployment can drive even more value and efficiency. By pairing certain best practice areas with automated workflow, a help desk can provide a consistent and predictable level of support.

Improving incident response time through automation.

Incident response time is how most service support organizations are judged. According to Beverly Wells, Help Desk and Groupwise Manager for CarMax, "Of all the statistics gathered by the CarMax Help Desk, the one area reviewed with the most scrutiny, is how fast we responded to and resolve calls." Workflow automation can drastically improve incident response, problem resolution, and change requests, by incorporating predetermined "if, then" capabilities. For example, if a call for a printer problem is received at the help desk, workflow automation can determine the type of call and direct that call to the right person or provide an automated answer to the requestor. In other words, "if" you receive a request like this, "then" do this specific task.

Increase Reporting Accuracy

Automating workflow provides the ability to capture accurate help desk statistics by removing the various inconsistencies injected through human error. I know help desk managers that spend hours each month collecting, editing and refining help desk statistical reports. They spend most of there time correcting errors and adjusting the numbers that tell the real story of the help desk. Automating workflow is one primary way to assist help desk managers prepare and create accurate reporting.

Create Consistency while Reducing Call Volume

Have you ever called a help desk and received two or three different answers for the same problem, or worse, no answer at all? It's frustrating and it reflects poorly on the help desk. Several help desk tools provide the capability to deliver answers on various issues in a consistent automated manner. This provides the requestor with confidence that they received the right answer while taking the guesswork away from the help desk analyst when answering questions. In many cases, the answer can be provided without human intervention. There are various ways of deploying these capabilities; collectively they can provide a tremendous reduction in call volume and a higher degree of customer satisfaction.

Incorporating automation in your help desk workflow provides many benefits. As with any undertaking, it takes forethought and planning, but with the right help desk tool and the desire to provide timely, accurate answers with little or no human intervention, the effort will off-load pressure from the help desk staff and integrate an atmosphere of help desk brilliance.

Dan Wilson currently works for RightStar Systems, a leader in Help Desk Service and Supprot Consulting; including problem, asset, change and desktop management.

Dan has over 15 years of experience in support consulting.

You can reach Dan at dan.wilson@rightstarsystems

MORE ARTICLES:

Employee Surveys and Customer Surveys -- 34 Survey Tips for Getting Better Results
Survey tips for avoiding common pitfalls when conducting an employee survey or a customer survey:

Web Help Desk Software Integration With Apple Remote Desktop
Leading cross-platform help desk software solution, Web Help Desk, announced seamless integration with Apple Remote Desktop 3, Apple's award-winning desktop management system for Mac OS X. The easy access to ARD information and instant remote control connectivity from within the Web Help Desk promises to boost technician productivity and raise the bar on customer satisfaction.

Project Management Courses: So Many Options!
Project Management Courses exist in my sizes, types, and flavors. As Project Management is very popular topic among professionals today, much project management training is available to help Project Managers to improve their skills and advance their careers. Choosing the right project management courses, however, can become a bit daunting because there are just so many options! This article provides some guidance to help project managers take some first steps in running the gauntlet of options to find the ideal set of project management courses for their situation, and get the most out of them.

Ten Predictions For Project Management Trends In 2009
2008 was an eventful, prosperous year for the project management practice, project management service and solution providers:

This is a Must Have Reference Guide for All Project Managers
Following up on the success of the first edition, senior executives from over 50 world-class companies present and discuss their best practices for successful project management implementation.

Web Help Desk Launches Version 9 Cross-Platform Help Desk Software
Cross-Platform Web Help Desk Software Version 9 combines a more refined user experience with multi-tiered approval workflow and a revolutionary approach to asset management through plug-in architecture

Project Management Training Online Adds ITIL V3 Training
Project Management Training Online - pmtrainingonline.com - announced today that it has added ITIL V3 training to its lineup of ITIL V2 training and project management training courses. Project Management Training Online provides one of the most extensive offerings of online training courses focused on professional project management that can be found on the internet.

Project Management Training Online Adds CAPM® Premium Exam Prep Bundles
Project Management Training Online -- pmtrainingonline.com -- announced today that it has added CAPM® Premium Exam Prep Bundles certification training to its catalog of online project management training courses. Project Management Training Online provides one of the most extensive offerings of online training courses focused on professional project management that can be found on the internet.

Colorado Technical University Receives Accreditation from the Project Management Institute
CTU becomes one of fewer than 20 institutions throughout the world accredited by PMI® GAC to offer Bachelor's and Master's degrees in project management

Wiley Releases the 10th Edition of Harold Kerzner's "Bible" on Project Management
If you're looking for the latest information on Project Management, look no further! Harold Kerzner has written the latest edition of Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling.

Project Management Training Courses:  So Many Options!
Project management training courses come in many sizes, types, and flavors. As Project Management is very popular topic among professionals today, there are many project management training courses out there to help Project Managers advance their skills and careers. Choosing the right project management courses among the plethora of options, however, can be daunting! This article provides some guidance to help project managers more easily sift through the myriad of options and find the ideal set of project management training courses for their situation.

Easy Way to Choose Project Management Software
In today's business environment everyone needs Project Management tools. And professionals who manage Projects are called Project Managers. Qualities to look for in a project manager are inspired and shared vision, good communication skills, Integrity, enthusiasm, competence, ability to delegate, handle pressure, and team building and problem solving skills.

Determining And Understanding Help Desk ROI
Help desk ROI or return of investment is highly associated with customer satisfaction for both internal and external customers With high help desk effectiveness, customer satisfaction will translate to higher ROI and profit margins

What is Project Management Approach?
Project management is a well planned approach for a process from start to end. It is concerned with the planning and guiding of the project from start to finish. Any process needs to be guide in usually five stages. They are initiation, planning, execution, controlling and closing. Project management can be applied to almost all type of projects but especially it is applicable in software development projects to control the complex process. Project management is an organized effort and it is planned very carefully. To accomplish a specific project, project management is essential.

Project Management Certification Around the World
Project management certification is proliferating worldwide as organizations around the globe ‘projectize’. This article surveys the various flavors of project management certification out there today.