A guide to reducing help desk costs: One thing to keep in mind!

Help desks have become the primary method for giving IT users the assistance they need to work effectively with technology as they complete their tasks and contribute to their organization’s success. Of course, this comes at a cost.

However, if you're seeking for a simple and cost-effective way to save money with help desk, you've come to the right place. We got just the right solution for you. And that is outsourcing! 

By outsourcing IT help desk support services, you can significantly reduce operational costs while maintaining security & effectiveness. It is no wonder that industry experts expect the outsourced services market to grow steadily year after year. 

How does outsourcing reduce help desk costs?

Since prices are kept low by intense competition in the IT outsourcing market, your company could save a considerable amount of money by switching to a fixed-cost outsourcing contract.

Let’s go in-depth on some of the ways help desk outsourcing can reduce costs for your company. 

• Availability outside normal working hours
  
  

Everyone is aware that technology can occasionally be unpredictable. What happens if anything breaks down unexpectedly or if there are serious problems? Then it would be adequate if you had 24/7 remote help desk support to resolve the problems. Yes, we did say that you don’t need 80 hours of on-site assistance, but you need remote support at any time of the day.

If your primary working hours are from nine to five, maintaining internal system support outside of these hours is difficult. Customers may encounter frustrating system issues if you don't have help desk support available after hours, which is terrible for your turnover rate. An outsourced supplier will provide support to you 24/7, every day of the week, assuring you that someone is always on hand to assist your clients.

• Capability to scale resources up and down as necessary
  
  

The ability to scale up and down resources as necessary is another way to reduce expenses by outsourcing IT help desk services. If your company experiences seasonality, such as summer or winter, you can save operating costs by scaling back in the winter and ramping up resources in the summer.

For instance, if you notice a decline in cash flow, you can cut back on your working hours to save money for a month or two, which is especially doable with outsourcing. You can also assign specific working hours to provide IT support during these times.

Running a small business does not require 80 hours of effort each week to meet customer needs. Instead, cutting your workweek to 40 hours will allow you to work more productively when demand is at its highest.

• Reduces investment costs
  
  

The cost of employee administration, benefits, bonuses, and insurance will all increase when you hire an employee. Instead, you can reduce all operational costs and invest in key goals by outsourcing help desk support services.

Providers of help desk services can reduce turnover costs while saving money and time. A help desk outsourcing business may train its staff and find a solution for any issue at any price. 

• Access to better technology
  
  

Most businesses lack the financial flexibility to invest in the latest IT equipment or adopt cutting-edge technological solutions. However, providers who simply manage technology will have a wider range of resources, including the most recent ones. Benefiting from the most advanced technologies, without having to pay for them helps companies thrive while costing tons of money!

• Assistance from highly trained experts
  
  

By choosing an outsourced service, your company will gain access to the most recent market knowledge, and the majority of providers will also guide how you may grow your company. The good news for your customers and your revenues is that this helps you maintain a competitive edge.

• Simplify and Streamline the Process

In order to give world-class service quickly and effectively, the process must be streamlined, and the quality of the job must be raised to a standard. Streamlining business procedures helps those who work for the company and have experience and expertise.

More benefits of Help Desk Outsourcing

• Improved Security
  
  

Outsourcing your company's IT assistance can lower costs while simultaneously enhancing security. It is ideal for you to outsource if you don't have this experience in-house (plus hiring a team for this will be expensive).

• Insights: Reporting & Visibility
  
  

Response times alone are reduced by an average of 16% by help desks that employ analytics to monitor the performance of the support team. Internal help desks, in comparison, rarely have the procedures or resources necessary to guarantee high-quality support, promote a performance-improvement mindset, or even track service delivery costs.

An outsourcing provider will also offer information by keeping an eye out for trends that can reduce ticket volumes. High-Performance Help Desks aim to proactively identify, resolve, and prevent issues before they happen.

• Easier management duties
  
  

Working with a third-party service provider frees you and your human resources department from managing your help desk team because now they will take care of that on their own. The company will be in charge of managing its staff, including all aspects of hiring, training, and retention. It will also keep track of their hours worked and performance, as well as manage any personnel issues.

• Fewer worries
  
  

Typically, help desk engineers are in the business of performing maintenance and managing incidents to stop issues before they start. They can advise on replacing outdated hardware and software as well as suggest other technical fixes for specific problems. The average time it takes a technician to accept a ticket, the average time it takes to solve a problem (or close a ticket), the average number of tickets per day/user, problems that arise after business hours, communication regarding a ticket, and other factors are all tracked by help desks using remote software. Then, ongoing quality improvement is conducted using this statistical reporting.

• Partnerships are prioritized
  
  

Third-party companies will approach help desk support with a collaborative attitude since they have an interest in completing their contract and forging a lasting connection with the organizations they serve. One of their goals will be to make communicating and collaborating on tasks with the employees or end users, smoother and less frustrating. The tools they suggest will be made to support this alliance and provide employees a sense of empowerment when utilizing technology, which in turn boosts workplace morale and productivity.

• Increased Customer Satisfaction

• Focusing on core tasks
  
  

• The ability of IT resources to concentrate their skills on innovation and strategy is another advantage of outsourcing help desk services. Outsourcing frees up internal teams' time so they can focus properly on their core duties.

Help Desk Outsourcing in the post-pandemic era

The increased interest in outsourcing helpdesk operations following Covid lockdowns may not come as a surprise. Businesses all over the world are searching for more flexible, scalable helpdesk teams to supplement or replace their overworked IT departments.

Those departments may be unable to keep up with the huge volume of support requests from clients who have adopted new remote working practices. Unfortunately, this takes your team away from the more important strategic projects you want them to be focused on. 

You can overcome these shortages by outsourcing your help desk while maintaining the standard of service your clients expect.

 Service Desk vs. Help Desk: What’s the difference?

Understanding the difference between a service desk and a help desk will enable you to choose the IT support and service management option that is best for your company, depending on your needs. Both help desk and service desk services have a few differences, and each has certain advantages for business operations.

Help Desk

IT help desks are typically used to address urgent technical problems and incidents. Help desks can operate independently or be incorporated with bigger service desks. The help desk's primary objective is to respond to user requests as quickly as possible. Single point of contact (SPOC) IT support, incident recording, problem management, problem resolution, service level agreements (SLAs), and end-user self-service choices are some of the key benefits of help desk support.

Service Desk

In contrast, to help desks, an IT service desk handles a wider range of tasks and serves as the singular point of contact for customers and service providers. Instead of focusing on problem-solving, a service desk considers the needs of the entire organization. Service desks manage user interactions as well as problems and service requests.

Help Desks vs. Service Desk

Most experts would agree that the differences between the help desk and the service desk vary from one business to another. 

However, we can say that for most businesses the main difference between the two is that a help desk facilitates quick solutions, while a service desk focuses on delivering a service to end users that focus on all-encompassing customer service. Help desk support could be viewed as a subset of all service desk capabilities.

Outsourcing Help Desk has never been easier with We Are Fiber

As we already mentioned, outsourcing help desk services is a profound way to save your business costs & get gain higher productivity. However, we know that every company has different needs when it comes to its network, which is why we’re happy to help create a partnership that best fits your needs. 

We Are Fiber provides outsourced help desk assistance, allowing business owners and managers to focus on their areas of expertise.

Talk to our experts to find out how we can help your business with its outsourcing needs. Click here to get in touch with us directly.