Service desk vs help desk – what's the difference?
Simply put, helpdesk is part of the services often associated with a service desk.
Service desk and help desk both cover the registration and processing of inquiries and tasks.
But the service desk also has other functions.
Written by Ronny Michelsen
The first helpdesks
Before service desk became a term, it was the first help desks that paved the way.
It was the invention of the telephone that made possible the first help desks. People could then call a company and explain their problems, instead of having to show up in person.
When large companies organized the reception and processing of customer inquiries in the 1960s, the concept of a customer service center was seriously introduced.
In the 80s, many companies started organizing helpdesks with a focus on IT and support for mainframe systems.
The ITIL concept was formed in the 1980s as a result of the British government being dissatisfied with the quality of IT support provided to them.
ITIL is still a widely used and living framework for delivering service according to best practices.
It wasn't until the 1990s that helpdesk software was used on a larger scale.
With a focus on receiving inquiries in a SPOC (Single Point Of Contact), and resolving IT problems in the first, second and perhaps third line of support, the systems were largely geared towards the IT part of companies' support departments.
Service desk vs help desk
New features were gradually added to effective helpdesks. They moved from simple helpdesks to service desks as communication centers for the efficient handling of IT-related errors, orders, and information needs.
Today, performing services for internal colleagues and external customers is a very large part of the work done in an organization. This is often where you can make a difference for customers and increase efficiency to gain strategic competitive advantage.
From ITSM to ESM
Previously, service management systems were reserved for IT departments.
The big trend now is that such tools are also used in all other departments, such as HR, finance, customer service, archives, communications, facility management and more.
The hub for all services
With More Service, we focus on helping all departments work in a more transparent and efficient way. That's why we say that "More Service is the hub for all services.".
You perform a variety of tasks daily, respond to inquiries, solve problems, and implement routines. So do your colleagues. You often collaborate within the department or across departments.
But the information is often unstructured in emails, Excel sheets, or on yellow notes. You quickly lose track. Things fall through the cracks. And you end up with poor efficiency in your deliveries.
Challenges
– Misunderstandings and duplication of work
– Missing information in the case
– Uncertainty about who is responsible for the matter
– Little collaboration across departments
– Knowledge only resides in the heads of employees
– No reports for proactive work
– Several systems that are difficult to use
One common system
What if you had a common system where all inquiries, tasks and routines were registered and followed up?
With all the history of all cases, and seamless collaboration on tasks within the department and across departments.
This is perhaps the most important digitalization you can do.
And we're going to show you how.
Structured information
Enquiries are registered in More Service regardless of whether they come via email, telephone, from a web portal, Facebook or other channels.
The system automatically collects information such as the subject, description of what is desired, and information about the person requesting it.
When you then enter which category the inquiry belongs to and what priority it should have, you have entered the inquiry as structured information. You can then collaborate with your colleagues on the case and communicate with the submitter directly from the case.
And you have the entire history of the case in one place.
In the same way, you enter your own tasks, but then describe the task yourself and choose a topic for the case.
Share knowledge with one click
Organizations are often vulnerable and less effective than their potential, because knowledge only sits in the heads of individuals and is not shared in a smart way.
More Service facilitates sharing knowledge, and thus has larger parts of the collective knowledge documented. This way, not all the knowledge disappears when people leave, and you are less vulnerable during illness, leave and vacation.
Perhaps most importantly, it increases efficiency in daily work.
But knowledge is not documented or shared if it takes time or is complicated to achieve. Therefore, knowledge sharing is an integral part of regular case management. But with one click, you have shared a good solution to a task or inquiry. More Service then notifies you when relevant knowledge articles are available for the case you are working on.
So what really is the difference?
Service desk vs help desk – what is the difference between service desk and help desk?
In popular parlance, the terms are used interchangeably, and it matters less whether you call it a helpdesk or a servicedesk.
Simply put, helpdesk is part of the services often associated with a service desk.
The most important thing is to know what options exist in a modern service desk. And it is also important to consider what a service desk can do for departments other than the IT department.
And with good self-service services such as dynamic FAQs, targeted information and chatbots on a web portal, a significant part of the workload can be relieved from the support staff, which in turn has time to deliver faster and better service on the cases they are supposed to handle.
CMDB (Configuration Management Database) presents a logical model of the organization's equipment, services and documentation (objects, CI). This gives you more control and overview of how the objects are related. By linking the objects to the cases you register, you get valuable reports that can be used to proactively improve the services you provide.