Automation technology and self-service are key to transforming how an IT service desk operates

As businesses transition to digital operations and workers have access to more advanced technology, IT service desks today confront a more comprehensive range of difficulties than ever before. Service desks are dealing with many requests, which are routine, monotonous, and time-consuming and need lengthier call times. Instead of allowing workers to be more proactive and creative in their approach to a company's overall IT strategy, it may also turn IT into firefighters, responding to immediate crises as they arise. This takes time away from more complicated topics.

According to Jeffrey Jacoby, U.S. services team head at TOPdesk, automation and self-service are essential to changing how an IT service desk functions and freeing professionals to take on more significant business issues.

Where Automation Excels?

The kind of requests and organizational procedures for handling them differ per organization, of course. Still, they might range from software demands like granting licenses and confirming approvals to occurrences like a damaged laptop, needing help to locate a folder, or having an inbox go awry. Additionally, there are differences in the size of the teams, ranging from a small number of front responders and the escalation team to complete security, network, or development teams.

Nevertheless, Jacobs asserts that businesses of all sizes may benefit from automation, and TOPdesk has assisted several organizations in integrating automation into their routine business operations.

Adopting a Strategy for Automation

According to Jacobs, documentation should come before picking a technology, tool, or partner. Avoid attempting to account for exceptional circumstances and once-in-a-blue-moon events—document conventional workflows and those that are repetitive and hence easily automatable with a focus on the latter.

"It knows what your goal is, what you're trying to achieve, and what the road map to adoption should look like," says Jacobs. "Once you pinpoint tasks that can be automated, you start looking for opportunities to win and boost productivity."

Monitoring KPIs for Superior Service Desk Performance

Measuring service desk performance KPIs is crucial for various reasons, including automating processes more effectively, enhancing customer satisfaction, and discovering new possibilities. They have a variety of groups as their bases. One particularly important is call quality, which can be assessed by user feedback on how their experiences compare to their expectations and whether their problems were satisfactorily handled. Even if it's a purely arbitrary measurement, it's essential to monitor the tone of user comments, whether they are formally requested in surveys or just gathered as they come in.