Taking IT Easy with a Tier 1 Help Desk

Mann Lake Limited was in a bind. A fast-growing company, their internal IT staff was stretched much too thin. Mann Lake, Ltd. found itself facing a big challenge: how to integrate a process-driven, metric-focused help desk for staff to call, addressing daily technology issues in order to keep productivity high. Building their own help desk would take significant resources, dollars, and time, not to mention a strong pipeline of candidates to work the help desk. So, what was the answer? Partner with VC3 to provide Tier 1 help desk services.

Tier 1 Help Desk with VC3

Tier 1 help desk is the first point of contact that users have when requesting support. It’s important to have a clear and consistent process to set expectations for employees. Employees want and need to focus on their primary responsibilities where they are productive, instead of dealing with IT issues that take them away from their important tasks. This is where a well-defined help desk addresses such a need.

So, what makes for a successful help desk implementation?

• A Clear Scope: It’s not efficient to expect Tier 1 to effectively deal with all issues that arise. Instead, Tier 1 should have a clearly defined scope of items that can be addressed and a time frame to address them. At VC3, our Tier 1 help desk is tasked with dealing with 15 specific areas of support. These 15 areas account for over 70% of all calls that come to the help desk and would be classified as “one call fix items.” The process also states that if the item will take longer than 30 minutes to complete, the issue needs to be escalated to Tier 2. This makes sure that Tier 1 is available and efficient in dealing with requests.
  
  
• Access to Information and Tools: Simply being able to connect remotely does not fulfill the productivity needs of help desk personnel. Staff should have ready access to information about the environment as well as information about the particular device they are providing support for. Network maps, pictures, software inventory, and current alerts are just some of the things that add to the efficiency and ability of staff to address issues. At VC3, a client portal is developed during onboarding that provides this information in one place for help desk personnel. This portal is continuously updated as the environment and support needs change. The staff has one place to go to get this information.
  
  
• Structured “Pod” Model: Ideally, a Tier 1 helpdesk would be able to focus on a defined area within an organization. This allows for the staff to get familiar with a part of the environment or a subset of employees. In most SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) under 150-200 users, there may not be a need for this specialization. However, in a mid-market or larger organization, focusing on departments or physical locations may make sense. At VC3, we assign SMBs to a Pod of staff that becomes familiar with their operations as well as the client's end users. This familiarity builds trust and a consistent response.

With Tier 1 being the entry point for your support solution, it’s important that you have a well-developed process to ensure positive results. VC3 can help with planning or providing a well-defined Tier 1 help desk for your organization.

These are just some of the savings that an MSP like VC3 provides to businesses of all shapes, sizes, and industries. If you’d like to learn more about managed services, or simply need help in determining the optimal services for you, VC3 is here to help!