1.3.2 Help Desks
A help desk is a specialized team in an IT department that is the central point of contact for employees or customers.
When users requires support, they must contact the IT help desk. This may be done by using an online reporting tool, live chat, telephone, or email (e.g., IT-support@email.com). Help desks often use a “shared” email account. This means that all helpdesk technicians can see the email requests and respond to them accordingly.
Note: The online reporting tool could be integrated into the ticketing system.
Often, the help desk technician may be able to quickly answer or solve user issues. For example, if an organization had an internet network failure, users may contact the help desk asking why they cannot reach external sites. The technician would inform them that the network is down, and that it should be operational within a specific time.
However, if the request for support is valid, then the technician will create a “trouble ticket”. This is done using special ticketing system software to manage requests, incidents, and reported problems. These “tickets” can be created by the user using a ticketing system dashboard or by a help desk technician. Typically, a user initiates the ticket, and the help desk technician validates it.
The help desk technician may have to gather additional information about the request. When questioning users, use effective questioning techniques and listen carefully to the user answers. You may also have to physically investigate the device or connect remotely to replicate the problem, execute commands, and check configurations.
The technician would then analyze the collected data and either:
Solve the problem – Once the user problem has been addressed, the technician would update and close the trouble ticket. Updating the ticket solution is important because it can populate the ticketing system database. Therefore, if the same problem is reported by another user, the responding technician can search the database to quickly resolve the problem. In addition, administrators can analyze the tickets to identify common issues and their causes in order to globally eliminate the problem, if possible.
Escalate the trouble ticket – Some problems are more complex or require access to devices which the technician has no credentials for. In these cases, the technician must escalate (i.e., forward) the trouble ticket to a more experienced technician. It is important that all documentation captured from the user is clear, concise, and accurate.
The figure summarizes a typical trouble ticket process that a help desk technician would have to perform.
Note: Processes can vary depending on the organization.