The best IT helpdesk solution might be the one you haven’t even considered, even though it’s right in front of you: Microsoft Teams. By integrating the IT helpdesk into Teams, which employees are already using for their daily work, you can ensure a smooth helpdesk experience that resolves issues quickly and helps employees to stay productive.
The IT department solves problems that range from quick fixes to overarching issues around hardware, security, connectivity, and access. For employees to stay productive, they must be able to contact the IT helpdesk from any device and place quickly. And IT specialists need a tool that enables them to promptly support employees in solving issues.
In most organizations, employees already use Teams to talk to each other, so it makes sense for employees to also use the platform to get in touch with IT. With a Teams-based IT helpdesk solution, employees don’t need to contact a specific IT specialist but can reach out to the entire helpdesk team within Teams.
Third-party service desk solutions add features such as call routing, extensive reporting, and integration of ticketing tools to Teams and ensure that employees quickly get coupled with an available IT specialist that can resolve their query.
Larger organizations often still have an internal IT support team, but smaller organizations are increasingly outsourcing this service. The maintenance of an external IT service desk is often more affordable. There are also advantages such as 24/7 support, freeing up IT resources to create more value elsewhere, and leveraging the expertise of a much larger staff. But there is one major drawback – the external IT helpdesk is not on-site and not part of the organization’s IT infrastructure.
In most cases, both the external IT helpdesk provider as well as the organizations using this service are already using Microsoft Teams for internal communication. Setting up Teams meetings with users outside of your organization can easily be done through an external access. It can even be used to communicate with people from organizations that are still using Skype for Business. However, contacting a service (i.e., a call group) such as the helpdesk on Teams is only possible within the same organization. Of course, if the organization is also using Teams for telephony, the service can be called through its PSTN number, but not only does this lead to additional costs, it also leads to longer connection times and reduces the audio quality. But don’t write off Teams just yet. There is a workaround.
By setting up a dedicated user account that is reachable via federation, calls can automatically be forwarded to the internal service Team. This makes it possible for users from external organizations to search for the IT helpdesk in their Teams client and to interact with the service directly through Teams. With this workaround, Teams can not only be used for the internal helpdesk but the same benefits can be leveraged by an external IT helpdesk.
Figure 1: Use the call answering rules to forward calls from a dedicated user account to an internal service (IT helpdesk)
Employees can find the IT helpdesk through the Teams search bar and start a voice or video call to the service directly inside Teams.
Once connected with an IT expert, both parties can use the entire palette of Teams functionality, including file and screen sharing. IT experts can use these tools to guide employees through fixes and quickly resolve issues, even when they are working remotely.
Find the IT helpdesk through the Teams search bar and start a conversation directly inside Teams.
In some cases, Teams is the reason for the employee’s problem. Or maybe they struggle to log into their device. In these cases, employees need to be able to contact the IT helpdesk from an external device.
By connecting the IT helpdesk to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the service receives a real phone number. That way, employees can call the service desk from any phone, and IT experts can answer the calls directly inside Teams.
A big advantage of using Teams for your IT helpdesk is the ease of authentication. Employees log into Teams with their personal accounts, so their details are already known when they call through Teams. It doesn’t matter if they call from their desktop or smartphone – from the office or remotely.
The ticketing system tracks the progress of issues and is a crucial element of any IT helpdesk. Directly integrating the ticketing tool into Teams means that IT specialists don’t have to switch applications and can optimize their productivity.
It’s also possible to automate the ticketing in Teams. For example, you can automatically create a ticket or open an existing one when an IT expert receives a call. That way, you can remove repetitive tasks and further increase efficiencies.
Microsoft Teams is the ideal IT helpdesk solution that is already in front of you.
07.11.2022