Often, businesses will use the terms ‘help desk’ and ‘service desk’
interchangeably. But while these tools share certain similarities, IT
help desks and IT service desks serve different functions within an
organization and have different sets of goals.
Help desks are more tactical, and help resolve end users’ needs,
issues, and incidents. A help desk is usually reactive in nature, and is
meant to provide fast and efficient remediation to specific problems as
they arise. They can either be part of or separate from larger service
desk operations. Some key traits of help desks include:
- Using tracking for incoming incidents
- Offering basic incident and
service request management
- Providing levels 1 and 2 support, and
escalating issues as needed
- Providing basic self-service options for
end users
- Acting as a point of contact for IT support
Service desks function in a broader sense, and are more strategic.
They usually service wider business needs rather than only focusing on
solving a user’s needs. The goal is to be proactive in improving IT
processes within an organization, and they are used to identify
opportunities to run IT processes more efficiently. Some key traits of
service desks include:
- Full integration with ITSM (and/or ITIL) processes
- SLA tracking
- Self-service with an integrated service catalog
- CMDB communication and
integration
- Full lifecycle change management
- Problem management
- Workforce and vendor optimization