What is IT support?

IT support is a form of technical support that provides assistance with various technological issues like computers, printers, networks, and devices.

As we move ever further into the digital age, the business need for in-house technical expertise has become universal. No longer is information technology the sole responsibility of tech-based organizations. The always-on, always-connected reality of modern business has made IT an essential component, without which most companies grind to halt.

Unfortunately, IT monitoring and maintenance has not necessarily kept pace with IT dependence; IT failures can occur without warning, and when they do, organizations are often left scrambling to identify root causes, repair vital technologies, and remediate and resolve any resultant complications. Add to this the evolving dangers of cyber-attacks and security breaches, and the IT vulnerability of modern business becomes even more apparent.

To address these threats and improve business and operational resilience, organizations turn towards IT support. Here, we discuss IT support, what it offers, and how ServiceNow is revolutionizing how employees and IT agents interact to find resolutions.

Components of IT Support

Just as IT has become ubiquitous among businesses, the roles and responsibilities of IT support personnel are likewise extensive. On its most basic level, IT support is a broad term that encompasses any form of assistance with technology-related services and products. That means that IT support is equally responsible for installing new security software as helping forgetful employees recover lost passwords.

At the same time, effective IT support solutions provide employees with the resources to quickly resolve issues and get the work back on track. Employees can get IT support at any time, from anywhere, and count on a fast, reliable resolution. This means improved employee productivity, as well as increased job satisfaction and engagement.

With this in mind, the following are some of the more-common tasks associated with IT support:

  • Logging and processing support calls
  • Installing and configuring computer hardware, software, systems, networks, printers and scanners
  • Planning and undertaking scheduled maintenance upgrades
  • Setting up accounts for staff, ensuring that they know how to log in
  • Solving password problems
  • Talking to employees and computer users to determine the nature of any problems they encounter
  • Responding to breakdowns
  • Investigating, diagnosing and solving computer software and hardware faults
  • Repairing equipment and replacing parts

Advanced ServiceNow IT support takes things further, allowing IT agents to resolve repetitive IT tasks and requests using virtual-agent chatbots, employ predictive intelligence to automatically categorize and send cases to relevant teams, and incorporate service level management to improve visibility into commitments and set accurate business expectations. Finally, acomprehensive dashboard can provide service agents with a complete view of the entirety of IT support, backed by AI-informed recommendations and essential context. These advantages allow IT agents to resolve more cases, quickly and accurately.

Employees likewise benefit from improved IT support from ServiceNow. Omnichannel self-service options provide employees with reliable resources to find solutions, ask questions, and get accurate, consistent information at any time. Mobile options allow employees to get support through the Now Mobile application, available on any device. Collaboration tools integrate with Amazon Connect, Slack, Facebook Workplace, and Microsoft Teams. And, because support doesn’t only occur online, ServiceNow Walk-Up Experience streamlines face-to-face support requests, with online check-in, real-time queue estimates, and automated notifications.

The benefits of IT support are as far reaching as the responsibilities associated with it. By improving technical efficiency and reliability, optimizing security, and decreasing the mean time to recovery, ServiceNow IT support improves nearly every aspect of a business.

IT-support advantages include the following:

Increased ROI and reduced spend

Effective IT support is an investment. But considering that the average cost of datacenter downtime is approximately $8000 per minute, it’s an investment that can quickly pay for itself. By decreasing problem resolution times within your business, you stand to save a significant amount of money that might otherwise be lost. At the same time, IT support can help you get the most out of your tools and systems, improving employee performance and the revenue-generating aspects of your business. And because ServiceNow IT Support is completely cloud based, all relevant tools are maintained and accessible on a single platform, cutting maintenance and management costs in the process.

Increased innovation and speed

ServiceNow It Support improves IT agility. Increased agility allows innovation to progress unrestricted, eliminating interruptions and setting the stage for further improvements.

Enhanced cybersecurity

Cyber security threats are evolving at a rapid pace. Threat actors are using tools, techniques, and intelligent strategies to adapt to counter traditional security measures. Having reliable IT support on hand improves your security standing, allowing you to respond more fluidly to new threats as they arise.

Delighted Employees

Effective IT support gives employees the resources they need to resolve problems quickly and directly, significantly reducing downtime. With the means to connect to IT wherever they are working (mobile, teams, Slack, desktops, etc.), faster response times, and ways to quickly solve their own problems without any wait, employees will enjoy the freedom to excel in all of their tasks.

Better IT adaptability

Just as the technologies that drive business today were all-but unheard of twenty years ago, the companies of tomorrow will depend heavily on new advances and IT evolutions. To remain competitive, organizations need to become familiar with technologies as they become available. IT support is an effective resource for evaluating, testing, and incorporating new tools and systems to better advance business goals.

Effortless scaling

Automated, cloud-based IT support services are capable of handling significantly more cases than tradition support solutions. Intelligently prioritize and assign tasks, speed incident identification and resolution, and grow your business.

Less time worrying and more time managing

With few exceptions, leadership shouldn’t have to spend their limited time chasing down IT issues. IT support takes many IT-related tasks off of management’s plate, freeing up leadership to instead focus on managing teams and growing the business.

Maximized company efficiency and productivity

There’s a reason technology has become so ingrained in essentially every industry; the right tools supplement and support employee tasks, so that businesses can do and achieve more while spending less. ServiceNow IT support incorporates advanced AI and machine learning technologies, unburdening IT staff and boosting productivity by as much as 20%.

Customized service

Your business is unique, and so are the IT issues you face. IT support can address these issues in a way that is customized to meet your needs, requirements, and limitations.

There was a time when many organizations kept their IT support personnel hidden away in basements, only bringing them into play when computer systems or important office appliances needed to be fixed. Those days have passed; modern IT support is an essential and fully-integrated aspect of the organizational structure of nearly any successful business.

Although many companies still prefer to keep separate IT support departments, others have begun fully disseminating IT throughout other teams and departments. The reasoning behind this move may seem obvious—every team and department has their own technology tools, systems, databases, etc., and as such should have their own IT experts on hand to counter any unexpected failures or other issues that might arise.

But this shift isn’t only driven by the need for on-hand experts. It is steadily becoming more and more apparent that success depends heavily on how focused and committed an organization is to digital transformation. As such, the traditional IT support relationship, where IT exists only to reinforce other departments, is giving way to a new order, where IT itself drives commercial and enterprise growth.

ServiceNow is at the forefront of this transformation.

ServiceNow has the tools that an IT support team needs to successfully serve customers and organizations.

The ServiceNow Platform

  • Revolutionize IT to drive productivity and delight employees.
  • Connect people, functions, and systems to drive rapid innovation, increase business agility and unlock productivity.
  • Deliver resilient IT services on a single ITSM cloud platform, boost IT productivity with faster platform-native AI resolutions, and serve employees anywhere with always-on IT services.
  • Energize IT with AI-powered service operations automation to self-heal and resolve issues fast.
  • Optimize IT to drive maximum resource utilization and reduce costs.
  • Deliver ITSM on a single platform ITSM on a single platform by using built-in best practices to rapidly consolidate disparate tools to a single system of action in the cloud.
  • Harness shared data and analytics with the most trusted IT service workflows.
  • Improve IT productivity and boost agent efficiency with AI-assisted recommendations and automatically assign incidents to the correct resolution team.
  • Shape service experiences for employees anywhere, with always-on IT services.
  • Automate support for common requests with virtual agents that understand simple, human language.
  • Achieve new insights and proactively deliver high-quality service at scale. Gain full visibility into any process or service with built-in dashboards and real-time analytics that provide actionable information.
  • Enable employees to find fast self-help and collaborate across IT, HR, facilities, finance, legal, and other departments—all from a modern mobile app powered by the Now Platform®.

ServiceNow IT Support

ServiceNow provides increased value by bridging work across teams, registering microservices, correlating observable data, automating changes, and predicting failures.

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