What Makes a Successful Help Desk? Survey Says....

•

1 like•1,764 views

SolarWinds recently conducted a survey about help desks to which more than 180 help desk professionals responded. We learned a great deal about the help desk challenges faced by various organizations. Here are the facts!

Technology Business

1© 2013, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
What Makes a
Successful Help Desk?
SolarWinds’ Survey Says…
Are you facing IT help desk challenges?
Learn how SolarWinds can help…

2
Introduction
SolarWinds recently
conducted a survey about
help desks to which more
than 180 help desk
professionals responded.
We learned a great deal
about the help desk
challenges faced by various
organizations.
Here are the facts!
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS
» Respondents
Who did we survey?
» Results
What did they say?
» Summary
What should you watch out for?
» Recommendation
What should you do?
Agenda

3
Who Did We Survey?
3
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS
Respondents
180+ respondents
More than 50% were from companies with 500+ employees

4
Tickets Processed Per Day
4
Org Size <500 Org Size >500
Ticket Volume & Automation
78% of the respondents said their organization (<500 employees) processes up to 50 help desk tickets a day.
65% of the respondents said their organization (>500 employees) processes more than 50 help desk tickets a day.
Automation becomes a key aspect to address ticket volumes.
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

5
Major Help Desk Challenges
5
Top 3 Help Desk Challenges
1. No proper communication, alerts, notifications
2. Cumbersome ticket categorization & prioritization
3. Lack of automated ticketing workflow & management
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

6
Key Help Desk Functions
6
Top Help Desk Functions
1. Knowledge base management
2. Automated task management
3. SLA tracking & management / Performance reporting & metrics
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

7
Integration with Network Management Software
7
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS
Integration is the key!
1. More than 82% of respondents feel it would be helpful to integrate network monitoring
software with their help desk software
2. Help desk tickets can be triggered based on network node alerts/failures

8
Time Spent On Tickets
8
Where’s the Time Spent?
1. More than 48% of the respondents spend more than 1 hour managing & tracking tickets
2. More 75% spend more than 1 hour on troubleshooting & ticket resolution
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS
Managing & Tracking Tickets Troubleshooting & Resolving Tickets

9
What Should You Watch Out For?
9
» Top Three Help Desk Challenges
1. Lack of proper communication, escalations, alerts & notifications
2. Cumbersome to categorize & prioritize service tickets
3. Lack of ticketing automation
» Top Help Desk Functions
1. Knowledge base management
2. Integration with network management systems
3. Task management
4. SLA tracking & management
5. Metrics & performance reporting dashboard
What’s The Bottom Line?
Communication | Automation | Integration
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

10
What Else Did We Learn?
10
Click Here
Interested to see more of this
survey?
 About 50% of respondents said their help desk software does not facilitate simple
workflows or flexible processes
 Only 35% of respondents said their help desk software leverages built-in knowledge
base capabilities
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

11
Some Recommendations…
11
» Analyze your business requirements to identify the right help desk solution
» Learn key communication requirements that may simplify help desk ticketing
» Understand how to automate management of everyday help desk tasks
» Enable end-users to help themselves, saving you time and money
» Explore integration with network management systems & other key help
desk ticketing capabilities
2013 HELP DESK SURVEY – BY SOLARWINDS

12© 2013, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Thank you!

More from SolarWinds

During this interactive webinar, our presenter discussed how to leverage major Orion® Platform alert features and use lessons learned and best practices to provide actionable information for events around your organization. Attendees learned about: Using enhanced node status and dependencies Defining thresholds or baselines Categorizing and filtering with custom properties and groups Leveraging advanced alerting features to improve alert detail and reduce noise Ensuring persistent issues generate or escalate alerts and alarms Integrating with chat, ticketing, APIs, and/or SMS and providing detailed poll data Alert actions for network devices, servers, or services on failure

Government and Education Webinar: SolarWinds Orion Platform: Audit and Stream...

SolarWinds

During this interactive webinar, our presenter discussed how automation can improve support levels and maximize your resources. He also reviewed how SolarWinds® IT operations management (ITOM) solutions can help with alerts, configuration management, capacity planning, and cyberthreat response and prevention. Attendees learned about: Alerts—leverage intelligent alerting to notify the appropriate staff members and use thresholds to trigger alerts Configuration management—for networks, back up and standardize configs and automate repetitive tasks during upgrades; for systems, establish baselines and get notified of changes Capacity planning—monitor system capacity and get notified when trends indicate shortages will occur; get virtualization recommendations based on data from your environment Threat response—establish conditions for active responses to automatically make changes to deter active cyberthreats

Government and Education Webinar: Leverage Automation to Improve IT Operations

SolarWinds

Government and Education Webinar: Improving Application Performance

SolarWinds

During this interactive webinar, our presenter discussed how to leverage IT tools to improve operations management and support for on-site and remote workers. Attendees learned about: • Improving network monitoring with ipMonitor® and configuration management with Kiwi CatTools® • Centralizing and simplifying log message management across network devices and servers • Monitoring logs with Kiwi Syslog® Server • Utilizing IT service management tools like SolarWinds Web Help Desk® or SolarWinds Service Desk to improve resolution rates and provide self-service • Leveraging Dameware® tools to support users and manage systems remotely

Government and Education: IT Tools to Support Your Hybrid Workforce

SolarWinds

Government and Education Webinar: There's More Than One Way to Monitor SQL Da...

SolarWinds

Attendees spent the day with SolarWinds learning how to get the most out of our network, systems, database, compliance and security products, and IT support tools. We discussed how we responded to the recent security incident, and how we’re moving forward with our Secure by Design approach. Our system engineers dove into the technical details, reviewed new products and features, and demonstrated configuration and integration points. Presentation topics included technical updates on the following: - Network management products and scaling the Orion® Platform - Systems and database monitoring products - Security and compliance products - SolarWinds ITSM and support tools

SolarWinds Government and Education Webinar: Virtual Technology Briefing 08.0...

SolarWinds

Government and Education Webinar: Zero-Trust Panel Discussion

SolarWinds

View this webinar to learn about the SolarWinds® Orion® Assistance Program (OAP) and how to take advantage of the program. OAP provides upgrade and hotfix assistance to SolarWinds customers under active maintenance who were/are running one of the Orion Platform versions affected by SUNBURST or SUPERNOVA. Learn more details about the program, best practices and advice on lessons learned from Monalytic’s experience supporting over 100 government customers with this program, and how to get support through the program.

Government and Education: Leveraging The SolarWinds Orion Assistance Program ...

SolarWinds

Government and Education Webinar: SQL Server—Advanced Performance Tuning

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed how to recover IP addresses on your network, whether abandoned, static, or reserved. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned about: Gain a more complete view of your network and find abandoned IP addresses Obtain accurate, current information about the IP addresses in use on your network Easily change the address status from “Used” to “Available” Receive alerts when DHCP address pools exceed utilization thresholds

Government and Education Webinar: Recovering IP Addresses on Your Network

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed optimized monitoring with an enterprise-grade host monitor. We also reviewed how to use monitor performance on hybrid systems, optimize host resource usage, leverage templates, and understand the relationships. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned about: Leveraging details about application health to achieve visibility into key performance metrics Using analytics dashboard to compare different types of data side-by-side Monitoring VMs running on a host and make sure resources are allocated properly Leveraging capacity forecast charts and metrics to identify when server resources will reach warning and critical thresholds Using application monitor templates to speed up troubleshooting and focus on what to fix Getting visibility across your systems environment, from applications to servers, virtualized infrastructure, databases, and storage system

Government and Education Webinar: Optimize Performance With Advanced Host Mon...

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed how SolarWinds® solutions can help you overcome remote work IT challenges. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned about: Improve network monitoring, configuration, and VPN management with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Monitor the server and application performance of your collaboration systems with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) Utilize configuration management to efficiently deploy upgrades and improve compliance with NCM Support users and systems remotely with tools such as SolarWinds Dameware® Remote Support (DRS) and SolarWinds Dameware Remote Everywhere (DRE) Improve IT request management, ticket tracking, and asset management with tools like SolarWinds Web Help Desk® and SolarWinds Service Desk Automate provisioning and permissions management with SolarWinds Access Rights Manager™ (ARM) Locate users and devices on your network with SolarWinds User Device Tracker (UDT)

Government and Education Webinar: Conquering Remote Work IT Challenges

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed how SolarWinds can help you streamline this process across your databases and prioritize issues so you can be a more efficient SQL Server professional. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned: • How to identify missing indexes • What you can to do improve the quality and performance of your indexes • The types of indexes in SQL Server and how they can benefit different types of workloads • Viewing index operations within execution plans

Government and Education Webinar: SQL Server—Indexing for Performance

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed how SolarWinds® solutions for Azure® monitoring provide end-to-end visibility for your applications running on private, public, and hybrid clouds. We also reviewed our Azure Gov Cloud deployment options and best practices. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned about: Rightsizing and optimizing your virtual machines to get them ready for Azure and managing sprawl control with SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) Leveraging over 1,200 application, server, and Azure infrastructure monitoring templates with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) Monitoring your Azure Services, Azure App Service, and custom applications using transaction tracing, code profiling, and exception tracking with SolarWinds AppOptics™, a software as a service (SaaS) product Testing end-user experience from inside the organization and outside the firewall with SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM) Ensuring your databases are performing optimally through cross-platform database performance optimization and tuning with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) SolarWinds availability on Azure Gov Cloud and how deployment works

Government Webinar: Monitoring Azure and Deploying SolarWinds on Azure Govern...

SolarWinds

In this webinar, we discussed how SolarWinds® infrastructure monitoring tools can help improve your agency’s RMF, NIST FISMA, and DISA STIG compliance. Our presenter discussed how our solutions help manage everything from configurations and access control rights to system and application patching and log management. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned: How SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor (SCM) support compliance with STIG templates and how NCM also includes out-of-the box FISMA templates How SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) provides log and event processing and notifications and offers active responses to help meet your organization’s security objectives How SolarWinds Access Rights Manager™ (ARM) helps reduce insider threat risks by managing and auditing access rights for systems, data, and files, including Active Directory® support How SolarWinds Patch Manager quickly addresses software vulnerabilities for Microsoft® and third-party applications

Government Webinar: RMF, DISA STIG, and NIST FISMA Compliance Using SolarWinds

SolarWinds

In this webinar, Adam Rosenbaum, who leads our Federal System Integrator program here at SolarWinds, was joined by Jason Spezzano, Senior Director of Cybersecurity, and Dave Gray, Senior Cybersecurity Analyst, both of CyberDefenses, Inc., for a panel discussion about preparing for CMMC Compliance and what can be done now to get ready. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned from this panel: How to leverage NIST 800-171 compliance reports to track progress or support audits How to use tools like SolarWinds’ solutions to maintain IT hygiene How to leverage configuration and patch management tools to satisfy security controls or help implement and manage controls How to use configuration and log management to verify controls are implemented correctly[SWL1] How to navigate the process of obtaining certification How an assessment, from security services firms like CyberDefenses, can make the process more efficient

Government Webinar: Preparing for CMMC Compliance Roundtable

SolarWinds

In this webinar, our guest speaker Lt Gen USAF (Ret) Bill Donahue, discussed how using cyber technology can enable operator effectiveness and mission success. Bill also shared his opinion about what’s important to achieve these objectives and deliver the needed results During this interactive webinar, Bill discussed with our attendees how: -Air Force operators at all levels need a reliable, secure network, that is well managed and trusted. -Decision makers need visibility into network operations, so they can make fact-based decisions, that will enable mission success. -Cyber operators on bases need cyber situational awareness so they can manage vulnerabilities and deliver a trusted network to all combat operations and combat support functions. -Dependencies on the cloud are real and important to successful cyber operations. -The right application of cyber tools enable trusted cyber security and performance in a multi-cloud environment. Delivering trusted, reliable and scalable cyber/digital services is the requirement. -The right cyber and digital tools enable the Air Force CIO vision-- “All Airmen connected and equipped across a Digital Air Force that fully-enables Joint All Domain Operations Command & Control.” -Mission success depends on all Air Force users trusting the network to deliver an innovative digital experience.”

Government and Education Webinar: Cyber Technology to Enable Operator Effecti...

SolarWinds

In this webinar, our SolarWinds sales engineer discussed the basic network management tools you need to operate and troubleshoot your network and help improve security. He also reviewed the key factors to consider, where to start, and provided details on some of the tools our government customers need today. During this interactive webinar, attendees learned how: SolarWinds® ipMonitor® provides visibility into availability and performance of your network, servers, and applications Kiwi Syslog® Server centralizes and simplifies log message management across network devices and servers Kiwi CatTools® provides powerful network automation and configuration management

Government Webinar: Low-Cost Log, Network Configuration, and IT Monitoring So...

SolarWinds

In this webinar, our SolarWinds sales engineer discussed about the steps you can take now to improve the productivity of your IT staff and run a more secure, lean, and agile ITOM organization During this interactive webinar, attendees learned how SolarWinds can help you: Achieve full-stack visibility through rationalizing and consolidating monitoring tools Improve your security posture and automate compliance reporting requirements Automate service management processes to do more with less Optimize IT expenses Enable your IT operations team for success with a solution that can rapidly respond to your organization’s needs

Government and Education Webinar: How the New Normal Could Improve your IT Op...

SolarWinds

In the wake of COVID-19, many businesses, educational institutions, and government entities have had to change their models to accommodate a remote workforce. In this new norm, it’s important for employees to be able to work in secure, remote environments. Your organization and its stakeholders depend on your applications, and remote users can put new strains on application and network capabilities. This makes an IT professional’s job more challenging than ever. Please join Sterling Computers and SolarWinds for an interactive webinar. We’ll review some examples of how to best support your remote users with various tools, including the following: • SolarWinds® Server & Application Monitor (SAM) • Network Performance Monitor (NPM) • NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) • Security Event Manager (SEM) • Access Rights Manager™ (ARM) We’ll present and demonstrate these SolarWinds products and review how they can address the key remote workforce use-cases faced by organizations and end users. Additionally, we’ll demonstrate how these modules can give you deep insight into your applications and networks and how they affect remote users. Register and attend this webinar to learn how Sterling Computers and SolarWinds can help you do the following: • Monitor and troubleshoot your video conferencing and communication applications, such as Zoom, Webex, Microsoft® Teams, Citrix, etc. • Ensure the availability and performance of your site-to-site VPNs and your remote VPN user connections • Monitor logs to help improve compliance and reduce threats • Manage and audit user access to Active Directory, Azure® AD, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and file servers • Monitor the performance, capacity and health of Linux® and Windows® applications across data centers, remote offices, and the cloud

How to Enable, Monitor, and Secure Your Remote Workforce

SolarWinds

More from SolarWinds (20)