Three Reasons IT Managers Should Consider Outsourcing Their Service Desk

Cloud-based services are reshaping traditional outsourcing models as businesses look outside their organizations to reduce cost and improve service. When considering whether or not to outsource a service desk, identifying an organization’s pain points can assist in the decision-making process, according to Dan Pellegrini, director of SaaS (News - Alert) for Logicalis, an IT solutions and managed services provider.

“Certain IT functions contribute to the competitive advantage of an organization,” Pellegrini said. “But running a service desk is not usually one of those functions.  If outsourcing an IT service desk can cut costs and increase the level of service to end users without sacrificing quality or impacting competitive advantage, it’s clearly something that IT managers should examine.”

To help CIOs and IT managers identify their pain points, Logicalis (News - Alert) offers its top three reasons IT managers should consider a service desk.

1. Employee Turnover. Companies that manage their own in-house service desks face significant issues related to high employee turnover. Service desk positions are often entry-level, and unless an organization offers a career path in-house, replacing and retraining employees can become a sizeable pain point.  Third-party service desks, however, are typically much larger and retain employees with career paths from Level 1 to 2 and managerial roles, keeping talented personnel on staff and offering a better level of service to clients as a result.

2. Quality of Service. Internal service desk staff members only see the problems related to their own organization, whereas external service desks serving multiple clients simultaneously see a myriad of problems and solutions, with agents sharing fixes with one another daily. 

“We have nearly 100 help desk agents in one room communicating on how they solved a problem at a customer’s location,” Pellegrini said, “giving each agent a higher skill level in servicing their own clients.” 

External service desks that are run by solution providers also have direct lines of communication with IT vendors that individual in-house service desks do not, saving time and frustration when solving IT challenges.

3. Overhead Cost. External service desks count on a shared pool of trained resources to reduce the burden on other staff members when one calls in sick or takes a vacation, something that can be a significant drain on smaller in-house service desks.  They also rely on their volume and significant toolsets to drive down the price per incident, an advantage for their customers who are charged per incident rather than for the full overhead of a permanent staff. 

“If a company’s business changes and they have fewer incidents, they can only reduce the cost of an in-house service desk by letting people go,” Pellegrini added. “But external service desks’ shared resource model allows them to review incident reports periodically, offering a plan that can flex in price to match their clients’ business needs.”

Outsourcing a service desk is an option every company should consider to reduce cost and improve service, according to Pellegrini, especially “when running the service desk in house won’t change the needle on the business’ competitive advantage.”