Help Desk Support - Essay Example

 Abstract This report takes a look at the help desk support situation which has been created as result of the merger of Yorkshire Telecom, a company which operates in the North-West of England and Eiffel Telecom, which is based in Paris. Both the companies are involved in developing and supplying satellite and communications technologies. Yorkshire Telecom has a staff of 250 employees, while Eiffel Telecom employs a staff of 150 staff. Both the companies have a well developed IT infrastructure and investments in Personal Computers and Local Area Networks as well as existing help desks to support their customers. The two companies also have LAN support teams to support their networks. However, because of different products, the level of support as well as the nature of support related to the help desks in the two companies varies considerably. Because of the merger, there is a requirement to continue the help desk support function at the cutting edge to service the requirements of the merged company, consisting of the former Yorkshire Telecom and Eiffel Telecom as well as their customers. The report considers the help desk requirements of the merged company and evaluates factors related to geographical location, computerized systems, staffing, cost effectiveness, methods of communications, performance, provisioning as in – house or outsourced as well as matters related to levels of support, help – desk structure, procedures and functions to arrive at recommendations in regard to the help desk for the merged company. Introduction The help desk department in a company not only assists the corporate customers, who may have purchased equipment manufactured by the company, but also the company staff with general enquiries related to all aspects of a company which may be required to be answered for the general public. The technology employed in a help desk is usually networked VoIP on a reasonably fast corporate network, with a group of skilled help desk staff who have been trained on corporate products and support, to interact with the public at large. Help desks are, therefore, an important interface which are required to be maintained because they act as a public interface for an organization and are efficiently expected to satisfy general enquiries from the public, or to direct them to the more specific and concerned department. Help desks are not just a public interface, but they can also be used to generate knowledge about various aspects of an organization and the products or services that such an organization provides. Public perceptions, problems, patterns of faults in equipment etc can all be gauged, if required, through the corporate helpdesk. The corporate help desk is, therefore, geared to be a natural and easy interface for all those may want to interact with the company and most of such individuals are from the locality in which a company operates, although interactions may be requested from almost anywhere in the world in an era of globalization (Bourke, 2002, Pp 1 – 12). The merger of Yorkshire Telecom, based in North-West England and Eiffel Telecom that is based in Paris has meant that help desk operations which involve providing support for sophisticated satellite and communications equipment must be provided to a bilingual audience, who are native English and French speakers. Existing help desk operations in the two companies have concentrated on servicing interested members of the public who have an interest in either of the two companies. The two help desk departments are at present engaged in speaking either English or French, employing local employees who have been trained to develop an expertise related to the products of either of the two companies. Merging of the two companies, means that it is important for synergies to be made possible in operation and that there is a requirement for the combined product and services range of the two companies to be presented to a group of customers who will at least be from two very different localities, cultures and may also have differing requirements. The corporate merger has been undertaken in order to exploit synergies associated with the two companies and to try and generate better operational results with reduced costs. With this objective in mind, it is important to somehow provide a help desk solution for the merged company which will not only provide a higher level of service, but also do so with a higher level of customer satisfaction, while handling an expanded product or services range, at a lower cost. Hence, the primary considerations involved are levels of customer satisfaction, costs involved in providing the corporate help desk and the benefits accrued to the merged company in terms of knowledge that can be made available from such a help desk (Czegel, 1998, Chapters 1 – 5). Basic Structure of a Help Desk Case In this report, an attempt has been made to present an analysis for the help desk situation that has presented itself as a result of the merger and hence arrive at a recommended solution for what ought to be done in order to provide a satisfactory help desk service at reasonable costs. Analysis of the Help Desk Options that are Available to the Company The help desk function in the two companies, Yorkshire Telecommunications and Eiffel Communications is a support function that assists with the core competencies of the companies which are involved with the design and manufacturing of satellite and communications equipment. With the merger, there has to be a move towards providing the help desk support at minimized cost. Maintaining the status quo and having two help desks, one in England and another one in France is an option that is likely to be expensive for the merged company. The employees who will be required to work at the help desks are likely to be costly and it has been estimated that even an employee who is charging $ 18 per hour or about $ 36,000 per annum is in effect going to cost much more to the company when the allowances, equipment to support these employees and the help desk is considered. Furthermore, a merger of the two companies means that the existing employees who have been with the help desks will have to be re-trained for the newly merged company, learning new company procedures, receiving training related to the combined inventory of equipment that is manufactured by the company and learning about the organization that is dispersed geographically. This training too, is likely to prove to be expensive with employees refusing to relocate and unwilling to spend a lot of time learning about operations in a different country or learning new products. Efforts that are likely to be directed towards providing the support services related to help desk are also going to mean that the corporate and managerial efforts are going to be directed away from the core competencies of the merged company which involve satellite and communications equipment (Monarch Bay Software, 2003, Pp 2 -30). Hence, there is a requirement to find a new solution which will permit the merged organisation to allocate a certain annual sum for help desk activities and concentrate on its core competencies. Outsourcing the help desk function to a reputable help desk service provider offers just such an alternative and saves the merged company from having to make expensive investments associated with help desk equipment, training, relocation, managerial effort and spending time to solve a problem which is going to prove to be more expensive then outsourcing, no matter which way the solution is considered. The outsourcing alternative removes all hassles associated with the requirements of the help desk with a possibility for receiving managerial reports and knowledge gleaned from the help desk operations in a condensed form, from the outsource partner. An outsourcing decision takes away the entire responsibility of staffing the help desk, choosing its hardware and software, training employees and fixing problems with the training (McBride, 2000, Chapters 1 – 5) and (Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, 2002, Pp 1 – 6). Having decided that the help desk ought to be outsourced, it is appropriate to discuss the level of service that such an outsourced help desk ought to be able to provide for a merged company. Levels of Service to be Provided by the Help Desk The help desk in a satellite communications company is expected to provide information to those members of the public who need such information, track problems, solve problems related to the company or its products and services, assist in the training of users who have purchased company manufactured products or services and generally deal with public enquiries. A lot of these enquires will be rather common and general in nature, such as asking for company addresses, phone numbers, location of offices, working hours, general information about products and services etc. These “routine enquiries” can be very easily dealt with at the help desk of the outsourced subcontractor, whose employees can easily become familiar with such information. Many outsourced companies provide multilingual support for those who contract out their help desk function and because the core competency of such outsource contractors is providing help desk and call center functionality with its employees assigned to various assignments, reasonable levels of service can be expected at reasonable costs. At the outsourced service contractor, calls can be diverted to help desk staff, depending on the language of choice and where the call is received from (McBride, 2000, Chapters 1 – 5). Relatively few of the calls will require to be diverted to senior corporate managers or technical specialists, because the nature of the enquiry is highly technical or associated with important business matters. In such situations, the help desk staff can assess the enquiry and if there is a requirement for the call to be diverted to a regional office or the corporate engineering specialists, then such a procedure can be initiated. Depending on the nature of the contract, it may also be possible to use the outsourced contractor to gather important information related to the corporate products, market reaction, nature of problems or enquiries, satisfaction or problems with company products etc. Such knowledge management is possible on the modern help desk equipment and software that is available and the corporate management can get specially prepared reports that have been tailor made for their requirements either at periodic intervals or on demand, depending on the arrangement that has been entered into with the outsourced contractor. It is also possible to enter into arrangements that extend beyond the help desk functions, such as running telephone marketing campaigns or surveys. Because the outsourced help desk contractor may be dealing with a number of clients, therefore more sophisticated services can be made available at a lower cost. However, care is required when selecting the outsourced contractor in order to ensure that the help desk function has been outsourced to a reputable and professional outfit, which is capable of providing the level of support that is expected by the merged company. Because many of such help desk contractors also have offshore arrangements, they are in a better position to provide a high level of service at lower costs (Mehmet, 2000, Complete Document). Modern Internet Contact Solution for a Help Desk Selecting an outsourced contractor who will provide help desk support to the merged company on an outsourced basis is an important decision because the selected outsourced contractor should be able to perform the required function otherwise the company will loose credibility in the public and can become embroiled in expensive action. The next section takes a look at some of the considerations that are involved in selecting a outsourced help desk contractor. Considerations Involved in the Selection of an Outsourced Help Desk Contractor Advances in telecommunications technology and telephony, access to global resources and competition which has forced outsourcing contractors to provide refined business practices have made it possible to expect that outsourced help desk contractors can now provide the level of support, visibility and participation that are required by a company that wants to outsource its help desk function. By entering into an outsourced help desk relationship with another company, the merged company will be entering into a long term relationship. A long term relationship is desirable because it is taxing for managers to have to make new outsourcing decisions every day and interact with an outsourced contractor to provide them with the corporate requirements for the outsourced help desk. Outsourcing the help desk is what can be considered to be the outsourcing of one of the important business process function and it is important that the company that is selected to perform the outsourced function realize that they are entering into a partnership, which because of its long term nature, will be of benefit to all the parties concerned. The outsourced help desk contractor should be able to provide a modern technology infrastructure. The service provider should also be in a position to provide a distributed environment for the company in which it is possible for personnel from the outsourced help desk facility, the corporate support team, offshore resources and agents at home to be able to interact with escalations, extended coverage and efficient incident routing being made possible through telecommunications infrastructure supporting Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP and leased lines. The help desk contractor should be able to handle multi-channel communications including mail, phone, e-mail, web chat as well as a blend of these channels, along with being able to provide queuing for incoming communications. Outsourced help desk functions should be able to integrate with some of the existing corporate functions and processes, such as one for providing specialist technical advise. Web based contact – center support infrastructure can prove to be useful in providing real time access to information and reports (McBride, 2000, Chapters 1 – 5) and (Takano, 2000, Complete Document). In the next section, an attempt has been made to discuss the contractual arrangements that are likely to be entered into with an outsourced help desk service provider and some points to consider when selecting the service provider. Contractual Arrangements with the Outsourced Help Desk Services Provider Typical outsourcing terms for which contracts are entered into can range to about five years and the important ingredients in an outsourced relationship revolve around business improvements that can be made, consisting of the goals which the outsourcing company is required to pursue on behalf of the contracting company. When trying to establish a working relationship with a contractor, it is appropriate to be able to keep the agreement flexible and also be able to use other resources when required. Flexibility is also important because in the early stages of the contract, both the merged company that is providing the contract as well as the outsourced contractor will be trying to understand each other’s needs as well as the performance requirements for the contract better. When negotiating with the outsourced help desk contractor, it is important to remember that a change management plan will have to be included in the negotiated agreement in order to smoothly change the help desk function into an outsourced function. Such a change management plan will have to include agreeing to procedures with the outsourced help desk service provider, passing information to enable the outsourced help desk perform its functions and educating the concerned merged company employees about the new agreement and procedures. Certain managers and employees will also have to be assigned duties related to coordinating with the external help desk and these duties will most probably be an addition to their existing corporate duties (Beulen, 2002, Sections 3.1 to 4.0). The outsourced service supplier’s input obligations have to be defined in the outsourced contract as are the key performance indicators with which performance of the outsourced service supplier will be measured. As has been previously mentioned, the flexibility in the contract with a provision for re-negotiation will make it possible for better measures of performance to be defined after the parties to the contract have been able to assess each others expectations and requirements more fully. Some key performance measures may include the level of availability and reliability of the outsourced contractor’s services, number of calls answered per day, number of minutes on hold, number of calls forwarded to specialized departments of the company and the general level of satisfaction with the outsourced services. Any agreements with the outsourced help desk service provider are Service Framework Agreements in which tasks, responsibilities and input obligations are specified. The Service Framework Agreement will also include clauses related to the capabilities of the outsourced service provider’s staff and the number of qualified staff who will handle the service desk responsibilities. A guaranteed minimum level for staff and an upper limit will have to be specified in such contracts to ensure that the company is presenting an appropriate image to the public at large and adequately attending to its help desk function. It has to be remembered that the interactions with the help desk reflect on the company’s image and that members of the general public are not concerned about what arrangements exist between an outsourced help desk service provider and the company on whose behalf such an outsourced contractor may be acting. The outsourcing company can inform the outsourced service provider of any capacity changes which may be required if there is a decision to upgrade or downgrade the help desk utility. Lack of experience in help desk outsourcing can hinder the process of bringing about a final contract and, therefore, it is important to talk to several experienced players in the field who have already been in the business of providing outsourced help desk function. Local firms involved with outsourcing may have global connections through which they are able to provide outsourcing at the most competitive rates, taking advantage of the lower wages in the less developed parts of the world. It is, therefore, important that an estimate be available for the likely expenditure for the in-house help desk function with a likely estimate of the funds that will have to be spent on maintaining in-house facilities. The outsourced contract will have to provide savings in order to be attractive and this is the case, otherwise the outsourced industry will not have existed (Beulen, 2002, Sections 3.1 to 4.0) and (Koppel, 2000, Complete Document). Business partners are always selected because they are able to perform and this is also true for the outsourced help desk contractor / business partner. The number of years in business, credit rating, clients, technical capability and number of employees as well as the general reputation of an outsourced help desk service provider will assist in determining if such a contractor is likely to fit in as a long term business partner. With a good outsourced help desk business partnership and a reasonable contract, the merged satellite communications company can then concentrate on efforts to develop leading edge technology products while continuing to receive quality help desk support at much lowered costs (Newell, 2004, Complete Document) and (Tobin, 2003, Complete Document). Conclusion The help desk function in an organization is an essential function that reflects upon the corporate image and hence the help desk has the ability to influence the corporate bottom line. However, in many specialist companies, executives will rather spend more time and effort dealing with the core corporate competencies and there is a preference for outsourcing the help desk function in an era of sophisticated telecommunications capabilities. Such an option makes sense for the merged company that is geographically distributed and which is going to emerge as a result of the merger of Yorkshire Telecom in England with Eiffel Telecom in France. Outsourcing is not only likely to be cheaper, but will also provide enhanced service capability, leaving the satellite communications company to deal with its core competency. References / Bibliography 1. Beulen, Erik and Pieter Ribbers. (2002). Managing an IT-Outsourcing Partnership in Asia Case study: the Relationship between a Global Outsourcing Company and its Global IT Services Supplier. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2002. Retrieved: June 21, 2005. 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Retrieved: June 21, 2005. From: http://www.sytecpa.org/HelpDesk/HelpDeskDoc.doc 15. Shawky, Aziz. (2004). Transforming a traditional helpdesk into a learning organisation using CBR methodology. IF Computer Company. Retrieved: June 21, 2005. From: http://www.ifcomputer.co.jp/sol2000/papers/Shawky.doc 16. Takano, Akira. Yuko Yurugi and Atsushi Kanaegami. (2000). Procedure Based Helpdesk System. Mitsubishi Electric. Retrieved: June 21, 2005. From: http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/IUI/Takano/Takano.pdf 17. Tobin, Tom. (2003). Ten Principles for Knowledge Management Success. Knova Software Inc. Retrieved: June 21, 2005. From: http://www.knova.com/docs/whitepapers/Knova-Whitepaper-TenPrinciplesForKM.pdf Read More