IT service management (ITSM) is an umbrella term encompassing the design, implementation, and ongoing support and management of an organization’s IT services. ITSM includes everything from managing devices, like end-user workstations, printers, and scanners, to password resets and troubleshooting larger issues. These capabilities are an essential part of ensuring a business remains functional and productive.
Given the responsibility this creates for technology support staff, IT service desks need to prioritize efficient and effective ITSM practices and solutions. It can require a lot of coordination to ensure IT services are properly configured to support critical business objectives. Many IT departments use an ITSM remote desktop software solution for more efficient end-to-end management of the company’s assets and services.
ITSM tools are software or application suites that allow support staff to more effectively deliver and manage IT services, including incident management, service desk tickets, and other essential asset management functions. ITSM software helps standardize processes and creates a replicable structure for delivering solutions and documenting the results anyone staffing the service desk can use.
Remote desktop software can be used in tandem with ITSM solutions to provide IT staff with convenient and efficient management tools. For instance, one excellent ITSM/remote service desk software option is a combination of two products: SolarWinds®Service Desk and Dameware® Remote Everywhere. Both ITSM and remote desktop software offer distinct advantages, while deploying them together allows for a complete solution.
Why Do Businesses Need ITSM Solutions?
ITSM provides IT staff with valuable insights they can use to make informed decisions affecting the business at large. For instance, ITSM helps clearly define the roles and responsibilities of individual staff members, which allows for a better understanding of organizational needs, inefficiencies, and redundancies.
ITSM also prioritizes best practices when it comes to incident, problem, asset, and knowledge management, which helps IT service desks allocate resources to maximize business productivity, which in turn results in higher levels of IT service availability. This extends to process workflow by prioritizing incidents according to severity of business impact and automating necessary but low-value tasks, which frees up support staff to attend to more critical issues. By using knowledge management best practices to support problem management initiatives, IT departments can save companies time and money by reducing the frequency of recurring issues as well as the time it takes to resolve them and limiting the effects issues will have on end users and business operations.
The best ITSM solutions will include automated reporting capabilities with the necessary documentation to demonstrate compliance with data security standards and industry regulations, while also showing how effectively managed IT services save costs and improve overall company efficiency.
What Are the Benefits of Remote Desktop Software?
Remote desktop software allows IT staff to connect to and control workstations and devices remotely, which offers several benefits. Having service desk remote desktop capabilities also goes a long way toward increasing the efficiency of support staff, for instance, and can lead to additional cost savings.
For example, if an end user calls the help desk because they’re experiencing an issue with an application, rather than asking the end user to explain the problem (which can quickly become frustrating for both parties), the help desk technician can instead remotely access the end user’s workstation to witness the issue firsthand. This allows for more first-time fixes and faster resolution times. It also removes the need for IT support staff to be in the same room as end users—which becomes especially useful at enterprise-level companies or businesses with departments distributed across multiple buildings or campuses.
Remote service desk solutions also offer greater flexibility for support staff, as they allow technicians to schedule troubleshooting or updates after hours or during periods when end users are less likely to be inconvenienced. Remote connections also make it easier to provide support tailored to end users’ individual needs, helping improve employee satisfaction.
Remote desktop support services also allow technicians to work on multiple tickets or tasks at the same time. In-person troubleshooting only allows technicians to address one problem at a time, but when using remote service desk tools, technicians can quickly take care of easy fixes while simultaneously working on more involved tasks. The time that would’ve been spent on traveling to and from the end user’s office or cubicle can then be directed toward solving other issues.
Best Remote Service Desk Solution for Every Business
Using the flexibility of remote desktop software to support ITSM best practices is a strategic way for IT departments to increase their efficiency and effectiveness and allows them to demonstrate the value-add they provide to their companies. SolarWinds Service Desk and Dameware Remote Everywhere are simple to integrate into one complete solution.
Service Desk is a cloud-based ITSM platform developed by IT professionals with other IT professionals in mind. Featuring an intuitive design easy for both end users and technicians to navigate, Service Desk provides comprehensive service management tools for IT departments of all sizes and complexities that can easily scale to support the needs of growing businesses.
Service Desk uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline your process workflows, automate low-value tasks, and generally provide better service efficiency. The software comes with built-in integrations for more than 200 cloud-based applications, including Microsoft SCCM, Active Directory, Google Apps, and many more, like SolarWinds Dameware Remote Everywhere (DRE).
DRE offers the convenience of cloud-based remote service desk support, but with extra features and tools to make it easier for technicians to get the job done quickly and painlessly. Fast connections and the ability to access workstations even when they’re asleep or powered down allows you to resolve issues without interfering with end users’ workflow. You can also record remote sessions and store them in the cloud for later reference, and a powerful reporting system allows you to review performance for improvement.
Remote connections are inherently invasive, but DRE includes strong security and encryption protocols to help ensure data is kept protected during the remote support process. Two-factor authentication and multi-level permissions provide additional layers of control over who can create remote sessions, allowing admins to keep end users and devices safe from unauthorized remote connections.
SolarWinds®Service Desk and DRE together are a formidable remote desktop software solution—their flexibility and usefulness make this combination a top choice for remote support.