What is IT help desk outsourcing?

When you hire an external vendor to provide as-needed tech support to your team, it is called IT help desk outsourcing. While managed service providers provide help desk services as part of their suite of services, when the term “IT help desk outsourcing” is used, it usually refers to a standalone solution.

Help desk staff are typically reachable by phone, email (or support ticket system) or chat and do their best to help the user with his or her immediate issue. This may include:

• Running diagnostics.
• Installing or updating programs.
• Repairing or making changes to hardware or software.
• Escalating unfixed issues to someone with more experience.
• Follow-up to ensure that customer issues were resolved.

When you use a managed service provider for your help desk, there are additional benefits. Your MSP team will know your network inside and out, as well as your business, making it easier to fix issues and ensure those fixes stick for the long term. After all, this is the same team that is actively working to prevent issues from happening. Outsourcing your help desk as a standalone service usually means the technicians providing your support will have far less insight.