Integrated Collaboration: The Key to an Improved IT Help Desk?
Digital transformation has accelerated rapidly in the past few years. Companies are increasingly utilizing cloud-based systems and business processes—and showing no signs of slowing down the uptick. In fact, a recent study indicates that 77% of organizations are currently scaling up or expanding their digital transformation programs. This includes migrating processes to the cloud, as well as leveraging integrated collaboration, among others.
By implementing these measures, businesses are able to foster better connectivity and connection among employees. More importantly, these developments have facilitated hybrid and remote work setups and optimized IT help desk operations.
However, while experts estimate that 65.9% of company spending on software solutions in 2025 will be focused on cloud-based tools, the remainder will continue to go toward traditional platforms like standalone software. This only goes to show that although software is becoming more integrated, providing IT support isn’t yet as efficient as it could be—particularly when it comes to the tech stack.
If you’re still looking for ways to improve your IT help desk, this guide is for you. Let’s take a closer look at integrated collaboration and how it can help equip remote support for the modern business model.
Stand Alone vs Integrated Collaboration
In addition to choosing a software provider that caters to the needs of your IT team, consider what type of software best suits your needs. Not all software is created equal. Even those with comparable functionalities may have varying levels of flexibility.
Stand-Alone Solutions
Stand-alone software platforms are generally not bundled with any other platform. They primarily focus on features that target a particular process or aspect of business. Benefits of this type of software include:
- More specialized functionalities than all-in-one platforms
- Vendors who often invest more time and money into enhancing product features according to specific industry standards
- A support team to efficiently walk you through all the features of the platform and are familiar with its different use cases
Although stand-alone software can be a good option for companies looking for highly specialized solutions, users will need to perform manual data input or syncing across a wide range of platforms.
The Benefits of Integrated Collaboration
Integrated software platforms connect with tools in your existing tech stack. They often come fully featured, combining basic elements to address a variety of processes. As such, users can expect the following advantages from integrated collaboration:
- Toolsets with more varied functionalities, allowing users to manage multiple business processes
- A set of tools, programming languages, and technologies enabled to work together so there’s no need to worry about siloed data
- The benefits of simpler configuration, translating to little or no downtime during implementation
Integrated collaboration solutions tend to be best for organizations using multiple platforms in their day-to-day operations. This keeps users from having to jump between different programs to accomplish a task, optimizing processes along the way. It also ensures that all critical company data stays in one place.
It’s important to remember that your IT software processes are all interconnected. If your company has remote as well as in-office employees, it’s also a good idea to reinforce your IT team’s ability to provide hybrid support: this is where software with in-platform integration is a better option.
Functions of Help Desk Software
Help desk software makes it easier for IT teams to respond to end-user issues. That includes clients experiencing technical difficulties or employees requiring assistance with office software and hardware. It organizes, manages, and queues service-related requests so that IT teams can respond to them more efficiently. Here are a few essential functions of help desk software:
- Managing tickets. At its core, help desk software records and tracks service requests from receipt to resolution. The software converts requests from multiple channels into tickets, routing them to the appropriate support agents, and ensuring that everyone receives help in a timely manner.
- Providing tools for request resolution. Built-in features like live chat allows agents to communicate with employees or clients. ServiceNow is an example of help-desk software that has successfully integrated with other software like ScreenMeet. This supports integrated collaboration, helping users access tools such as screen sharing, co-browsing, and video chat.
- Tracking incidents. A good help desk documents incidents handled by a support team and stores them in a centralized repository. This helps agents to find similar cases, enabling a faster request resolution. It’s also helpful for identifying recurring issues and performing root-cause analyses.
- Automating tasks. Automating repetitive tasks, such as routing service requests, sending out pending tickets notifications, and preparing end-of-day reports, allows agents to focus primarily on resolving issues.
- Facilitating self-service support. FAQs, knowledge bases, or how-to articles are self-service options that you can create by compiling and restructuring repetitive queries. This frees up agents to concentrate on urgent service requests that cannot be resolved with simple troubleshooting.
- Generating reports. Help desks track key metrics to gauge the day-to-day productivity of IT agents, from agent performance and support costs to client satisfaction, thereby enhancing the efficiency and quality of help desk operations.
How Integrated Collaboration Helps Improve Help Desk Functions
There are numerous ways in which integrated collaboration can improve your IT help desk’s performance. Let’s look at a few of them.
Provides swift and efficient support
Perhaps one of the most time-consuming tasks for help desk agents is having to go from computer to computer for employee service requests or use separate systems to handle client concerns. This can make service request responses slower and lead to inefficiencies in help desk processes.
Integrated collaboration can resolve these issues by bringing together all the necessary tools in one interface. An infrastructure that allows agents to take on tasks, generate reports, access data, and communicate with employees or clients can make the workflow more effective.
For instance, using ScreenMeet with your existing software can make collaboration easier as it equips this software with IT support solutions like remote support, and live voice and video chat. One example is its live “swarming” feature that can accommodate up to 20 participants in one session. This helps to avoid arranging separate calls with higher tiers of support and also reduces case handling time.
Improves accessibility to important information
Help desk agents have to retrieve and relay information day in and day out. Whenever an employee or a client asks them for assistance, an agent must have the necessary data to resolve their concerns.
But what if the platform through which agents receive service requests is separate from the system containing client information, or even the troubleshooting database? Going back and forth between platforms is bound to make resolution times slower, and require redundant work on the part of the agent.
Depending on how you integrate your systems, it may be possible to achieve organization-wide information access. In this scenario, all help desk agents are able to easily retrieve crucial technical data as well as upload any new incident information. More importantly, integrated collaboration enables real-time data synchronization, ensuring you have a single source of truth for all help desk data.
Increases productivity
A help desk agent’s job doesn’t stop at resolving service requests. They must also handle a variety of administrative tasks, from logging incidents to filling out forms and preparing reports. Dealing with all these additional tasks can keep them from attending to their core responsibilities.
An integrated infrastructure platform eliminates this problem. It streamlines help desk processes because it gives users access to all the tools and data they need in one place. This, in turn, leads to improved agent productivity. For example, ScreenMeet can automatically log all recordings, notes, and other data into your help desk platform. As a result, there’s no need for agents to waste time on manual data input.
Experience Seamless Integration with ScreenMeet
In the post-pandemic landscape, many businesses have adopted remote or hybrid work setups. To make optimal use of this situation, it’s vital that businesses are capable of keeping employees connected, no matter their location. This is why building an integrated collaboration environment should be a priority for the modern workforce.
Integrated collaboration can help you create a connected network infrastructure. One where your IT support team can access all the resources they need in a single hub. Once the system is in place, they can address employee concerns faster and reduce the downtime associated with troubleshooting. More importantly, integrated collaboration helps eliminates data silos, letting you keep all company data safe, together in one place.
To implement this type of IT help desk setup, you first need to invest in solutions that support in-platform integration. ScreenMeet can seamlessly connect with several popular business systems that you may already have in your tech stack. Further, it can help you create a virtual tech bar to support digital engagement channels and ensure that IT agents have remote desktop access.
Add voice, video, screen sharing, co-browsing, and integrated remote desktop takeover quickly and easily when using ScreenMeet with applications such as Salesforce or ServiceNow, the latter being compatible with all three major workflows (ITSM, CSM, and HRSD). ScreenMeet also seamlessly integrates with the Dynamics 365 workflow. And thanks to the fact that ScreenMeet is entirely web-based, all data is written back to Dynamics 365, making customer support a simple, speedy, and strategic asset.
ScreenMeet is here to help. If you’d like to find out more about how we can transform your IT support operations, check out one of our product videos or blogs, or request to schedule a live product demo today!
