Service desks sitting on massive cost savings (and it’s nothing to do with user support)

By looking outside of its own walls, service desks can deliver significant savings to the business.  Richmond Systems explains the latent potential of the software you use everyday.


The process-orientated nature that has served IT service management so well - chiefly user support and technology trouble shooting - can be applied to other areas of the business that perhaps lack such a tightly defined focus.  Doing so can massively improve the efficiency of these services, improving integration with other business processes and opportunities for collaboration.  The beauty of this approach is that you don’t have to buy new technology, because you use a system on a daily basis capable of fitting the need.

In our experience, a surprising number of businesses still have an ad-hoc approach to managing important areas of the business, such as facilities and HR.  Spreadsheets are still commonly used - a dangerously outdated approach which typically relies on the diligence of one person (who often leaves, meaning someone else has to pick up the pieces.)

It’s understandable that businesses don’t want to spend on dedicated products to manage these processes.  Yet your service desk, with its tightly defined workflow, ability to trigger follow up events and track issues through to conclusion, can be adapted with minimal fuss, to professionalise business practices.  Facilities management is the most obvious fit, with jobs being reported, the impact of lost productivity, and issues monitoring through to conclusion neatly mimicking the process of IT support.

Yet other areas of the business are ripe for the service desk treatment.  The process of bringing onboard new starters also demands a series of triggered events - ordering a PC, finding a desk, adding to payroll - which is far easier to seamlessly manage with service desk tools.  Once you are in the mindset of widening the use of the service desk, there are likely to be many areas - some large, some small - that will benefit from the introduction of process automation.

  IT service management is increasingly moving towards the point when the ‘IT’ will be dropped from the expression.  Delivering services into the business is the primary purpose of the discipline, and the service desk is perfectly poised to lead this evolution, improving its standing and financial clout within the business at the same time.

Richmond Systems has extensive experience adapting SupportDesk to manage facilities, HR and other business processes described in this article  Get in touch - we may help you deliver some very welcome cost savings into your business.