Difference Between Helpdesk and Service Desk
The terms help desk and service desk confused many people for a long time now. For some companies refer to this in a very similar way. Today, the difference between the meaning of both service desk and help desk is generally left up to interpretation. Some IT professionals and institutions provide their own more specific definition of what is a help desk vs service desk. While others convey more simple explanations.
Defining the difference between the two terms actually depends on the IT support and company who uses it. The companies who market their software to be Service Desk or Help Desk might be contributing the big confusion on those two terms.
What is the Definition of Help Desk?
In general, a help desk is comprised of one person in a small company. This person is an expert in IT problem-solving. He/she is commonly equipped with a computer or a telephone, readily accessible anytime when troubles come in. In bigger companies, a help desk may consist of a group of IT experts using software to help track the status of problems and other special software to help analyze problems. This software can check different problems and system conditions such as the status of a company's telecommunications network, patch management updates, data security, and many more.
What Makes Help Desk Different?
When the company wants to be more tactical, and its ultimate goal is to solve immediate, technical needs and issues. They will most likely use the IT Help Desk. The IT Help Desk can be an independent or part of a Service Desk software. We will give some of the explanations why Help Desk is different from Service Desk:
- The help desk is heavily focused more on IT dependency. Meanwhile, the service desk is much focused on IT service-centricity.
- Those who are knowledgeable in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) will say that a help desk is tactical, whereas a service desk is strategic. That may still be different for every company who uses this software.
- The help desk provides help and solutions, whereas a service desk provides service.
What is the Definition of Service Desk?
The ITIL approach considers the service desk to be the central point of contact between service providers and users/customers on a day-to-day basis. It is also a focal point for reporting incidents (disruptions or potential disruptions in service availability or quality) and for users making service requests (routine requests for services).
A service desk has a broader and user-centered approach which is designed to provide the user with an informed single point of contact for all IT requirements. A service desk tries to promote the integration of business processes into the service management infrastructure. A service desk also provides an interface for other activities such as customer change requests, third parties (e.g. maintenance contracts), and software licensing aside from actively monitoring, owning incidents, user questions, and providing the communications channel for other service management disciplines with the user community.
What are the Service Desk Features?
If we are going to talk about a broader term that is more strategic and crosses organizational, the IT Service Desk is the best term for that. It focuses on the needs of a business rather than the customer's needs and requests. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defined the Service Desk (Service Operation) as the Single Point of Contact between the Service Provider and the clients. IT Help Desk is typically included in the Service Desk software to open possibilities for improvements within the company or organization. Meanwhile, the service desk features
automate emails and updates, provides comprehensive tracking and reporting, has configurable ticket categories, has scripted responses, gives automatic ticket routing, designed to have an integrated knowledge base, Service Level Agreement tracking (SLAs), escalation procedures, and contains a branded customer portal and user experience.
Conclusion
Given all what is the difference between helpdesk and service desk, their distinction will now only depend on how this two software are used based on user's preference. We hope that we are still able to clarify these confusing terms. Their functions are a big factor in your company as they still play a huge role in resolving issues; the help desk for the IT staff and service desk for your ordinary endpoint users.
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