VoiceTrust Whitepaper

Transcription

1 VoiceTrust Whitepaper 7 Important Helpdesk Trends for 2014

2 State of the Helpdesk IT helpdesks and support organizations are facing new challenges, driven by a shift in user expectations and emerging technologies that transform the way we communicate. Customers and employees are more demanding than ever, and increasingly expect self-service options and prompt issue resolution. The rise of smartphones, enterprise social networks, and bring your own device (BYOD) programs in the workplace creates more inbound requests that place a burden on the helpdesk. These factors are making support organizations more nimble, efficient, and cost-effective. This whitepaper takes a closer look at the trends driving change in the helpdesk and how companies are adapting to deal with the increase in support tickets and expectations. 1. The Rise of the Cloud Cloud computing is helping support organizations become more nimble, responsive, and cost-effective. 50% of new IT helpdesk tool purchases will be on the cloud by 2015, according to Gartner. Software as a service (aka SaaS or the cloud) provides a set of benefits that can be more appealing than on-premise solutions: Reduced up-front and ongoing costs Speed of deployment and product upgrades Improved data and access security Many large organizations are migrating legacy helpdesk applications to the cloud to meet their goals of better service levels and reduced costs. Cloud-based offerings by market leaders including IBM, CA Technologies, BMC Software, HP, and Microsoft are paving the way for continued growth. Page 2 Page 2

3 2. The Mobile Revolution Mobile devices have become mainstream in the workplace and employees are more dependent on them each year. Helpdesks are expanding the devices they support so that workers can remain productive on their smartphones and tablets wherever they are. This widened scope places a major burden on helpesks, with 81% of organizations reporting that mobile devices have increased the workload on their support organization in a 2013 Gartner survey. Despite the increased workload, the vast majority of organizations haven t hired additional agents because of budget freezes, forcing them to become more efficient. While IT helpdesk requests related to smartphones and other mobile devices is only at below 10% today, they are growing quickly and are expected to reach 25% by 2016 according to Gartner. Best-in-class organizations are implementing peer-to-peer support programs, updating their knowledge base systems, and forecasting issues to proactively deal with this emerging trend. 3. Employee Expectations Grow Employee expectations of helpdesks have never been higher with users demanding support for more mobile devices and applications, remote access to networks, and prompt issue resolution. Workers depend more on technology each year and have lower tolerance for downtime as a result. This is complicated by the growing number of technologies and devices to support, putting a lot of pressure on the organization. To meet these higher expectations, helpdesks are making use of self-service automation and social media resolution to meet quality assurance levels and manage costs. Page 3 Page 3

4 4. Self-Service is Critical Self-service has been around for a long time in the helpdesk and its popularity keeps growing. It reduces inbound ticket requests and provides 24/7 service to employees and customers, making it attractive to support organizations. IT helpdesks are using self-service to automatically resolve the following repetitive requests and become more efficient: Reset my password Printer is down Can t access network Certain requests like password resets make up 30% or more of inbound ticket volume for helpdesks. Automating this process often leads to an ROI within a single year or less, making it a popular option. 5. Knowledgebase Adoption Knowledgebases are a form of self-service that provide users with answers to frequently-asked questions, troubleshooting information, and how-to articles. They are being relied on more heavily to deflect inbound requests, and are now including richer content such as videos to become more informative. As knowledge bases grow in size and complexity, search algorithms are being improved to help users find what they are looking for quicker and easier. Leading vendors of knowledgebase solutions include: Oracle Knowledge egain Knowledge Knova Knowledge Management Page 4 Page 4

5 6. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Bring your own device (BYOD) programs allow employees to use their personal mobile devices to access enterprise systems and data. It is an increasingly popular program in IT organizations and has major impacts on the helpdesk. Growth of BYOD programs is staggering. Over 50% of business smartphones will be employee-owned by 2015 according to IDC, and Gartner predicts 70% of employees will work on personal smart devices by This is a major challenge for IT. The variety of devices and applications will lead to more calls to the helpdesk and a more complex knowledgebase. Organizations need to invest up-front in knowledgebases and self-service options to deal with this trend. 7. Peer-to-Peer Support Only 11% of organizations have a peer-to-peer support platform today according to Gartner, but that number is quickly growing because of the efficiency and cost-saving benefits they provide. Peer-to-peer support enables helpdesks to resolve certain issues better than a live agent, saves costs by deflecting calls, and encourages employee collaboration. It reduces demand on the helpdesk to drive self-supported issue resolution, which is useful in dealing with the growth of BYOD programs. Gartner s Michael Maoz states, The average ROI on a peer-to-peer community has been 100% within 15 months, highlighting the cost benefits of a peer-to-peer support strategy. Page 5 Page 5

6 Contact Us Top 10 Call Center Trends for 2014 About VoiceTrust We provide voice authentication solutions that prevent fraud, eliminate identity theft, and make application logins more secure. Fortune Global 500 clients including banks, insurance companies, call centers, and enterprises rely on our solutions to verify the identity of millions of users. Founded in 2000, the privately-owned company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with additional offices in the USA, Germany, and UAE. For the latest insights on security and user authentication please on Twitter, or visit. VoiceTrust Offices Corporate HQ - Toronto, ON Phone: +1 (416) Canada - Montreal, QC Phone: +1 (514) USA - Princeton, NJ Phone: +1 (609) Germany - Munich Phone: +49 (89) UAE - Dubai Phone: Page 6 Page 6