What is IT support?
As companies rely more on technology, IT support—the service that resolves technical issues for businesses—is becoming increasingly crucial to success.
IT support helps new employees create new accounts, prevents phishing attacks, downtime, and data breaches, integrates new software and hardware into the current tech infrastructure, and more. Even a slight improvement in the effectiveness of your IT support workflow can significantly enhance operational efficiency, increase scalability, and lower IT costs.
So, what is IT support, and why is it so crucial for businesses? Learn more about IT support and how you can simplify it.
Understanding IT support
IT support refers to the IT services and professionals who solve technological issues for customers or employees. It ensures that business operations that rely on software, networks, and hardware run smoothly.
IT operations typically include technical support and troubleshooting, account and password creation, and system maintenance and upgrades. The IT team also manages the network (firewalls, routers, etc.), data management and backup, information security, and hardware, software, and device management.
IT support is traditionally a team within a company. Due to the increasing size of tech stacks, businesses have started spreading IT support staff across each team, allowing them to specialize and provide more efficient, knowledgeable services. Companies may also outsource their IT services to an IT support company to solve a significant issue their in-house team can’t solve.
IT support is essential to operational efficiency. As your business grows and adopts new technologies and employees, smooth IT workflows become increasingly critical. When IT has the tools and processes to handle the uptick in requests easily, you won’t have to hire new IT staff as frequently.
What does IT support do?
IT support and IT management teams play a key role in daily business operations. IT support teams are responsible for system maintenance, ensuring all your systems are up to date and secure. When a system or software problem occurs, your IT support team can troubleshoot to find the root cause.
From onboarding new team members to upgrading or maintaining existing systems, IT service management (ITSM) is essential. IT teams can set up new devices when you add a new team member or decide to upgrade, but they can also update outdated software and address login issues. Team members can even send the IT support team a service request when they need help with a specific issue.
Types of IT support services
There are various types of IT operations management and support teams, each offering unique benefits and drawbacks.
- In-house IT teams: These are dedicated IT teams working in your building. This team can quickly respond to service requests and work in-house to ensure everything is up to date, providing you with your own personal help desk.
- Outsourced IT teams: These are third-party teams that handle specific IT needs. They can work remotely or on-site, but they are not full-time employees of your company.
- Remote IT teams: As the name suggests, these teams work remotely, but they can still be full-time employees of your company. This can help you save money without sacrificing timely incident response.
- On-site support teams: These are third-party teams that come to your place of business to provide IT services. You might hire on-site support teams if you need to upgrade all your systems or switch to a new suite of software.
There are also different support tiers, including level 1, level 2, and level 3. Level 1 support involves self-help and information that the user can access, such as knowledge bases. Level 2 support includes help desk resolution and service desk delivery. Level 3 IT support is the most in-depth type of IT support and is typically required in more complex IT situations.
Benefits of IT support
A reliable IT support team can make your life a lot easier, from reduced downtime to increased scalability. Explore some of the benefits that IT support teams have to offer.
Minimizes downtime
IT support teams use ITSM software to reduce the risk of issues that can lead to downtime. A proactive IT support team can monitor and resolve issues before they result in downtime, allowing your teams to stay focused on their tasks. This increased productivity doesn’t just lead to faster delivery times; it can also save you a significant amount of money.
Enhances data security
Security is of the utmost importance for businesses, and IT support teams enhance data security in several ways. Your IT team can help you stay compliant with any data security regulations and maintain updated security protocols to protect sensitive data.
IT support teams also use patch management and access control to enhance data security. When all your systems are up to date and you control who has access to what, your data is better protected.
Improves user experience
A positive user experience is vital to your team's success. An efficient IT support team can enhance the user experience by ensuring everything is up to date and functioning properly while also providing rapid support to address potential issues.
A better user experience is especially important during the onboarding and training periods. A good IT team can streamline the onboarding process by making it easy for users to get up to speed with new systems and software.
Supports business scalability
If you’re hoping to grow your business over time, you need solutions that can grow with it. Effective IT support helps drive business scalability by providing infrastructure upgrades and enhancements to cloud solutions to meet increasing demands. Strategic planning enables your IT team to focus on scalability at every step, ensuring that your IT services can scale just as effectively as your HR service management (HRSM) solutions
Best practices for optimizing IT support
Optimizing IT support may seem like a difficult task, but there are several ways to strengthen it.
- Knowledge bases are a great way to provide employees with the resources they need to get help without having to contact IT support teams directly. You can make your knowledge base as detailed as you’d like, but ensure it’s organized so that people can easily find the information they need.
- Ticketing systems are another effective way to bolster IT support. Employees can use tools like Jira Service Desk to submit IT service requests, making it easy for your IT support team to organize, manage, and resolve support tickets.
- Regular audits are also an important part of strong IT support. Routine audits help you identify outdated software and security protocols, inefficient processes, or security vulnerabilities within your system.
- Collaboration is key to building a strong IT support team. IT and other departments, including HR and design teams, need to communicate to ensure everyone is on the same page clearly. Clear communication helps IT managers identify and resolve issues quickly.
Key features to look for in IT support software
When you’re choosing IT support software, there are a handful of must-have features. Discover more about the key features to look for below.
Ticketing systems
Ticketing systems enable IT to triage, track, and assign tickets from various sources within a single unified platform. It offers workflow automation, insight into the full context of the issue, and collaboration tools.
By enabling IT staff to resolve issues faster, ticketing systems prevent issue backlogs and their potential consequences, such as unhappy employees or downtime. Some tools, such as Jira, also offer conversational ticketing, which allows employees to get help directly from Slack. IT can track employees' problems and situations within the Jira Service Management platform.
Knowledge management
A centralized knowledge base is a digital library of tested methods and best practices for resolving common issues your employees and customers face. It empowers IT support to work quickly and compliantly. They can easily find and follow your company’s standard operating procedures and access methods formerly trapped in your company’s files, brains, and email chains. It’s much easier to onboard new IT staff when you have all the answers to their questions in a searchable, centralized location.
To create and maintain a knowledge base, identify the most common issues. Collect or create content that answers these questions through how-to guides and tutorials.
Find a platform such as Jira Service Management that offers knowledge management features for hosting your knowledge base. With it, you can create an interface that’s easy for users to navigate. As IT encounters new issues or discovers more efficient workflows, update the knowledge base accordingly. Knowledge management in IT is an ongoing process.
Communication tools
Communication tools enhance collaboration between IT support staff members, minimizing misunderstandings and reducing resolution times in IT support interactions. Most ITSM platforms offer communication features, such as a service desk, making it easy for employees and customers to connect with support and track the status of their issues.
Another feature to look for is live chat. Jira Service Management chat, for example, enables users to make requests and get help through Slack or other platforms. Support staff operate from the service platform, where all important user information and resources from the knowledge base are available. This way, the user and the IT staff member can work together from their preferred location.
Collaboration tools enable IT staff from different teams or with varying areas of expertise to assist one another in resolving issues. For example, an IT support member solving a software security issue can loop in the cybersecurity expert.
Performance metrics
Tracking key IT performance metrics helps measure the effectiveness of IT support processes, spot bottlenecks, and assess the quality of your process improvement projects.
Here are some IT process key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor:
- Service desk KPIs include first call resolution, average resolution time, customer satisfaction, and ticket volume.
- Incident management KPIs comprise average incident response time, incident resolution time, incident reopen rate, and mean time to repair.
- IT security KPIs reflect the number of security issues, security incident response time, and patch management compliance.
- Asset management KPIs show the asset utilization rate, asset compliance rate, and mean time between asset failures.
To improve your processes, identify which KPIs are below industry standards. Adjust the process and track the results via your custom dashboard. Monitor key IT metrics in an IT service management platform. Use the platform to collect feedback from customers and employees that will help identify underperforming processes.
How to choose the right IT support software
Choosing the right IT support software can be overwhelming with the number of options available today. It’s essential to consider your business's size, needs, and budget, as well as the vendor's scalability and support offerings.
Smaller businesses with smaller budgets typically need less robust IT support software. Consider the number of team members or devices you have, as well as the types of software you use. If you already have in-depth security protocols and access controls in place, your needs will be different from a brand new company’s.
Consider looking for IT software that offers a trial period. A short trial allows you to try out the software and see if you like it before committing to the monthly or annual cost in your budget.
Vendor support and scalability are also crucial. Look for a vendor that offers robust support for their software so you can resolve issues quickly. If you plan to grow your business, choosing scalable IT support software is one of the most important decisions.
Jira Service Management is designed to scale with your business. It includes an efficient service desk that empowers your IT support teams to keep your systems up to date and secure.
Enhance IT support with Jira Service Management
IT support is a huge aspect of nearly every modern business, and Jira Service Management can help. Jira Service Management helps streamline IT support through automation, service level agreements (SLAs), and team collaboration.
Not only is Jira Service Management an effective IT support tool, but it also integrates seamlessly with other tools and aligns with ITIL practices. Jira Service Management’s HRSM can even help streamline HR operations in addition to IT operations.
From building a service desk to improving collaboration, Jira Service Management makes IT support simple. Get Jira Service Management Free and discover how you can level up your IT support.
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