The Help Desk model of technical support is not new, but many IT companies add ‘wrinkles’ to the concept that we here at IT Support LA feel are not necessary, or good for the client.
We do not offer Help Desk ‘Plan A, B, C, or D’. Once we have become your Managed Services Provider, you receive the top-tier service: there are no lower echelons of support to choose from. Multiple tiers only serve to confuse the issue of what the client can expect.
Our IT help desk support avails you of our complete Network Operations Center (NOC), which not only remotes-in to your workstations and servers for repairs, but Manages your system in a truly forward-looking, proactive manner. Many companies use the buzz word ‘Proactive’ without understanding it or offering it as a bona-fide service.
Most Managed Services Providers work from the same basic model: IT services based on a monthly retainer, but within that framework can exist a wide disparity among levels of service.
What Most MSPs offer:
The following are the basic services that define Managed Services:
- Help Desk Monitoring and Repair: Available through phone, email or internet. Times that this service is available vary among IT Providers.
- Onsite Technician visits: You will have a dedicated Primary Tech with at least one dedicated back-up Tech.
- Onsite Troubleshooting & Repair: Our it helpdesk support service team works closely with our Field Techs to arrive at successful disposition of issues quickly, without disturbing your business.
IT Support LA Provides All of the Above, PLUS:
- Our Help Desk access and Onsite Tech visits are UNLIMITED: Many IT companies give you a price that includes ‘X’ number of hours for both Onsite and Offsite help, then each hour over that is billable separately. Just like those outdated Cell phone plans that gave you a number of allotted minutes, then seriously gouged you for the overages.
- Our Help Desk is available 24/7: If you are at work, we are here for you, even on weekends and holidays.
- Direct User Ticket Resolution: From the moment we open a ticket for you, progress is tracked through to the resolution. No more of the IT guy scribbling down what he did on a scrap of paper. We are highly organized and use this data as part of our ongoing predictive support management as well as any Critical Incident issues which may occur.
- Proactive Infrastructure Management/Predictive Maintenance: Nothing about your system or usage and capacity levels will be a surprise to us. Barring catastrophes like a car crashing into your building and burning it down (Yes, it actually happened), we know what is going on with your network infrastructure, and can predict and address looming pitfalls before they happen.
- Vendor Management: IT Support LA protects the integrity of ALL manner of communications your office uses. Internet is down? We will call the provider and stay on top of things. VoIP phones? WE work with the provider to get you back on the phones ASAP. We do not have to be the provider to take responsibility for keeping your communications on track.
What to Look For in an IT Provider:
- Local Help - NOT Outsourced: We invite all prospective clients in the Greater Los Angeles, including Ventura County to visit our Headquarters in Tarzana and meet the actual people you will be working with. No more banging your head because you can’t understand the thick accent of a Help Desk ‘Tech’ who is half the world away from you.
- Certified Technicians: Anybody can hang out a Shingle that says ‘IT Guy’. Our IT help desk support technicians are certified. You need to know who is going to have access to your system and be reassured that they are qualified to do so.
- Business Insurance & Liability: What if the IT Tech hurts himself or damages your property inside your office? Who is liable? Who pays? IT Support LA carries the insurance that protects you.
- Ticketing System: You are entitled to see that you are getting your money’s worth: A Direct Ticketing System tracks every action the IT provider has taken concerning your system, and provides for detailed reporting.
- Comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA): Too many IT companies provide an SLA that is purposely vague or difficult to understand. What is covered? What is their Response Time – is it guaranteed? If they fail to meet their Response Time, what happens? The same goes for their Resolution Time: while some things are impossible to determine ahead of time, once they troubleshoot the issue, your IT provider should be able to give you a reliable estimate of how long it should take. If there is a difference for Emergency or Weekend/After Hours response times, this needs to be clearly spelled out.
IT Support LA’s SLA is finely detailed and spells out every aspect of our service, as well as our Money-Back Guarantees.
IT Chain of Command: You know your IT guy, but what happens if he, or the remote Help Desk were to be unable to resolve an issue? Have you ever tried to get a ‘Senior Technician’ on the phone at Microsoft Support? We make all echelons of our company available to you, right up to the CEO.
Reporting: Will your prospective IT company provide regular reports that allow you to see what issues are recurring, and most importantly, that will show you the ongoing status of your system, but of your ROI in your IT provider.
IT Support LA has been serving the Greater Los Angeles area for 18 years, and we invite you to call us or simply fill in the form on this page for a FREE consultation by phone. Let us show you what an award winning IT help desk support services Provider can do for you, and then come to our headquarters to see for yourself!
IT Help Desk Services: Q & A
Q: What is IT help desk?
A: The IT help desk is the center in the offices of a Managed IT Services provider that provides ongoing remote IT support to clientele. It is not generally associated with free-lance IT service providers. On a day-to-day basis it is the primary point of contact between medium to small business IT support and its end-users. When an issue is detected within a client’s network infrastructure, the alert generated from the IT services provider’s monitoring software goes directly to the IT help desk. When end-users have any issue, it is the IT helpdesk they contact. To find a reputable IT Help Desk, just Google ‘IT Support Los Angeles’ and you will find qualified experts to interview.
Q: How do we improve our IT help desk performance?
A: IT Support LA constantly strives to improve its IT help desk response times and the quality of interactions with our clientele. We do this through continuing analysis of the following:
1) The promptness with which we handle IT service requests
2) The transparency with which we interact with clients (NO ‘Geek Speak’)
3) The quality and consistency of the detailed IT Support Ticket notes supplied by the IT help desk personnel.
4) Establishing priorities for IT help desk: Obviously, a down server takes priority over a printer connectivity issue. Each and every possible problem with a network has its own logical priority, and are acted on by IT support accordingly.
5) Delegation and Escalation: We keep each member of our both our IT help desk team operating at the level at which they are most competent. Senior, specialized technicians do not handle simple password resets, and junior technicians do not struggle with complex issues.
6) Ownership & Responsibility: Our IT help desk personnel do not just ‘visit’ an incoming service request that has been assigned to them, they take ownership of the technical issue and the responsibility for the client’s satisfaction upon resolution.
7) Defining the goals of our IT help desk: We set IT service goals for response and resolution times, and the number of tickets handled (rated according to task complexity), and use the metrics we examine to gauge our effectiveness.
8) Ongoing training: Business does not stand still, and neither do our IT help desk people or our field technicians. We provide the training and insist that every member of our IT support services team are currently devoting time to become qualified for their next certification. As we develop better methods of IT support execution – either through internal policies and procedures or in adopting new software that enables us to work better and faster, we train our IT services team on them.
Q: How do we manage our IT help desk?
A: We manage our IT help desk by designing a clear workflow, automating some processes, empowering our IT services team to collaborate and ask for help when needed, communicate in a clear and friendly way with our end-users, monitoring and analyzing our IT support teams, and tracking our customer satisfaction.
Q: What does IT help desk support do?
A: They start with the customer contact, when the user sends an IT support ticket by email, website or phone. The ticket is logged, the first of the IT service notes are entered, the issue is examined, the user is answered and given an estimated timeline for resolution. The issue is resolved, whether remotely or on-site, the result is logged, the final notes are entered, and the IT service ticket is closed. At IT Support LA, 80% of all IT support issues are resolved in an average of 35 minutes. Forbes has an excellent article on how to use any Help Desk Center to your best advantage.
Q: How much does it cost to outsource IT help desk?
A: The cost of IT outsourcing services of any kind, from technical on-site visits to remote IT help desk, to the full array offered by Managed IT Services providers vary greatly depending on the particulars laid out in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Typically, IT help desk alone, with no on-site privileges, tend to run between $75 per user/per month to $125 per user/per month. IT Support LA offers a package at $50 per user/per month which includes, among other things, unlimited IT help desk and on-site IT services. We can do this because of the way in which our procedures are set up, and frankly, because of our success: we can afford to.
There are a number of ways to configure your Managed IT Services with or without using your own employees as an IT asset. Ntiva performs an excellent analysis and explains hidden costs as well. The average costs, just like it is with gasoline prices, may vary from region to reason. The average prices estimated above are consistent with the IT Services Los Angeles community.
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