Helpdesk Systems for Business | Literature Review

2.0 Literature Review

To most efficiently explore these issues surrounding helpdesk systems, a subsection of literature has been selected based on its relevance to the following questions.

Research questions:

1. Why a helpdesk system is important to a company’s functionality?
2. What helpdesk systems do end users when collaborating with IT staff to resolve technical problems?
3. Why is it important to effectively introduce and implement the use of a new system in a Company?
4. Why do companies hire IT outsourcing rather in-house?

A search of the library catalogue database shows that Journals and other popular media research articles of modern online helpdesk system. Researchers have voiced both pros and cons enacting user satisfactory interactions at helpdesk systems. This review of the literature focuses on the information presented in peer-reviewed journals and articles, in the expectation that these conclusions are based more on wide-ranging research and systematic analysis of the issues.

2.1 Why helpdesk system is important to a company’s functionality?

“Without a good Helpdesk software, IT department can begin losing the ability to effectively provide employees with the technical support they need to do their job” (Ismaili, Balki & Caushi, 2018). In (iHelp) an Intelligent Online Helpdesk System case study of Wang, Li, Zhu& Gong (2011), Today’s most of customer services involve many manual operations, which require customer service representatives to solve a large variety of IT problems in a company. Also, sharing knowledge and experience between the delegates is difficult. Therefore, many companies are trying to build intelligent helpdesk systems (see Figure 1) to enhance customer services. In an organisation, a helpdesk system is a vital system where IT issues and request of users are reported and solved (Walek ,2017).

Figure 2.1 An Intelligent Online Helpdesk System

In the analysis, design and implementation of a helpdesk management system case study of Ismaili, Bulku, Caushi, Walek (2018), The IT department of the company has offered to report IT issues and request of employees which can be done by calling to department, emailing and presenting at the office. The head of the IT department sends a technician to help or deal with the specific issue.  Once the issue is resolved, the technician reports to the department regarding the matter and the measures taken thereon. The whole process is timely. The employees have to walk into IT office from their office to request help. Many of them address IT staff directly after calling the head of the IT. The helpdesk software objectives are to increase the efficiency of the IT department, to reduce the response time of the final user and measure the performance of the IT department. The system will help employees based on the tickets that they have created without leaving their office or making calls.

Figure 2.2 Use Case diagram for a helpdesk system

In analysing an IT helpdesk data case study of Andrew & Lucente (2014), Costs can be directly credited to the length of time required to resolve issues when there is a critical applications failure in a business. A prominent company based in the production and marketing of goods, must serve a production environment with minimal failure by maintaining their IT infrastructure. In case of critical application failure, this could be solved by investigating the previous similar issues and the resolution from the dynamic phenomena of a helpdesk environment to minimise the downtime of production (Andrew & Lucente, 2014).

2.2 What helpdesk systems do end users need when collaborating with IT staff to resolve technical problems?

“Philip Kotler defines customer satisfaction as a ‘person’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment which resulted from comparing a product’s perceived performance or outcome against his/her expectations’” (Rajeev, 2018). The customer Satisfaction Factor Extraction Method Using Text Mining of Kobayashi and Tsuda case study (2017), analysed a survey data collection in a helpdesk system of a company by using text mining and provides information to improve customer satisfaction levels and productivity enhancement. Helpdesk system and customers, long-term relationship can be built to enhance customer satisfaction through a complete correspondence, and it is important to develop a business prospect. Limited knowledge while interacting with the customers is one of the challenges faced by any helpdesk system. The features of helpdesk systems are IT skills, creativity and new knowledges. These facts represent a level of helpdesk staff and technical knowledge of relevant matters. Accordingly, education and continuous improvement are needed to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction (Kobayashi & Tsuda, 2017).

“The customer degree of satisfaction is provided by the services of a company as measured by several recurrent customers “(business dictionary, 2018). Kobayashi & Tsuda suggested degree of satisfaction will be increased when a helpdesk staff included feelings for the customers’ matter and answered by in a short time. The user should not always get an answer correctly, but they show of feeling to be satisfied. “Information regarding improvement in customer satisfaction was obtained by comparing the data for the help desk answers before and after the helpdesk staff were given answer instructions” (Kobayashi & Tsuda, 2017).

Resolving Discourse at Technical-Support Helpdesks of Robels (2018), “Users value one-to-one help from helpdesks. Because the information they receive in interaction, addresses users’ unique goals with an IT expert. These services provide “the total user support package” because they complement an existing technical communication infrastructure such as documentation or support forums. Within this infrastructure, users receive targeted help, customised to their experience with and goals for a technology” (Robels, 2018).

What are the user support techniques of the helpdesk system when collaborating with the IT staff to solve technical issues?

Technical support is provided to meet users ‘goals, it modifies users’ loyalty to the system and technical acceptance. This loyalty and acceptance give value ​​to the organisations (Robels, 2018). “found that employees of a firm more readily accepted a company e-learning system because of the associated help facilities. Thus, promoting quality in these interactions serves not only users but also organisations” (Robels, 2018). It is important to ensure that the system meets the quality of the technical and customer assistance, organisations should ensure that the providers have a satisfactory experience.

2.3 Why is it important to effectively introduce and implement the use of a new system in a company?

Today, companies are tending to upgrade their existing IT systems according to the modern technology, by replacing outdated software and update or modernise IT resources. These additional features are used to make better use of internal efficiency in a company. Problems many of the companies have to face from the new system, are not achieving its goals and many are futile. Brian Thomas thought (partner in IT Advisory Services at Weaver) “Ultimately, the new system may be better, but if executives listed the top things, they wanted to accomplish by implementing the new system, many times they don’t achieve those things,” (Burroughs, 2015).

In an action design research on development and deployment of a computer-based group discussion of Lee, Hillegersberg, Kumar (2015), argues that organisational culture is, “the taken for granted values, underlying assumptions, expectations, and definitions that characterize organisations and their members.  It is a fundamental feature of lasting change in the organisation”. Culture is defined as the “Shared” concept of organized work habits (see Figure 3). It is important that the members who are participating in the process, explain their views on current culture. In order to start the cultural change process, it is important to measure collective thought processes in the organisation by measuring the organisation’s current culture and comparison to the desired corporate culture. This is a cultural difference between the cultural sphere and changes in the gap between the present and the desired culture.

Figure 2.3 Organizational Culture Profile (OCP)

In organisational culture and the acceptance of Agile methodology of Othman, Zouaoui & Hamdoun (2016), identified that during the adoption of Agile in an organisation, the criteria for a team culture and development culture are not postponed. In fact, the company relying on a development culture is characterised by flexibility and its company’s environment, alternatively, some features have been integrated with the agile methodology, and the behaviour of developers and managers has changed. Adopting a new system for developing software is not an easy task, it needs to change the attitudes and values ​​of all members of the organisation. Also, customer satisfaction is an important factor in accepting the new system. Technical and people-management skills are essential for the project to succeed.

2.4 Why do companies hire IT outsourcing rather in-house?

“Does IT outsourcing make sense for smaller firms? Done wisely, it can lower costs, focus in-house staff, and eliminate wasted capacity” (Pistole & Bragg, 2005) small companies would like to have at least basic IT services such as a helpdesk system, servers, LAN components, license etc in outsources. Because most small companies cannot afford to pay for an IT specialist for look after these services, they will get IT services from an outsourcing company (Pistole & Bragg, 2005). When employees have an IT problem, they will be assisted by an agent from that company with In-house IT helpdesk, someone will be working in the company to maintain the IT system. Most larger companies are using the In-house IT help for its IT infrastructure (Thompson, 2018).

Joe Hughes recommends Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) and Small and Medium Enterprises choose fully outsourced IT helpdesk, however companies should be considered having an in-house IT teams depending on the business grow in the future.    

Figure 2.4 In-house software development option

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of helpdesk outsourcing

 Advantages

• Outsource customer service volume levels may have the highest and lowest. While the user pays a fixed monthly fee, allows a supplier to increase and decrease demand with them.
• Businesses and customers can access technical support on a daily basis.
• Staff can focus on core business.
• Affordable cost to any type of business
• Superior trained engineers who offer a wide range of skills to business
• Besides the Helpdesk, IT infrastructure can be managed, monitored and supported of the company

Disadvantages

• Staff member may have to adjust their works around third-party providers.
• Sometimes it can be low Quality of Service.
• Cost may be varying depend on any per-call fees.

“Executives, IT pros and employees enter IT outsourcing with a lot of present expectations, some overly positive, some overly negative. Determining if help desk outsourcing is right for any organisation requires that everyone go into the decision with their eyes wide open to the pluses and minuses” (Bekker, 2014).

Summary

This chapter has discussed the background of issues surrounding helpdesk systems. The importance of the helpdesk system is growing in the organisation as Information technology is becoming ever more complex. Purpose of this study is to review the literature to deliver a summary and to present the current trends of helpdesk system in Information System (IS) discipline. “The information systems discipline is concerned with the information that computer systems provide and with the consistent business developments that allow information technology to bring financial value to the organisation” (Hardaway, Mathieu & Will, 2008).

Conclusion

This research review’s purpose is to help the reader to understand different Journals and other popular media research articles of modern online helpdesk system. This is significant because many businesses are keenly interested of their user satisfactory interactions at helpdesk systems, often not understanding there are other points of view. There has been much research and discussion conducted on these opinions of importance of the helpdesk system to a business’ functionality, how it is resolving technical problems of users, why businesses should use a helpdesk system and involvement of IT outsourcing. Increasing the profit is vital but nothing is important without your customers being satisfied. The helpdesk software is guaranteed to make sure customers are happy and win-win situation for everyone involved. Next chapter will be discussed the research design method for the proposed helpdesk system.

References

• Andrews, A., & Lucente, J. (2014). From incident reports to improvement recommendations: analyzing Information Technology helpdesk data. 2014 23rd Australian Software Engineering Conference. doi:10.1109/aswec.2014.25
• Bekker, S. (2014). Should You Outsource Your Help Desk? Redmondmag.com. Retrieved from https://redmondmag.com/Articles/2014/09/01/Should-You-Outsource.aspx?Page=3
• Burroughs, A. (2015). Successfully implement software systems in your workplace. Retrieved from http://www.sbnonline.com/article/how-to-successfully-implement-new-software-systems-in-your-company/
• business dictionary (2018) How has this term impacted your life? Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-satisfaction.html
• Hardaway, D., Mathieu, R., & Will, R. (2008). A New Mission for the Information Systems Discipline. Computer, 41(5), 81-83. doi: 10.1109/mc.2008.140
• Hughes, J. (2017, May 08). Pros and Cons of Help Desk Outsourcing. Retrieved from https://www.manxtechgroup.com/pros-and-cons-of-help-desk-outsourcing/
• Ismaili, F., Bulku, A., & Caushi, B. A. (2018). Analysis, design and implementation of a helpdesk management system — Case study “Albanian Radio Television”. 2018 41st International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO). doi:10.23919/mipro.2018.8400092
• Kobayashi, Y., & Tsuda, K. (2017). Customer satisfaction factor extraction method using text mining. 2017 International conference on emerging trends & innovation in ICT. doi:10.1109/etiict.2017.7977016
• Lee, J., Hillegersberg, J. V., & Kumar, K. (2015). An action design research on development and deployment of a computer-based group discussion support tool for achieving consensus and culture change at an educational institution. 2015 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. doi:10.1109/ieem.2015.7385871
• Othman, H. B., Zouaoui, M., & Hamdoun, M. (2016). Organisational culture and the acceptance of agile methodology. 2016 International Conference on Digital Economy (ICDEc). doi:10.1109/icdec.2016.7563140
• Pistole, L., & Bragg, A. (2005). Making IT outsourcing work for smaller enterprises. IT Professional,7(4), 12-17. doi:10.1109/mitp.2005.92
• Rajeev, M. (2018). What is Customer Satisfaction? Retrieved from https://www.freshworks.com/freshcaller-cloud-pbx/call-center-software/customer-satisfaction-definition-blog/
• Thompson, E. (2018, June 14). Outsourcing vs. In-House IT Help Desk: Small Business Dilemma Solved. Retrieved from https://www.business.org/marketing/seo/outsourcing-vs-in-house-it-help-desk-small-business-dilemma-solved/
• Walek, B. (2017). Intelligent System for Ordering Incidents in Helpdesk System. 2017 21st International Computer Science and Engineering Conference (ICSEC). doi:10.1109/icsec.2017.8444003
• Wang, D., Li, T., Zhu, S., & Gong, Y. (2011). IHelp: An Intelligent Online Helpdesk System. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics),41(1), 173-182. doi:10.1109/tsmcb.2010.2049352

References (In ‘List of Figures’)

• Figure 2.1 – Wang, D., Li, T., Zhu, S., & Gong, Y. (2011). IHelp: An Intelligent Online Helpdesk System. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics),41(1), 173-182. doi:10.1109/tsmcb.2010.2049352
• Figure 2.2 – Ismaili, F., Bulku, A., & Caushi, B. A. (2018). Analysis, design and implementation of a helpdesk management system — Case study “Albanian Radio Television”. 2018 41st International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO). doi:10.23919/mipro.2018.8400092
• Figure 2.3 – O’Reilly, C. A., III, Chatman, J. A., & Caldwell, D. F. (1991). People and organizational culture: Academy of Management Journal, 34, 487–516. Retrieved from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/s12-organizational-culture.html
• Figure 2.4 – Gardner, L. (2015). Retrieved from https://slideplayer.com/slide/6900766/