Having the right tools at the right time can make the difference between whether your business flourishes or is at a standstill. We recommend providing your IT team with a toolbox filled with the essentials that they’ll need to battle challenges, perform user troubleshooting and defend your network.
While every organization (or industry) has their favorite software packages, there are some common support tools that every IT team should have:
- Network Security
- Data Storage and Management
- Data Recovery
- Capacity Planning
- Performance Monitoring
- Knowledge-Based Software
- Project Management Software
- Remote Monitoring and Management
- Help Desk Ticketing System
- Live Chat
- Customer Feedback Survey
- Reporting Dashboard
Learn More: The 5 Most Common Desktop Support IT Problems and Solutions
Tools for Field Engineers
It’s a jungle out there. Prepare your IT Field Engineers for whatever they might encounter. Here’s the basics that they’ll need.
Network Security
Securing your network is a top priority for every IT team. Typically part of your network monitoring, a network security solution should include a wide breadth of tools including firewalls, anti-malware, access control, VPN, anti-spam and web security. Tailor your tools to meet the needs of your team and your business.
Further Reading: Network Security Best Practices for Remote & Hybrid Workers
Data Storage and Management
A data storage and management tool will assist your IT team with information transfer and storage. Today Microsoft SharePoint/Teams/OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. are commonly used to manage data storage and the flow of files.
Data Recovery
In the event of a cyberattack or accidental loss of data, having a recent data backup is crucial. Data recovery tools are part of the foundation of any IT team. They will retrieve lost or deleted files and bring your organization back to running at full capacity, faster.
Capacity Planning
As your business grows, so will your network. Capacity planning tools will help your IT staff better plan for expansion. Be prepared to scale up when the time is right and not be left behind by the competition.
Performance Monitoring
Keep watch 24/7 over your servers and system with performance monitoring software. It’s an IT Field Engineer’s secret weapon. Performance monitoring software will crunch the data and offer key metrics about your network’s performance. Use this data to make adjustments that will optimize the performance of your network.
Knowledge-Based Software
Every organization has common questions that employees ask (especially newbies). Having a self-serve library of organizational knowledge is a handy way for an employee to find an answer to their question, quickly. Knowledge-based software is designed to help you create and share FAQs, videos, step-by-step tutorials and more. This tool will keep important organizational information at the fingertips of your employees.
Learn More: How to Perform Better Than the Average Attrition Rate for Tech
Project Management Software
Tracking the progress of your teams, is essential. Project management software often provides a dashboard for fast visualization of project statuses and the ability to generate reports to show milestones, completion timelines, and the spread of projects across all members of your team. This software will assist you to quickly organize, prioritize and show the progress of all of the projects assigned to your team. Break your project up into milestone steps and assign tasks to those who will be responsible. No more asking for the status of a project. Project management software will document everything in one central location.
Tools for Help Desk Engineers
Equip your Help Desk Engineers with the tools they’ll need to succeed. When they have these essentials, you’ll be enabling them to increase their productivity, reduce headaches and keep your business running smoothly.
Remote Monitoring and Management
A remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool will assist your Help Desk to make quick fixes when you need to troubleshoot a problem that a user has reported. No longer do Help Desk Engineers need to physically access a computer when troubleshooting is needed. This tool will enable a virtual connection between the two computers. After a user grants access, your Help Desk Engineer will be able to fully control the user’s computer and change settings, download a software patch or perform any other necessary fix. This tool is perfect for Help Desk teams whether they are assisting users in-office, work-from-home or other remote employees.
Help Desk Ticketing System
Give your Help Desk a hand by adding a Help Desk Ticketing System. This is especially helpful when user requests are received via a variety of communication methods (e.g. email, phone, text message, chat, etc.) A Help Desk Ticketing System is a tool that will allow your team to stay organized by logging support tickets, streamlining workflows, automating ticket routing to knowledgeable team members and encourage team collaboration for faster response times and customer service excellence.
Live Chat
Provide options for your users to report their challenges with hardware or software. Live chat has become a popular option for workplace staff to ask their IT team a quick question. In this manner, answers will be given in real time. In addition, chatbots can assist in determining the type of question being asked and route the chat to the IT team member most knowledgeable about the subject.
Customer Feedback Survey
Customer feedback is integral to the future success of your business. You can gain insight into the minds of your customers by adding a customer feedback survey tool to your tech stack.
What you would like to ask your customer, is up to you. But these surveys typically include questions that provide metrics to show a customer’s level of satisfaction with the service they received and their thoughts about recommending the service to a colleague. Data gained from your customer feedback survey tool today, will guide the strategy for your IT team, tomorrow.
Reporting Dashboard
Once you determine the metrics that are most critical to your business, create a reporting dashboard to monitor them. Having a dashboard will enable your team to track important analytics and monitor the pulse of your business. Reports created from this dashboard of data will track computer usage, help desk queries, website data and more. If it’s important to the success of your business, include it on your reporting dashboard.
Personalizing your Tech Stack
With the correct tech stack, your IT team will be ready to support the needs of your entire organization. Make sure they have not only the basics, but a complete toolkit to be ready for whatever they encounter whether they are working at the help desk or out in the field.
Elevity’s evolved approach to technology management will assist in product evaluation and recommendations to better equip your internal IT team. We’re here to elevate security and deliver comprehensive technology management and integrated co-managed services to growing organizations of all sizes in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Want to learn more about how to create a better IT Help Desk? Download your complimentary copy of our Checklist for Identifying Support Desk Needs. This handy checklist details 10 best practices to paint a picture of what a successful Help Desk needs.
