Helpdesk and incident reporting auditing

Help desk and incident reporting auditing is an examination of the controls within the help desk operations. The audit process collects and evaluates evidence of an organization's help desk and incident reporting practices, and operations. The audit ensures that all problems reported by users have been adequately documented and that controls exist so that only authorized staff can archive the users’ entries. It also determine if there are sufficient controls to escalate issues according to priority.

Types of help desks

The management and support of IT assets is essential for all businesses. Help desks are now fundamental and key aspects of good business service and operation. Through the help desk, problems are reported, managed and then appropriately resolved in a timely manner. Help desks can provide both internal and external users the ability to ask questions and receive effective answers. Moreover, help desks can help the organization run smoothly and improve the quality of the support it offers to the users.

Help desk auditing

Objectives

Auditing procedure

  1. Does management calculate how many problems are reported per month?
  2. How many problems are resolved per month by individual help desk staff members?
  3. Does management compare the number of problems reported per day with the number of problems resolved per day?
For the last question, tracking systems will help to identify whether the help desk has adequate staff to deal with the number of issues received at any given time. Furthermore, the problems distribution should be monitored to ensure that the staff is appropriately scheduled in to meet customer demand.

Software

Today, there are many software choices which help management operate the help desk functions. In addition, these software products greatly improve the auditing of help desk operation. Help desk software is management software that automates many features of an organization’s help desk environment, such as automated email response. It gives businesses the capability of using a systematic approach to responding to both internal and external users.

The typical functionality of help desk software includes:

The core components of any help desk software application include the abilities to record and track support requests through all stages. In addition, reporting is also a key element to providing detailed information on how the system is running. The right choice of help desk software depends on the size of the organization and the complexity of the support process. The business needs will vary greatly during different periods of time.

Help desk software common functions

Outsourcing

The outsourcing of the help desk function and IT operations as a whole are a growing trend. However, it is important for the management to be aware of the ultimate responsibility for the help desk. This responsibility is still retained in the organization and not in the outsourcing firms. Help desk is still substantially important even if it is outsourced. In addition, it is critical to have appropriate management structure. Outsourcing decisions always involved both risks and benefits. The risks can be mitigated through careful planning. Whether it is a right decision or not for the organization to outsource can be decided through research. It also helps in delegating responsibilities to one and each.

Summary

Help desks play a key role in modern business organizations. A well designed and maintained help desk can substantially:

Effective auditing practices can contribute to maintaining the high quality of help desks, and help desk software may further improve the efficiency of help desk auditing.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.