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The kind of support provided to the employees plays a major role in the productivity of an organization. If you manage to provide seamless and personalized support to your employees, you will witness higher employee productivity, an improved work environment, and better productivity of your organization. 

However, not every organization is successful in catering to the specific needs of its employees. Although employee service desks have been in practice for several years, they have not been able to provide the kind of assistance an employee would need in 2021. In an age where digitization is at its peak, it is important to choose an ITSM tool that makes use of advanced technologies and helps you pay individual attention to all the employees working within your organization. 

The traditional ITSM tools are getting obsolete over time and are losing relevance. With an approach that is fragmented, delayed, and often complicated, employees found these tools of little use and stuck to making calls and sending emails instead. 

This makes it important for an organization to choose an ITSM tool that makes them future-proof and is in sync with the latest technological advancements. Such tools not only help you serve your employees better but also make the job of support agents easier. 

Before getting to the things to keep in mind while choosing an ITSM tool for your business, let us understand why an ITSM tool is important for an organization. 

The Importance Of An ITSM Tool

Improved Productivity 

A good ITSM tool will make sure that all the queries of your employees are managed and solved on time. Instead of them having to look for the right person to answer their questions and guide them all the way, an ITSM tool does the same job with little to no human intervention. 

This makes your employees spend less time looking for answers and getting back to work faster, improving their work productivity. 

Reduced Scope Of Error 

Traditionally, employee support was provided by setting up physical help desks and appointing dedicated agents for handling the requests of employees. Adopting this approach in 2021 would increase the chances of several errors being committed because of a high number of cases managed by limited agents. 

Using an ITSM tool automates a number of processes carried out for the purpose of providing efficient employee support. The use of digital platforms and the latest technologies increases the efficiency of support provided and reduces the chances of errors committed to a great extent. 

Effective Knowledge Management 

As compared to the traditional approach to providing employee support, using an ITSM tool allows you to manage your enterprise knowledge better. The modern service desks make sure that your employees are provided with personalized solutions to all their issues by scanning the enterprise knowledge base effectively. 

Faster Resolution Of Issues 

An ITSM tool helps your employees to obtain answers to their questions without having to make repeated phone calls and sending emails to the dedicated executives. The modern service desks ensure that your employees get their queries answered in a matter of seconds. 

Things To Keep In Mind Before Choosing An ITSM Tool

When you are choosing an ITSM tool, always make sure that you go with a modern employee service desk that incorporates a smart approach to solving employee issues and provide a variety of different functionalities to make their work better. 

In 2021, it is always advisable to choose an employee service desk that uses AI technology for providing integrated and seamless support. The use of artificial intelligence makes your ITSM tool analyze datasets, find patterns and provide holistic support to your employees. 

Here are some of the major things you should consider before finalizing an ITSM tool for your organization. 

1. Always Give A Preference To AI Chatbots 

When an ITSM tool makes use of conversational AI, it allows your employees to have conversations with virtual assistants that guide them every step of the way. If provided with an option, always go for an ITSM tool that makes use of AI chatbots. 

As opposed to the traditional ITSM tools that placed support agents for providing the first line of support, AI chatbots handle this L1 support without any human intervention. They accompany your employee right from the moment they log in to the platform and provide answers to all the basic questions readily. 

Moreover, the AI chatbots route the cases of your employees to suitable agents if they are not happy with the L1 support. The modern ITSM tools have these virtual assistants act as a single-point connection between your employees and the support agents. 

2. Look For Invisible Ticketing System 

The traditional ITSM tools often ended up making employees confused and helpless because of the manual ticketing system. It is important to understand that not all employees are well-versed with the process of creating and managing support tickets. 

It is always advisable to go for an ITSM tool that automates the ticketing system and makes it invisible for the employees. This is essentially an extension of the functionality of AI chatbots. When an employee chooses to get their cases routed to a dedicated support agent, the chatbots automatically create a support ticket and adds them to the system. This ticket is then managed without any efforts required by the concerned employee until the case is resolved in a satisfactory manner. 

3. Make Sure The Tool’s Functionality Matches Your Company’s Needs 

The scope of employee support within an organization is huge. Before you finalize implementing an ITSM tool for your organization, make sure that its features and functionality match with the objectives you are willing to achieve. 

It is advisable to clearly define the specific needs of your company and look for a tool that is capable of satisfying the same. Make sure that the developer is well-versed with your objectives and designs the service desk accordingly. There are two major ways in which you can alter the functionality of an ITSM tool – configuration and customization. 

Configuration involves making changes within the platform by altering a few specific parameters without affecting the fundamental design and architecture of the platform. On the other hand, customization involves making changes in the platform’s codes for achieving the desired functionality. 

4. A Provision For Live Agent Interaction 

Although if an ITSM tool is providing you with AI chatbots for dealing with employee issues, it is always advisable to go for a tool that has a provision for live agent interaction as well. Go for an automated service desk that allows your employees to have a live interaction with a support agent over a call or a chat. This helps them in obtaining complete support and satisfactory resolutions to all their problems. 

5. Microlearning Features Are Always Beneficial 

The purpose of a modern ITSM tool is not limited to providing employee support and answering queries of your employees. Its scope is wider and includes several additional functionalities. One such functionality is that of providing microlearning features to your employees. 

If your employees are required to get specific training for performing their jobs or if you are willing them to sharpen their skill-set, always choose an ITSM tool that provides them with extensive training without the need for a dedicated trainer. 

All you need to do is add relevant training resources to your knowledge base and allow your employees to access the same according to their convenience. This helps you cut down the cost of training employees and allows your team to be self-reliant. Modern ITSM tools make sure that your employees learn all necessary micro-skills by themselves and at their own pace. When your employees become increasingly self-reliant, it gives them a sense of confidence and makes them work hard. Ultimately, you are gifted with higher employee engagement and increased work productivity. 

6. Platform Flexibility 

No organization would want the developers to take days for making trivial changes in an ITSM tool. Always go for a platform that is versatile and flexible enough to be customized according to your needs without taking much time in doing so. This would not only help you add new features to your ITSM tools but also update the platform as per the latest technological trends. 

7. Cost Of Implementation 

It is always important for an organization to take every step towards making an expense in a way that provides them with a decent ROI. Working out a budget before finalizing the ITSM tool that you want to go for will always help you in assessing the options available to you. 

However, never make the mistake of assuming that the cheapest option is the best. One of the most common and disastrous mistakes committed by organizations is to go with the cheapest alternative. When you make the decision of implementing an ITSM tool solely on the basis of its cost, you may end up paying more for repairs and modifications by going with the cheapest option. 

It is, therefore, always advisable to go with an option that falls within the range of your budget, provides you with all the required features, and helps you get a good return on this investment. 

8. Always Go For An Integrated Platform 

The traditional approach to employee support was often criticized for its fragmented support. It required different employees to go to different platforms for getting their issues resolved. This often resulted in a chaotic structure, delayed responses, and confused employees. 

It is always advisable to go with an ITSM tool that provides you with an integrated approach to employee support. The modern IT service desks are no longer limited to the IT department. These platforms can be used for project management purposes and as help desks by departments like HR, Finance, Marketing, and Sales. 

When you choose an ITSM tool that can be used by all employees working in all departments, you can streamline your support services and provide seamless assistance to your employees. 

9. Integration With Collaborative Platforms 

Organizations across the world have increasingly started adopting online collaborative platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams since the pandemic started. Now that your employees are working remotely, you need to make sure that their support needs are taken care of while they work at the virtual workspaces. 

This can be done by going with an ITSM tool that can be readily integrated with an online collaborative platform. Generally, employees tend to work on one platform and seek assistance from a platform dedicated to employee support. Instead of making them waste their time in switching platforms and tallying data between, you can get the ITSM tool integrated within the platform your employees work on. 

This will save the time your employees spend looking for solutions to their issues and help the ITSM tool make use of the data stored within the collaborative platform. The modern service desks will analyze this data and use the same to provide personalized support to your employees. 

10. Get Your Employees Involved In Making The Decision 

Ultimately, it is your employees you are going to be using the ITSM tool you are willing to implement within your organization. It is always advisable to take their consent, feedback, and suggestions when it comes to selecting an ITSM tool. 

Take note of the issues faced by all your employees and ask them to suggest the kind of support they expect from an ITSM tool. This would help you narrow down your choices and provide you with a clear set of objectives that you want to attain by implementing the right ITSM tool. 

The Final Word 

Automated and integrated ITSM tools are definitely the future of employee support. Whenever you set out to choose an ideal service desk for your employees, always keep the factors discussed above in mind and never compromise the quality of a tool for the price. 

If you have any more suggestions for the factors to consider before choosing an ITSM tool, let us discuss the same in the comments below.