Service Desk and Digital Transformation. Trend 2023

Index

1. Three key elements: optimize, scale and innovate
2. The Service Desk follows the Digital Transformation trends
3. Pat's Service Desk in line with Digital Transformation 2023 trends

2023 is upon us and new scenarios for the Service Desk are already being analysed, in relation to Digital Transformation trends.

Surely the global economic situation and the uncertainties of some markets place companies in difficult situations, for which some of these will be forced to reduce costs, others will continue with existing expansion plans and still others will completely change the direction of their strategy corporate.

Certainly, companies have an imperative to cut costs by optimizing IT, introduce new digital initiatives, scale networks to offer value and new business growth by following new business routes.

Three key elements: optimize, scale and innovate

Gartner foresees three central themes as trends for 2023, which will also affect the Service Desk and Digital Transformation areas and which will be able to help companies overcome the current economic and market challenges: optimization, scalability and innovation.

The digital transformation that now pervades companies and people has introduced new ways of working, interacting and providing assistance.

Priority is almost always linked to operational efficiency, so the time factor (timeliness of action and response) is often strategic.

In this context, the concepts of "Low-code, no-code" and "automation" are making room, which we will explore below:

1. Low-code and no-code:

Today's companies, despite having abundant data and can employ specific IT management resources (teams of analysts and developers) to simplify business processes, often struggle to meet the demand for innovative services, which in many ways are the engine of Digital Transformation.

This is where “low-code and no-code” tools come in: low-code development platforms (LCDP) require some basic coding skills to develop and integrate complex applications, while development platforms no- code (NCDP) do not require any programming knowledge. Ultimately, these technologies are designed to allow even "non-experts" (developers) to create, modify and manage applications using predefined building blocks or simple graphical interfaces.

It is estimated that 70% of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies by 2025, up from less than 25% in 2020.

2. Automation:

Automating an ever-increasing range of business processes will be at the heart of digital transformation efforts in the years to come, enabling simple repetitive tasks to be eliminated from the human to-do list.

This trend is a business improvement approach that organizations will use to identify, control and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.

The objectives to be pursued, through a wide range of automated processes, are:

- improve the quality of work;
- speed up business processes;
- improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process.

The Service Desk also follows the new Digital Transformation scenarios and therefore integrates automation technologies, the "low code", Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots.

Automation processes are at the top of the list of business expectations to implement. This trend has already been present for several years in the context of Service Management and will continue to be present as automation increases the performance of the Service Desk.

How should the Service Desk be structured? Here are the 2023 trends:

1. Automation of processes

Automation is fast becoming one of the most popular tools in the world of Customer Service. Companies need to identify more effective solutions to increase efficiency and productivity: automation has proved to be extremely useful in these cases, as it allows to simplify and manage repetitive tasks without human intervention.
For example, an automated helpdesk system can notify staff members via notifications or reminders when a customer issue needs to be followed up.

2. Promote AI self-service

Self-service support is at the heart of most Service Desk technology. Methods like FAQs and Knowledge Base articles are often replaced by intelligent systems, bots and virtual assistants.
Chatbot, for example, can be much more efficient at solving customer problems or providing potential solutions. In fact, Chatbot, in addition to guaranteeing initial support for the most frequent problems, can also call up specific articles and dedicated resources, useful for guiding users in self-solving their request.
Self-service portals, both for users and operators, can be integrated into Service Desk systems.

The potential benefits of implementing self-service portals with Chatbot and AI services are:

• 24/7 service availability.
• Immediate response times.
• Quick answers to simple questions.
• Easy communication.
• Faster resolution of service complaints or escalations.

3. Wider range of means of support

Relying mainly on FAQ and Knowledge Base articles for self-help is not enough to meet the expectations of service users.
In today's highly digitized world, to request and receive assistance, service users expect more advanced and engaging ways to receive information and solve their problems. The use of video, options for instant escalation, as well as the ability to request a callback from a user service agent are options within a modern set of service technology tools.

4. Cloud services at the core

The cloud helps organizations be more agile, and cloud adoption has already been on the rise for several years.
Modern businesses focus on making good use of cloud environments and optimizing hybrid IT. In this context, a cloud-isolated approach to IT management is obsolete: it is being chosen by an increasing number of vertical industries and revolutionizes the way in which IT provision, manage and orchestrate resources.

5. Improve the Service Desk with ITIL 4

ITIL 4, about which we wrote a dedicated article, is an operating model that aligns IT services with business needs and focuses on the key concepts of value, cost and risk. This framework encompasses the best practices for bringing effective IT value to an organization and is therefore crucial for the management of IT services.
The ITIL 4 guide for the Service Desk was first published in February 2020. To date, therefore, a degree of maturity should have been reached such that these new guidelines are adopted, with the aim of creating effective value from IT-supported products and services.

Fully in line with 2023 trends, HDA, Pat's solution for the Service Desk and IT Service Management responds to all the scenarios listed above.
Always attentive to technological innovations with a view to the evolution of its solutions, Pat is working on the following fronts for the Service Desk:

1. Automation and No Code

HDA, in the latest release, enhances the No-Code peculiarity of its workflows. The latest version of Pat's Service Desk tool provides for a very advanced use of automation systems to increase the efficiency of the work flow in multiple company areas.

Thanks to the development of these new features, it will be possible to create support and business processes in complete autonomy from the web interface of the application and, thanks to the visual editor, it will be possible to create processes that previously required ad-hoc developments . For example, it will be possible to design automatic flows for assistance requests relating to any company department.

Following the 2023 trends, HDA allows you to design processes that are performed automatically, following the occurrence of certain events.

2. Continuous promotion of Self-Service and integrated Artificial Intelligence

One of HDA's most popular channels for opening reports has always been the self-service portal.

In fact, the Customer Portal guarantees maximum usability and ease of use for end users. Thanks to a completely renewed interface, it is absolutely intuitive and immediate to open tickets and reports, following the elements available in the Service Catalogue.

Furthermore, the user can easily interact in real time with the Customer Interaction Engagent chat tool.

3. Increase means of support and contact channels

Digitization also takes place through the proposed availability of contact channels for making reports.
The HDA Service Desk, in addition to traditional channels such as e-mail, portal, CTI integrations, offers its own Chatbot Engagent as the first virtual support for users.
Through Engagent it is also possible to integrate the Microsoft Teams channel, a company interaction tool that has over 13 million users every day.

The Chat Engagent solution, within the App section of Microsoft Teams, offers the possibility to provide assistance to users by sending proactive notifications. It will be possible to submit them to surveys on the level of service of a product or service provided, even automatically, or to support them in changing passwords or other technical problems.

HDA also integrates with Zapier enabling the transfer of data from one app to another and allowing you to easily set up integrated and automated workflows.
Thanks to this integration, HDA can connect with the more than 2000 apps that Zapier makes available and automate repetitive tasks, saving users time and increasing their productivity.

4. ITIL 3 compliant and ITIL 4 compliant

HDA complies with ITIL guidelines through Incident Problem and Change processes. HDA offers all the right tools to the IT team for continuous improvement of services, aimed at meeting user expectations and achieving business objectives.

Available in both Cloud and On-Premise modes, HDA is the Service Management solution for medium and large companies that want to structure and optimize their assistance processes.

Find out what's new in HDA for the Service Desk and the management of business services.