The help desk can have a greater dimension than a mere reactive crisis centre coping with the concerns encountered by the consumers
. It has the potential to be used as a predictive and diagnostic tool, functioning as a nexus of data and interaction. With the ever increasing IT system complexities, the rising expectations and demands of the end user today the help desk has reached a crucial point of its development rather than just getting stagnated in a technology-oriented phase.
There were many definitions of IT help desk solutions by various IT analysts and authors. One of them is it being an accessible service point which will offer on-demand service, data or action to help the user in conducting IT associated tasks. Apart from this basic definition, the role of the help desk is generally extended to that of only a technology facilitator, attained by the analysis and collation of data at the help desk to manage end-user technology proactively. However, in the recent past IT analysts coined a term real help desk that identifies three crucial aspects of the help desk:
* Multiple and centralized help desks
* A staff operating exclusively on a rotational basis
* The manning of experts and staff with a basic knowledge that can pass on issues
Today solution providers of agile methodology have introduced innovative help desk solutions keeping in mind present day client need and requirements. These solutions with their multi-user role resolution capacity help multiple helpdesk persons to enact various roles for various situations. Advanced IT help desk solutions or software assists multiple help desk procedures and helps in deploying several workflows within a single helpdesk interface. Most solutions come with a task-based process engine that helps in multiple parallel tasks allocated to various people that are associated with the same helpdesk ticket. Furthermore, there is a drag and drop configurability of the process designer that helps in executing process alterations in hours than weeks. These apart, advanced help desk management solutions are equipped with computation compatibility that makes the Service Level Agreements (SLA) estimations automatic and simple.
The concept of help desk management is a new phenomenon in the IT landscape and does not completely fit into a single subject domain. As a result it is an area of the information science, computing and service management communities.