Have you ever wondered what happens after you ask an outsourced IT department at an IT support company for help?

Once you ask for help, your request becomes a ticket: it’s logged, sent to the right team, analyzed, resolved together with you and closed, with the solution documented for next time.

This article will answer some of your questions and will certainly help you understand the workflow, as well as why some requests take longer to resolve.

First, we need to understand the difference between an incident and a service request (SR). The distinction comes from ITIL, the best-practice framework used in IT services.

In plain language, an incident is when something that used to work no longer works at all or no longer works as well as it should, and an SR is when someone needs a change (for example, changing a password or moving a printer from one computer to another) or new functionality (for example, installing a new program, adding a new computer to the network or creating a new firewall rule).

Below, I’ll describe the states a ticket goes through (a ticket is how a request is logged and tracked), from receiving the request to resolving it:

• logging the request, received by email or phone, in the ticketing platform;
• assigning the ticket to the right department;
• the checks carried out before connecting to the client’s computer;
• contacting the client and connecting to the workstation;
• solving the problem and confirming with the client who reported it;
• filling in the solution and closing the ticket.

Let’s go through these stages one by one.

Logging requests

Logging requests correctly is absolutely critical when it comes to optimizing the workflow. Requests usually reach the helpdesk by email or phone, using the details on the contact page. We answer the phone within 15 minutes.

Some clients have direct access to the ticketing platform, but that doesn’t change the process in any way.

The technician who takes the request fills in all the information and then creates a ticket in the platform. The same happens for incidents (when something stops working) and for service requests (when someone wants a change implemented).

If necessary, the helpdesk technician contacts the client to ask for any additional information needed to resolve the ticket. This usually happens when requests are sent by email.

Assigning the ticket to the right department

Depending on its complexity and the equipment affected, a ticket can go to the following departments: helpdesk, remote technicians, on-site support or server administration. We’ve also written about this division in the article why IT support teams are divided into levels (L1, L2, L3).

Next, the team leader assigns the ticket to the person best suited to fix the problem. It can go directly to the on-site technicians, the system administrators or the remote technicians.

For companies that have an assigned technician, that technician receives the request and is therefore responsible for fixing it.

The checks needed before connecting

Before work on the ticket starts and before the client is contacted, the client-specific procedures and the affected equipment are reviewed. The ticketing platform is also checked to see whether the problem is a recurring one, and previous resolutions are studied.

That way, the person responsible for resolving the ticket has all the information they need.

If needed, the technician consults colleagues in server administration or the technician assigned to that client.

There are procedures specific to each client, as well as general procedures for handling problems. Because they’re constantly updated, any team member can quickly fix common incidents.

Contacting the client

If needed, the technician talks again with colleagues who know the client’s infrastructure or with the server administration team. Even though clients don’t see it, a team of several people from different departments may be working on fixing a problem.

Once all the necessary details are known, the technician contacts the client and connects to the affected equipment through the MspCoreX remote support app. We step in remotely within one hour, and when a technician is needed on site, they arrive within 2 – 4 hours, depending on the plan. This is the point where work on the problem the client reported actually begins.

Resolving the request

The request is considered resolved when the technical solution applied fixes the problem the client reported.

The technician explains to the client what caused the problem and what solution was adopted. For recurring situations, they propose technical solutions that fix the problem for good.

Filling in the solution and updating the client-specific information

Once the client’s problem is solved, the ticket is filled in and closed. The information in the procedures is updated, if necessary.

The ticket records the actual working time, as well as the time needed for reporting. Based on the tickets, you get a monthly report on what we did.

The processes described above aren’t complicated, but they depend heavily on the information written in the initial request. For this reason, if we don’t receive all the information we need, the workflow can slow down.

This article doesn’t cover exceptions or major incidents, where the whole resolution process is accelerated and the ticket reaches the resolution stage very quickly.

How can you help us find the solution faster?

By telling us everything you know about the problem from the start. A complete request includes:

• your name, your company and a phone number where we can reach you;
• the affected computer, printer or application;
• what you’re trying to do and what happens instead;
• the exact error message (a screenshot helps a lot);
• when the problem started and whether it affects your colleagues too;
• how urgent it is: whether it stops you from working or can wait.

RezolvIT is an IT outsourcing company with a client-focused approach. We place great emphasis on communication, both internally and with the client, so we can adopt the best and fastest solutions when the type of incident reported calls for it. We’ve also written more about IT outsourcing and communication.