Help Desk vs Service Desk

As with many things in the world of IT, there are no specific rules that vendors must follow when naming their services, and the two terms are often used interchangeably for services that provide similar functionality.

So while the name may give you a point of reference, it is necessary to look deeper and consider the purpose and use case of each to understand the key differences.

While the scope of each has been established to an extent through the ITIL framework, it doesn’t provide much practical advice on the differences and how to identify each one.

Welcome to the Help Desk

A Help Desk allows the IT department to respond to unexpected issues within IT infrastructure or the services they provide. A Help Desk is reactionary, and is used to manage problems when they arise, allowing for them to be logged, tracked and resolved. A Help Desks will focus on facilitating the communication between support staff and end users to help solve problems, and its purpose is to keep things running on a day to day basis.

Service Desk, the Help Desk's strategic big brother

it can do everything the Help Desk does, but also allow you to plan, structure and provide the delivery a wide variety of IT services. Instead of merely reacting to problems as they arise, it allows for a more strategic approach to IT Service Management and acts as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all IT activities.

Service Desks typically include elements such as a Service Catalog, which formalize the processes and resources required to deliver a particular service, and allows them to be requested either by an end user or internal customers such as members of the IT department.

In a Service Desk environment, communication is handled not only between end users and IT, but also internal IT communication as well.

Both Help Desk and Service Desk have to work with the necessary speed, continuity and expertise. You can count on this when you entrust your support to us.