InvGate Blog

While the worst part of the COVID-19 crisis might be behind us, “we’re not out of the woods yet.” Most organizations are trying to adapt to the “new normal” – even though the new normal has yet to fully materialize yet – and we’re still living and working in the shadow of a potential second wave. Even if localized rather than national. In many ways, your IT service desk is in a position of rebuilding for this new normal. Both rebuilding how it delivers service and support to the parent organization and supporting that organization as it rebuilds itself too. As part of this rebuilding effort, it’s important to understand what will need to change – with a big part of this influenced by the challenges that your IT service desk, and the wider organization, will come across through the rest of 2020 and perhaps into 2021 too. To help, this blog considers six of the key challenges that your IT support organization is likely to face.

Topics: Service Desk, COVID-19, new normal

Your IT department and IT service desk likely performed miracles during the early part of the COVID-19 crisis. Both setting up and then supporting a predominantly office-based workforce as homeworkers such that your business could continue to operate. Hopefully, you all received the business recognition you deserved too. However, your role in the pandemic is still far from over – as your business starts to bring employees back into the workplace there are many parts for IT to play.

Topics: IT support, COVID-19, Pandemic

Post-COVID-19 crisis, we – as a society – have a long way to go still but, despite the pain of the first half of 2020, there was a lot to celebrate and to learn from for corporate IT organizations. Hopefully, your IT organization and IT service management (ITSM) personnel have reflected upon what were probably miserable times on a day-to-day basis to see just how many challenges they responded to. It’s good to call out these successes. But it’s perhaps even more important to understand the learnings and to build on them as we all go forward into what will be the “new normal” for IT service delivery and support. To help, this blog calls out some of the key challenges faced by IT organizations, offering a key piece of learning for each.

Topics: ITSM, COVID-19

Even as we progress in what is now the “new normal,” the impact of the COVID-19 crisis continues to challenge IT service desks around the globe. But what about the challenges of your end users? IT professionals are techies and engineers. We love our gadgets and having new toys to play with. The rest of the business? Not so much. Using smartphones or apps will be second nature to most IT professionals but it’s a completely different story for some of our colleagues. To help, this blog looks at ways to best manage the shift in working practices for employees and their potentially new technology needs in the “new normal.”  

Topics: COVID-19

We think we can all agree that it’s not easy delivering the best IT support service to our colleagues at the moment. There’s a higher volume of tickets, a lack of people due to illness, social distancing, or self-isolation (with IT support staff remote working too), as well as limited equipment and delivery mechanisms. Plus, our customers are likely to feel differently, and isolated, when IT issues prevent them from doing the work they need to do while working at home.  It all means that keeping normal service levels going is a real challenge. To help, this blog explains how you can manage your queues effectively such that you and your team can better keep on top of the most important things.

Topics: COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis has brought new ways of working to many employees, with them now confined to their homes. Likely using more technology – to get their work done – than ever. The crisis has also impacted how IT organizations work. In particular, being able to support the large increase in homeworkers. From the additional equipment and new IT solutions that have been required to the refocusing of IT support on the key employee issues such as the lack of connectivity impacting their productivity (while working from home). Plus, of course, your organization’s IT employees aren’t immune to the need to stay at, and work from, home either – with the ramifications this brings. 

Topics: enterprise service management, COVID-19

Service desk technicians and IT departments across the globe are under an unprecedented amount of strain due to the COVID-19 crisis. For instance, higher volumes of calls and longer days as a result, more demanding end users (who are unable to work at home because of technology issues), sick or absent colleagues making workloads harder to complete, and perhaps even homeworking themselves for the first time. All of which will undoubtedly harm their wellbeing and potentially even their mental health.   To help, with the potential issues here, this blog looks at ways to safeguard and better look after your IT support people. 

Topics: COVID-19, mental health

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way that many employees work in a very short space of time. So, it’s no wonder that there are some frayed nerves out there. Employees are often having to adapt to working remotely, potentially with unfamiliar equipment and/or less-than-ideal workspaces. To help, this blog looks at ways to deal with frustrated end users and how best to help them effectively, efficiently, and with empathy.   

Topics: COVID-19

IT service desks everywhere are under pressure. The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way we work and how businesses are able to operate around the world. Employees might be ill, and others are self-isolating and having to work in completely different ways. Many IT service desks will be dealing with staff shortages, an influx of remote working tickets and equipment requests, and the potential negative effect on morale that these might bring. To help you, this blog looks at seven tips to help turn things around when your IT service desk is overwhelmed. Especially in a time of crisis. 

Topics: COVID-19