Although not  all SaaS applications are created equal, the SaaS model itself is mature and tested.  Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud company, has more than 87,000 enterprise customers and two million individual subscribers using its services and its Force.com platform for a variety of business-critical, hosted applications —from sales and service (otherwise known as CRM) to IT infrastructure management and database management.   salesforce.com customers range from small- and medium-sized businesses to Fortune 1000 companies and multinationals.

 

Twenty-three percent of those surveyed used SaaS for their IT help desk, and nearly 28 percent used SaaS for their IT infrastructure. Other uses included CRM, human resources/finance, and other applications. Slightly more than half were notusing SaaS.

 

As expected,respondents adopted SaaS solutions over traditional, on-premise solutions for avariety of IT services for the following key reasons:

 
  • Efficiency
  • Scalability
  • Reliability andavailability
  • Minimal startup cost
  • Low-cost monthlysubscription and automatic upgrades


 

Businesses with a mission-critical IT help desk and demanding operational requirements —such as telecommunications vendors — are entrusting their help desk to the cloud.

For example, Allied Wireless Communications Corporation (AWCC) provides Alltel wireless services to more than 800,000 customers in six states. The company chose a cloud-based service desk solution that provides a consolidated service desk with self-service and inventory management capabilities. Key to the company’s decision was the solution’s strategic, subscription-based pricing and the speed of implementation.

 

The IT help desk is an ideal candidate for SaaS for several reasons. The help desk is an established function in IT, having been around since the days of mainframes.  The function has mature, automated processes and standardized best practices,which
have been bolstered further by best practices from the IT Infrastructure Library®(ITIL®).

 

The IT helpdesk is in the critical path of business: A server problem or a lost password can knock a financial trader or customer offline, resulting in lost business.  Speed, efficiency, effective collaboration, and scalability are important to success. By definition, the IT help desk is constantly changing as it adapts to new users, new business applications and systems, and new work patterns (such as mobile computing). The more you can automate and standardize the function,  the more efficient you can make the entire experience for everyone involved.

 

Nearly 32 percent of respondents not currently using SaaS for their help desk are using homegrown solutions or manual processes.This suggests the potential for savings and operational efficiencies by off-loading software maintenance, development, and administration to a SaaS  application delivered over the cloud.

 

The most effective IT help desk is mostly invisible. This means that IT is able toautomatically solve most problems before people notice them — and fix problems faster. The help desk empowers business people to reset their passwords, gain access to new services, or solve most of their own problems from their Web browsers or self-service portals.

 

Now, picture being able to have a help desk that is better and faster and that reduces costs because you are using the Web and OPI (Other People’s Infrastructure), while creating a better experience for help desk staffers and customers alike. That’s the big advantage of SaaS and the cloud for the IT help desk.

 

As the business environments you support become more complex and dynamic, your IT team will need ever-simpler solutions for doing things better, faster, and more efficiently. SaaS and the cloud can meet these needs for the IT help desk in many businesses, just as has been done so effectively for customer relationship  management (CRM), the IT infrastructure, human resources, and other functions.

 

Up next:  the evolution of SaaS for the IT help desk.

By: ITSM Guy