Why DIY IT support may cost more than you think

Buying service desk and asset management tools may appear to be an expensive outlay, with the payoff of more efficient IT service and support expected to take years.  Yet the ‘cheaper’ options such as using manual, ‘free’ or incumbent tools, may be costing you more than you think.


If you are a helpdesk using a piecemeal approach to managing IT support, you are not alone.  A surprising number of schools, colleges and universities that we speak to still rely on spreadsheets, pen and paper, and savvy staff to maintain their helpdesk.  This is understandable given the constant battle to control budgets - if there’s a ‘free’ option, why would we buy a dedicated software solution?

However, a shallow dive below the surface of these ‘clever chap with a pen and Excel’ operations offers a very different picture.  In reality, this style of IT support is extremely expensive, for two main reasons:

1) Massive resource drain
Yes, it is possible create a report from a spreadsheet.  Yes, technically you can manage incidents with a pen and paper.  But the time to log, track and document calls these way puts a huge time strain on staff.  We tend to forget the cost of our time because salaries dictate it has already been paid for.  But taking away this burden can allow us to focus on the really important things, like helping out customers.



2) Reinventing the wheel...everyday
You have skilled staff who pick up the phone and fix each problem.  Everything seems fine.  Yet each incident is treated as an individual entity.  Has someone already solved this last week?  Are we giving conflicting information?  Are we missing an opportunity to nip a common problem in the bud?  With a manual system, we simply have no idea how expensive our service is and how much wasted effort we are pouring into simple tasks.

Similarly, there are many education providers who are using helpdesk and IT support tools which appear to be fit for purpose.  “Our tools support ITIL processes, we know how to use them and they are working perfectly well, thank you very much.”  There is of course an element of truth to this, but such an outlook ignores a crucial element: things have changed.

IT support has changed.  Whereas once, a break/fix service was all that was required, today students and teachers rarely need to be taught how to reboot their PC or change the printer ink.  They need help with configuration, adding new devices to the network and hooking up laptops to myriad displays.  The ‘basics’ are no longer enough, helpdesk software today must be powerful enough to make commodity transactions a breeze, while freeing up staff to offer the top class service users demand.  Similarly, software has changed.  Cloud and consumerisation have driven down the cost of software ownership, and many schools and colleges are paying over the odds.  We’ve recently spoken to two institutions who were paying maintenance costs on an asset management and simple incident workflow system respectively that is more expensive than the entire Richmond Systems suite.

Find out why we've been trusted for more than 20 years to improve IT support in the education sector by downloading the Richmond Systems helpdesk software free trial, or requesting an online demo to see how Richmond Systems can improve the quality and value of your IT support.