If someone in your company has asked you for your opinion of adopting a shift-left IT helpdesk strategy, you may have no idea what they’re talking about. However, the basic concept is simple enough. It involves making better use of automated tools and self-help solutions to drop the complexity of a help request to a lower level that it currently occupies. For instance, you can turn a Level 1 help request into a Level 0 request by maintaining a knowledge base of FAQs and other user-accessible DIY instructions, or by introducing an automated troubleshooting portal for simple problems.
Some technical problems don’t lend themselves to the shift-left approach. For instance, if you run into a Level 4 issue that your organization doesn’t provide support for at all, you can’t shift them into the Level 3 category. However, shift-left strategies can prove extremely valuable for low-level requests. How valuable are we talking about? A typical Level 0 request costs about 10 percent as much to address as a Level 1 request, while a Level 2 request can cost five times as much as a Level 1 request. Shifting left, even at lower levels, can save you considerable money in terms of how much skilled IT labor gets tied up in help ticket resolution.
The benefits go beyond mere cost savings. A shift-left strategy that allows users to solve more of their own issues empowers those users while streamlining their productivity. It also helps your organization build its technical knowledge sharing and management skills and capabilities.
Here’s another smart way to reduce your IT operating costs in the helpdesk department: Engage the experts at Gravity Helpdesk. We can handle all your low-level helpdesk requests even as you develop your own left-shift strategies for higher-level jobs. Let us help you make a shift for the better!