SCHOOL HELP DESK SOFTWARE

School help desk software is a software platform that connects staff with their district’s IT team to create help tickets and receive support for their district devices.

For instance, a student who was issued a district Chromebook with a malfunctioning screen will need to contact the school’s IT department to replace the broken device. The student (or teacher, parent, guardian, etc) will use their school’s help desk software to submit a help ticket and receive technical support for the Chromebook.

School help desk software is incredibly important, as it serves as the first place students or staff go when their devices are malfunctioning. Chances are, your district uses a huge amount of technical devices—from your students’ school-provided Chromebooks to in-house technology like PCs, printers, Smart Boards, and so on. While you can manage tens of thousands of district assets with school asset management software, school help desk software should serve as the one-stop-shop to address technical support issues around all district assets (both fixed assets and student devices) that are on the move.

School help desk software allows users to submit service requests for support issues, aiding in their efficient tracking and resolution. It automates IT service management (ITSM), reducing ticket resolution time and providing swift and effective support.

Schools benefit from distributing support workload, collaborating across teams, and leveraging a mobile app for convenient access to notifications and updates on service requests via mobile devices. A comprehensive help desk solution optimizes IT infrastructure and empowers support staff.

Help desk software offers customizable functionality, serving as a ticketing system for creating and managing help tickets. It enables real-time communication between agents and requestors and integrates student and asset data. It tracks ticket request and resolution data, and offers integrated reporting templates to provide high-level insights on areas of opportunity.

Help desk software also supports SLA adherence, CRM integration, and ticket/project management. It serves as the centralized hub for an organization’s IT support needs.

School districts have different concerns from businesses that use industry-neutral help desk software. K-12 IT teams are dealing with thousands of devices not in the hands of employees, but rather in the care of young learners. These devices are always on the move between home and the classroom, and frequently fall victim to various forms of abuse and neglect that enterprise devices rarely see. K-12 help desk software allows all of the following:

• Automation features that IT teams to be more efficient with their time. For instance, the software automatically routes tickets according to location, issue type, device type, and more based on established workflows.
• Improves accountability. Detailed asset histories help districts identify students that frequently damage devices, while reliable ownership records allow K-12 districts to assign the same devices year-over-year.
• With MDM and SIS integrations, IT staff can track changes to ownership, location, hardware internals, and other crucial asset data. That data-rich help ticket provides support teams the data they need without having to juggle various software platforms and account permissions.

Educational institutions leverage help desk software to streamline troubleshooting processes and enhance customer support. By uploading asset and user data, the software gains insights into the institution’s resources and user base. Help desk software, such as Incident IQ, offers robust integrations with Student Information Systems (SIS) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions for seamless incorporation of this information. Customizable help submission categories eliminate unnecessary options, simplifying user experience.

With comprehensive data and built-in automation, users can efficiently organize tickets, document actions taken, schedule support sessions, create dynamic filters, and access detailed analytics. Incident IQ acts as a centralized hub, addressing various technical issues within educational institutions, ranging from malfunctioning projectors to broken laptops. Additionally, Incident IQ’s help desk solution fully integrates with several education-specific softwares, like Powerschool, Jamf, Mosyle Manager, Microsoft Active Directory, Google SSO, and hundreds of others. This allows all of your processes to work together seamlessly.

When considering a help desk software solution for your K-12 school, there are a number of factors to consider before finalizing a deal.

One major aspect to consider is the ease and accessibility of the help ticket process for everyone in your organization—this boosts your customer experience and your support agents’ response effectiveness. In short, is there a quick way to submit data-rich help tickets in a convenient location for teachers and staff? You’ll want to investigate each software to see how intuitive the solution is—if it’s easier than sending an email, there’s a good chance staff will catch on and start using it. If not, then staff will likely stick to their old ways.

Another aspect to examine is how the software is optimized for your IT teams. Incident IQ makes it simple to provide data-rich tickets by automatically populating requests with relevant user, asset, and location data.

A help desk primarily resolves technical issues for users, such as fixing a broken laptop. It focuses on providing technical support within the IT department.

A service desk, on the other hand, has a broader scope, encompassing user experience, information requests, and new service provisions. For instance, users may approach a service desk to request a new wifi hotspot be assigned to them.

Largely, these differences are cosmetic. Both help desks and service desks facilitate support agents in accepting, organizing, and fulfilling user support requests. They play vital roles in IT asset management and customer support software.