Service Desk Engineer
Service Desk Engineers are the first point of contact in any organization for resolving or escalating issues relating to hardware, software, network, and others of computer end users when they raise requests through emails, instant messages, chats or phone calls.
They will act as intermediaries between their organization and its clients by continuing to take ownership of the problem and ensuring that it has been appropriately prioritized and is getting due attention.
They should be able to understand users’ questions, provide technical support, and assist all staff remotely on technology problems. Owing to the nature of this occupation, aspirants for these jobs must have excellent communication skills and technical knowledge about various technologies and solutions. Importantly, engineers should be ready to work flexible hours.
Engineers need to make the best use of help desk software to be always be informed about the status of user requests. A help desk software consists of three main components: Ticket Management, Automation Suite, and Reporting and Optimization.
While Ticket Management helps in organizing client requests, Automation Suite aids in allocating and implementing work better, and Reporting and Optimization gives an organization’s senior personnel information on how fast and efficiently each of the support executives is addressing issues and how satisfied an average client is.
They should have extensive technical knowledge of various technologies and products, including local area network (LAN)/wide area network (WAN) technologies. They need to be in touch with the latest trends in technology.
Responsibilities
Included in the Service Desk Engineers tasks are installing, upgrading, supporting, and resolving issues relating to PCs or laptops, printers, scanners, phones, VoIP, besides the Intranet, LAN, and WAN, hardware, and software.
They must also install and maintain security, anti-virus solutions and firewall, configure and maintain operating systems and software applications, backup devices, and suggest ideas for improving service desk functions and service delivery regularly. Engineers must monitor service-level agreements (SLAs) and ensure that there are no breaches there, are required to work in the open source environment and understand and resolve issues there as well, must provide support to disaster recovery solutions, and have the ability to comprehend how business applications work.
They must record incidents correctly and categorize and prioritize them as per their team procedures. Engineers carry out an assessment of issues thoroughly with end users to aid in the first point of contact problem resolution. They manage active directory and group policies.
Engineers manage issues throughout their lifecycle, beginning from the first point of contact until it is resolved. During this process, they need to keep their clients abreast of the progress. They share knowledge with all their team members.
Engineers handle several scheduled tasks for clients with the intent to see to it that their systems are functioning uninterruptedly. They coordinate and continually interact with support personnel and vendors that resolve issues related to software, hardware, and network.
Engineers support the field staff by catering to the requirements of their mobile devices. They maintain documentation of existing activities through weekly/monthly status reports and incident reports and records.
Engineers follow up on issue status and update information on the same. If they receive any feedback or suggestions, from clients, they pass them on to the appropriate departments.
Their other duties include improving customer services, helping in developing competent service desk tools, procedures, and making sure that they address requests promptly.
Future of Service Desk Engineers
Although it is being expected that service desk help will be automated with the entry of chatbots to provide service 24/7 to customers in the near future, human intervention would continue to be an essential element of customer services. Moreover, with the exponential adoption of mobile devices, there will be a need for more Service Desk Engineers to provide support services.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as enterprises upgrade their software and hardware, the need for support services in the future will increase. It adds that jobs for computer support engineers are expected to grow 11 percent during the 2016 -2026 period.
Educational Qualifications and Other Requirements
To become Service Desk Engineers, candidates should ideally have a bachelor’s degree (or an associate degree) in computer sciences or engineering along with adequate experience in supporting the latest versions of at least one of the operating systems, such as Windows or macOS or Unix/Linux.
They should be knowledgeable about networking and WAN technology. If they have certifications from CompTIA in A+ or Network+, it would be beneficial. They must have had hardware troubleshooting experience and be conversant with networking protocols and ITIL.
Finally, they must able to explain technology to individuals from non-technical backgrounds.
Earnings
The average annual salary for an IT Service Desk Engineer is $46,425 in the United States, according to payscale.com.
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