Help desks are important. They fix immediate problems that come up in day-to-day office activities, keeping employees productive. However, there are different options when it comes to help desk, and more businesses are moving their help desk into the cloud.
Hosted help desks are installed locally on your IT infrastructure, while cloud help desks sit on the cloud. The location is hotly debated among IT folks, so we put together this quiz to help you decide which help desk is right for you.
Does your organizational policy prefer more control over IT assets?
This is a key question when choosing self-hosted vs. cloud. When company policies lean toward storing all assets on its own servers and putting you in control over things like configuration and backup schedules, self-hosted is probably the right approach. If corporate policies are open to the cloud, and you are OK with giving up some control to your cloud provider, then the cloud might be the way to go.
Thinking about self-hosting? Give yourself 1 point. If you’re thinking about cloud-hosting, give yourself 5 points.
Do you have the skilled people to upgrade your Help Desk?
Having the right personnel in place is vital if you are planning on hosting your own help desk. You’ll need the resources to maintain, patch, and update the system, to keep it running smoothly. If your organization doesn’t have the internal IT teams in place to maintain and upgrade the system, then you are going to be better off turning to a cloud help desk provider.
Give yourself 1 point if you have the right personnel you need to host your own cloud solution. Otherwise, give yourself 5 points.
How big a factor is your budget?
Cloud deployments generally don’t have any start-up costs. They don’t require an on-premises infrastructure, and there are no ongoing maintenance costs. You will have to pay either a monthly or annual subscription fee to your cloud provider, but these costs are predictable, enabling you to have a clear view of your budget. If you choose to host your help desk on-site, you may end up paying less for annual licenses, but there are startup costs inherent in the IT Infrastructure on your site.
Give yourself 5 points if ongoing maintenance costs and high startup costs are an issue. Take 1 point if those aren’t a big deal.
What features are important to you?
When working with a cloud solution, you may find yourself limited to the different help desk features that are included in your service provider’s offering. That could put you in an uncomfortable position as your company grows and your help desk isn’t robust enough to support your company’s expanding requirements. Hosting a solution on your own should give you the flexibility needed to either choose or add the features you need to ensure that the help desk is supporting your company.
If you are comfortable using whatever standard features are available, give yourself 5 points. If you want more control, give yourself 1 point.
Deciding Between Hosted and Cloud Help Desks
Take your scores and total them up. If you scored 11 points or higher, a cloud solution is probably right for your organization. Budget, resources, and corporate policies are all leaning toward cloud-based help desk options. If you scored ten points or less, your organization will be better served with a self-hosted help desk, as you have the resources needed to best serve your employees.
