Outsource the first-line support of your healthcare organization? These are the benefits!
In the average healthcare organization, the pressure on the service desk is increasing rapidly. Employees handle tickets that are requested via a Self Service Portal, via email or telephone. In addition, they help colleagues who walk in during the day with a question, which they often prefer to do rather than submit a ticket, for example because they find it difficult or do not know how to find their way to the Self Service Portal.
Now that healthcare personnel are scarce, this leads to tense situations. Is a service desk employee sick or absent? Then a problem often arises immediately. Is a colleague leaving? Then you have to fill a gap in the occupation. Not to mention the need for training: for a service desk to function properly, you need to constantly keep up with the level of knowledge.
As a healthcare organization, you want to make optimal use of your scarce staff, without employees suffering from understaffing at the service desk and with the confidence that their challenge will be solved quickly and adequately. That is why you may be considering outsourcing first-line support. But what does this look like in practice? And what are the benefits? In this blog post, we'll explain!
From overload to rest and structure
Let's start with an example. We recently transferred the service desk of a healthcare institution to our service desk. In no time we saw that peace had returned. Tickets are picked up quickly and together with the customer we have improved the Self Service Portal and promoted its findability on the intranet. This has made it easier for employees to make a report or even find a solution immediately. They do not experience any inconvenience from understaffing and see Wortell's Service Desk as their own service desk.
Another improvement: structure. When we see a certain question coming up more often, we consider it a trend. Then we do research so that we can offer a structural solution. This improves the efficiency of the employees of the healthcare institution!
Outsourcing the service desk: is it a good idea?
Outsourcing your service desk to an external party is quite a step. Does such an organization have sufficient knowledge of your applications? Or of specific challenges that healthcare institutions face? And doesn't your own service desk collapse when you opt for outsourcing?
These are very valid questions, which we take into account at Wortell. We have been working with healthcare institutions for years, so we know the sector through and through. In addition, we have set up streamlined processes, where you stay as involved as you want. We make clear agreements about the distribution: which tickets we pick up and which are assigned to your own employees.
In addition, replacing and issuing laptops is a process that requires a lot of capacity from the service desk. We can support you or even take care of the entire process, in collaboration with our partner. Whether you choose home delivery or a large-scale replacement of hundreds of laptops or phones at different locations: we make sure it runs smoothly.
These are typical activities that service desk employees spend a lot of time on. Time they can't spend on tickets. That is why we temporarily deploy extra employees in organizations with their own service desk, who either man the service desk or take care of the issuance.
This does not mean that your current service employees should suddenly leave the company. At the healthcare institutions we work with, we see that they grow into roles in which they can use their knowledge and skills even better.
Healthcare institutions often have multiple locations. Onsite support can then, for example, visit locations structurally and systematically, making IT more visible and accessible to employees. Does our service desk notice that a certain location has a relatively high number of incidents? Then we will specifically manage an on-site employee to provide on-site support and address the underlying cause.
Outsourcing: the advantages at a glance
Are you thinking about outsourcing your service desk? When you work with us, you will benefit from the following:
- 24/7 availability: we are available seven days a week, 24 hours a day via a Dutch-speaking service desk. As a result, your availability is as high as you want!
- Knowledge level: we continuously keep our knowledge level up-to-date. When we manage your service desk, we always do so in combination with broader management (such as the workplace or infrastructure). Behind each customer is also a permanent customer team that has the right expertise and ensures that customer-specific information is secured. Because we are responsible for the entire environment, we are always aware of what is going on.
- Uniformity: the way we approach and address people is always the same. We make agreements about service levels and stick to them.
- Regular consultations: we conduct periodic operational, tactical and strategic consultations. We do this from the various roles within the customer team, in coordination with the corresponding roles on the customer side. In this way, we ensure short lines of communication and identify and prevent incidents in a timely manner.
- Cost-efficiency: You only pay for the number of users we support. In addition, we have special rates for healthcare institutions.
- Security: we adhere to standards such as NEN7510 and ISO27001. Azure compliance, logging and auditing are also set up according to strict processes. We ensure that your environment is set up in the right way.