You don’t need us to tell you how an unresponsive helpdesk impacts productivity and morale within your organization. Law firms and associations come to us all the time with precisely this problem, and they know exactly what would cost them to not solve it.
We also understand why you might still power through this pain rather than switch providers. It’s hard to uproot a provider who is so deeply entrenched in your operations, and it’s scary to put your trust in a new one when you might end up in the same situation down the road.
At the risk of piling on, we do need you to be fully aware that there are even more insidious repercussions to working with a slow helpdesk–it actually puts your security at risk, too.
The Link to Security
On top of lost billable hours and frustration, poor IT response is one of the top causes of shadow IT.
“Shadow IT” refers to technology that’s outside of your IT team’s knowledge and control.
In this context, it means that because your team can’t rely on your helpdesk to fix their issues, they’ve taken it upon themselves to use new tools or applications as a workaround. A Bitwarden study found that 4 in 10 shadow IT users blamed slow response times for their use of unauthorized technologies.
When employees set up their own technology to recover lost productivity, they rarely take the time to consider security, privacy, or backup settings or what sort of company data they’re taking out of your protected systems.
Which is why IBM reports that nearly 50% of cyberattacks stem from shadow IT. The costs to fix breaches with this source averages over $4.2MM.
What We Recommend
To solve the root of this problem we do, of course, recommend you vet alternative IT partners to see if you can’t find a helpdesk that your team can rely on, not avoid.
Addressing the problem of shadow IT (which has other causes besides poor support) needs to start with an assessment that digs into not just your corporate IT systems, but your people and how they’re getting their work done. Our assessments, for example, include stakeholder interviews and a company-wide survey that will uncover evidence or indicators of shadow IT.
Once you know the unauthorized tools in play, you’ll need to answer two questions:
1 – Why?
Is the tool filling a legitimate gap in your systems? Is the function redundant, but your team hasn’t been trained properly on the corporate equivalent? Is it purely a matter of preference or habit on the part of the user?
If you don’t get to the root of the issue you’ll wind up in this same position down the road.
2 – Do you care?
Every organization has its own tolerance for risk. If your data isn’t sensitive and your clients don’t particularly worry about security, you might be fine with your team choosing their own technology.
But most of us aren’t in that category. In that case, you’ll need to look into the tools themselves, what risks they pose, and how much of that risk you’ll accept.