Technical FAQs

• I am interested in the benefits that outsourcing all or a portion of my help desk can provide, but I am concerned about the loss of control with using a supplier outside of our company.

This is a very understandable and workable concern. All companies want to make sure that a customer facing team, such as a helpdesk, is closely aligned with the corporate culture and ways of doing business. At CoSentry, our technical help desk team spends a significant amount of time in getting to know and understand your organization’s unique needs. We will often recommend and take a “walk before you run” approach to ensure that we have adequately met your objectives. We will meet with you and your teams to develop workflows and procedures that allow you to continue to have complete control of the processes.

• I am interested in outsourcing our help desk, but am concerned about the lack of flexibility, one-size-fits-all approach that other companies offer. How can we get the flexibility we need?

At CoSentry, we asked ourselves this very same question ten years ago, which prompted us to invest heavily into our Incident management application called SolutionsDesk. As our business model grew, we found ourselves getting involved with more and more customers, each one with their own unique set of requirements. We found that while customers wanted proven replicable best practices processes and procedures, they also wanted the ability to “tweak” the solution to meet their specific requirements. SolutionsDesk provides this level of flexibility and allows CoSentry to provide a proven standard deliverable time after time, while allowing the customer maximum flexibility in fitting it all together in a single solution.

• We are a regulated company. We are very concerned about the security aspects of outsourcing our remote technical support and help desk. How can CoSentry protect our data?

CoSentry’s support centers are housed in CoSentry’s secure data center site locations. All physical entry requires card scan access and all non-authorized persons are required to go through our security check-in and be escorted at all times. Part of our screening for all technical help desk employees is background checks and drug testing. In addition, where required, employees are submitted for FINRA, Federal 5C or other industry specific security clearances.
CoSentry participates in annual compliance audits and certifications. We are SAS70 Type II audited and certified and approved to PCI DSS v1.2 standards for physical security.
The SolutionsDesk database is housed in our level IV enterprise data center behind multiple layers or firewalls. Access to the web front end is provided for secure socket layer (SSL) transactions.

• The cost of dispatching technicians to the end users desk side for support is becoming prohibitive. Can remote technical support with our help desk reduce these costs?

By using CoSentry’s remote technical support and taking remote control of your end user’s PC, you should expect remote resolutions in the area of 65% or higher. Typically, an agent performing remote control is much more efficient and cost effective than deskside support as it takes less time. Depending on your organization’s structure, it can often save on costly trip charges if a technician has to be sent to branch offices and offsite locations. In addition, remote resolution rates generally average around thirty minutes over all remotely supported tickets, while desk side support generally averages over an hour. There is an additional cost savings in getting the end user’s issue resolved quickly and back in production.

• Outsourcing our help desk and remote technical support may be of benefit, but how do I know I am getting what I pay for?

SolutionsDesk has a very robust reporting engine allowing you to collect a significant amount of data specific to your specific service level requirements. It also has a built-in customizable satisfaction survey, which can be sent out to your end users after their ticket has been closed. In addition, CoSentry collects all standard call center metrics such as average speed to answer, abandon rates, average handling time, etc.

• PDA’s and other types of hand held devices are becoming a more and more integral part of our company’s supported devices. Can CoSentry support these?

CoSentry understands that Windows Mobile and Blackberry are becoming mainstay devices in the workplace. We chose to take a proactive approach in the support of these types of devices in early 2009. In many cases, we have tools that allow us to take remote control of these devices allowing us to provide the same efficiencies of support that we provide at the desktop and notebook PC level.

• Our company has very specific end user support requirements, including proprietary application support. Can CoSentry’s outsourced Service Desk deliver services to that environment?

CoSentry’s flexible outsourced model allows you to control how much, how often and to what level you outsource your support. Many companies use CoSentry as the single point of entry Service Desk and based on your workflow instructions, CoSentry will either attempt to resolve the issue or log and route directly to your specific internal help desk team. In engagements such as this, CoSentry is often responsible for managing the lifecycle of the incident through SLA attainment and closure, but will utilize the customer’s internal support organization for the actual support.

In addition, if required, CoSentry will designate and train Level 1 and 2 technical help desk staff to support customer proprietary and specialized applications.


• Our current help desk is an integral part of our company culture and can easily empathize with our end users. How does CoSentry ensure that our end users maintain a seamless customer experience?

CoSentry works with a broad spectrum of organizations and is highly sensitive in our understanding that matching up with your internal culture is a critical factor for implementing a successful help desk/service desk. In most organizations, the end user’s interface with the help desk/service desk sets the perception the end user has of your entire internal IT organization. We become a part of your organization to make sure that your end users benefit from our experience based on your specifications.

CoSentry works closely with our customers to understand your culture to ensure that we have a seamless implementation. We often will take a, “walk before you run” approach, provide implementation in phases, and measure critical success factors along the way including utilizing end user satisfaction surveys. As each stage is completed and evaluated, we will jointly agree the best times to move to the next level.

• The demands of our end users are expanding more and more to afterhours weekend support. In addition, more of our end users are working remotely. Our help desk in only staffed during regular business hours. The after hour call volume is not significant enough to justify the additional headcount. Can CoSentry augment our existing help desk for after hours support?

CoSentry’s Service Desk / Help Desk provides coverage 7x24, 365 days a year. We work with many customers in providing after-hours, holiday and overflow staffing to meet their support requirements. CoSentry will use its SolutionsDesk application for managing these tickets or we will use the customer’s application.