Here are the top five strategies to streamline desktop support troubleshooting time when preparing to advance your DEX initiatives.

The Importance of True Real-Time Data

Before starting, consider that your team can’t fix what they can’t see. The issue may not just be within your company’s process but in the data itself. Most DEX vendors collect data in minutes, leading to missed events between intervals or when averaged over time. If you are receiving data in minutes, IT will miss vital information, resulting in a lag in response time. This can contribute to a surplus of tickets and confusion about the true source of the problem. Finding a data collection system that offers true real-time visibility is the key to truly enabling IT teams to identify and address issues before they impact productivity and security. Once your team has this actionable data, they can analyze the top five ways to reduce your desktop support troubleshooting time.

Step 1. Implementing Proactive Notifications

Proactive notifications, such as those alerting to potential issues like application downtime or connectivity issues, can be a game-changer. Empower your IT teams with these tools, so the issues get addressed before they escalate, therefore ensuring a seamless digital experience for employees and reducing the need for reactive troubleshooting.

Step 2: Prioritize the Problems with Problem Scoring

Prioritizing issues that impact DEX can be daunting but are extremely important. Ease the process by presenting a consolidated score of performance metrics. These metrics are calculated by highlighting the most significant impact areas, guiding IT teams to direct their attention effectively. Consider implementing a scoring dashboard across various domains, including VDI and DaaS, physical desktops, desktop applications, vulnerabilities, patch management, unified communications, and SaaS and web applications. Dashboards are invaluable tools that provide a comprehensive overview of system health and drill down to a specific problem.

Step 3: Incorporate GenAI

Collecting lots of troubleshooting data and representing it with a score is a powerful method for interpreting data differently. While data can be exported as a CVS, or custom reports can be created, sometimes, you need to get quick answers on the fly. Incorporating a secure, natural language, using a GenAI feature will enable your teams to receive information immediately, represented in unique and informative ways, significantly reducing response times and improving service quality.

Step 4: Add Script Actions

Scripts can be a powerful way to retrieve detailed troubleshooting data from a remote device. However, getting any script to run on a remote device can be problematic as most companies lock down their machines so that employees cannot edit or run scripts. It may also be difficult for IT to run a remote script on behalf of an employee without the full picture. One option to securely incorporate script actions is adding a DEX service to your IT budget. Look for a DEX solution that provides a versatile range of methods for running a script on a remote device and supports various script languages that can run on any platform. Ensure the solution can also provide and store the results in a secure database that your IT team can easily access and understand for future analysis that can inform proactive actions.

Step 5: Enable Remote Control

When problems arise, so much can be lost in translation. Often, IT needs to remotely troubleshoot a user’s desktop, but traditional remoting tools can disrupt employees’ workflow and impact productivity. This is often due to the employees’ base knowledge of the issue at hand. Consider implementing a remote control feature so your IT team can quickly find and troubleshoot the issue at hand, seeing what the user is experiencing without hampering productivity. To make remote troubleshooting more efficient and help users get back up and running as quickly as possible, consider a multifaceted approach to accessing a user’s computer remotely.

The Key: Why Automation Completes the Process

Automation is vital to your DEX process. According to IDC, “by 2027, 90% of organizations will augment operational roles with automation technology, elevating employee engagement and unlocking a predicted 30% increase in worker efficiency.” Since many computer problems are recurring, implementing automation will empower IT teams by streamlining the discovery process and supporting rapid issue remediation. Incorporating automation to your proactive notifications (alerting) within script actions will also ease issue detection and within seconds, allow a corrected script to be executed. Together, these tips can not only empower your team but pull them out of the IT support ticket weeds. As a result, you can move beyond simply supporting your company initiatives, to also decreasing employee burnout and creating a more productive team.

Maintaining optimal performance and swiftly resolving technical issues is critical for the future of any business. Surveys tell us that organizations that have optimized their DEX see a 25% reduction in employee turnover and DEX tools have shown to lead to a 20% increase in employee engagement. While it is clear that DEX solutions will boost your business, it is not always “one size fits all” when finding the right solution. As long as you incorporate a solution that proactively manages endpoints, applications, and user experiences while providing real-time data collection, proactive notifications, and comprehensive scoring dashboards, you and your IT team will find a streamlined troubleshooting process to be an achievable reality.

Jeff Johnson is the product marketing manager at ControlUp.

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