Why companies migrate help desk software and how to do it right

For many businesses, migrating support operations to new help desk software can be intimidating. That hesitancy can be rooted in fears that the process will be too challenging, expensive, and time-consuming.

And when using old help desk platforms, companies often ignore the flaws and limitations. That willingness to “make do” and kick the can down the road is a very human quality.

Frankly, there are no good reasons for being stuck with subpar software. So if you’ve been waiting for a sign to make the jump to a new platform, wait no more. Your business has a multitude of reasons to make the change.

Why do businesses switch their help desk software?

Companies rarely pay enough attention to help desk software at the early stages of business development. The problems begin when the business expands, and the customer support team can’t keep up. Here are several reasons why companies decide their current help desk solutions are not enough anymore.

1. They want to upgrade from email support

Email-only support might cut it for starting businesses thanks to its simplicity. However, relying solely on email affects the quality of customer support because:

• Emails can get lost in a shared corporate inbox

• Managers can’t track support agents’ workflows accurately

• The nature of email makes collaboration between agents very difficult

• A shared email inbox results in delayed support and duplicative efforts

That said, help desk platforms neatly organize customer requests from multiple channels (email, chat, phone, and social media) and provide advanced management features. Your agents will then have an easier time resolving requests and won’t miss a single ticket.

2. They switch to cloud-based solutions to reduce costs

According to a 2019 Deloitte survey, 91 percent of organizations keep their data on cloud platforms. Increasingly, companies with on-premise software plan to migrate their systems to the cloud.

“As businesses acquire more customers, they inevitably get more customer requests,” said Maxim Orlovsky, CEO of Help Desk Migration. “Larger enterprises also use in-depth analytics features and measure hundreds of metrics. If your current platform can’t handle the load, your best option is to move to cloud-based help desk software with higher server capacity. On top of that, third-party cloud providers also take care of the platform’s server updates, maintenance, and security. This ensures you’ll spend less money and time on infrastructure management so your support team can focus on helping clients.”

3. They are dissatisfied with the product support

Companies also migrate help desk software because of poor product support and irregular software and security updates. In the worst-case scenario, as your product nears the end of its lifecycle (EOL), you might end up losing your help desk portal if you don’t migrate in time. That drives organizations to switch to other solutions with more frequent updates.

4. They have separate help desk software for different products

Businesses without a customer success strategy can end up using multiple help desk software solutions for different products. The same might happen after a company acquires another business.

Managing multiple support platforms puts an extra strain on the support teams. To stay productive, companies must merge help desk data to a centralized solution.

5. The current software lacks valuable features

Companies often make the switch to new help desk platforms because their old tools lacked advanced functionality (macros, analytics, custom workflows, and so on) and omnichannel support. Many businesses also need self-service features to provide support 24 hours a day and satisfy customers’ growing preference for resolving issues on their own.

This brings us to the next question. If you decide to upgrade from your platform, what features would you need?

Features to consider in your help desk platform

Modern help desk platforms offer a significant number of features that can dramatically improve the level of support your company can offer customers. Here’s a look at some functionality that will improve agent efficiency and result in better customer service.

Now, how do you transfer all your systems from an old platform painlessly? The following section can guide you through the process.

Preparing to migrate help desk software

Companies often postpone migration because of the complexity. After all, this process is often lengthy and riddled with issues. A single incorrect action could turn into a chain of broken dependencies, mismapped data, incompatible formats, and lost records.

However, you can make your migration much more predictable with a clear strategy.

Why do you need a data migration strategy?

A data migration strategy is a documented plan on moving your existing data, workloads, and settings to another help desk platform. It should cover the data transfer process, outline responsibilities, define risks, and describe how to deal with them.

The strategy is one of the main elements of a successful migration, according to the 2020 Deloitte Insights report. Devoting enough attention to your migration strategy can reduce subsequent remapping, remigrating, and extra tinkering with settings.

Accordingly, companies should develop a data migration checklist to ensure they don’t miss anything critical. To migrate help desk software successfully:

Switching platforms is tricky if you lack experience. Fortunately, there’s reliable data migration software to help you out.

The bottom line

Replacing an old platform with scalable and feature-rich help desk software will improve your support quality and reduce operating expenses. It can make your customers and support agents happier. But to make the transfer successful, you’ll need to devote enough time to build a detailed data migration strategy. And better yet, consider a reliable data migration tool to save your effort, money, and precious time.