The importance of personalising the IT support experience

The importance of personalising the IT support experience
DXC Technology’s Carol Rizio says enterprises should explore how they can resolve IT issues quickly

Caspar Herzberg |


This article first appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of The Record.

Forward-thinking companies in virtually every industry are using cognitive computing, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation to transform their operations. Although these digital technologies are redefining how enterprises work, ironically, they are not being used to meet employees’ IT support needs. And employees are feeling that pain.

When employees experience IT issues, they want an easy solution that resolves the problem quickly so they can get back to work and remain productive. While some employees will gladly use self-service portals to resolve issues if it saves them time, others may have grown accustomed to asking support personnel for help and will want to continue to get assistance this way for the foreseeable future. Consequently, companies must implement an enriched IT support experience that meets the preferences of every single employee in their organisation, including everyone from the tech-savvy to those who possess few digital skills.

To do this, enterprises must first pinpoint the main IT issues their employees experience and then architect a support solution that uses the digital technologies that best meets these needs. This platform should give employees the freedom to decide how they want to receive support based on what problem they are experiencing, what they are doing, and where they are located at the time.

Big data analytics and deep learning models can help organisations to identify common problems so IT can proactively address emerging support problems before they become real issues for employees. For example, if a malware event is found to have impacted a particular type of device, companies can take automatic protective actions to safeguard the IT environments of employees with those devices.

By applying analytics best practices against collected diagnostics, enterprises can also create personalised dashboards for each employee, offering them a real-time, end-to-end view of their IT environment. Building off this, ­self-service solutions can take an Amazon-like ‘recommended for you’ approach that will guide the employee to the optimal resolution option. For example, when a monitored event in the employee’s environment reaches a warning state, the employee will receive a personalised message to tell them what to do. In this way, the IT support solution is contextualised for each individual, dynamically changing as the user’s environment changes, and always discovering areas to address before they become disruptive issues for the employee.

AI-powered virtual agents are another easy way to relieve pressure on traditional IT help desks and provide rapid resolutions to multiple IT problems. Available to provide 24/7 assistance in any language, virtual agents can provide answers to common questions, perform remedial tasks, or guide employees through easy tasks like resetting passwords or installing/removing software applications. In addition, they can escalate major problems to human IT administrators if necessary.

Thanks to their embedded analytics and natural language processing capabilities, virtual agents can continually monitor every employee’s IT environment and essentially function as dedicated personal assistants by providing a personalised resolution when something goes wrong. For example, if an employee’s computer inexplicably slows down, they can simply ask the virtual agent what’s happening. The agent will then analyse all monitored events, identify the issue and recommend the quickest resolution – all within a matter of seconds. This minimises employee downtime and is much more efficient than the employee phoning the IT help desk, explaining the issue and waiting for an administrator to find a solution.

DXC Technology aims to help companies create an end-to-end digital solution that allows employees to get instant help via whichever channel is most suitable at the time – whether that’s a self-service portal, a virtual agent or face-to-face support from a human. This is why DXC has created a digital support platform built on machine learning technology, monitoring agents and analytics. The solution continually monitors employees’ individual IT environments so it can predict future problems and proactively resolve them at their root before the users even become aware that there is an issue. A virtual agent built on DXC’s AI, robotics and cognitive computing solutions and integrated with the client’s back-end systems provides 24/7 assistance that employees can access from anywhere at any time.

Carol Rizio is the lead principal for Workplace and Mobility at DXC Technology

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