A Service Desk understands that information offers companies strategic advantages and it ensures proper mechanisms are in place for the data to be analyzed, produced and distributed seamlessly. The best Service Desks manage information delivery by utilizing Information IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices to deliver these services. The Service Desk is the first contact in an organization for any and all IT questions.

According to ITIL, the definition of a Service Desk is – A the single point of contact between users and IT Service Management. Tasks include handling incidents and requests, and providing an interface for other ITIL processes. The primary functions of the Service Desk are incident control, life cycle management of all service requests, and communicating with the customer.

Another definition of Service Desk is a center that provides a Single Point of Contact between a company’s customers, employees and business partners. The Service Desk is designed to optimize services on behalf of the business and oversee IT functions. Thus, a Service Desk does more than making sure IT services are being delivered at that moment, it manages the various lifecycles of software packages used to provide critical information flow by utilizing ITIL best practices.