Does it really make sense to run a traditional service desk now modern SaaS based service desk solutions are available?

While the service desk is central to incident, problem and change management, arguably the core processes in any IT organization, that does not mean its not a good candidate to be replaced with a SaaS solution.  

The service desk really is an ideal candidate for a SaaS offering:

• It needs to be available to all end users, who could be geographically dispersed
• The operators may also be dispersed, or be on call outside of hours from home
• incident, problem and change management more and more rely on industry standard best practices such as ITIL; and when buying a good service desk today, what you're really buying is something that can facilitate those practices rather than a piece of software
• It is being used by non-technical users for the most part, so a modern web 2.0 interface is a plus
• Access may be required by 3rd party suppliers or even customers
• Loads are clustered at certain times of the day
• The costs can be treated as opex rather than capex
• SaaS based service desks are more likely to provide open interfaces to other tools, for example using web services to interface with a Business Service Management solution.

 
Vendors that provide the traditional service desk will argue that the overall costs are lower, but this is a disingenuous argument.   They fail to take into account the costs required to matain the service desk, and significantly under state the required upgrade costs.   For example, I've done projects in a few organizations of varying sizes where not only were the upgrade costs immense, they pretty much had to start again as the vendors did not provide a viable upgrade path.   Its pretty easy to see through this argument as it is only made by those who do not have a viable SaaS based offering.  

In any case, the SaaS based companies want to make their sales numbers too, and discounts can be had, especially in competitive situations and in medium to large scales.

Next time the maintenance contract is up for renewal for companies with a traditional service desk, they should seriously consider a SaaS based offering.   Maintaining an internal service desk is ultimately a distraction for an IT organization who's charter is to ensure that the business or customers can use the application they need effectively.   SaaS offerings can be cheaper, faster, more secure and more flexible than the traditional approach.  

It is the opinion of this author that traditional service desks will ultimately become niche offerings with the majority of companies using a SaaS based model for the service desk.