Technical support

Many organizations locate their technical support departments or call centers in countries or regions with lower costs.

[4] For businesses needing to provide technical support, outsourcing allows them to maintain high availability of service.

For businesses needing technical support assets, outsourcing enables their core employees to focus more on their work in order to maintain productivity.

Technical support specialists in this group typically handle straightforward and simple problems while "possibly using some kind of knowledge management tool.

Personnel at this level have a basic to general understanding of the product or service and may not always contain the competency required for solving complex issues.

This is a key element in meeting both the customer and business needs as it allows the technician to prioritize the troubleshooting process and properly manage their time.

In addition, many companies may specify that certain troubleshooting solutions be performed by this group to help ensure the intricacies of a challenging issue are solved by providing experienced and knowledgeable technicians.

This may include, but is not limited to, onsite installations or replacement of various hardware components, software repair, diagnostic testing, or the utilization of remote control tools to take over the user's machine for the sole purpose of troubleshooting and finding a solution to the problem.

[11] A common scam typically involves a cold caller claiming to be from a technical support department of a company like Microsoft.

The scammer will instruct the user to download a remote desktop program and once connected, use social engineering techniques that typically involve Windows components to persuade the victim that they need to pay in order for the computer to be fixed and then proceeds to steal money from the victim's credit card.