Should a centralized helpdesk provide tech support for studies all over the world, or should a small team from each study with full knowledge of the protocol solve technical issues directly? This was a major discussion point within the Viedoc team when we were redesigning the platform in early 2013. We found that a majority of the issues sent to the help desk tickets were minor technical issues, which took an unnecessarily long time for an unfamiliar technician to solve. A centralized help desk generally has non-specific knowledge about the study protocols, as well as no personal relationship with the site in question. Thus, each case started with an extensive and repetitive dialogue before getting to the actual problem at hand. Additionally, centralized user management also required complex and time-consuming workflows.
With the above in mind, we simplified the support processes by developing a completely new application – Viedoc Admin. The purpose of the application was to provide flexibility for the management of sites and users, and introduce these responsibilities to users not normally involved in these tasks – users that also already had a connection to the site. Hence, a new system role “Site Manager” was developed.
The addition of Viedoc Admin means that users no longer have to wait for the help desk to be able to add a new user, reject a user that no longer should have access or reset a password for a user that has forgotten the answer to the challenge question. For example, a monitor can be a self-sufficient manager for all of their sites, with control over each user’s status and activity. Thus, our clients are able to appoint one or several study and site managers to each project with direct access to Viedoc Admin. And they can guarantee that someone knowledgeable about the study is available to solve support issues instantly and without relying on a centralized helpdesk that may only operate in one time zone. Meanwhile, at Viedoc headquarters, we are able to specialize on the advanced technical issues from our clients (integration solutions, developing new features, etc.).
We have confirmed our vision for support in a recent survey of Viedoc users, where over 85 percent of the respondents replied that site support was improved or greatly improved by managing user administration themselves compared to when it was managed by a centralized helpdesk. The respondents especially highlighted that the site manager role allows faster, simpler and more direct solutions to minor issues.
A comparison of the traditional helpdesk and the Viedoc site manager role can be found below.
| Centralized helpdesk | Site manager(s) | |||
 | Heavy workload |  | Shared workload | |
 | Language limitations |  | Speak local language | |
 | Availability challenges |  | Available | |
 | No relation with site |  | Personal relation with site | |
 | Low knowledge of protocol |  | High knowledge of protocol | |
"Viedoc makes building a study easy and fun. It doesn't require extensive coding knowledge; it's quick to get in and start working."