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While the cloud is certainly gaining attention and ground in the market at large, it appears to have a smaller presence in the help desk industry. As companies throughout the world are investing in customer service software to try and set themselves apart from the competition, still others are perfectly happy with their on-premises systems.

According to a recent survey by the help desk reviews and analysis company Software Advice, 68 percent of participants use on-premises systems to support the help desk. Nearly half of these companies have no plans to change spending on help desk software in 2015. The most commonly used functionalities are reporting and analytics, ticket management and live chat integration.

Among the organizations that do have plans to make a change, 84 percent plan to increase spending and 44 percent are searching for new functionality. When help desk software is put in place to support customer service software initiatives, the most improvement is often measured in the average time needed to resolve problems.

Still, the most pertinent data collection is happening within customer relationship management (CRM) software. These applications are capturing information from the front line, creating opportunity in the near future to integrate analytics features and allowing for automation in information sharing across departments.

Those organizations that are considering the cloud for customer service software are doing so in an effort to lower long-term and upfront costs. Decision makers are also drawn to stronger security, better remote access and the simple lack of on-premises options that meet their needs. While the segment of the industry migrating to the cloud is still small, the growing focus on development in this area could shift decision making in the future.

Still, companies are unsure of how to move forward with customer service software in an environment where options are changing rather quickly. Therefore, Software Advice offers best practice tips that can help guide the process. First, define the scope of use, clarifying whether the solution will be an internal employee-facing or external customer-facing service. Next, identify which business goals the software is meant to address. This includes clarifying any specific KPIs or the broader approach of improving the overall customer experience.

Finally, it’s important to clarify the integration requirements. It’s also important to define whether or not your plans include using CRM suites that deliver help desk functionality along with other applications, or a best of breed software tool. At that point, you can compare the cloud-based against the on-premises solution and determine the best route. Chances are, many of the vendors you consider may have their investments in cloud-based and can extend greater capability.

Whatever your final strategy; the goal in any customer service software implementation is to improve the customer experience, directly or indirectly. When doing so with a proven strategy, the outcome is sure to drive powerful results.