Helpdesk

Overview

Of course, we can´t (or will) automate all requests from our users, so there is the need to sort, prioritize and work on those requests / incidents. Helpdesk will provide you a flexible interface for the standard tasks. You can create multiple queues, create teams to serve those queues and assign members into the teams to make sure that the request finds the right person to solve the issue or request.

Of course, Helpdesk is not limited to IT related work. You can also setup your process flows for other departments like HR (human resources).

Usage

This section will explain the handling of Helpdesk from an operator point of view.

Ticket Handling and History

As a Helpdesk operator you can accept new tickets and work on them. To do so an operator has multiple functions available to work on the ticket:

• Update status and assign the ticket to yourself.
• Requeue the ticket to another queue.
• Modify calculated priority based on Urgency and Effect.
• Change the automatically identified SLA.

Interaction with customers

Most likely you will need to contact the requester of the ticket to get missing data or to make sure that a request has been completed successfully.

One way to use is the message box which provides you the ability for internal comments so that you and other engineers with access to the ticket can see them as well as the ability for external communication. In such a case the requester of the ticket will be notified about the message and is able to respond to it. Attachments will also appear in the tab and new attachments may be uploaded to the ticket in the message section.

Ticket Information and Assets

The ticket description will contain necessary information to solve the request and will provide the input data from the user which might be a text or form input depending on the request that has been submitted.

A change request (or incident) may also contain asset related information, which are shown in the Assets tab. A helpdesk operator may also need to update such an associated asset according to what has been changed or even create a new asset.

To do so, the edit button must be pressed and the operator will now have to create / assign the asset to the change itself.

System Configuration

In the following sections you´ll learn how to setup the helpdesk module to serve your needs.

Request Types

Request Types are used to categorize requests into different sections. Typical request types are Incident, MAC, Problem, Request.

To configure your request types, follow the instructions:

• Use the navigation and open Settings / Services / Helpdesk
• Change to the tab Request Types
• You´re now able to create new request types using the plus sign, edit them by changing the name of the type or just delete it using the trash sign.

Please note that deleting a request type is only possible when not being used already.

• Click on Save to store your configuration changes.

Queues

Helpdesk queues are used to sort requests / incidents into categories. Those categories may be configured to your needs. For example you may want to have a “1st Level - IT Support” to serve basic requests and have another queue for specific vendor related issues like “2nd Level – Microsoft”. You can define in your Service Catalog, which requests should be set in which queue. This will allow you to place those requests automatically to the right queue without the need of an employee to pre-sort them.

To configure your queues, follow the instructions:

• Use the navigation and open Settings / Services / Helpdesk
• Change to the tab Queues
• Click on the plus sign to create a new queue or the pen sign to edit an existing.
• A popup window with the configuration settings will show up.

Parameter	Description
Name	Enter a descriptive Name to identify your queue.
Teams	Assign one or multiple teams to queue. By using the assignment, the team members will get access to the queue.
Auto-Assign	Using this, all new requests are assigned automatically to a single user
Escalation rules
Trigger	The trigger when to set the alarm. You have the options: FRT – First Response Time Update – Update Time Solved – Solution Time
Highlighting	Ability to highlight the request in Helpdesk table view
Notification	You are able to send mail notifications to the users selected in order to make them aware of a request violating your SLAs.
Automatic Request
ID	Unique ID used to prioritize the rules defined. ID 1 is highest priority.
Trigger	With the trigger, you can select from a set of variables and operators (like matches, starts with,) to compare with a dedicated term. Once there is a match of the rule, the request is moved to the queue assigned.
Queue	Select the queue where the request should be moved to.

Team

With teams you can assign one or multiple members to your Helpdesk team. Those teams get access to a queue once they are assigned to it.

To configure your team, follow the instructions:

• Use the navigation and open Settings / Services / Helpdesk
• Change to the tab Teams
• Click on the plus sign to create a new team or the pen sign to edit an existing.
• A popup window with the configuration settings will show up.

Parameter	Description
Name	Enter a descriptive Name to identify your team.
Description	A description according to your requirements to identify your team more granular.
Members	Select one or more members to the team. By assigning a member to a team, the assigned member gets access to the queues that have been assigned to the team.