Customizing your Help Desk

By Eran On May 28, 2009 · In Help desk, User Guide

This post is part of a series on using the new SAManage Help Desk Software. Other posts in the series include Introducing your new help desk, Working with tickets, Personalizing your end-user support portal, and Customizing your help desk.

Configure an Easy-to-Remember Address

Your new help desk software allows you to create a private URL that will give your users access to the support center from any Web-enabled location. Clicking on SAManage Help Desk Setup will enable you to customize your end-user portal by changing the name, adding your logo, and setting up a simple, easy to remember custom URL (for example support.acme.com). This URL will take users directly to your portal. Learn how to personalize your end-user support portal.

Ticket Types and Auto-Assignment Rules

When users submit tickets to your help desk, they can indicate the nature of their request using various ticket types. For example, an incident describes a problem they are experiencing, while an acquisition is a request for a new asset such as software. You can easily customize these ticket types, or even add your own, to better align them with your business processes.

Configure Help Desk Ticket Types

When customizing your ticket types, you can also choose a default assignee, such as a specialist from your support team. All new tickets of that type will then be automatically assigned to that staff member. This enables you to streamline your support processes by having dedicated specialists receive tickets based on their area of expertise. It will also significantly reduce the time it takes to complete a support request, so you can provide faster, better service to your customers.

A Few Use Cases to Get You Started:

Here are a few examples of commonly-used ticket types:

Acquisitions – These tickets should be routed by default to the purchasing manager, or any other supervisor that is responsible for reviewing and approving requests to buy new software, hardware, peripherals, and other technology assets.
Install – These tickets should be assigned to specialists responsible for installing new hardware or software item.
Network Support – Network technicians that handle related issues should be assigned to these tickets.
Emergency – When immediate attention and/or response is required, tickets should be routed directly to the help desk supervisor. The ability to define ticket types allows you to align your help desk activities with your internal support process, so you can boost productivity and optimize utilization of your internal resources.

Select Your Time Zone

You should select you default time zone based on the location of your help desk. Dates and times are recorded on each new ticket that is created, as well as on any changes to tickets, such as the addition of new comments, or any modifications reflected in the audit log (for example, changes to ticket status). Synchronizing your actual time zone with the time zone reflected on your tickets will provide you with more precise insight into when updates actually occurred, and allow you to more accurately determine how long it took to process and handle each ticket.

Configure Help Desk Timezone

This post is part of a series on using your new Help Desk Software by SAManage. To learn more about SAManage IT Management service, visit our website and sign up for your own account.

SaaS-based IT Management and Help Desk Software

Discover how on-demand IT Asset Management and Help Desk software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels.