This article is part of an ongoing series where I discuss how a particular customer in a specific industry uses OneDesk.
As more and more companies move towards a SaaS model, it makes sense to use a helpdesk to track and manage issues as they are reported. This is especially true for IT support companies as they are intrinsically based on the concept of providing support for user-facing issues. These companies need to be able to handle a variety of incoming requests and initiate the appropriate workflow without losing a single detail. Let’s dive into how OneDesk helped one such company accomplish their goals.
In this day and age, most IT support companies have already transitioned into using some sort of ticketing software to capture requests and work. Our client is no exception, having used a CRM to track their service requests in the past. One of the most common frustrations faced by IT support companies with regards to their helpdesk systems is that actions are manual; support tickets have to be created manually, details about the work have to be recorded manually, and time and costs are tracked manually. Some actions even require using an external tool to track and manage data. Needless to say, our client’s use of this software led to haphazard tickets and general disarray. This client was keen on upgrading their workflows to a system that allowed for automation of processes, customization of fields, and centralization of data.
Having a robust ticket tracking tool, OneDesk made sense as a solution for the client’s concerns. For each type of support ticket that comes in, OneDesk allows the client to setup automation rules so workflows are kicked off without any manual intervention. Keeping in mind that IT support teams deal with a variety of tasks, tickets in OneDesk can be categorized under different types, each with their own automation flow. This is a feature that is valuable for our client, who faces a range of issues from those linked to SLAs to one-off requests. By setting up different workflows for each kind, our client is able to streamline the lifecycles for their tickets. In OneDesk, even the process of ticket creation can be streamlined such that any incoming email is automatically logged in the system and tagged with the appropriate information. Our client was also looking for a way to capture the cost of work done per ticket. OneDesk allows you to not only set a cost per hour for work that is done, but also has built-in timers which make time tracking trivial. These features make it easy to see at the ticket level and beyond where time and costs are going.
One concern our client had was the ability to assign a custom ID to each ticket. Although OneDesk has its own ID field for tickets by default, you are not limited to using that field if your tickets require additional identifiers. Custom fields can be specified for each kind of ticket type, so in our client’s case, they are able to create a new ID field that allows them to correlate their tickets in OneDesk to their old service cases. The customization available in OneDesk empowers you to setup tickets any way that works for you and your team. For example, OneDesk has the concept of projects to house and organize tickets. In our client’s case, they did not want to follow this hierarchy, and so they did not setup a project for their tickets. We understand that different teams have different preferences for how work is laid out and set up, and this is reflected in OneDesk’s flexibility.
For IT support companies, OneDesk is the ideal solution for managing incoming requests. With automated workflows, custom fields, and built-in time tracking, our client’s concerns were mitigated by our fully-featured ticketing application. Our client now uses OneDesk to manage their work, ensuring that no details are left behind. The ability to adjust and tune OneDesk to suit the team’s needs only solidifies our suite of software as a solution for support teams everywhere.