This article is part of an ongoing series where I discuss how a particular customer in a specific industry uses OneDesk.
At OneDesk, we offer clients flexibility so they can integrate sound project management processes into their existing systems, whether they focus on support or project work. One of our clients came to us wanting to move to a system with automations and the ability to connect with the tools they were already using, and OneDesk was able to address their concerns.
To provide a little background, this client in particular develops and supports Microsoft products. This partnership means that their technical team is locked into using certain Microsoft products such as TFS to do their work, which made it critical for them to find management and support software that could work in tandem with that setup. Our client also stated that they needed a helpdesk software to automate communications with clients as well as work with internal systems for developers and consultants. As a bonus, if the software could also serve as a project management tool, that opened up new avenues for discovery and organization.
As helpdesk software, OneDesk is able to meet all of our client’s needs. One of OneDesk’s main applications is a full-featured ticketing system. Issues raised by customers can be logged and tracked as tickets in the system. Each ticket can be ascribed a specific type that requires appropriate information to be recorded for it. Such types might include incidents or work requests, which our client was able to configure to suit their needs. Our client was also looking for a solution to provide a front-end for customers to access the helpdesk. To interface with our ticketing system, OneDesk offers a customer portal as part of our suite of tools. This application is a fully manageable frontend that customers can use to log issues, check on the status of anything they’ve logged, and engage in discussions with the team directly. This is key for our client to provide updates to their customers while empowering them to log issues themselves.
Beyond the customer portal, OneDesk also offers an API which our client can use for their own in-house integrations between existing tools and OneDesk. Whereas the API gives complete freedom in functionality, but requires technical chops, OneDesk has the ability to connect with a considerable number third party applications through Zapier. These zaps are easy to set up and configure, which is great for our client who uses a number of established Microsoft applications.
Beyond this integrative support, OneDesk’s mobile app brings ticket management on the go. Although not fully featured, the mobile app does offer basic interactions such as time tracking. For our client, who works with consultants and team members all over the world, OneDesk’s time tracking is crucial for visibility into ticket progress.
One of our client’s key needs was automation, which is easy to setup in OneDesk. We have an entire administrative section wherein customizations can be set and tuned. Previously, our client’s support requests came in purely through e-mail, which is a flow OneDesk support can continue to support. With one small administrative change, our client is able to keep this flow and have emails logged directly as tickets in OneDesk. Another administrative perk that OneDesk offers is automation of ticket management through a workflow. For each ticket type, our client is able to define a set of rules and filters to dictate what automatic courses of action the system would take to keep things flowing.
Our client also had concerns about SLAs as they work mostly in the support space. Based on SLAs with their customers, our client has an escalation process tailored to each particular type of issue. OneDesk allows our client to set their SLAs within their helpdesk and design automated workflows that can kick off a series of actions when the SLA is breached. From sending an email to a team member to automatically assigning the ticket to someone, our workflow automations give our client the power to address breaches as soon as they happen, giving customers peace of mind.
When our client first came to us, it was clear they needed to integrate with their Microsoft environment. With OneDesk’s ability to be integrated with virtually any software, this was not a concern. What our client really wanted was a helpdesk solution that offers automation, removing the onus of manually-managed workflows. What OneDesk offers is all of that and more, marrying the concept of SLAs with workflow rules and automation. On top of that, OneDesk has a project management application that seamlessly integrates with the main ticketing tools. Despite the initial concerns, the client realized that OneDesk is the platform that meets their needs. With customization and automation, our client is able to streamline their support work without compromising their partnership with Microsoft and existing processes.