Improving End-User
Support with the K1000
Help Desk/Service Desk
Nathan Fluegel, Dell KACE Director of Education Brian Burchfiel, Dell KACE Engineer
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Agenda
• Key Service Desk Koncepts
– Queues vs. Categories
– User Labels vs. User Roles
– Ticket Rules
• What was new in 5.1?
– “Processes”
– Customization Options
– New Approval Option
• How to Improve Your Help Desk
– Customize your tickets’ layout (Reduce)
– Create common processes (Re-use)
– Use Queues for Specialized Workflows (Recycle?)
Key
Service
Desk
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Key Koncepts:
Queues
Queues are all of the details that can be included in and about tickets, including fields, values, layout and user access.
Use additional queues when the data being collected or procedures of how “tickets” will be managed are significantly different.
In some environments, the following queues would make sense, particularly if the teams managing “tickets” are completely distinct:
› IT Incidents
› Facilities Requests
Key Koncepts:
Categories
Categories define a subset of tickets within a queue and who should be responsible or notified about those tickets.
Use categories to track what different sorts of issues your users are submitting and determine which ticket owner should be assigned. In a traditional ticket queue, these are fairly common categories:
› Hardware › Networking › Other Issues › Software::Office › Software::Adobe › Telephony
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Key Koncepts:
What are User Labels?
User labels are a method of tagging users manually or dynamically
(using LDAP criteria) to indicate whether or not users should be able to access certain resources through the KBOX.
User labels can be used to control access to knowledge base tickets and software library items. They are also the indicator as to which users may submit, manage or respond to tickets (for each queue).
Common user labels include: › IT Team
› Finance › Dubuque
› Purchasing Approvers › Engineers
Key Koncepts:
What Are User Roles?
Roles in the K1000 identify what privileges a user will have in the admin and/or user interfaces, in terms of which tabs and components are
visible or accessible when they log in.
Roles do not control access to service desk resources or the ability to manage specific ticket queues.
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Key Koncepts:
What Are Ticket Rules?
Ticket Rules are advanced sets of conditions you can establish on a per-queue basis that identify tickets matching certain criteria and what
actions you’d like to take for those tickets.
A ticket rule always has a SQL select statement to identify the set of tickets that rule is concerned with.
Once you’ve identified the correct tickets, you can do one of the following with those:
› Send a list of those tickets as an email › Send an email about each matching ticket
› Add comments to each of the matching tickets
› Run a SQL update statement to make changes to the tickets directly in the database
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Custom Ticket Rules
• SQL Query and Update Query
– Danger ahead…
• Very powerful.
– IF Submitter = CEO
– THEN Priority set to High
Importing/Implementing Ticket Rules
• If you are given a kpkg
– Import using the Resources tab under Settings
– Chapter 6 of the documentation shows you how to import resources. Once it is imported it will be in your default queue. From the default queue ticket rule list you can move it to any queue.
• If you are given the raw components of a rule (query etc).
– Browse to http://kbox/adminui/ticket_rule_list.php?QUEUE_ID=1
– If you have multiple queues then use the Right-hand side menu to choose which queue to select
– Choose to "Add Ticket Rule" from the left-hand side menu
– On the first "Define Ticket Rule" screen hit "next" button
– On the second "Define Ticket Rule" screen hit the "done" button
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New
Features
in v5.1
New in 5.1:
What are “Processes”?
Processes are a template for a set of related tickets/incidents
representing different pieces of a common workflow or set of tasks in your environment. A pre-established process can be kicked off by authorized users with fields as designed in the process. The multiple tickets in the process are all “child” tickets of the “parent” process ticket. Processes can include tickets in multiple different queues, allowing for different fields and options for different sections of the process.
The design of a process includes conditional ticket creation. Tickets in later “stages” of the process will not be created until the previous stage’s tickets have been closed.
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New in 5.1:
New in 5.1:
Change to Approval
Version 5.1 includes one additional feature for approvals. It is now possible to require approval before opening a ticket. In conjunction with processes, you now have the ability to identify different named approvers for different steps in your set of chained tickets.
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Help Desk
Improve
Help Desk Improvements:
Customize Your Ticket Layout (Reduce
Clutter)
• Change field names and values
• Add custom fields
• Eliminate fields you don’t need
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Create processes for common requests or tasks
• Easier to initiate than separate tickets
• Keeps relationship between the steps
• Each process can be restricted for only certain user labels
• Save time and energy!
Help Desk Improvements:
Create Common Processes (Re-Use
Your Work)
Help Desk Improvements:
Use Queues For Specialized Workflows
(Recycle)
Create some queues just for processing one or two specialized tasks.
• Finance approvals
• Purchase Orders
• Facilities Moves
Since each queue can have unique fields and layout, this allows you to have specialized forms for these unique tasks.
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Provides powerful ticket rules from a simple interface. Your Help Desk Team can focus on solving problems, not chasing users.
Help Desk Improvements:
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Email on Close
This is an automated email. If you reply to this email, the ticket may be reopened.
This Support Ticket has been closed due to one or more of the following reasons:
• We believe the issue has been resolved.
• It has been a while since we last heard from you.
• A bug or enhancement request has been submitted on your behalf.
If you feel this case should be reopened or you have any questions regarding this ticket, please feel free to contact Technical Support. You can also check the status of your cases at
support.<yourcompany>.com.
To contact support, email support@<yourcompany>.com or call us at <phone number> option <X>.
Thanks! Regards, Support Team
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