Comodo One. Understanding Service Desk
- How to add a user in staff panel
- How to create and use canned responses
- How to create FAQs and publish
- How to create FAQ category
- How to make FAQs internal
- How to check ‘Alerts and Notifications’ in Service Desk
- How to manage user web portal
- How to configure MSP Email settings
- How to Manage My Time Sheet
- How to configure company Information from admin panel
- How to configure an alert when the ticket closed
- How to sort ticket in the service desk
- How to configure system-wide default ticket settings from Admin Panel
- How to configure auto response settings
- How to Enter Business hours for SLA time calculations
- How to take remote control from service desk
- How to filter tickets in the service desk
- How to billing in service desk according to assets and organization
How to add a user in staff panel?
The “User Directory” under the “Users” tab lists all the Guests and registered users. The Staff members can add, edit and update the user details in the user directory. The users added here will be listed as guests. Alternatively, a non-registered user can be added as a guest user by raising a ticket in the web portal.
To add a user via User Directory follow below steps,
Step 1: Go to ‘Users’ tab.
Step 2: The guest and registered users list will be displayed.
Step 3: The User can be added in two methods in service desk:
1. Manual
2. Import
To add User manually:
Step 1: Click the “Add User” link
Step 2: The Lookup or create a user screen will appear. Fill the form,
1. Enter the Email Address of the user.
2. Give the Full name of the user.
3. Phone number and its extension.
4. Click ‘Create’ button.
To add User using Import option
The user import option provides two different ways to add the user
1. Copy and Paste
Step 1: Click ‘Import’ button at the top.
Step 2: Click on ‘Copy and Paste’ tab.
Step 3: Enter the name and the mail address and click import. The user will be added to the list.
Note: Several entries of users can be given in subsequent lines.
Step 4: The user will be added to the list.
2. Upload
Step 1: Click ‘Import’ button at the top.
Step 2: Go to ‘Upload’ tab.
Step 3: Click the browse button to add the csv format file from your computer.N avigate to the folder where the file is present, select the file and click ‘Import’ button.
Step 4: The user will be added to the list
Step 5: The staff member can register a user:
i. Click a guest user from the User directory list.
ii. Click register icon and register dialog box appears. Fill the form and click ” Create Account”.
Note: If the “Send account activation email” is selected an activation mail will send to the user.
Step 6: The Activation of the user can be done in two ways,
- Through a mail – When the user clicks the link send to their mail, the account will be activated and status will be changed to active.
- Through Staff Panel – Follow the below steps to activate a user through a staff panel
1. Select a user from the list, click Manage account and go to Manage access tab.
2. Give a new password and set the account restrictions by selecting the required checkboxes of the Account flags.
3. Share the password with the user. Thus the user can access his account.
How to create and use canned responses?
‘Canned Response’ allows a user to create a template message and it can be used by technicians for a quick reply to the customer in a ticket later.
Step 1: Go to Service Desk and choose ‘Canned Responses’ from ‘Knowledgebase’ tab menu
Step 2: Click ‘Add New Response’ icon
Step 3: Select the department from ‘Department’ drop-down that related to the issue of the ticket. Example: Support.
Keep the ‘Status’ as in the screen ‘Active’ if you would like to use the canned response immediately otherwise choose ‘Disabled’ from the Status field
Step 4: Fill the form for rest of the fields.
1. Enter the subject of the ticket in ‘Title’ text box. Example: Ticket Status Update on Demand
2. Enter generic response in the ‘Canned Response’ text area. Example: Please follow the details below for your ticket status.
3. Please attach any file in ‘Canned Attachments’ you would like to response to the customer with file or with image
4. Provide description of the Canned Response for your reference in ‘Internal Notes’ text area
5. Click ‘Add Response’ button
** Supported Variables, which are the variable for dynamic values based on the needs of the ticket change. Example, %{ticket.numer} is the variable to hold the particular ticket number.
Ensure you would have a system message that “Canned response added successfully” with background of green color span
Step 5: Select ‘Tickets’ from ‘Tickets’ tab menu.
Step 6: Enter the ticket number into the Search box and Click the ‘Search’ button. Example, 1350.
Step 7: Click on the subject line of the ticket.
Step 8: Click ‘Response’ field and Choose the preferred canned response from the drop-down. Example, Ticket Status Update On Demand.
Step 9: Click the button ‘Post Reply’
1. Ensure the body of the Canned Response is loaded there in the Text-Area. You can repeat choosing Responses you would like to combine more than one Response.
2. Uncheck the ‘Attachments’ you would like to not use it with the response now.
3. Ensure you receive system response after posting the reply. the response message would be ‘Reply posted successfully’ with green color background span.
How to Create FAQs and publish?
Technician can manage Frequently Asked Questions for their service using Service Desk . FAQs are organised under sub categories. Once FAQs are published , End user would be able to access them in web portal.
Step 1: Go to Staff panel > Knowledgebase. You will be directed to ‘FAQs’ tab.
Step 2: Click ‘Category’ name to create FAQ under it.
Step 3: Click ‘Add New FAQ’ button. You can see ‘Add New FAQ’ window now.
Step 4: Select options and fill details as below,
1. Question – Enter FAQ question.
2. Category Listing – Default category is which you have chosen. If you want to change category , please select from drop down list.
3. Listing Type – Choose any of the options below,
- Public – If selected, FAQ can be accessed at end user web portal.
- Private – If selected, FAQ cannot be accessed at end user web portal.
4. Answer – Please provide your detailed answer for the FAQ question.
5. Attachments – Browse files and folders to attach screenshots and other files related to FAQ answer.
6. Help Topics – Select existing help topics for FAQ to be linked. This will help end users to filter FAQs based on Help Topic they are referring .
7. Internal Notes – You can enter important notes related to the new FAQ in the ‘Internal Notes’ box.
Step 5: Click ‘Add FAQ’ button to apply changes.
Step 6: Check FAQ display at end user portal.
How to create FAQ category?
Service Desk FAQs are managed under categories. Please follow below steps to create new category,
Step 1: Click ‘Categories’ tab. Existing categories are listed here.
Step 2: Click ‘Add New Category’ button in the top. ‘Add New Category’ windows appears now.
Select options and fill details as below,
1. Category Type – Choose any of the below options,
Public – if selected, category can be accessed at end user web portal.
Private – if selected, category cannot be accessed at end user web portal .
2. Visible for role -Choose any of the below options ,
All – Select ‘All’ makes Category visible for all Service Desk Staff panel users.
Only Selected – Select ‘Only Selected’ makes category visible for Staff panel users who are under selected roles . You need specify roles for the access.
3. Category name – Enter name for the new category.
4. Category Description – Describe about new category here.
5. Internal Notes – You can enter important notes related to the new category in the ‘Internal Notes’ box.
6. Click ‘Add’ in bottom to apply changes
How to make FAQs internal?
Step 1: Go to Staff panel >Knowledgebase. You will be directed to ‘FAQs’ tab.
Step 2: Click ‘Category’ name where ‘FAQ’ require changes is located.
Step 3: You can see list of FAQs in the selected category. Choose FAQ need to be made as ‘Internal’.
Step 4: Check ‘Options’ menu in the bottom. Choose ‘Unpublish FAQ’ from drop down list.
Step 5: Click ‘Go’ button to apply changes.
Step 6 Check ‘FAQ unpublished successfully’ message.
How to check ‘Alerts and Notifications’ in Service Desk?
Important Notes: Alerts and Notices are automated email notifications sent to service desk technicians when various ticket events are triggered.
To set Admin Email address,please go through below steps,
1. Go to “Admin Panel”> “Settings” > “Emails” . You can see all options related to service desk email communication.
2. Enter administrator email address in “Admin’s Email Address:” option.
3. Click ‘Save Changes’ in the bottom to apply changes.
To set Department manager, please go through below steps,
1. Go to “Admin Panel”> “Staff” > “Departments” . You can see all available departments.
2. Click Department which requires update.
3. In “Manager” option, select technician from staff from drop down list.
4. Click ‘Save Changes’ button in the bottom to apply changes.
To set Organization Account Manager, please go through below steps,
1. Go to “Staff Panel”> “Users”>”Organization” .You can see all existing organization.
2. Click an Organiazation to set Account Manager
3. Click Organization name. Window dialog box containing “Fields” and “Settings” tab will be opened.
4. Click “Settings” tab.
5. In “Account Manager” option, select technician from staff from drop down list
6. Click ‘Update Organization’ button in the bottom to apply changes.
- Check ‘Alerts and Notifications settings’ as below,
Step 1: Go to “Service Desk” > “Admin Panel” > “Settings” > “Alerts and Notices” tab. You can see all settings related to alert and notices.
Step 2: Click ‘Reset Changes’ button in the bottom to restore default settings and options.
Step 3: Administrator can modify settings as explained below,
New Ticket Alert – Alert sent out to technicians when a new ticket is created.
1. Status – Select option as mentioned below,
- Enable – If selected , ‘New Ticket Alert’ becomes active.
- Disable -If selected, ‘New Ticket Alert’ becomes inactive.
2. Admin Email – If selected notification email will be sent to admin email address.
3. Department Manager – If selected notification email will be sent to department manager email address.
4. Department Members – If selected notification email will be sent to all members in the department.
5. Organization Account Manager – If selected notification email will be sent to organization account manager
New Message Alert – Alert Email sent out to Technician when a new message from the User is appended to an existing ticket.
1. Status – Select option as mentioned below,
- Enable – If selected , ‘New Message Alert’ becomes active.
- Disable – If selected, ‘New Message Alert’ becomes inactive.
2. Last respondent – If selected alert will be sent to recently responded person in the ticket.
3. Assigned staff – If selected alert will be sent to technician to whom ticket assigned.
4. Department Manager – If selected alert will be sent to department manager email address.
5. Organization Account Manager – If selected alert will be sent to Organization Account Manager email address.
New Internal Note Alert – Alert sent out to technicians when a new Internal Note is appended to a ticket.
1. Status – Select option as mentioned below,
- Enable – If selected , ‘New Internal Note Alert’ becomes active.
- Disable – If selected, ‘New Internal Note Alert’ becomes inactive.
2. Last Respondent – If selected alert will be sent to recently responded person in the ticket.
3. Assigned Staff/Team – If selected alert will be sent to technician to whom ticket assigned.
4. Department Manager – If selected alert will be sent to department manager email address.
Ticket Assignment Alert – Alert sent out to technicians on ticket assignment.
1. Status – Select option as mentioned below,
- Enable – If selected , ‘Ticket Assignment Alert’ becomes active.
- Disable – If selected, ‘Ticket Assignment Alert’ becomes inactive.
2. Assigned staff – If selected alert will be sent to technician to whom ticket assigned.
Ticket Transfer Alert – Alert sent out to technicians on ticket transfer between Departments.
1. Status – Select option as mentioned below,
- Enable – If selected , ‘Ticket Transfer Alert’ becomes active.
- Disable – If selected, ‘Ticket Transfer Alert’ becomes inactive.
2. Assigned staff/Team – If selected alert will be sent to technician to whom ticket assigned.
3. Department Manager – If selected alert will be sent to department manager email address.
4. Department Members- If selected notification email will be sent to all members in the department.
System Alerts – Significant system events that are sent out to the Admin email address. Depending on the configured Log Level, the events are also made available in the System Logs.
5. System Errors – Service desk logs sent out to admin email address. Note: This option selected by default and cannot be modified.
6. SQL errors – If selected, SQL errors notification will be sent to admin email address.
7. Excessive failed login attempts -if selected, alert will be sent to admin email address when staff failed to login Service desk within specified attempts.
Step 4: Click ‘Save Changes’ button in the bottom to save the changes.
How to manage user web portal?
Service Desk allows end user to Report tickets, Check Ticket Status and access Frequently Asked Questions via Web portal. All necessary settings and options required to manage web portal are available in “Admin Panel”. Administrator can define their custom web portal settings using this help guide.
Step 1: Web portal Settings – To configure web portal please go through below steps
1. General Web Portal settings
1. Go to “Service Desk” >”Admin panel”> “Settings”> “System” tab.
2. Set following options:
- Helpdesk Status:
1. Online – If the status is changed to Online, the client web portal interface will be disabled.
2. Offline – If the status is changed to Offline, the client web portal will be disabled. - Helpdesk URL: This URL is the based on your Comodo One configuration . It is used connect end-users to your help desk.
- Helpdesk Name/Title: This name appears in browser tab when accessing web portal.
- Default Department: Choose a default Department for tickets that are not automatically routed to a department.
2. Site Pages settings
1. Go to “Admin Panel” > “Manage”>” Pages” . You can see Landing Page, Offline Page and Thank you page in list.
2. Click ‘Concern’ page to alter content of that page.
3. Click “Add New Page” to create custom page.
4. When two or more pages are available for Landing or Offline or Thank you page, select page and click ‘Enable’ to make activate concern page.
Step 2: Web portal Access settings – To control end user access to the portal, go through the below steps,
1. Go to “Admin Panel”>” Settings” >” Access” tab- You can see option related to client access available in this section.
2. Registration Required – If Selected end user must register in portal to create ticket.
3. Registration Method – Choose any of the below options
- Disabled – If selected end user registration will be disabled.
- Public – If selected end user are allowed to register in web portal.
- Private – If selected end user are not allowed to register in web portal. Staff have to register end users.
4. User Excessive Logins – Enter number of allowed end user login attempts with time lock details. End user login will be locked for specified time when maximum number of login attempts.
5. User Session Time out – Choose the maximum idle time (in minutes) before a User is required to log in again. If you would like to disable User Session Timeouts, enter 0.
6. Client Quick access – if enabled end user require email verification on “Check Ticket Status” page
7. Authentication and Registration Templates
- Clients -This template used to send email to end users who successfully processed ‘Forgot password’ link for login issue. Click this template to change the message content.
- Guest Ticket Access – This template used to send email to guest user who request to check ticket status. Click this template to change the message content.
8. Sign-In Pages
- Clients Sign in Page – Click this template page to alter sign in page header.
9. User Account Registration pages
- Please confirm Email Address Page -Edit this template to alter page shown to end user after completing registration form.
- Confirmation Email – Edit this template to alter content of verification email sent to end user when their account has been created in the web Portal or by an staff on their behalf.
- Account Confirmed page – Edit this template to alter the page shown to end user after their email address verified.
Step 3: Ticket Settings -To configure all settings related web portal tickets, please go through below steps,
General Ticket Settings –
1. Go to “Admin panel”> “Settings”>” Tickets” tab
2. Ticket IDs: Select any of the below options,
- Sequential – If selected ticket will be generated with serial numbering system.
- Random – If selected ticket will be generated with random numbering system.
3. Default SLA – Choose the default Service Level Agreement to manage how long a ticket can remain Open before it is rendered Overdue.
4. Default Priority – Choose a default Priority for tickets not assigned a priority automatically.
5. Default Asset Type -Choose default device type to be selected in the ticket. It can be changed by end user during ticket submission.
6. Default Help Topic – Choose default ‘Help Topic’ to be selected in the ticket. It can be changed by end user during ticket submission.
7. Maximum Open Tickets – Enter the maximum number of tickets a User is permitted to have open in your help desk.
8. Human Verification – Enable CAPTCHA on the web portal to verify an incoming ticket is the result of human activity.
9. Allow Client Updates – If enabled end users are allowed to update ticket from web portal.
10. Attachment
- Allow attachment – If enabled service desk allows attachment upload in the tickets.
- Online/Web attachment – If enabled end user are allowed to upload attachments.
- Max User file uploads – Choose maximum number of files can be uploaded in a single ticket.
- Maximum file size – Choose maximum size per file.
- Accepted file types – Enter file extensions separated by commas to limit file types support in ticket. To enable all file format support enter Wild card(*) .
2. Help Topics settings – Help topics are used to apply predefined options and forward tickets to Service Desk staff.
1. Go to “Admin Pane” > “Manage”>” Help Topics”. You can see list of available help topics
2. Add help Topics: Enter “Add New Help Topic’ button in the top to add new help topic.
3. Disable Help Topic – Select help topic and click “Disable” button in the bottom to disable concern help topics.
3.Ticket Form settings -Ticket form which needs to be filled at the time ticket creation can be altered in this settings.
1. Go to “Admin Panel” > “Manage” >” Forms” tab. You can all Service Desk forms in list.
2. Click “Ticket Details” form
3. Update form options available for Ticket Creation.
4. Click “Save Changes” button in the bottom to apply changes.
4. Asset Management – End user choose “Asset” in ticket for which issue ticket is being created . “Asset” reference in the ticket also used for billing purpose.
1. Go to “Admin Panel”> “Manage “> “Assets” tab. All asset types are listed here.
2. Click “Asset” type to enter billing cost per hour in US Dollars.
3. Click “Save Changes” button in the bottom to apply changes.
4. To add new asset type to the list, click “Add New Asset” button in the top.
Step 4: Knowledgebase settings – This settings allows you to enable FAQs access for end users
1. Go to “Admin Panel”> “Settings”> “Knowledgebase” tab.
2. Knowledge Base Status – Enable this setting to allow your users self-service access to your public knowledge base articles.
How to configure MSP Email settings?
MSP Admin should have to configure Email settings for Service Desk Logs, Alerts, Incoming and Outgoing Email Communications with the concern Users or Staffs to the Customer of the relevant ticket.
Step 1: Go to Service Desk and click ‘Admin Panel’ (Available only for Administrators) link
Step 2: Select “Emails” tab from under “Settings” tab menu
- Fill the form “Email Settings and Options”
Step 3: Click on drop-down of “Default Template Set” to get the list of email template names and select the preferred one from the list. Example, Default Email Templates (HTML).
In case, you won’t like to use existing templates then please follow the link from the corresponding pop-up help screen to create a new template.
Step 4: Click on drop-down of “Default System Email” to get the list of email address (loading from ‘manage email addresses’) and select the preferred email id from the list to send email from the same email id. Example, sd-noreply@c1notifications.com.
In case, you would not like to use the existing email address then please update your valid email id in ‘manage email addresses’ table using the help link.
Step 5: Keep the drop-down value as “Use Default System Email (above)” on “Default Alert Email” field if you prefer system email address as alert email address otherwise please select another email id from the drop-down. If not exist, update your valid email address in ‘manage email addresses’ table (refer the help icon).
Step 6: Keep the email id exist in the field “Admin’s Email Address” if you prefer to use the registered email address with the administrator account. You may change the email address if you won’t like to prefer.
Step [7]: If you would like to allow IMAP/POP polling for configured and enabled Mail Boxes then check the “Enable” checkbox of “Email Fetching Enable” field.
Please follow the steps below to ensure that you have given valid information for incoming server settings of the email id which you have given for ‘Default Alert Email’ field
1. Select the ‘Emails’ menu from the ‘Emails’ tab
2. Select the email address that you have given for ‘Default Alert Email’ field from the page ‘Email Settings and Options’ (refer the image of the previous step – Step 6).
** Ensure the information from the section ‘Fetching Email via IMAP or POP’ are valid and given.
Step 8: Enable “Strip Quoted Reply”. If want to remove preceding correspondence between email communications.
Step 9: Enter the token into “Reply Separator Tag” text box indicating to the user to reply above the line.
Step 10: Choose “Emailed Tickets Priority” whether you would like the priority or importance of the user’ mails. This setting can be overridden by a Ticket Filter.
Step 11: If “Accept email from unknown Users” is enabled from “Accept All Emails” then the protocol allows all emails.
Step 12: “Accept Email Collaborators”. If “Automatically add collaborators from email fields” is enabled then adds email participants included in the To and CC fields as ticket collaborators.
Step 13: Default MTA – Default MTA takes care of email delivery process for outgoing emails without SMTP setting.
Step 14: Click ‘Save Changes’ button
- Click ‘Reset Changes’ button if you want to reset the form “Email Settings and Options”
Check you are notified by the system message with green color background span.
How to Manage My Time Sheet ?
My Time Sheet allows staff to report their work by the predefined basis of Weekly or Monthly.
Step 1: Go to Service Desk > ‘My Time Sheets’
Step 2: Click ‘New Time Sheet’ icon
Step 3: Fill the pop-up form and click ‘Continue’ button.
The options and dependencies to complete above step as follow:
- Period – Choose any item from the drop-down list
Example: Weekly – Timesheet provide option to update your work log weekly – If you would schedule the Timesheet based on other list items from the drop-down
- Click the ‘Calendar’ icon and choose any date from a week (When the Period is ‘Weekly’)
- Template – Choose any item from the drop-down list. If you would prefer to create timesheet by your own style then you can skip the template selection
Templates are loaded from Admin Control Panel [Admin Creates and Saves Templates for Staff]
Step 4: Click ‘Add New Line’ link from the ‘Activity’ table
Step 5: Fill the Activity pop-up form and click ‘OK’ button
- Activity – Enter the Activity Name you prefer for your task
Click over any field that remains in the form to update Hours or Minutes or Seconds that you have spent for the task on the day and click ‘Done’ button to save the Time on the form [Choose Time].
- Click ‘OK’ button from the Activity form
- Once complete the Step 5, check Activity Table that has the entry
Step 6: Click ‘Submit’ button to directly submit the report to your Authority.
If you would like to submit the report later then click the Save button to save the report there.
If you prefer to update the report, there is the button ‘Update Ticket’s Data’ to modify your report when required.
Once you submit your report status will be changed into ‘Awaiting’ and you get a system message to confirm the submission
- Check your Time Sheet Status that changes based on your Authority’s action
- Time Sheet Status – Check at the Status Column of the Table
- Not Submitted – Which means that you did not yet submit the report to the concern Authority
- Rejected – Which means that your report has been rejected to update again
- Awaiting Approval – Which means that your Authority yet to check the timesheet
- Approved – Which means that your authority approved the timesheet
Search the timesheets from the specific period if you would prefer now.
How to configure company Information from admin panel
Admins are able to create or edit the Company Information on the Service Desk.
Basic Company Information
Step 1: Go to ” Service Desk ” -> “Admin Panel”- > “Settings” -> “Company Panel” and fill out the Fields for Company Information.
- Company Name- Enter your company name.
- Website – Enter the company’s website.
- Phone number – Enter the company’s phone number.
- Address – Enter the address of your company.
Note: To edit or remove the fields in the ‘Company Information’:
- a. Go to ” Admin Panel ” -> ” Manage “- > ” Forms ” -> ” Company Information “.
- b. To edit a field, select that field and edit it.
1.Creating New Fields in the Company information.
- i. To create a new field give a “LABEL ” name and with the desired type, internal and variable.
- ii. To create mandatory fields means click the checkbox in the ” REQUIRED ” column.
2.To delete the fields in the Company Information.
- a. For Example : Deleting the ” E-Mail ” field.
- i. Select the Field to delete and click the checkbox in the ” DELETE ” column.
- ii. Deleting the Field without data recovery means to click “Remove all data entered for E-Mail” then click “Continue”.
- iii. E-Mail field is deleted in the company information.
Step 2: Edit or add “Site Pages” for the service desk company.
Note: Site page is the page shown when the user goes to help desk URL page(Web portal). The admin able to enable, disable, delete the page and change the body content inside that page.
- i. Landing Page: Landing Page is the site page, that shows when the help desk status is online.
- ii. Offline Page: Offline Page is the site page, that shows when the help desk status is offline.
Note: Your service desk web portal will be in “Offline” if admin changes “Helpdesk Status” at “Service Desk ” > “Settings”> “System”.
- iii. Thank You Page: Thank you Page is the site page that shows on when the ticket is created and it also shows the user who created it and the Ticket number.
- 1. Editing the available site pages.
- i. Navigate to “Manage > ”Site Pages” to edit a page.
- ii. To Edit a site page, select that required site page to Enable or Disable or to Delete it.
- iii. Click the page to edit the content with the required page name ,status, type and page body.
2. To Add New site page :
- i. Navigate to ” Manage > Site Pages > Add New Page “.
- ii. To Add a New site page click ” Add New Page” and give the page information, page body as per your requirement.
- iii. Select that new site page created and then click ” Enable ” to enable it .
- iv. To confirm Enable, click ” Yes do It! ” to enable the selected page.
- v. Select the new site page created and “Save Changes”.
- vi. The help desk URL page shows the new site page created.
Step 3: Logos
- 1. To change the default logo “Choose File” and upload the file.
- 2. Then click the custom logo and save changes in the page.
- 3. The custom logo displayed on the ‘Service Desk’.
How to configure an alert when the ticket closed
Admin can configure ticket close alert in auto responds so that alert will be sent when the ticket closed or the ticket that closed by auto close rules to identifies the ticket status for specific persons.
Step 1: Go to “Admin Panel”-> “Settings”-> “Alerts & Notices” menu. The ‘Alert & Notices’ will be loaded:
Ticket alert category such as New Ticket Alert, New Message Alert, New Internal Note Alert, Ticket Close Alert, Ticket Assignment Alert, Ticket Transfer Alert, Overdue Ticket Alert and System Alerts.
Step 2: Send alert for closed tickets.
- 1. Move to ‘Ticket Close Alert’ field. As a default, this setting is in a disabled state.
- i. Change the settings to enable to sent alert.
- ii. And enable when all ticket are closed or tickets that are closed by auto close rule.
- iii. Choose the check box to whom send Ticket Alerts.
- Admin Email – It should be the administrator email address which the ticket alerts are sent.
- Department Manager – Manger have rights to un-assign tickets, it will be selected from the staff member.
- Department Members – The members will resolve the tickets under the manager.
- Organization Account Manager – It will access organization interface to manage tickets.
- iv. After settings have been updated, click “Save Changes”.
Step 3: Alert for both Close and Auto close Tickets to admin email.
Step 4: Update Admin Email, Department Manager, Department Member, Organization Account Manager.
- a. Admin Email: Click “Settings” -> “Email” -> “Admin Email Address” menu.
- b. Department Manager: Click “Staff” -> “Department ” -> select name of the department Member -> Identify Department Manager
- c. Department Members: Click “Departments” menu. Departments will be loaded. Select the members to sent ticket alerts.
- d. Organization Account Manager: Go to “Staff Panel” -> “Users” -> “Organizations” menu. Choose Account manager.
How to sort ticket in the service desk
The technician can sort tickets by simply clicking appropriate customized column headers. It will be sorted in either numerical or alphabetical order . Also sorting possible in both ascending and descending order.
Step 1: Sorting based on default columns.
- 1. Go to “Tickets” menu -> select ‘Ticket Category’ such as Answered, Assigned, Unassigned, Overdue, Closed and Paused. For example, consider “Open Tickets “.
- 2. The Tickets can be sorted by clicking the sorting icon in the top of the each column header.
- i. Tickets – Ticket column refers ticket numbers. It will sort the tickets by numerical order.
- ii. Last Update Dates – Last Update Dates shows the date and time at which the ticket is created.
- It will sort the ticket by date and time and grouped into three categories such as Tickets with no SLA definitions, tickets with Default SLA definitions and tickets with SLA definition.
- iii. Subject – Subject has a summary of the ticket, It will sort based on alphabetical order.
- iv. From – Lists the name of the user that raised the tickets. It will sort the tickets by alphabetical order.
- v. Priority – Defines the level has three criteria Normal, Critical and High. It will sort the tickets in alphabetical order.
- vi. Device Name – Refers to the name of the devices from which the tickets were created. It will sort the tickets based on the alphabetical order.
- vii. Assigned to – Tickets will be assigned to the staff member for processing. Thus the name of the staff will be displayed here and sort the tickets by alphabetical order.
- viii. Organization – The name of the user’s organization who has raised the ticket. And It will sort the tickets based on alphabetical order.
Step 2: Customise column headers.
- Click ” Customise Columns” menu. After selecting Customise Columns and click “save” button. To add the columns section to perform sorting.
Step 3: Sorting based on customizing columns.
- i. Due Date – The date and time of the tickets to close identified in it.
- ii. Help Topic – It will list all the reported issues and feedback of the tickets to resolve.
- iii. Source – The source can be identified through which we received for the tickets. The categories will be Phone, Email and Other.
- iv. Status – It indicates the tickets are approved by the administrator or not.
- v. Over Due- Any tickets are crossed the due dates that can be identified in this column.
- vi. Answered – response of the ticket will be categorized in this column.
- vii. Asset – Asset can be based on the issues mentioned in tickets.
- viii. Category – Defines the level has three criteria Alert, Problem and Order.
- ix. SUB Category – Define the category information for the tickets.
Note: The customize columns are sorted by alphabetical order.
How to configure system-wide default ticket settings from Admin Panel
System-wide default ticket settings which are configured through admin panel interface will be applied to all incoming tickets and help topics, departments which are all associated with that tickets.
Step 1: Go to ‘Service Desk’ -> select ‘ADMIN PANEL’
On that select tickets which was under the ‘Settings’ tab. Once the settings is enabled, click the ‘Save Changes’.
Step 2: The above shown system-wide default ticket settings are applied to all tickets such as help topics and departments.
Ticket ID: The ID is used to select an unique ID for the ticket and it can be sequence or a random one.
Default SLA: The default service level agreement can be selected from the drop-down list. We can also able to set up our own SLA setting through the modify settings on the Admin Panel. If we change our setting in Admin Panel for SLA setting it will affect the various departments of the ticket associated with them.
Default Priority: As per the tickets priority it can be chosen as low, normal, high and critical.
Default Asset Type: The default asset type can be changed by the users while creating a new ticket. In general the assets are under the category as server, workstation, printer, router, mobile and other. If we change the setting in Admin Panel for assets setting it will overall change the ticket settings linked with them. Depending upon their asset they can easily chosen the type for their issue.
Default Help Topic: This feature is used for selecting the help topics while creating a ticket such as access issue, asset issue, feedback, general enquiry, report a problem. If the user doesn’t selected the topic the topic will be selected automatically. As like Asset,SLA settings the Help topic setting will also change the modification related with them.
Maximum Open Tickets: It limits the maximum number of e-mails which can be send by the user to the service desk. If the value is entered as zero the user can’t able to send mail to any person.
For Example, if we fix the maximum open tickets in admin panel as 2.It allows the user to send exactly 2 mails as a user and if we try to send more than that it will produce an error alert.
Agent Collision Avoidance Duration:
It provides the time duration of holding the ticket to the service desk which avoids the collision between other agent. By this feature the agent can hold the maximum duration of time without doing any activity towards that ticket.
Human Verification: If this feature is enabled it displays the captcha for the new ticket which are generated in the web portal.
On the web portal,
Claim on Response: If this feature is enabled, each unassigned ticket will be automatically assigned to the staff who were responding faster to the user.
Assigned Tickets: If this feature is enabled the assigned tickets will not shown on open tickets at the staff panel. The assigned tickets are shown under the assigned ticket field.
Answered Tickets: If this feature is enabled the answered tickets will be shown on open tickets at the staff panel. Otherwise, the answered tickets were shown under the assigned ticket field.
Staff Identity Masking: By enabling this feature the client doesn’t able to find who is providing the support. By the way it will mask the staff members identity name.
Enable HTML Ticket Thread: By enabling this feature, the rich text formatting is provided for the email communication. For example, If you disabled this feature it wont provide with rich text format.
Allow Client Updates: By enabling this feature the client are allowed to make changes on their ticket.
Auto-close Overdue Tickets Timeout: When this feature is enabled it allows the overdue tickets closed when the time session reached. If the value is said to be zero then there will be no such actions will taken place.
Work Time is Billable: If this feature is enabled, it will record the work time in the log for working on that after claiming the ticket. It has following features such as ask every time whether the time spent is billable or not,always log time spent as billable,always log time spent as not billable depending on this feature the time spent will be record for a ticket.
How to configure auto-response settings
Admin would be able to enable or disable notification messages to ticket owners. Please go through below steps to configure such auto alerts.
Step 1: Go to ‘SETTINGS’ -> ‘Autoresponder’, choose required options as explained below and click ‘Save Changes’ button to take effective.
- 1. New Ticket – Enable autoresponse to the Ticket Owner on new ticket creation.
- 2. New Ticket by Staff – Notifies the Ticket Owner when a Staff creates a ticket for the Ticket Owner.
- 3. New Message Confirmation – Confirmation notice sent when a new message is appended to an existing ticket.
- 4. New Message Notice – Whenever, a message is submitted for the ticket then the notice will be sent to all other participants on the ticket.
- 5. Overlimit Notice – Notice is sent to the Ticket Owner when submits more than allocated number of open tickets
Note: Please don’t forget to check over help icons since each field has an option to create a new item or customize the existing item as per your need.
How to Enter Business hours for SLA time calculations
The configuration allows you to set your business hours for all days in a week. Based on the hours and the time duration, your ticket billings hours will be calculated and the SLA time will also be calculated for breach. If your ticket is received at non-business hours then your ticket will be taken to the account when only the business hour starts. Example: In case, your ticket is received at 19.00 but the SLA Business hours is 8:00 to 18:00 then your ticket is accounted from the moment that the business hour start (on next working day).
Step 1 : Go to ‘SETTINGS ‘ -> ‘System’ and scroll-down the screen and focus the section “Business hours”.
Explanation: Allowed different formats of time: “HH:MM”, “H:M”, “HH:M”, “H:MM”
Step 2: Enter your business hours for each day.
If there is no business hour for any day, you can enter 0 into the fields From and To – This entry will be taken as Non-Business Day (the days will be excluded from the SLA breach calculation).
Finally, click ‘Save Changes’ button to save the settings.
How to take remote control from service desk
Technicians can take remote control over a device that was associated with the ticket directly from Service Desk instead of launching and looking for the option in ITSM. But this can be done if the ticket was created by the endpoint user from ITSM tray icon or the ticket was created automatically by ITSM due to a failed procedure or triggered monitor.
Step 1: Go to ‘TICKETS’ and select appropriate category.
Step 2: Select and view any ITSM generated ticket from the table – Please keep in mind, that the deleted devices and the devices in offline will not be taken by the Remote Control.
Step 3: Check if there is a Remote Control button otherwise the ticket is not associated with any device and the ticket is also not generated by ITSM. Click the Remote Control button to initiate the remote connection over the device.
Step 4: Please follow the Step 2 onwards from the topic – https://blog.comodo.com/it-management/comodo-one-takeover-remote-endpoints-using-itsm/
How to filter tickets in the service desk
The “Ticket filters” available in the service desk helps to configure the “Filter Actions” and “Rules” for ticket automation. Thereby you can easily manage the tickets.
The filter actions like automatically assigning the certain ticket to a particular staff or department, setting Target Channel, Filter Status, SLA etc are configured as below and based on the rules the actions will be applied to the ticket.
Step 1: Go to “Admin panel ” -> “Manage” -> “Ticket Filters” menu. The list of created ticket filter will be loaded, if available. The filters can be sorted using the sorting icon next to the column header.
Step 2: A existing filters can either be enable or disable using the ‘Enable’ or ‘Disable’ button at the top.
Enable : Select a ticket and select “Enable” button to enable the ticket.
Disable : Select a ticket and select “Disable” button to disable the ticket.
Example : Enable a Filter
Example : Disable a Ticket filter.
Step 3 : To add a new filter, click ‘Add’ filter button at the top.
Note : The Incoming filters will be filtered with the criteria mention in the Filter rules and Filter Actions will applied to those tickets.
The add filter has four main sections:
- 1. Help Topic Information
- 2. Filter Rules
- 3. Filter Actions
- 4. Admin Notes
Help Topic Information:
The help topic information has the following fields,
Filter name: Enter a name for the filter.
Execution Order: The number ranges from 0 to 99 and it determines the priority of the ticket. Lesser the number, higher will be the priority. If you don’t want to prioritize then choose the box “Stop processing further on match!”.
Filter Status: You can choose either “Active” or “Disabled”.
- i. Active – Ticket is in active state.
- ii. Disabled – Ticket is in disabled state.
- iii. Target Channel: Select the source of the ticket. Some of the target channels are Email, phone, other.
Example for creating a Disabled ticket Filter:
Filter Rules
The rules for the ticket filter will be defined here. Based on the rule chosen , the filter actions which you will define in Filter Actions will be applied to the ticket.
Rules Matching Criteria. It has two options,
- i. Match All – If all the defined rules are matched ,the filter action will be applied.
- ii. Match Any – If any of the defined rules are matched ,the filter action will be applied.
One More rule.
Click the “One More Link” link to define the rule.
- 1. Select the search parameter in the first drop-box
- 2. Select the condition (which it should meet) from the second drop-down
- 3. Enter the text/pattern that needs to be searched
Example for Rules Matching Criteria:
Filter Actions
- 1. Reject Ticket: If enabled, the further processing of the ticket will be rejected.
- 2. Reply -To Email: If enabled, the automated mail will be send to the mail from which the ticket was raised.
- 3. Ticket auto-response: If enabled, the auto-response will be disabled.
- 4. Canned Response: select the canned response type, it will be sent to the user. These type of canned Response can be created in (Service Desk -> Staff Panel -> Knowledgebase -> Canned Responses)
Example for Canned Response:
- 5. Department: The ticket will be filtered based on the department to which the ticket has allocated. This department helps to route the ticket to the staff.
- A department can be created from Service Desk->Admin Panel →Staff →Departments
- 6. Priority : Set the priority level for this ticket.
- 7. SLA Plan:Select the SLA plan. The SLA plans are the time period within which a ticket should be attended and closed.
- You can define your own SLA in Service Desk → Admin Panel → Manage → SLA Plans.
- 8. Auto Close:If enabled, the ticket satisfying all the condition mentioned here in the filter will be closed without any processing.
- 9. Auto Change User: If Enabled, the Ticket assignee will be automatically changed to selected Assignee.
- 10. Auto-assign To: Select the name of the staff member to which you want to assign the ticket.
- 11. Help Topic: A help topic can be selected by users while creating a ticket. It helps to identify the appropriate source of the issue.
If the help topic is not selected by the user, we can set the help topic to be used through filter.
Example : Create new ticket filter form
Delete a Ticket
Step 1: Go to “Admin panel ” -> “Manage” -> “Ticket Filters ” menu. The list of created ticket filter will be loaded. Select the ticket and click delete button.
How to billing in service desk according to assets and organization
The billing feature in the service desk, helps you to easily manage the cost for the services you provide to your clients . You can define unique service plans by creating customised service contracts for the organisation. This provides an accurate and automatic billing system.
To set the billing system you should set some billing related option in the following modules,
Assets:
For every service provided to the clients, the administrators can set the global rate.These global rates will vary for the assets.The billable amount will be added to either weekly or monthly bill.
Steps to create asset and set global rate to that asset:
In default there will be some assets available, the global rates to those assets can be edited.
Step 1: Go to Service desk → Admin Panel → Manage → Assets. The Default assets and custom alerts will be loaded.
Step 2: To add a new asset click “Add New Asset”, Asset Page loads. Give the Asset name and Global rates and click save button. A new asset will be added with the status “enabled”.
- Asset name – Name of the Asset.
- Global rates – Give the rate that need be charged for the service.
- Status – Defines the status of the asset. There are three type of status “Default”, “Enabled”, “Disabled”.
- 1. The asset with status “default” cannot be disabled.
- 2. The custom assets can be either “Enabled ” or “Disabled”
Contracts
The services provided to the customer organisation can be managed by creating an contract. The contracts can be customised based on the customer and your needs. You can define billing period, rates to the asset, Prepaid hours, unused can be carried forward or not etc.
Create a new Contract:
The create new contract form has three sub sections, they are the following.
1. General Information : Provide the general information such as
- i. Contract Name – Give a name for the contract.
- ii. Company – Select the organisation from the drop down for which the contract needed to be created.
- iii. Contract Details – Enter a brief explanation about the contract.
- iv. Start Date – Enter the commencement date of the the contract.
- v. End Date – Enter the end date of the contract.
2. Contract Parameters : The parameters such as
- i. Prepaid Hours – The prepaid hours will not be non billable hours. This is an optional option. Once the prepaid hours gets over the time.
- ii. Fee – The fee that needed to paid by the organisation. If the Fee is defined as 0, the organisation no need to pay the amount the fee.
- iii. Billing Period – Define the billing period. If billing period = monthly, the organisation should pay the fee for every month till the contract ends.
- iv. Unused Hours – The unused hours within the billing period can either be carried forward or it cannot.
3. Asset Rates ($/h) If the below rates are not defined, global rates will be applied to extra hours:
Define the rate for each asset. It will used in the billing. If the asset rate is not defined or set as 0 after the Prepaid Hours , the global rate will be applied.
Note: If the rate is provided for the asset in the contract. It will be used for the billing otherwise the global rate (defined in the contracts )will be used for billing purposes.
Fill the necessary details for the contract and click create.
Ticket Settings & Options
The time spent by the staff on the ticket can be made billable by setting the following two options in the “Ticket Settings & Options”
- 1. Work Time is Billable – The time spent on the ticket can be set as either billable or not billable
- 2. Round billable time – Select the round off option for the billable time.
Step 1: Go to Service Desk → Admin Panel → Setting → Tickets. The “Ticket Settings & Options” page will be loaded. This page helps you to configure the setting for the tickets which are raised by the end user and the staff.
Step 2: As mentioned earlier, the billable timing dealt with the tickets can be set here. In “System-wide default ticket settings and options”, the “Work Time is Billable” can be set using three option.
- Ask every time whether the time spent is billable or not – Ask the staff to add their time in the tickets they have handled as a billable or not.
- Always log time spent as billable – The time spend in the tickets are billable.
- Always log time spent as not billable -The time spend in the tickets are not billable.
- Example: If you want to ask the staff to charge their service time as billable or not.
- Enable “Ask every time whether the time spent is billable or not ” this option.
Step 3: The billable time will be calculated based on the Time setting.
1. Charge Interval – The change interval determines the rounding off billable time.
For example, the “change interval” is set as 3 minutes, and if the billable time spend by staff is record as 1.45 . It will round off the recorded billable time from 1.45 to 3 minutes.
2. Stopwatch – If this option is enabled, the automatic stop watch timer will be displayed while working on the ticket. The staff can record his timing using the record icon.
3. Manual time entry by other staff – If this option is enabled, the staff other than who working on the ticket can log their work.
4. Round billable time – The “Round billable time”, allows you to set the rounding off billable time of the ticket.
There are two choices available:
- i. Round billable time after sum of all billable time – If enabled, the billable time will be l round off after summing up all the time.
- ii. Round each billable time separately – If enabled, when you record the billable time, the time spent will rounded off and saved.
- Please refer below illustration which has:
- Charge Interval – 3 minutes (default)
- Stopwatch – Enabled
- Manual time entry by other staff – Not Enabled
- Round billable time – Round each billable time separately
- For Example:
- Period From : 2017-06-01
- To :2017-06-02
- Organization: Taylor Info Pvt Ltd
- Organisation : The name of the organisation to which ticket belong.
- Monthly Fee : The Monthly fee details which are provided in the contract will be displayed here. In this case monthly fee is zero because the contract has not commenced yet for this organisation.
- Tickets : The handled Ticket related to the organisation will be listed here.
- Assets : The Assets which are handled in the ticket will be listed here.
- Asset rate per hour : The amount set for an asset will be listed here. It depends on the global rate or the rate defined in the contract.
- Billable Time : The billable time spent on the ticket. If there are predefined hours the time spend on the ticket will not added to this list till the time exceeds.
- Billable time cost : Cost of the billable time
- Material : The cost of the material used to resolve the tickets.
- Sum : Sum of the Billable and Material cost.
For example : The billable time is recorded when with option enabled “Round billable time after sum of all billable time”.
If the stop watch is not enabled, the staff can manually log their work through “Add Work Time ” option in the Time Spent. Please refer the illustration:
Once the Contracts is made, the services that fall within the “Prepaid Hours” will not be added considered the billable. If the time exceeds the “Prepaid Hours”. the billable charges will be applied to services provided based upon the rates mentioned in the contract and also based on the other factors defined in the contract.
For the non- contract services, the billing will be applied based on the global rates.
Reports
The ‘Reports’ component helps to generate a report for different context. The cost for the billable time recorded can be generated for separate organisation or all organisation.
Step 1: Go to Admin Panel → Reports → Costs. The Reports form will be loaded.
Under cost Section, give “Period From”,”To” and “Organization” and click ‘Go!’.
The cost report for will be as below:
This report can be imported either in Export to PDF or Export to CSV.
Example : Report includes all the Organisation.
