The Support Desk App allows users to submit tickets for techs to investigate and respond, and to track progress on outstanding tickets.
In This Article
The Support Desk Application consists of structured forms which can be used to report issues, flag their importance, and track progress on the issue tickets created. User tickets are assigned to Technicians automatically or they can be assigned manually by Supervisors.
Build Your Support Desk
Start by following the process to add an App to a site.
Once you have the App in place, on the App Card change the title and/or description if you want to customize it for your intranet, to give it a name that will resonate with staff. Click Create if you'll return to it later, or Build if you want to start customizing or adding content right away.
Once you're within the App, you'll see the tabs to help you manage tickets, plus text which prompts you to Add New Form. In order to begin using the Support Desk App, you'll need to add at least one form.
Below is an overview of the Support Desk App:
Support Desk Forms
Support Desk is comprised of user ticket forms with pre-defined fields that can't be changed or removed (e.g. ticket owner, status, priority, due date, etc.). After creating a form, custom fields can be added.
Add Form
To begin with the Support Desk App, click on the Add Form link (circled in image below). To add a form after your initial form creation, click Manage Forms, top right, then click Add New Form.
The first section of the form defines its properties, as shown below. Form Title (1) is a required field, and a Short Description (2) can be added as needed to assist users in selecting the appropriate form.
Several options for the form are available (3), specifically:
- Allow User Notes - choose whether to allow users to add notes to technicians within their tickets after they've been submitted
- Display Techs to Users - on the Support Desk home page is a list of available forms with an icon users can click to view the assigned technicians and an email link for each; de-select this checkbox to disable this feature
- Restrict Techs from Deleting Tickets - choose whether Technicians can delete user tickets (with this selected, only an administrator, application owner, or application supervisor can delete a ticket)
- Default user search upon closing a ticket - choose whether users can search for a ticket once it has been closed by default
The second part of the form shows the Default Form Fields, some of which are shown below. The default fields can't be changed or removed. Note that fields in blue are viewable to technicians and the user who submitted the ticket after form submission.
The bottom part of the form allows the form creator to assign technicians as available staff options for the form; a minimum of one technician must be assigned for a form. You can choose to allocate staff based on their areas of skill or job classification. Hold down the CTRL key to choose more than one technician at a time (1). Each time you assign a technician and click Save, the person's name moves from the left panel into the right panel. Once the technician is listed in the right side Ticket Notifications panel (2), various options for notifications can be assigned.
Similarly, for Supervisors (as designated through the App, see below for details), Ticket Notification options can be specified (3).
Click Save to create your form. You can then carry on to add custom fields, or finalize your form as noted below.
Create Custom Field
After adding a new form and clicking Save, a new area for Create Custom Field will display. You can add unlimited custom fields to your form as desired, selecting the field type from the drop down menu options.
Custom form fields can be designated for searching, set to be required, or hidden for tech and supervisor use only. Click Save to retain your changes.
After you've created and saved your form, you can add security settings for users or groups to restrict who can view and submit tickets on the form - click apply security near the form title.
Your form remains in draft mode when saved, and isn't viewable by users. When your form is ready for use, click Publish (top right) to make it available.
Manage Forms
Click the link, top right, for Manage Forms to view all of the available forms in the Support Desk App.
In the listing of forms, click on a linked form name to edit that form. You can also click the red icon beside the name of the form to delete it.
Support Desk User Types
Support Desk has three types of users with different views within the App, as follows:
Supervisors
Supervisors are assigned within the App by hovering over the Admin icon in the toolbar and clicking Assign Supervisors. Supervisors can create and manage both public and private forms, as well as delegate incoming tickets to technicians and monitor ticket progress. Supervisors have full access to all forms, tickets, and technicians throughout the App. Supervisors can add, edit and delete public and private ticket notes and Home Page alert boxes.
Technicians
Technicians are assigned when you create a form within the App, and you can assign one or more technicians to a form. Technicians can accept incoming tickets from the forms they're assigned. Technicians can add, edit and delete public or private ticket notes and Home Page alert boxes. Technicians don't see tickets from other forms, unless those tickets have been closed and are then available through the search function.
General Users
Users can fill out forms to generate tickets, track the progress of their tickets from the My Tickets tab, and add notes to their tickets (if this option has been enabled). Users only have access to search their own active tickets, and search any closed tickets that are designated for user search. If a form has been secured and the user hasn't been given view access, they won't be able to generate tickets on that form.
Create Ticket
When users land on the Support Desk App, they land on the Create Ticket tab by default. To create a ticket, the user needs to click on the type of form they want to use for their request. In the example below, the "Computer" form (1) has no description, and the "PC request" form (2) has a short description as well as the option for users to see what technicians have been assigned to the form.
After selecting the form, users can choose whether to change the ticket owner from themselves (useful if a technician or supervisor is submitting a ticket on behalf of a user), and add a priority, subject, and details. Clicking Send Ticket automatically date stamps the ticket and puts it in the Unassigned queue.
Unassigned Tab
Incoming tickets are placed into the Unassigned tab where Supervisors can assign them to the pool of technicians available. Technicians can also accept tickets from this screen. Technicians will only see unassigned tickets related to the forms for which they've been listed as a technician. All columns can be sorted by clicking on a column heading.
If a form only has one technician assigned, incoming tickets will automatically be assigned and display under the Assigned tab for that technician.
To assign a ticket to a technician, a supervisor clicks Re-assign and in the pop-up clicks the name of the technician who should work the ticket. The pop-up closes automatically.
Assigned Tab
The Assigned tab displays active tickets that haven't been closed. Once a ticket has been assigned to a technician, they'll complete some of the default fields, such as status, due date, etc.
The “Assigned” tab has two views:
- Technicians will view a list of all their active tickets, as in the example below; all columns can be sorted by clicking on a column heading
- Supervisors will view a list of all active tickets grouped by technicians; by clicking Re-assign, a supervisor can change the assigned technician
For either view, you can export ticket results to either Excel or PDF format; click either the Excel or PDF icon (top right) to export the file in your preferred format.
To manage an active ticket, the technician would click on either the linked ticket number or subject, to go to the ticket detail view.
Supervisors and technicians can click Add Notes, top right in the detail view, to add notes about the progress of tickets, or to include updates that may be of use for future reference. If the box for Private is selected, the note won't be visible to the ticket owner.
The technician can also add Resolution information as needed or just at ticket completion, and click Close Ticket when the ticket is solved. When Close Ticket is clicked, there will be a pop-up asking if user search should be allowed for the ticket. Note that when a ticket due date is reached, if the ticket has not been closed, it will display in red on the Assigned tab, for both the technician and supervisors.
My Tickets Tab
In Support Desk, all users see a My Tickets tab. General users see tickets they've submitted on the My Tickets tab, and supervisors and technicians have a My Tickets tab customized to their own ticket entries. All columns can be sorted by clicking on a column heading.
Users can view the details of their tickets to see who has been assigned to their item, as well as monitoring the ticket progress and reviewing notes from technicians. If the form options allow for user notes, ticket owners can add their own notes to the ticket and communicate with the assigned technician. Notes allows for communication to be documented and attached to the ticket for future reference.
Support Desk Alert Box
The Support Desk App home page has an Alert Box feature where supervisors or technicians can add information such as notification of viruses, server repairs, maintenance schedules, etc., as shown in the image below.
Private alerts can be added for supervisor and technician use only, and when there are no alerts, a default alert box explaining the purpose of alerts displays only for supervisors and technicians.
To add an alert, click on Alerts, top right. As shown below, the Alert requires a title (1) and text description (2). You can also choose the order for the Alert (3) (i.e. if there are multiple alerts), the public/private View (4), whether to advertise the Alert (5), and display start and end dates (6).
Click Save to automatically display the Alert on the Create Ticket page.
Search for Tickets
Users can click Search, top right in Support Desk, to search for tickets. Search options vary by user type, as follows:
- General users can search active tickets where they're the ticket owner, or search all closed tickets where user search has been allowed
- Technicians and supervisors can search for active and closed tickets, perform an advanced search on custom form fields, or restrict which tickets are available for general user search
For either search, set the search parameters and click the lower right Search button.
From the Search results screen you can also export ticket results to either Excel or PDF format. To do this, after performing a search, click either the Excel or PDF icon (as circled in the image below) to export the file in your preferred format.
