ServiceDesk application

The ServiceDesk application is an example of a Dynamic Case Management system--one that evolves with you as your processes mature, and which allows for ad hoc procedures (Multi Step Tasks) to be created when existing processes don't quite fit. However, ServiceDesk is specialized to provide additional features for customer support. But while an organization can have as many Dynamic Case Management applications and Database Applications as it likes, it can have only one copy of ServiceDesk.

About ServiceDesk

ServiceDesk is automatically included in your AgileApps Cloud platform account. Once you get started, you can create other kinds of applications. But many companies--and even many departments--find that the ServiceDesk application fills most of their needs.

Your internal agents can use ServiceDesk to manage incoming cases. You can also have managers, administrators, and other roles that have additional privileges.

ServiceDesk comes with a built-in Service Portal that external users can use to create and track cases. In addition, the Service Portal can support a Community and a Knowledge Base. You can also create cases and communicate about them via other Channels, as well--including Email.

To get started, you create an AgileApps Cloud platform account. That account (or tenancy) gives you the ServiceDesk application, which can be customized to meet your needs by managers and admins. It also gives you the ability to create additional applications, all of which can share data easily.

Note: In any given account, a person with design privileges can customize any application running in that account. If someone needs to be a designer in one application, and a "regular" or unprivileged user in another application, the best strategy is to create a separate account for each application.

Now then, ServiceDesk is all about servicing customers. You customers can be individuals (recorded as Contacts) or other organizations (Accounts of your own), where each such account has one or more contacts associated with it. So if a case comes from Frank at ABC Co, you can associate with the contact Frank and the account ABC. Frank, meanwhile, is also associated with that account. (Such associations are accomplished using Lookup fields.)

Finally, to make sure your customers know who you are, you can do some branding to display your organization's logo and colors, and to make object names reflect your organization's terminology.

Learn more: Application Branding

ServiceDesk Features

The ServiceDesk application is a specialized version of a Dynamic Case Management application, but it has some unique features. Most of them are centered around the ability to interact with your customers in the most efficient and friendly manner possible.

• Service Portal
  The Service Portal lets your customers file cases and track them. It also provides:

• Case Tracking
  A page that lets your customers file news cases and track the progress of existing ones.
• Knowledge Base
  A way to publish articles your customers can use.

Tip: When using the HTML editor, press Alt+0 (Alt key plus zero) to get a list of shortcut keys.

• Community
  A way for users to help themselves, that lets an agent quickly create a case from a community post.
• Application Branding
  Change the logo image, background color, and object names that your customers see.

Note: When your customers visit your support URL, they see your Service Portal. (An internal who logs in, on the other hand, can see either the Service Portal or the Agent Portal at the same URL.) Because that URL is intimately connected to the ServiceDesk portal, you can run only one copy of ServiceDesk at a time. (However, you can have as many DCM apps and Database apps as you want.)

• Account-specific SLAs
  Every Dynamic Case Management comes with default SLAs that can be customized. Those Service Level Agreements define response and resolution times that cause reminders to be sent out at appropriate intervals. The ServiceDesk application goes a step further. It lets you define different SLAs for different Accounts, for situations in which you are contractually obligated to meet specific goals, with penalties when those agreements are breached.

• Surveys
  Customer Satisfaction Surveys can be automatically sent out when a Case is complete, to track customer satisfaction levels.

• Case Analytics
  The Case Analytics feature gathers statistics for each agent, each day. Data is displayed in the Case Analytics Dashboard. Additional reporting can be done using the Case Analytics Object.

• Enhanced Email Integration

• Pre-defined Email Channel
  An Email Channel comes pre-defined when you install the application, so you can experiment with it and see how it works.
• Pre-configured Email Templates
  When a case comes in on a given channel, the Email Template to use for responses is pre-defined. Any text an agent types is plugged into the template, and the resulting message is sent to the customer.
• Quick Text
  Define standard "boilerplate" Quick Text that agents can add to a message with a mouse click.
• Knowledge Base Integration
  Search for knowledge base articles and insert a link into a message, all with the click of the mouse.

• Additional Behaviors
  These additional behaviors are "hard-wired" into the application. If you don't want them, consider building a DCM app, instead:

• Automatic status change and case assignment
  When an email is sent from a new case, the status is automatically changed to "Open", and the sender of the email becomes the owner of the case.
• Automatic Task Notifications
  When a task is assigned to a user, a task-assignment notification is delivered to the user's inbox.

Important: There is no "reset to factory defaults" or "undo" option in ServiceDesk. When customizing ServiceDesk, keep track of the changes you make so you can reverse them, or test your changes in an experimental tenant before making them in the production tenant. If you plan on wholesale customization, consider starting with a standard Dynamic Case Management app, instead.

Working with Service Desk

To find out more about working with ServiceDesk, see:

• Using the Agent Portal
• Viewing and working with Cases
• Configuring and Using the Service Portal

Learn More

• Welcome - Quick introduction and overview
• Designers Index - The many ways to customize an application like ServiceDesk
• Dynamic Case Management application - Build your own special-purpose DCM app