Introduction
We will be looking at how to use automation within the KACE Service desk to improve your metrics. First we will examine the benefits that automation can provide and why they are important. Then we will look at the different automation types the KACE Service Desk has and why they help improve your metrics.
Why are service desk metrics important?
Metrics for an IT service desk are important for several reasons. First, they provide a direct measure of the service desk's performance, offering insights into its efficiency, responsiveness, and overall effectiveness in resolving user issues. These metrics, which may include average response time, resolution time, first call resolution rate, and customer satisfaction survey scores, help in identifying areas for improvement and optimizing processes and policies. Moreover, they enable bench-marking against industry standards and best practices, facilitating continuous enhancement of service quality. By tracking these metrics, organizations can make data-driven decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure that the IT service desk aligns with business objectives, ultimately enhancing user experience and productivity.
Let’s Automate!
KACE Service desk includes a builtin knowledge based system, allowing you and your technicians to create articles as needed. These articles save time and confusion by formalizing standard solutions to common problems that occur for your user base. Not really an automation however a huge time saver when implemented as it keeps your technicians from re-inventing the wheel so to speak for each issue they encounter. It also allows for new technicians to leverage the knowledge of those with more experience or expertise. What we do automate is keyword search automatically on the user profile when entering the information in their request. Potentially suggesting articles that the end user can self serve, thus speeding time to resolution and freeing up the technician for other tasks. It’s a win win for all.
The next automation is great for those incidents to affect multiple users. For example, a critical system goes down and a flood of tickets swarm your service desk team. Typically, they all have a very similar title or summary. With KACE Service Desk you can identify these tickets multi-select all of them and merge under one ticket. Allow a technical to work and correspond under one ticket instead of many. Save ton’s of time that would otherwise be used updating notes and correspondence for multiple users individually.
Next up is my favorite, Ticket Templates. An organization my find that once all criteria for their request are built into their service desk that the form or ticket can be daunting for a user to fill in or complete. Faced with a wall of text or too many options the user may elect to just call or send an email instead, thus negating the efficiencies inherent in the ticketing system. Ticket Templates to the rescue, during ticket submission the user will only see the pertinent fields or sections based on their current needs. Let’s take the example of a software request. A user may have an application that is not working, once they select software, the next query they see could be options for which of the different software they use. Once a section is made further queries could be “replacement, not working, needs update, need access”. The idea being you only show the user what they need to elicit information to help resolve their issue as quickly and as effectively as possible.
Similar to Ticket Templates we have process templates. Process templates help automate those complex or reoccurring tasks. Some typical examples being employee on-boarding or hardware / software requests. With KACE Service Desk you can outline the steps necessary and predefined which queue, technician, or role gets assigned each stage. As one step or stage is completed the next is opened and automatically assigned. Each KACE Process Template can also have a defined approval process, which can require one or many users to sign off or approve, or multi-step approvals if required. The limit is you imagination as to haw many step and who is involved. Customization to your business needs are king with KACE Process Templates. Saving time and ensuring standard handling and outcomes as desired. You can even schedule templates for those reoccurring tasks as desired.
Our last bit of automation is called Ticket Rules, a very power automation tool in the KACE Service desk. Essentially Ticket Rules provide automation by triggering an action based off the state or data in a ticket. Some common examples are automatically emailing closed or over due tickets, or changing the state of a ticket to overdue if opened too long without a user response, The idea is to free up the technicians time and energy with mundane tasks, so they can work on the things that need their direction attention. Furthermore you can configure ticket rules to change priorities based on criteria such as ticket submitter roles, or keywords in the ticket. The more you automate with Ticket Rules the more efficient each technician can be improving metrics along the way.
With KACE Service Desk we make automation easy and intuitive, improving metrics and making each technician more effective. I hope you have enjoyed this blog on improving metrics with automation in the KACE Service Desk.
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