When I started at my current employer, help desk requests were handled by a shared e-mail box. Each technician had a folder underneath the inbox. Requests would be “assigned” by moving an email from the inbox to one of those folders. If a user called to report an issue, there was a good chance it was never recorded. Providing the user with an update on their request was extremely painful.
It didn’t take long before my search for a true help desk tool began. ServiceDesk Plus’ easy implementation and attractive price set it apart from competitors. The product has been running in our environment since 2005.
Then this year, we began disaster recovery planning. During initial meetings, it became clear that the asset and contract information stored in Service Desk would be critical in the event of an outage. I thought to myself, it would be great if ManageEngine offered a cloud version of Service Desk and to my delight they do.
ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand provides us with the ability to access our information from anyplace at any time. The iPhone and iPad app make it even easier to stay well-informed of what is going on within the user requests and OpManager integration delivers insight to our server environment.
To help with our disaster recovery planning, we performed a few simple steps within ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand. First, within Solutions, we have created a disaster recovery category which will contain all of our important recovery documents. Second, we have added a number of custom fields to assets so that support information is easily accessible. Finally, all our support and maintenance contracts were added to Contracts area and then linked to the corresponding asset. Taking these steps provides anyone within the IT department the necessary information when an outage occurs.
Additional Fields
Business Function
Business Owner
Primary Support
Secondary Support
Support Number
Support URL
ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand has become much more than a help desk tool. It has evolved into a vital part of our disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
