ADMIN: Configuring Service Desk automation settings

Autotask is designed to work out of the box, but each Autotask customer uses ticketing and the Services Desk features differently, to support different products and services.  With Service Desk settings in the Admin area, Autotask Administrators are able to configure many of the ticket settings to conform to their business workflow.

Automation tools

The following automation features (configured on the Automation tab) are especially relevant for tickets:

• Templates that allow you to populate multiple fields. Refer to Form templates.
• The checklists that can be added to tickets. Refer to The Checklist Library.
• The ticket notification templates you will use to communicate with your customers. Refer to Notification emails. These may include a variable that allows customers to provide feedback with two mouse clicks. Refer to The Service Thermometer.
• A tool to convert emails in your support email box to Autotask tickets. Refer to Incoming email processing.
• The workflow rules that create tickets or automate ticket processing based on rules you define. Refer to Autotask workflow rules.

Dispatching

You can customize the following service call features:

• The list of statuses that track the progress of service calls. Refer to Service call statuses.
• The footer that will be used on the Statement of Work report. Refer to Creating a custom footer for the Statement of Work.

Service Desk enhancements

You can enable the following enhancements for your Autotask instance:

• The service level agreements (SLAs) that define your company's standards for service delivery. Refer to Managing service level agreements.
• The tags and tag groups that allow you to classify tickets at a very granular level. Refer to Managing tags and tag groups.
• The internal knowledge base you can set up in Autotask and even share with your clients. Refer to Knowledge Base administration.
• Groups of resources who will review and approve change requests. refer to Managing change advisory boards.
• The fields that will track the information change decisions will be based on. Refer to Managing change info fields.
• A system security level that limits user access to only specific named organizations. They will have the power of a full Autotask license while addressing the security concerns of the MSP. Refer to The Co-managed Help Desk.
• A portal that allows your clients to submit tickets, and even work on them themselves. Refer to Client Portal and Taskfire.