Documentation forSolarWinds Service Desk

Dashboard

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Introduction

Your SolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD) dashboard contains a great deal of information. The information below will help you understand your dashboard.

Navigation

Dashboard .

Your landing page

After you log in to SWSD you are taken to your landing page. You can set the location of your landing page.

This real time view serves to visually track, analyze, and display key performance indicators (KPI), metrics, and key data points to monitor the health of your business, department, or specific process. The incident widgets auto update every 1-5 minutes, and all other widgets can be updated via the refresh button on the widget or by refreshing your browser.

Take a moment and get to know the different areas found in your dashboard. The image below is an example.

Your toolbar

At the top of the landing page are several icons that provide useful information.

  1. Search. Enter keywords into the search bar to navigate directly to areas such as:

    • Incidents
    • Catalog items
    • Solutions

See Advanced search and syntax rules for more information.

  1. What's new. See newsroom posts on the SolarWinds Service Desk Thwack site. Includes information about recent product updates and enhancements, as well as new features.

  2. Chat. Open an engagement channel between you and your end users that allows direct communication. This results in faster resolution times as you are able to obtain all the information you need quickly.

    Enterprise Service Management (ESM) customers: Chat functionality is available only for the service provider created as a result of your ESM migration, for example, IT Service Provider.

    Icon settings:

    • An outline icon signifies there are no active chats in the queue.

    • The blue background signifies a chat is waiting in the queue. Select the chat icon to accept the chat.

    • By accepting the chat, the chat is now assigned to you.  From here you can assist your end user, create an incident (which includes the chat transcription), or end the chat.

    • The number in red represents messages received from the end users.

  3. Notifications. If you have new notifications, you will be alerted by a red number. 

    Enterprise Service Management (ESM) customers receive notifications for tickets and tasks from all service providers. When a notification is clicked, the user is redirected to the service provider for that notification.

    Notifications are received regarding:

    • Incidents received.

    • Incidents resolved.

    • Incident new Incident index.

  4. New. Opens a dropdown menu where you can create new objects, such as asset, catalog item, change, computer, and others.

  5. Your avatar. By default, your avatar reflects your initials. When you click the icon, a dropdown menu displays, where you can select:

    • My Account

      • Profile tab. Upload a picture to your profile or change your password.

      • Settings tab. Create an email signature; select your default SWSD home page, type of display, and default opening tabs; and enable keyboard shortcuts. You can also set up an out of office message and assign new incoming records to another individual or group during your absence.

        See Out-of-office message for instructions. New incoming records can include objects such as incidents, tasks, and approvals.

    • Documentation. Opens the SolarWinds Service Desk documentation page.

    • Community - Opens the community resources site on Thwack.
      • Resource articles
      • Product announcements
      • A list of items we are working on
      • Access to the our support portal

    • Support - Opens the Service Desk Support Contact Information page. From there you can:

      • Search solarwinds.com for the information you need, including knowledge base support articles and additional guides.

      • Contact the SolarWinds support team via chat.

      • Get contact information to call your local office.

    • Go to Portal View. Open the Portal where you can create a new request, see a list of your requests and tasks, ask questions, and have valuable services and articles at your fingertips.

    • Keyboard Shortcuts. Open a list of the keyboard shortcuts offered.

    • Sign Out.

The rest of the real estate on your Dashboard is made up of several buttons and many widgets. Below we introduce you to the details contained within.

Your navigation panel

On the left side of your screen is the navigation panel.

1. Home. By default, the home page displays content decided by your administrator. You administrator may opt to allow you to change this setting yourself. If your administrator has allowed you to change the setting, see User home page for instructions.
2. Dashboard. Displays information important to your daily work. You can customize the content on this page. See Dashboard.
3. Service Desk. Access incidents, problems, changes, the change catalog, releases, solutions, the service catalog, and the CMDB.
4. Assets. Access computers, software, printers, mobile devices, network devices, other assets, and a map of asset locations.
5. Tasks. Access a list of active tasks.
6. Procurement. Access contracts, purchase orders, and vendors, and reconcile records.
7. Risk Management. Access risks and compliance.
8. Analytics. Access out-of-the-box reports, create custom reports, and view and edit benchmarking information.
9. Help. Access documentation, the community forum, support information, and release notes.
10. Setup. For use by administrators in setting up your company's service desk.

Customize your dashboard

The ellipsis to the right of My Dashboard lets you customize your dashboard contents and view. Click the icon and select an entry from the drop-down menu.

  • Rename.
    • You can create a new customized dashboard view and name it whatever you want. You can then share the new view with your team if you have the proper permissions. For more information, see Shared dashboard.
  • Save Changes. Save changes made to a renamed dashboard.
  • Save as New. Save a newly created dashboard.
  • Set as Default. Save the displayed dashboard as your default.
  • Reset to default. Reset your dashboard to the default dashboard.
  • Share.
    • Administrators and service agent users can choose to share their dashboard. For more information, see Shared dashboard.
    • Anyone viewing a shared dashboard has view only permission and cannot save changes.
  • Delete. You can delete a dashboard you have customized.
If you see an option in the drop-down menu and it is greyed out, this option is not available to you based on the edits or changes you have made. For example, if Save Changes is greyed out, you have not made any changes that can be saved.

Icons on the dashboard

  • Add Widget , which displays in the upper right, provides a dropdown menu that lets you customize your dashboard with the key factors that are important and relevant to you. See Widgets below for more information.

    Over 90 widgets are available. The limit is 30 widgets per dashboard. See Dashboard widgets for more information.

  • Add lets you create and save new views of your dashboard. To access one of these views in the future, select the down arrow beside the dashboard title and a dropdown menu of saved views displays.

  • Full screen lets you view your dashboard in full screen mode.

  • Help gives you additional tips on how to best manage your dashboard.

To get the most out of your Service Desk SolarWinds recommends you customize your dashboard with the widgets that provide the most pertinent details to aid in your daily workload. See Dashboard widgets for more information.

To add a widget:

  1. Click Add Widget in the upper right.
  2. From the menu that opens on the left, search for a widget by name or click the right-facing arrow next to a category to display a list of available widgets for that category, and then select the widget you want to add. Widget options are categorized by type:

    • Incidents
    • Service Statistics
    • Time Tracking
    • Tasks
    • Solutions
    • Changes
    • Risks
    • Other Assets

    SWSD adds the widget to the top left of your dashboard.

  3. Drag and drop the widget to the location of your choice.

Widget data is grouped by the type of widget. For example, If you want data to be grouped by category, SolarWinds recommends using the Incident by Category widget.

To edit a widget:

  1. Hover over the name of the widget until the pencil icon displays.

  2. Click the pencil icon.

  3. In the Edit Widget pane on the left, select the appropriate tab (Widget or Filters).
    • To rename, select the Widget tab and edit the Widget title.
    • To change widget filters, select the Filters tab. The filtering options available are based on the widget type. For an incident related widget, apply filters just as you would on the incident index page, for example, level status, state, and other fields. See Incidents for more information.
  4. Click Update to save changes.

The data will be grouped by the type of widget. If you want the data to be grouped by category. SolarWinds recommends using the Incident by Category widget.

You can also create multiple widgets of the same type to save precious time. As your side edit becomes more complex, the ability to duplicate the widget allows you to enter and edit as needed.

For more information, see Dashboard widgets.

Use multiple dashboards

Generate multiple dashboards to help you manage different KPIs and customize your dashboard view. Create a dedicated dashboard for Incidents Management, Assets Management, Tier 1 tickets or any other topic that you or your team would like to keep track of at a glance.

To understand why reporting and dashboards are critical, see Service Desk Reporting Dashboards.

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