Documentation forService Desk

Service Desk

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Introduction

Service Desk provides great insight into the products and services your organization provides. This guide walks agents through understanding how each feature can benefit you in your daily work.

To access Service Desk:

  • Log in via browser to your Service Desk or
  • Log in via your mobile app (see Mobile devices for more information).

After login, the Service Desk landing page, also known as your Dashboard, displays.

My account

From the landing page, select your avatar and look at the dropdown menu.

Your avatar.  If you have not yet uploaded a photo, the default avatar reflects your initials .

Avatar drop-down menu options

When you click the avatar, a dropdown menu is revealed.  This menu includes these options:

  • Profile. When you select Profile from the avatar drop-down list, you see multiple tabs:
    • The Profile tab let's you:
      • Update your profile, for example, you can update your personal information such as Name, Site, Role etc.
      • Upload a picture for your avatar by clicking the large icon image that appears to the left to your profile. When you hover over the icon image, a camera is displayed. When you click the camera a dialog box appears, where you can browse to an image for uploading.
    		  
    • The Password tab let's you update your password by entering your old password, then typing in your new one twice.
    		  
    • The Settings tab lets you:

      • Create an email signature.

      • Select a theme (light or dark background).

      • Select your default home page.

      • Select your preferred display mode for descriptions (compact or full).

      • Select your preferred display mode for request inputs (compact or full).

      • Select your preferred opening tabs for the different object types, for example, incidents, service requests, problems, etc.

      • Enable or disable Keyboard shortcuts.

      • Configure an out-of-office email that not only let's others know you are OOO, but can also assign new incoming records to another individual or group (as long as the assigned individual/group possesses the relevant permissions).

        See Out-of-office message for details on the out-of-office feature.

    		  
    • The Notifications tab lets you set your preferred method for delivery of Service Desk notifications. Delivery methods include Email, Slack, Teams, and Chat. Just click the dropdown arrow for a notification content type, for example, general notifications, tickets, changes, tasks, problems, and chats, and then select the notifications you want to receive and the delivery method(s) for each.
    		 
  • Documentation. Opens a browser window with where you can search published Service Desk product documentation, knowledge articles, and other Success Center content.
  • Community. Visit the Thwack user community where you can discover the community resources that include resource articles, product announcements, and access to the Service Desk support portal.
  • Support. Links you directly to the Service Desk contact page. It provides a ticket collection method for contacting sales, and phone numbers for customer service, sales, technical support, license renewal, dial by name, or an operator.
  • Go to Portal. Takes you directly to the customer portal.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts. Provides a list of available keyboard shortcuts.
  • User Impersonation. Allows administrators to impersonate another user if the feature is enabled for your organization.
  • Sign Out.

SolarWinds recommends that you:

  • Continue reading this guide to gain in-depth knowledge and familiarity with your service desk.

  • Find out more about the Chat feature where you as the Agent can directly assist your users. The chat icon is located in the top bar and from here you can accept new chats. For more detail, see Chat for administrators.

Dashboard

For a detailed understanding of your dashboard and how to customize the view to best meet your needs, see Dashboard.

After you have completed your review of the widgets and additional data located in your dashboard, you can proceed to the features of your Service Desk. These include all ITSM objects and data related to each. To ensure you make the most of your Service Desk, you can customize every screen.

Navigation and customization

It is easy to navigate through your service desk and locate exactly what you need. See Search my Service Desk.

It is also easy to filter, edit, and customize your view. See Customize your view.

Search my Service Desk

Basic Search

Throughout each service desk screen, you will find a search field which allows you to search for free text. By default, the search will match the whole term. When needed, wildcard searches can be used (? replaces a single character, and * replaces zero or more characters).

Exact Phrase Matching

When looking for words that are near each other, for example: “quick brown fox”, the search query will show only results that contain all of the search terms, in the same positions relative to each other.

Operators

The preferred operators are + (this term is part of the search) and - (this term is excluded from the search).

For example: this query:

quick brown +fox -news

Therefore:

fox must be present

news must not be present

quick and brown are optional; their presence increases the relevance

Grouping

Multiple terms or clauses can be grouped together with parentheses to form sub-queries.

The following is an example of how to use and/or combination to search for incidents under the UK site where the description is either UAT or Workaround.

(Description: UAT OR description: Workaround) AND site: UK

The "AND" and "OR" conditions must be written in capital letters.

Customize your view

All views can be edited. It is important to point out that as you utilize your service desk, SolarWinds builds on the information stored. That is, when you save new views, you will be able to access them in the future. Each index page begins with an out-of-the-box default look. It can be changed over time-based on the way you choose to edit, filter, and customize your service desk views.

What is a view?

A subset of data contained in a table. This data is dynamic, as it changes depending on the point in time in which the view is accessed.

Each ITSM object such as an incident, problem, or change has a unique out-of-the-box index view that displays all the data in a table format.

Why are views used?

Views have several purposes in your databases. Customize and prioritize views to focus on the columns you need to monitor most. Views can also restrict a user by applying permissions and restrictions to determine which rows and columns a specific user can access and/or alter.

List view provides information about how to modify and using edit and filter capabilities.

If you would like ITSM-specific information, select the ITSM object below to learn more about the details stored for each and a link to List view details.

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