Item: TOPdesk
Rating: 8
Author: Rob Slinger

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use TOPdesk in several departments for the registration and follow up of incidents, changes, problems and operational tasks at customer sites. We are a managed service provider (servers, network, retail, cloud and security). Customers (and monitoring tools) report calls through telephone, mail, mail import, API connections to other service management apps and portal functionality.

Users and Roles

600 - IT Service management, change management, cloud delivery, security services.

Pros and Cons

They are making good progress in developing API's for communication with other apps which is becoming more and more important. Also the development of a collaboration platform for easy connecting to other/customer (TOPdesk) systems is a positive move.
In our company we will build a extensive API configuration to communicate with MS Dynamics and we already have several connections with customers that gives a better user experience.
The events and actions module gives extra power to the system to overcome some limitations or automate manual actions.
We use this option for a lot of different activities. One is for a notification when a certificate or application license is almost expired but there are a lot more applications for this function.
Technical support department performs nicely and in a professional way.

Room for improvement is in workflows and in mandatory fields based on where you are in a proces. E.g. when closing an incident you have to be forced to check if you made the right decisions at registration time. Also skipping statuses is possible but not wanted.
On several places it would helpful if you could make more field dependent on what you chose in a earlier field. E.g. in the new asset management templates showing only the models of the brand you choose. Also a third level under category/subcategory is needed.

Return on Investment

Appr. 20-25 % of the incidents are registered by API connections, Mail import or self serviceportal relieving the servicedesk.
Customers can check the status of there calls through portal or API also relieving the servicedesk and give a better customer experience
Automation of standard activities through action sequences / API

Alternatives Considered

HP Service Desk Outsourcing

Don't know, I wasn't involved.

Support Rating

The level of experience of the technical support department is fine, reaction times are sometimes a bit varying, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. This also goes for the overall support.

Key Insights

Do you think TOPdesk delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with TOPdesk's feature set?

Yes

Did TOPdesk live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of TOPdesk go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy TOPdesk again?

Yes

Usability

We work fine with the product and there are several ways to build solutions for challenges. There is room for improvements as mentioned earlier and more feedback on, if a function will be added and when would be nice.

Likelihood to Recommend

With some of the improvements mentioned earlier TOPdesk is working fine in a managed service provider environment. API possibilities are great and makes it flexible in connecting to other systems. Change management module could need improvement and is sometimes more administrative work then the actual change.

Nice product with room for improvement

Overall Satisfaction with TOPdesk