TOPdesk is TOPs in the field of Helpdesk/Knowledge Base systems.
Updated December 22, 2022
TOPdesk is TOPs in the field of Helpdesk/Knowledge Base systems.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with TOPdesk
The ECNO Shared Technology Services team uses TOPdesk as a one-stop ticket management and queue system for both our internal processes via Change Management, and for our external clients at 33 different school boards to enter support requests for our products and services. It provides both real-time monitoring of our current support requests shared between a team of 3 remote technicians, and allows historical data to be stored and accessed by both our clients and internal teams.
5 - The people in our organization who use TOPdesk on a day to day basis are the front line technicians of a 3 member team that works remotely across Ontario. Our management team of 3 are also able to access TOPdesk to approve process changes, as well as monitor and report on support request trends.
Pros
- TOPdesk provides easy to customize reports based on user or organization designed selections, allowing the data stored inside the helpdesk solution to be extracted, analyzed, and acted upon. Using simple visual queries, any user is able to build data extracts on the fly
- Importation of data is easy to arrange and insert into the system. From existing support requests to a customer knowledge database, the data can be imported once, or as part of a constantly updating system for user changes, asset management, or user-facing data.
- The ability to reply to emails to update tickets, both as the person making the support request and as the person working on the support request, makes it much easier to keep everyone informed as to the progress of the tickets and the eventual resolution.
Cons
- The initial setup curve is very high, with it being strongly recommended that you involve the company in the design and setup phases to be able to get the most out of the program. The complexity of the setup is more than offset by the functionality of the product.
- TOPdesk has provided ROI of allowing our team more freedom to solve larger problems by directing users to Self-Service solutions through TOPdesk's self-service portal.
- The clear delimination of work status on tickets allows our team greater efficiency to collaborate on solutions and issues. By updating support requests and being able to update either just the assigned technician or updating the user on the steps to attempt.
- The Self-Service nature of ticket entry helps the members of our 33 different school board clients direct their tickets down specific pathways to either a solution, or allows us to direct the tickets to the team/technician responsible for the issue for a quicker resolution and less ticket churn between different teams.
TOPdesk required a significant outlay in terms of planning and time for implementation, but having the correct plans in place simplifies things for the end user, both through self-service and for the front-line operators that resolve support requests. The flexibility of TOPdesk in terms of branding and customization of messaging allows our organization to do more with less while staying on message about providing support. The additional modules to expand TOPdesk into asset and facility management, as well as handling change processes like hiring new staff, or tracking the removal of former staff access via change management allows an organizations IT department extend TOPdesk into many other departments, including HR and facilities, providing a single point of contact for users across an organization.
TOPdesk Feature Ratings
Using TOPdesk
1 - Originally On-prem required a server admin, but with the move to SaaS we are able to move directly into using and modifying TOPdesk to match our needs. The skills required to support TOPdesk in our organization are the same as those of an analyst - observce the current processes, and then model in TOPdesk, then work to improve those processes with the opportunities technology and automation provide.
- Self-Support
- Tracking Trouble Tickets/Incidents
- Asset management and tracking.
- Change Management - onboarding of new clients and staff.
- Updating our software assets with daily imports on usage from our servers
- Working towards Self-Service assignment of software packages
- Increased self-service usage for external clients
- Adding more departments into TOPdesk for business process modelling.
Integrating TOPdesk
- System Center/Intune/Endpoint
- Google
- Active Directory
The integrations help power our use of TOPdesk as an inventory management system with up to date information about our devices and users, and how they interact. The systems update nightly with data exports of our users and devices to automatically update the potential callers and devices. The integration itself was not too difficult, the tools in the TOPdesk API allow for easy data import of multiple types of data.
- Network Device inventory
Through increased use of API's, we are planning to increase the data contained in our device/object database, allowing use a single pane of information about the number of devices in our system, as well as the status of the devices. We plan to be able to use the data collected about device status to inform how we approach vendors.
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
No to our knowledge to date.
There are very few limits to how TOPdesk can integrate with your systems. The power and flexibility of the underlying databases combined with the Marketplace and freedom to define your own data models for objects provides flexibility for not only inventory management, but also for firing off actions that affect other systems from inside TOPdesk.
TOPdesk Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes -
Initial Data Migration
Implementation/Primary use Phase
Refine Use Cases
Move to SaaS
Integrate assets
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - Know who is responsible for which portions of your organization, who are the influencers and stakeholders.
- Duplicating Processes
- importing assets
- importing client and operator information
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation