Help Desk Integration with IT Operations Management (ITOM)

What is an integrated help desk?

An integrated help desk expands the help desk process by connecting it to network and systems information for enhanced context and capabilities, ultimately allowing for faster troubleshooting.

A traditional help desk serves as a valuable customer service tool that enables IT departments to work with users, organize their requests, and redirect their questions when necessary.

Integrated support systems go further. They connect help desks with operations management capabilities, making it easier to bring relevant network and systems information right into the help desk process. This kind of integration means, for instance, network or server alerts related to performance issues can be converted directly into help desk tickets. If there are node issues, the problem can be easily sent as tickets for technicians to handle.

Benefits of an integrated help desk include:

• Become more efficient: With the help of network help desk software, IT professionals can save valuable time when resolving issues across the network. Improve efficiency with more control over how you prioritize issues and which members of your team receive which incident tickets. Some software will let you automatically assign, route, and prioritize tickets to provide a more efficient experience. You’ll no longer have to manually assign tickets as they come in to ensure they reach the right technician, so your help desk's productivity will improve.
• Manage your organization’s IT assets: Your organization has countless hardware and software IT assets, but keeping track of them can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience. With an integrated help desk tool, you’ll be able to seamlessly track and manage the lifecycle of any hardware or software IT assets in your company, from initial request through retirement. Integrated support systems can also help you track service parts or service details. Some can automatically discover hardware and software assets and report information like a computer’s model, serial number, and installed software.
• Understand your data: An integrated help desk can also give you a better understanding of your data. Many offer easy-to-comprehend reports or dashboards that enable you to make informed decisions to improve your organization. You may be able to link directly to the help desk from other monitoring and management interfaces.
• Manage Service-Level Agreements (SLAs): Network help desk software can also streamline SLA management and help ensure you meet customers’ expectations. For example, if your solution offers SLA reports, you’ll be able to see the lifespan of your service tickets. You may also be able to automatically escalate tickets to ensure you don't exceed SLA breach dates and pinpoint any bottlenecks.

Using an integrated help desk can help simplify IT help desk processes like ticketing, IT asset management, and end-user support. You can more efficiently reallocate IT assets and personnel to become more productive and deliver better service across your organization.

How does the integrated support system work in Web Help Desk?

SolarWinds^® Web Help Desk^® (WHD) is an integrated help desk tool that offers the support system features you need to catch and quickly address network, server, and application issues. Not only does WHD integrate important monitoring information into your help desk process, but it also makes it possible to address IT issues more effectively, as they emerge.

You can easily integrate WHD with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM), Network Performance Monitor (NPM), and Network Configuration Manager (NCM). After integrating WHD with SAM, NPM, or NCM, you’ll be able to:

• View and use WHD from your SAM, NPM, or NCM consoles
• Configure ticket assignment and routing in WHD based on custom node properties
• Automatically create help desk tickets when networks, servers, or applications experience performance issues or issue alerts in SAM, NPM, or NCM
• Create links to WHD from network, server, and application node details view

To take advantage of these benefits, install WHD on a dedicated server and activate your WHD license. Then, log in to the Orion^® Web Console, create a new alert, expand Alert Integration, and check the box next to Integrate alert with other SolarWinds Products and subscribers. You can then enter an alert subject, select an alert severity, and add more alert properties before clicking Insert Variable and Submit.

Prepare request types for alert-based tickets to determine how the alerts will be routed by clicking Setup, Tickets, Request Types, and New. Then, you can enter a name, create a nested request type, choose a tech group to handle this request type, and specify the default priority level. You can also ensure some types are only visible to technicians, indicate which technician will receive tickets that have been escalated to their highest level, and add instructions or custom fields.

To create a server link to SAM, NPM, or NCM and enable WHD to automatically generate a ticket based on an alert, log in to your WHD Admin Console as an administrator and click Setup, SolarWinds Integration, SolarWinds Connection, and Add New SolarWinds Source. Enter the connection source’s name, select a request type from the drop-down menu, and enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (or SolarWinds Server IP Address), admin username, and password before clicking Test. You can then configure alert filtering rules and test them to verify they’re filtering properly.

Configuring WHD to integrate with SAM, NPM, or NCM and automatically assign tickets, change their priority level, alert technicians, or run tasks will save you time. For example, if a server fails, WHD will automatically create a help desk ticket after receiving an alert from SAM and assign it to a previously indicated technician.

You can also integrate WHD with SolarWinds Dameware^® Remote Support. This will allow you to launch remote support sessions directly from a WHD service request or IT asset inventory with a single click. Having the ability to remotely connect to devices and manage your service tickets from the same help desk console will simplify and accelerate troubleshooting.

WHD offers automated IT asset management, so you can easily track and manage your hardware and software assets throughout their lifecycle. WHD can automatically discover your assets using its WMI discovery engine as well as pull assets from asset discovery tools and databases like Active Directory, Casper Recon Suite, and Apple Remote Desktop. When you use WHD, you’ll be able to manage your assets and any service requests and view their history from a centralized location. Plus, if you’ve already integrated WHD with Dameware Remote Support and SAM, you’ll be able to access devices remotely and receive automatically generated tickets for server and application problems.

WHD also offers:

• SolarWinds Web Help Desk app for iPhones and iPads where you can receive notifications for any new or updated tickets no matter where you are
• The ability to link different incidents to a specific problem to reduce time to resolution
• A built-in, searchable knowledge base to manage technician knowledge and promote self-resolution solutions to end users
• Performance reports that will enable you to track ticket status
• SLA breach reminders and alerts
• FIPS 140-2 compatibility
• An automated and simple workflow for managing and controlling change requests