Service Desk functionality insufficient for IT Helpdesk use
Problem to solve
IT Ops had evaluated Service Desk to use as a ticketing-system for Helpdesk purposes. It was found to be insufficient in current state, for helpdesk ticketing purposes.
Intended users
IT Ops / IT Helpdesk users internally. Externally, improvements to Service Desk for improved ticketing functionality may be valuable to others as well.
Further details
Current method of tracking 'helpdesk issues' and inquiries is via self submission of issues in IT queue, or inquiry (most often) via Slack. Ideally all inquiries should be channelled to single source of truth, which we're currently unable to do without evaluating a 3rd party helpdesk tool or Service Desk improvements.
Current major blocking points include ;
- Service Desk strips all markup and content from emails, up to and including basic formatting. Makes it difficult to utilise as a threaded communication tool / front-end for email.
- Responses are not threaded in Service Desk. Each incoming response creates a new issue instead of threading responses to the existing.
- Lack of direct integration with slack ; both for self-serve FAQ and troubleshooting from KB/wiki source of truth, but also for submitting or responding to issue/ticket in helpdesk fashion. High utilisation of slack as the method for most communications means the most effective endpoint for the helpdesk funnel would be slack. (edit - am now aware that issues can be created via url, so Slackbot / aliases could achieve this in the short term)
- we are unable to generate a new email from issues created in a Service Desk Queue, effectively preventing Service Desk from initiating a conversation with a customer/team member
Proposal
Improvements to Service Desk would allow IT dept to dogfood the product for all of our internal helpdesk tasks. Likely also a valuable add for customers.
Permissions and Security
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Documentation
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Testing
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What does success look like, and how can we measure that?
- Gitlab can utilize and dogfood it's own product for helpdesk ticketing functionality.
- Creates / improves a feature that would be valuable to customers.