CCS HelpDesk... Features Detail

Three Versions To Choose From: Personal, Standard and Pro*

Feature	Personal	Std	Pro
MS Outlook Ticket Tracking	X	X	X
Integration with MS Office	X	X	X
Knowledge Base	X	X	X
Notifications	X	X	X
Reporting	X	X	X
Form Field Manager	X	X	X
Rapid Install and Deploy	X	X	X
Inventory Link		X	X
Email Conversion		X	X
Web Tickets		X	X
MS Access Export		X	X
MS SQL Export		X	X
Escalation Manager			X
Full Web Interface			X
Rules Manager			X
Advanced DB Export and Sync			X
Requires Public Folders	NO	YES	YES
Requires MS Exchange Installation	NO	YES	YES

FEATURE OVERVIEW

Outlook, Web and Email interfaces

CCS HelpDesk is the only help desk application to offer all three:

• Outlook: Users can submit and view tickets directly in Outlook.  
• Web: Users can submit and view tickets with a browser with the Standard version. A full web interface (request, assign, fufill) is available with the Pro version. These web forms can be integrated with a portal environment.   
• Email: Users can simply send an email to the Help Desk. The Email Converter feature converts the email to a ticket.  

Fully integrated with MS Office, Exchange Server and Active Directory

CCS Help Desk is built upon MS Outlook and fully integrated with Exchange

• Data resides in the Exchange public folders  
• Automatically connects to Active Directory to pull in user details  
• List of users comes from Active Directory  
• Ticket assignments are made from Active Directory list  
• Make appointments via Outlook Calendar from ticket  
• Attach Word, Excel, PDF and HTML forms to ticket  
• Uses Exchange web server to connect with tickets via browser (std)  
• Exchange event sinks are used to convert emails to tickets  

Keeps the end-user informed on ticket status

CCS HelpDesk provide the option to automatically update the user during each stage of the support process with auto notification features. Through the notification utility the help desk staff can set up the application to send the user emails when the ticket is accepted, assigned and completed.

Flexibile to fit your needs

CCS HelpDesk can be set up to fit your organization's needs. The Form Field Manager allows you to hide or require fields, The Approval feature allows you to insert an approval process into your ticket workflow, and the Templates feature allows you to predefine text and links to existing electronic forms in your tickets. All these utilities can be used by a business person without technical help!

Link to and attach existing forms to tickets

Your organization may have existing forms (examples - hardware requests, password changes etc.) that you wish to keep. With CCS HelpDesk Template Manager you can bring those forms to the requester to fill out right in the helpdesk ticket. Once filled out that form is attached to the ticket through out the workflow process.

Split Ticket into multiple tasks

Task Splitter -- One ticket can be split into multiple tasks. Sometimes, one ticket requires multiple staffers to work on parts of it separately. It could be a ticket to upgrade a company with three locations, for example. One ticket is created, but you could split the ticket up when assigning it so that each site has a separate task to complete.

Bring hardware and software inventory information into ticket

Outlook Help Desk now links with  CCS Network Inventory, an asset tracking and network auditing tool that is part of our support productivity tools. When you are working on a ticket, this will allow you to bring up information about the computer or asset involved. Our tickets can connect with the CCS Network Inventory audit database, providing information that is invaluable in solving problems quickly.

Already have an asset tracking package? Outlook Help Desk can integrate with other ODBC-compliant Asset tracking database or LAN audit software programs.We can work with you to integrate Outlook Help Desk with a system you already use. Contact us for information and customization costs for these packages.

Knowledge Base keeps reusable information

The Knowledge Base provides a valuable and easily accessible repository of information on Help Desk issues. It is built from completed tickets and from articles the Help Desk staff enters directly. By having a readily available list of articles categorized and sorted, the Help Desk staff and users have an important resource to draw from when issues arise. The Knowledge Base can be accessed directly or from within tickets. It isavailable through Outlook forms and Web interface.

Create Tickets from Email

Email can be converted to tickets manually and automatically. Using a "create ticket" button, the Help Desk staff can quickly and easily create a new Help Desk ticket from any email selected. Instead of dragging and dropping or manually moving an email, the staff can press the "Create Ticket from Email" button on their toolbar and a new Ticket is created in the Help Desk.

The Email Converter (std and Pro) runs on your exchange server and intercepts emails to the helpdesk and automatically converts them to tickets. Contact information is automatically populated and the summary and description fields are filled in.

Generate Reports with Report Builder

With our utility "Report Builder", ticket information can be selected based on status, category or filtered on any field then easily exported to an Excel spreadsheet or a Text file, great for running reports and tracking the performance of the Help Desk.

The Export to MS Access (standard version) and Export to SQL (Standard and Pro) pushes ticket data to external databases for reporting by Crystal Reports and other third-party reporting tools

Utilities to Manage the Help Desk

• List Manager gives you the ability to customize the contents of drop-down boxes on the Help Desk Ticket forms. Additionally there is 6 customizable fields to fit your information collection needs.  
• Field Manager allow you to decide what fields to present or hide, and gives you the ability to define what fields are required before a ticket can be submitted.  
• Notification Manager utility to setup staff notification emails based on selected problem category and allows you to set email addresses that receive notice of a new tickets. You can set a special address to receive notices of critical tickets.  
• Popup Message lets you configure messages to display to the users whenever they fill out a new Ticket. The message is easily changed or turned on and off.  
• Ticket Mode sets tickets to open in end user mode (end users create tickets) or help desk mode (help desk creates all tickets -- great for call centers!)  
• Ticket Numbering sets up sequential numbering of tickets with prefixes and suffixes, if needed.  
• Ticket Colors allows you to change the ticket colors on the fly and change the form headings.  
• Utility Settings Import/export creates an XML backup of all your settings to allow easy upgrades or template loading.  
• Upgrade Utility makes it simple to upgrade tickets and settings from previous versions.  

CCS HelpDesk Pro Features

Work on tickets and incidents anywhere with Web forms

 In some organizations help desk staff and technicians may go offsite or not have access to Outlook, for these circumstances we provide Technician Web forms.  These forms are the web version of our assigned ticket forms in which new log entries can be entered and the ticket closed.

• Technicians and Help Desk staff can work on tickets from home, outside the office or offsite using CCS HelpDesk Pro web forms.  
• Look and feel of the Outlook assigned ticket form, but outside of Outlook!  

Rules Manager automates escalation, notification, routing and auto response

The CCS HelpDesk Pro Rules Manager is a powerful utility in which to set up conditions (ex. due date is past) and define the actions to take with that condition occurs.  Conditions can be set on any of the ticket fields in the CCS HelpDesk, and a corresponding action (change field value, send email etc.) will be executed when the condition(s) occur. Rules can be run immediately or schedule on periodic intervals.  With the Rules Manager you can increase service levels and make your staff more productive.

• Escalate ticket based on rules, notify or change status (ex. high priority) 
• Route tickets automatically to relevavant staff based on criteria you define 
• Close old tickets "waiting on info" automatically 
• Send reminders for tickets about to be over due.
• Set up auto-response  emails for tickets that need no staff response

Ticket Data Export automates reporting and 3rd party application integration

The Ticket Data Export utility lets you choose which tickets to export, what fields on those tickets, whether it should go to Microsoft Access or SQL, and when it should run. You can choose to add tables to an existing database or have the configuration setup create a new database.  with this utility you can:

• Export ticket data to SQL and Microsoft Access databases 
• Filter tickets by status, chose fields for export, run across new, assigned and completed tickets 
• Run export immediately or schedule one-time or recurring 
• Use your favorite reporting or data analysis tool to create reports 
• Export ticket data to other applications such as CRM, accounting and billing applications 
• Export data as a backup copy of tickets 

Platforms Supported

Fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Exchange Server, Active Directory and the web. Supports Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003, & 2007, and all versions of Outlook, including Outlook 2007