Helpdesk templates and automation rules

heimir
heimir Member Posts: 32 ✭
in Helpdesk

We are new with Atera so we are learning how to set this up and work for us.

The ticket system is so bad, templates are horrible and automation isnt something to brag about out of the box. Its so bad Im actually surprised. It was a section I didnt spend much time on before signing the contract since I assumed it would be ok at least. Our few hundred bucks helpdesk application we use now is miles ahead of Atera.

Would someone share their templates and how they have their automation set up?

For us templates and reports that goes to our clients reflects on our image not Ateras so we want those to look like we are professional and currently it looks like we didnt even care.

So if you has suggestions or any help I would really apricate anything you got.

Comments

  • gilgi
    gilgi Administrator, Moderator, Internal Posts: 284 admin

    Heya,

    I wanted to verify first, sorry it took a few days - The CSM of your account confirmed that an onboarding session was set up, and I've asked her to cover these items with you to make sure you make use of the available tools.

    If there are still features you feel are missing, please me know here for others to chime in with feedback, we're constantly looking to improve and this is how we learn!

  • heimir
    heimir Member Posts: 32 ✭

    Looking forward to the onboarding session tomorrow.

    I already told the CSM I wanted to focus on ticketing and billing.

    One thing for us and I dont think we are unique is how we look in front of clients.
    The stakeholders and decisions makers isnt the one we normally deal with so its important that our image looks professional in emails and reports. I find Atera is really lacking when it comes to client facing items like reports and tickets.

    A helpdesk/ticket system is such a common thing now that it shoudlnt be something we have to put so much effort into, it should be already built. We currently use Smartertrack and right out of the box is looks far better and works better than Atera. Its like you gave us the tool but we need to build it, and Im not talking about configuration but build it from almost from scratch. I bet the vast majority of your customers ends up with the same setup and rules so why not spend some time setting it up that way.

    If I had spent more time on the helpdesk and reports we wouldnt have signed the contract with Atera.
    But here we are so we will make the best out of it. Im sure it will be great when we are done.

    Thank you so much for your assistance and following up with our CSM.

  • jsuminski
    jsuminski Member Posts: 2 ✭

    I agree, the ticketing system could certainly use some work. I would love to see some updates on it! I think a lot of RMM's are building on that, which may kind of hurt Atera. Hope to see some improvements soon!

  • gilgi
    gilgi Administrator, Moderator, Internal Posts: 284 admin

    @heimir how was it? :) Any thoughts you'd like to share? would you recommend onboarding sessions?

  • gilgi
    gilgi Administrator, Moderator, Internal Posts: 284 admin
    https://community.atera.com/discussion/comment/2639#Comment_2639

    Let me know - what features are you especially requiring that are underdeveloped or not available yet?
    I collect this for our product team and they always appreciate it when actual pains are brought in to their consideration to resolve!

  • mbudke
    mbudke Member Posts: 131 ✭✭✭

    Hi @gilgi ,

    I agree on what the other wrote that the "customer facing" part is not that developed.

    What comes in my mind is:

    • within Atera we do have the option to monitor systems but there is no way to inform user about issues like having a customer-based automatic status page. E.g. a customer has 3 server and one server is down. In this case the MSP is aware of the problem but customer will continue to report issues as they do not have a visibility. If the MSP could have an automatic status page for specific services then this could be avoided. Currently a 3rd-party status page is required.
    • there is no option to use the ticketing-system/ customer portal to inform user about news. Theoretically this could be done by a KB but then the user must pro-actively open it. If there is a news section which maybe can be linked to RSS/ email then user can be informed about IT changes, working-hour changes, vacation, maintenance, new software etc
    • the KB area is very limited as there is no way to embed videos or HTML
    • ticketing is only done on numbers like ticket #5 but there is no way to differentiate tickets based on their source e.g. having tickets for technical issues (support) or sales requests (sales). This could end up on either a ticket "support-5" or "sales-5". From within the ticket name you already know what it is about.
    • there is no sort of ticket documentation (issue description, investigation steps, useful logs, impacted software, resolution description) which can be made per ticket and used to search through by technicians. The new AI can create a KB article but this only makes sense for general problems. In 80% of all cases it makes no sense to create a KB as the issue is quite generic. I could add a custom field but this would be a 1-line-field only which gives no option for formatting text or embedding images etc.
    • the customer portal provides nearly no customization options except adding a logo and a colour
      • it would be nice to have more customization options (adjusting CSS), maybe even per customer. Me as a customer of an MSP wants to have my CI in the support portal even when using an external IT service provider
      • it would be nice when custom links can be added to the menu based per customer or all (e.g. link to status page, link to SharePoint, link to specific KB article, link to other customer websites)

    Or to make it short:
    When the "Customer portal/ ticketing system" becomes the single entry for all IT related topics Atera made a perfect job 😊

    Matthias

  • heimir
    heimir Member Posts: 32 ✭

    Most companies does the same basic thing and build from there.
    So building basic templates that looks like we are a professional companies shoudlnt be needed.
    Building basic helpdesk automation should not be needed either.

    Its just very simple and lacking so many things just to get started.
    The template editor isnt very good. We used better editors a decade ago.

    Its just a very lacking product that so much is built around. Took us less than an hour to install and set up Smartertrack and it looks and functions so much better than Ateras helpdesk. Huge disappointment for us.


  • gilgi
    gilgi Administrator, Moderator, Internal Posts: 284 admin

    Good stuff @mbudke
    All logged with our PMs, tho they are quite set for Q3 (more to come on that)

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