In today’s article, we’ll show you how ALVAO software helps Service Desk operators sort through requests.
The Service Desk operator has the task of sorting incoming requests and assigning solvers to each of them. They can take up simple tickets for resolution themselves, for example by referring the user to a known problem solution or instructions in the knowledge base. The remainder needs to be assigned in such a way as not to overload individual solvers while at the same time ensuring that priority requests will be handled the fastest. Often, they also provide basic diagnostic information to incident management before handing over the request. In larger companies, this is a full-time role, which is usually shared by several IT workers in turn on a duty roster. In smaller companies with fewer requests, the role is typically undertaken by a member of the resolution team.
Service Desk automatically sorts new requests by teams
The fundamental level of request sorting is to determine the appropriate team. Let’s say you have a business with offices in different cities. You have one service type for all users (e.g. to handle a request to replace the laptop battery), but you want the team in the given location to take charge of each request, as they will be actually handling it. For such situations, Service Desk can assign the solution team automatically as a function of who is making the request.
In practice, this means that requests by users from London are seen only by solvers from London and requests from Birmingham by solvers from Birmingham. This amounts to a significantly easier decision-making process for the operator assigning the requests - the system offers them only the solvers from the corresponding branch. Yet the capabilities of this feature are not limited to sorting by location. You can indeed set it in line with any characteristic of the requesters. You may have some VIP users entitled to special care. Or maybe you have teams aligned by the divisions of the company, etc.
Clearly defined priorities
Your team also needs to know what to do first and what can wait a while. Prioritization of work is crucial for the satisfaction of end users and the smooth operation of the company. It is here that the power of a well-designed Service Catalogue comes into its own. It guides the user, by making sure their service request goes with the appropriately selected SLA, so that priority tasks in the Service Desk naturally come to the fore and receive the attention they deserve.
The operator sees the workload of staff in real-time
As soon as the operator is sorting through incoming requests, they need to know how busy their team colleagues are. That is why our Service Desk displays the total number of requests assigned to individual solvers during the solver assignment dialogue, as well as the number of requests that are behind schedule. Thanks to this, the operator knows when any solvers are snowed under by requests or not managing their workload. The Service Desk augments the usual management tools, optimizing task assignment.
Outlook Add-In
For easier working directly from the MS Outlook e-mail client, we offer the ALVAO Outlook Add-In extension. This offers the operator or solver a request related to a currently opened e-mail, directly in MS Outlook. Working with incoming e-mail is thus significantly faster and easier for the operator because they have everything in one place. At the same time, it creates the requests directly from Outlook incoming mails, or uploads emails without a request tag by allocating them to existing tickets.