Perhaps you’re already familiar with Asset Management, but haven’t fully migrated yet? Or maybe it’s the first time you see this module as a fit for your company? Regardless of your specific situation, the latest improvements we’ve made to TOPdesk Asset Management offer a bunch of benefits to migrating; from flexibility and efficiency, to better integration and automation. We’re breaking it all down below.

1. A flexible system fit to your needs

Nobody wants to be overwhelmed by tons of information when looking for a specific solution or piece of knowledge. That’s why, focus and flexibility come first in TOPdesk Asset Management. Thanks to customizable templates, you can design unlimited amounts of asset cards to fit your needs and offer you exactly the information you require. What’s more, fixed fields—typical for Configuration Management—no longer obstruct you from seeing only those functionalities that best suit your processes. You can create fields relevant to your specific assets, which makes empty fields and redundant information things of the past. Also, make changes to these templates whenever you want.

2. APIs that allow for better integration and automation

On the topic of flexibility, TOPdesk Asset Management’s REST API ensures successful integration with a variety of other applications, such as Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Nagios, LANDesk, SCOM, and Lansweeper. If communication between tools is interrupted, so is your easy access to necessary information about, and between, your assets. Asset Management’s integration APIs boost the speed of information flows within your organization, while also ensuring automation of your assets. In turn, you save money and time, but increase efficiency and accuracy. Keeping your CMDB up-to-date has never been so easy.

3. Cleaner and easier-to-use UX

Because Asset Management shows you only the fields and information you need, while also allowing you to design your own templates that fit your specific needs, the overall experience of working within the upgraded tool is cleaner and much more user friendly. Unlike the interface of modules such as Configuration Management, Asset Management’s design leaves clutter and rigidity behind, making space for clear and enjoyable tool navigation.

4. The Migration Wizards makes the change (magically) easier

So far, so good. But what about actually starting out with TOPdesk Asset Management? We realize that adopting new technology for your entire company can pose a challenge, and it will definitely require effort and time. But we’re here to help you optimize the process as best as you can, so that your company migrates as smoothly as possible. Here’s where the Migration Wizard comes in—your in-tool migration menu that will aid you through the process. It offers you an overview of all object types you already have and helps you move data from the old module to the new one, among other functionalities.

To migrate, or not to migrate?

Though migrating to the upgraded TOPdesk Asset Management module offers you endless possibilities for process improvements and more efficient work, it can be the case that there are still some blockers impeding your migration. For example, if you use the webshop functionality on your Self-Service Portal, we advise you to wait a bit before making the switch. However, a few features—like TOPsis—will not be part of TOPdesk Asset Management. This will in no way obstruct your organization from making the best out of the tool, as our API is able to connect with other alternatives. A thing to keep in mind: migration is possible both in full and in parts. So, you get to choose the process that fits you best.

Your next steps to Asset Management

The benefits listed above sound appealing to you and you’re considering migration as a possibility? Then we advise you to read our 5 tips for a successful migration to TOPdesk Asset Management blog. You’ll learn more on how to approach the move from Configuration Management to Asset Management. 

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So, how do you go through this process as successfully as possible, while also making sure the migration offers a smooth transition for both your IT department and the rest of your colleagues? There’s no straightforward answer to this question, but we’ve compiled a list of our top 5 tips to help your organization start out with TOPdesk Asset Management in the best way you can. Read up below to learn more.

1. Do an asset impact analysis

Knowledge is key whenever starting out with any type of change. Migrating to Asset Management is no exception to this rule. If you’ve used Configuration Management for some years, there are bound to be certain valuables that you simply don’t want to or need to migrate. And so, we advise you to start out with some housekeeping. Do an analysis of the current valuables in Configuration Management, so that you’re aware of which elements are important for you to migrate, and which ones not so much. There might be assets you’ve registered long ago, the license rights of which you might not have anymore. Or perhaps there’s valuables lurking in the corners of your IT ecosystem that nobody has any need of anymore.

Whatever your individual case might be, get started with preparing an overview of the current state of your assets and the dependencies between them and other systems you’re using. Not only will this give you insight and confidence about the migration process, but it will essentially make sure that you will be aware of the scale of the change that you will be implementing.

2. Get a test environment

Pre-migration testing is, we dare say, just as important as the real deal. A migration from Configuration Management to Asset Management can be a significant change for your organization. And so, in order to ensure a successful and carefree process, we urge you to perform the migration in your up-to-date test environment first. It can be key to avoiding migration failure, identifying potential problems early on, and properly managing the impact the migration will have on your organization. Among the many benefits, having a test run can also be the moment to clean up your asset templates: remove fields and/or widgets that you’re not using, name your field widgets and reorder fields if necessary.

Don’t have a test environment? Contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss what your best options are.

3. Allocate ample time and prepare to put in the effort

With the risk of repeating ourselves—migration will require time and effort. While this is something that’s crystal clear by now, it’s a different thing to properly allocate the necessary time and effort for a successful transition.

What does this look like? Well, it’s good to mention that migration time will vary greatly from one organization to the other based on factors, such as company size or the amount of asset types and departments working with the system. Regardless of your individual context, however, we would advise you to give yourself and your company enough time to accommodate space for mistakes—it’s almost inevitable something will go wrong, and that’s OK—and to allow for a process that prioritizes precision rather than speed.

Preparing to put in the effort is just as important. What this means is fully understanding the scope of a migration. This in turn will allow you to identify the skills you and your colleagues will need to successfully complete the process and to properly allocate the necessary tasks.

4. Prepare your organization and colleagues

After you’ve finished your pre-migration testing and before you start planning the actual transition production, it’s a good time to make sure that your colleagues are fully aware of the change that’s about to happen. In the end, working in Asset Management is a collective endeavour, and so you want everyone involved to be as knowledgeable as they can be.

Based on the level of involvement, you may organize a training or share a video, manual, work instruction or quick reference card. In determining the approach, think of how people will use the new system: do they only need to link assets to a call and occasionally view its information? Or do they need to create custom overviews, create new assets or manage the stock room?

5. The final steps before going live

You’re almost there! Once the previous steps have been taken, we expect these last stages to be the smoothest and easiest ones. Some final steps would be to:

• Create a backup—better safe than sorry, so make sure you backup your TOPdesk database before you perform the migration in your production environment.
• Perform the actual migration of object types as performed during the test migration.
• Make sure your asset templates are cleared of unused functionality and that they are also logically grouped.
• Set up replacing functionality—using the test environment as your reference, set up actions, overviews, reports or imports that are required for your processes.

At last, you’re all set up and ready to go! And the most exciting part is yet to come: with Asset Management, the possibilities for making your work better, and your colleagues’ lives easier, are practically endless. The system’s combined flexibility and options for automation also means that you can be creative with your process improvement. Not to mention that we’re continuously working on new features, so make sure to stay in the loop for the latest functionalities either via our Product Newsletter.

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Wouldn’t it be great to have this modern experience for all Action Sequences? Then we have some great news for you. To both simplify and improve your experience in your TOPdesk environment, we have developed some exciting changes to Action Sequences, which cover the structure of the module overview page and the possibilities of all Action Sequences. Keep on reading this blog to find out what this change entails for you and how to make the best out of it.

A low effort, high impact change

Before we dive into why we’ve decided to implement these changes and what we’ve been working on in the Action Management module, we want to highlight a couple of important things to keep in mind. This change will not require any migration on your end. You’ll be able to keep working within Action Management without the need to change anything yourself. And, secondly, no functionalities or data will be lost in the update. In fact, this will be a low effort, high impact change that will introduce a bunch of new functionalities to your Action Sequences.

Why are these changes necessary?

You may be wondering why this change was necessary, and rightfully so. As mentioned above, up until now, there were two types of Action Sequences: Action Sequences for modules in the Action Explorer, and Action Sequences for Asset Management actions, together with webhooks and scheduled actions. The second type is also known as service-based actions. Service-based actions offer more modern features such as PDF generation, loops, sending emails in an Action Sequence, and more extensive logging.

Because we want you to have the optimal experience within TOPdesk, we will make these more modern features available for all Action Sequences in TOPdesk. We will do so by making all Action Sequences part of the service-based actions. Soon, without any effort, you will be able to enjoy an updated feature set for all Action Sequences, a new way of linking actions to events, and find all your Action Sequences in the same overview.

The new opportunities these changes will offer you

Firstly, all Action Sequences—both types mentioned above—will be moved to a new overview: the Automated Actions overview (see the screenshot below). Practically, this will mean that Action Sequences that you can now find in the ‘Action Explorer’ will move to the already existing ‘Action overview’, now found via ‘Action Management > Webhooks and scheduled actions’ or ‘Action management > New Asset Management actions’. After this update, the Action Sequences will be listed together with ‘Webhooks & scheduled actions’ and ‘Asset Management actions’, with the option to filter on module and card type.

What’s more, Action Sequences for all modules will be able to use the newly added features of which we already described some above: PDF generation, binary and multipart requests, sending emails in an Action Sequence, Variable Assignment steps, loops, and more extensive logging. Next to that, features that are available in the Action Sequences in the Action Explorer, such as a notes field, will be available for all Action Sequences after this update. We are making this change to make the development of actions faster and easier, and to create a more consistent experience in TOPdesk.

Last but definitely not least, the page where you link the event—or ‘the trigger of an action‘—will get an upgrade as well. The look and feel is different, but no functionality is lost: linking events or context menus to Action Sequences will work in the same way as they do now. What will be added is the possibility to link an action to events of various card types within one module. This means that you can, for example, trigger an action for first and second line calls at the same time. Say goodbye to duplicate work.

When is this available?

(updated: March 2024)

We have delivered these changes on SaaS in Spring 2023. The Virtual Appliance release 2024 Release 1 also contained these updates.

For more information about these changes, see KI 15848 on My TOPdesk.

Want to learn more about using Action Sequences in TOPdesk? Check out our Getting started with Action Sequences webinar.

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To bring a more stable, future-proof, and easily maintainable version of the VA to our customers, we will release a major VA release in the second quarter of 2023. A major release that requires some more effort from you as well, as you will need to deploy a new installation of the Virtual Appliance. In this blog, we will dive deeper into why and how we will bring the new VA experience to your organization, and what you will need to do to enjoy this improved system. After reading this blog, you will be prepared for stepping into the future.

Why a major release is essential

At the beginning of 2019, the first TOPdesk Virtual Appliance was released for customer use. By now, the design of the VA is four years old and some fundamental parts are becoming outdated. While regular updates for the functionalities within your VA can be installed with our in-place update system, various fundamental parts cannot be replaced. Think of parts such as the update system itself, or the operating system of the VA.

As having an up-to-date system is essential for offering a reliable and maintainable product, we decided to provide a major release.

To update to a major release, a re-deployment of the VA is required. We expect our customers to require more time and effort to carry out re-deployments, opposed to updating with the in-place update system.

The big changes you can expect

To make sure the VA is ready for the upcoming years, we will replace some fundamental parts. With a new technical design of the VA, TOPdesk will be able to make the VA more secure, more stable, better performing, easier to install, and less challenging to maintain.

This major release is first of all necessary due to the End-of-life of CentOS. This fundamental part will soon not be updated anymore, not even for security updates. To guarantee a secure and up-to-date experience, CentOS has to be replaced. Secondly, the major release will enable us to make significant improvements to the in-place update system. Thirdly, we will use this opportunity to mitigate differences between SaaS and the VA, which will make it easier to roll out improvements for both these solutions. Let’s have a closer look at these changes.

Since the introduction of the VA in 2019 and the in-place update system in 2020, our long-term vision for the VA has changed. At TOPdesk, we want to offer more convenience in the update process for our customers by improving the simplicity and reliability. The major release allows us to also rebuild the in-place update system to improve its stability.

Thirdly, we will use this major update opportunity to mitigate differences between SaaS and the VA. By reducing their differences, we can make our development process more efficient, our testing more uniform and roll-out our releases easier. Development time and effort is reduced by each mitigated difference between SaaS and the VA. This freed-up time can be used to work on other improvements for customers.

Top tips on how to prepare for the major release

Updating to the major release in the second quarter of 2023 will bring you a lot of benefits, but also requires a different process than what you might be used to. Instead of performing an in-place update, you will need to re-deploy the Virtual Appliance. To prepare you for performing these steps, we have created a list of tips and updates that will make the process as smooth as possible:

• Reserve extra time for the update to the 2023 Q2 release, mainly to account for the difference in the steps you will have to take while updating.
• Update to the 2023 Q2 release from the 2023 Q1 release. The first release of 2023 will include an updated ‘configuration backup and restore’ functionality that will make it easier to reuse your VA’s configuration.
• Use our re-deployment guide, available in knowledge item KI 15904 on our customer portal My TOPdesk. We are currently working on a step-by-step guide for performing the re-deployment.
• We are working on improvements to reduce the impact of the major release and to make the required re-deployment as easy as possible.

More information on the what and why of this Virtual Appliance major release is published in KI 15905 on My TOPdesk.

Ready to step into the future?

You now know why and how your Virtual Appliance will become future-proof and secure with the upcoming major release. Although installing this major release will take some more time and effort, it brings you a more stable and easier to maintain TOPdesk installation. Do this blog and the items in My TOPdesk not answer all your questions related to this release? Let us know by contacting TOPdesk Support, or contact your Customer Success Manager if you need further assistance with performing this update.

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The takeaway is: we surely do not want to look at our new kitchen in dismay, after weeks of hard work and a substantial financial investment, only to wish we could take back some of the decisions we made.

Informed decision made for successful changes

Essentially, to be able to make the best decision about getting a new kitchen—or implementing any other big change in our home or life—we will have to consider and analyze the impact of all risk factors we face. In a business scenario, this looks a bit different, but the gist is pretty much the same: you want to make the most informed decision about a change management process, and you also want to always keep in mind the impact that decision will have on the rest of the business. That’s where impact analysis comes in: the identification of the potential consequences of a certain type of change.

If you are reading this blog, you probably already do impact analysis in your work. Or perhaps you’ve asked yourself questions, such as: “I’m planning a change, what assets and services are affected if I touch this asset?” or “If asset X has a disruption, which services and users might be affected?”.

Impact analysis as one process in one tool

Up until now, answering these questions in TOPdesk was not always the most straightforward. For instance, you had to manually create an impact analysis report yourself, in either Word or Excel, or sometimes in Teams. This meant you had to make a new file for each change request, save it, and upload it as a file to a change. While this process can be successful, it is also way too time consuming, limiting and decentralized. Doing impact analysis already involves a lot of hard work, and it’s only logical to want to make the operation itself as easy as possible. That’s why we decided to develop and release impact analysis as an asset in TOPdesk Change Management. One process in one tool, but with so many more possibilities.

More flexible and customizable

Now, you can simply go to the impact analysis tab in your Change Management request and fill out the fields based on the possible implications of making that certain change. Removing the need to manually create impact analysis files in another tool makes everything much more uncomplicated. Besides, the fields are also customizable. You get to add whichever categories you find suitable for your own change process. As you can imagine, this added flexibility offers more possibilities to create an analysis that suits your process. And the more to-the-point your analysis is, the more well-defined your risk-taking will be, which is essential to carrying out a successful change.

Just as importantly, doing your impact analysis within TOPdesk Change Management allows you to have the entire change process in one place. This means that the operator that needs to approve of and carry out the change has access to the full contents of the impact analysis in the change card. And, as a result, the history of new additions and adjustments to the impact analysis asset card is also available. This means you get a much better overview of the entire process, increasing your ability to assess potential risk and ensure a successful change.

Putting that extra love in your impact analysis will pay off

All in all, doing impact analysis—and doing it well! —is key to successful change processes. It’s always a good idea to take the necessary time and put in the effort to map down the risks you are facing when implementing an organizational change. Of course, changes differ in scope, and so does the impact they might have. Regardless, if you would like to get closer to a smooth change process, make sure to give some extra love to your impact analysis. And now that this is much easier and more flexible to do in TOPdesk, you are off to a good start with any change process you plan to undertake.

Watch our webinar ‘Registering Extended Impact Analysis in TOPdesk‘ to see how you can easily set this up in TOPdesk.

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Do you have a license for that?

Nowadays there is software for any basic or specific task. Providing your users with access to such software regularly requires licenses, which are often pricey. And before you know it, all your agents are using different software tools for their tasks. This isn’t an immediate issue, until people switch roles or even leave the company, scattering their licenses somewhere in the cyberspace. Tracking who uses which licenses at your organization can thus save you unnecessary costs by determining which tools are really used. Plus, you minimize the risk of using unlicensed software, which otherwise could lead to even more costs in the end…

License Management in TOPdesk

For years, License Management was integrated in TOPdesk’s Configuration Management. In this module, the license card type has been a neat way of coming to grips with providing users appropriate software permissions while taking into consideration how many people may be given them. Even when things change in your organization, whether people are joining or leaving, your pool of available license cards is always up to date. This allows you to gain insight into the number of licenses you need, what software is being used – and whether it’s being used properly. Maintaining an appropriate number of licenses is therefore necessary to stay productive.

Moving licenses to Asset Management was easier said than done, however. As the structure of the new module is much more flexible than the old one, we blocked the migration of licenses for a while to get the transfer right. Naturally, this meant for many of you to stay with the old module. But now you don’t have to anymore, because License Management is coming to Asset Management. And regardless of whether you are making a fresh start or if you’re planning to migrate from Configuration Management, every advantage of licenses will be available to you.

From cards to links and relations

So, what did we change? For Configuration Management veterans, you will probably remember that you could only register license cards while being on a software card, automatically linking the two. From that moment on, the software card showed how many licenses were in use.

Is your database already filled with these software cards and licenses? Then you’re now able to simply migrate your software cards, including their licenses, to Asset Management. Use the Asset migration menu on the Asset Management module page to transform your software and licenses to asset cards (more information about this included below).

Are you starting out, or looking to add more? With License Management now in Asset Management, you set this up by using some of the already well-known building blocks of this module. Our new solution was designed to make migration effortless and to simplify an initial setup of License Management. How? Only the following steps are required for those who start fresh:

1. Via Asset Management’s module page, open the Template Designer to create templates for your assets and design what your license cards will look like. For instance, add fields to fill in the number of licenses you’ve purchased, a license code, and the expiration date. Haven’t registered any software yet? Then create a separate template for registering information about the software tool itself. And no worries: you can adjust this design any time you want.
2. On both templates, make sure to add a Relationships widget to register and show relationships between your assets. Use the Assign link types button to add a link type. Link types are used to describe why assets are related to each other, giving more structure to your database.
   Is there no fitting link type listed yet? Simply type a new name, like ‘Licencing’, and click on Add option.
3. On your software template, add the new Relationship grid widget. Adding this widget allows you to not only see which assets are linked, but to also show their data. This is especially useful to quickly see how many licenses you have for a certain software tool. Click on Setup to choose what information you want to show from your licenses. Any link between software and licenses will automatically appear in this grid’s overview.
4. Now it’s time to register software and licenses in TOPdesk. Go to the Asset overview and click on New to get going. Don’t forget to use the Relationship widget to create a relationship between a software tool and its available licenses. Additionally, link users to your licenses via the Assignment widget, so you always know who is currently using a license. 
   Tip: do you need to create several assets? Use the asset import functionality via More > Import on the Asset overview. Also, we’re working on a way to copy assets. Stay tuned!

Are you migrating data from Configuration Management? The only thing you have to do, is start the migration for your software cards. From TOPdesk version 11.11.010 onwards (and Virtual Appliance 2021 Release 4 and higher), TOPdesk takes the steps mentioned above for you. Any related licenses are automatically taken along during the migration and are again linked to the right software card. All information that is stored in the old Configuration Management is stored on your new asset cards, but because of Asset Management’s flexibility, you can always decide to add or remove whichever field.

Want to know more?

While reading this blog, you have learned about the importance of license management and how TOPdesk can help you to get a grip on software usage in your organization.

Customers only: In knowledge item KI 15065 on My TOPdesk, we tell you more about setting up license management, plus some links to more knowledge items about Asset Management.

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But do you actually know if the content that you provide is, in fact, being used? How many visitors you get per day? Which pages are viewed the most? How do your customers navigate through the SSP? Do they search rather than navigate through the pages? Some reports can answer a few of those questions, but we noticed there is not one overview where you find all this info in one place. This is where the Google Analytics integration, linking your TOPdesk instance with Google’s analytics capabilities, comes into play.

How does it work?

Basically, the Google Analytics integration is a tracking mechanism which collects a user’s behaviour on the Self-Service Portal and displays it in a nice and clear dashboard. The sole requirement for this is a Google measurement ID linked to your Google account. Once this ID is filled in your TOPdesk environment, a connection with your preferred Google account is made. Then, automatically ask your end users whether you may track their activities with help from a cookie consent banner, including your privacy policy. With the results, you can build reports to visualize the gathered data. For example, the reports in the dashboard can be about page views, engagement times for pages and navigation flows. There are some more examples further down in this blog.

Privacy policy

Collecting data about your end users can be quite a thing. You want to let them know why you collect their data, and how you make use of it. According to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations), every site that collects visitor data and uses cookies must get explicit consent from the visitor before tracking behaviour. Although the solution does not store any names and locations, it does store IP addresses. Therefore, it is mandatory to ask for consent and — even more importantly — explain what you are going to do with the end users’ data. Since the data will be stored on Google’s servers, we recommend that you take Google’s privacy policy into account as well. To inform your end users about your privacy policy, the Google Analytics integration provides a cookie banner via which end users are informed about how you will use their data. In TOPdesk, your privacy policy is a Knowledge Item, simply created via this integration’s settings, and shown in the cookie banner. Want to know more on how to write a proper privacy policy? Various websites offer a privacy policy generator to help you write one. Below, we have listed some tips for making your own privacy policy more effective:

• Include the Google Analytics policy in your own policy to ensure correct information.
• Use rich text formatting to put emphasis on important sections and ensure a clear structure.
• Use your own logo in the banner to make it more personal.
• If you change anything to your privacy policy, you should reset the cookie consent such that the visitors accept the new privacy policy as well. You can do so with the reset button in the settings. Do mind that this requires a restart of your TOPdesk environment.

Cookie consent banner

After your connection and privacy policy are set up well, you can activate the feature. What happens next? Self-Service Portal users are prompted with a cookie consent banner upon login, asking permission to start analyzing their activity. Each user can choose to accept or decline. If analyzing their activity is allowed by the user, TOPdesk starts collecting the data and synchronizing it with the Google account. Should end users change their mind, they also have the possibility to change their decision in the user settings.

The dashboard

After your end users allow analysis of their activity and spend some time in the SSP, it’s time to start analyzing your end user activity. This is where you learn how the SSP is used and how you can improve your end user experience. By feeding the data into various Google Analytics reports, you can learn about your portal over time. To give you an idea of how to get insight into your portal’s performance, we have listed some examples below:

Unique users

Learn how many unique visitors you have and how often they return. By reporting on both new users and returning users, you get an idea about how big of an audience you actually reach, also over time.

Page views

Essential information for your analysis is found in page views. It shows which specific page or content is visited most often. In TOPdesk, almost everything is a separate page: the homepage, forms, Knowledge Items, services, subpages, and even the loading screen is seen as a separate page.

You can see how much time your customers spend on these pages by the average engagement times. There is also a time element that says something about when a page is visited. Here you might spot spikes around certain pages that can be linked back to an event. Maybe after the summer holidays your end users visit the password reset page a lot?

Path exploration and navigation flow

Our last example is about path exploration and navigation flow. This report is all about the paths taken by your end users. Did a user open a page via a direct link from an email? Then the starting page is probably not the homepage. What are the top pages that users open after they log in? Do your users directly find what they are looking for, or do they have to search again?

Availability and setup

Now that you’ve seen the possibilities of this integration, you are ready to set it up! The Google Analytics integration is available on TOPdesk SaaS in version 11.08.016 and higher, and can be activated by SaaS main contacts via our activation form on My TOPdesk. For Virtual Appliance 2021 Release 4, you can use this feature after activating a feature flag. Feature flags are used to enable or disable certain new features in TOPdesk. By enabling the feature flag for Google Analytics, the settings page will appear. For a more detailed explanation on how to enable the feature flag, plus an extended step-by-step guide for setting up this feature, see Knowledge Item KI 11726 on My TOPdesk.

Now, it’s up to you

You have learned what Google Analytics can mean for your portal, why a solid privacy policy is essential for gathering data, and how to start putting those numbers into actions. Did you get as many visitors as you predicted? Is the most visited page indeed the one you expected it to be? Now, finally, you can put your Self-Service Portal to the test and analyze its performance.

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This blog is a follow-up to our initial vision, focusing primarily on how we are developing AI capabilities within the TOPdesk platform itself. We will soon also release a Marketplace-focused blog, but for the sake of clarity, we deemed it best to split these two areas into two distinct posts.

Throughout this post, l will outline the recent steps that we have taken with regards to leveraging AI within the TOPdesk platform. I will dig into the experiments that we have conducted, the capabilities that we have developed, what we have learned along the way, and give you a glimpse into the potential AI-based functionality that you can expect to see in the TOPdesk platform going forward.

AI Progress to date

AI is a pretty broad term and, confusingly, it is often used interchangeably with automation. This confusion is understandable. On a technical level, AI and automation have always been considered two separate areas. However, on a functional level, they both ultimately contribute to very similar goals (increased efficiency, productivity, data-centricity, etc.).

In fact, the boundaries between the two are rapidly blurring—meaning they now fall into one overarching category, ‘hyperautomation’, which we will explore later on in this post.

For example, AI chatbots use automation to carry out simple tasks like resetting a password. In the same way, there is automation baked into TOPdesk’s capabilities, though you may not be aware of the instances where we actually leverage AI itself.

But that is not to say that they do not exist.

Take our Smart Categorization feature, for instance. This functionality suggests the three most likely categories for a call, making it much easier for operators to find the right category. These suggestions are made based on the combination of request and brief description and greatly reduce instances of miscategorizations.

It can also be combined with an automation feature called ‘category-based routing’ which assigns a call to an operator group based on call category—thereby achieving almost-automatic routing.

The best part is, this AI is updated nightly. It’s always improving.

Then there’s our Call Affiliation feature, which groups incoming calls to similar ones that your agents have previously dealt with (including calls handled by other agents). By doing so, agents can easily detect major calls and problems as early as possible, identify if solutions that solved previous—and related—calls would work in this instance, and easily spot duplicate recurring calls.

‘Failed’ experiments – but promising progress

As proud as we are of our AI-powered Smart Categorization and Call Affiliation features, there have been a few experiments we tried that did not end up succeeding. While these failures were frustrating at the time, the research that we conducted has played a key role in furthering our AI expertise and knowledge of what is (and is not) possible.

For example, we tried to develop a Risk Assessment feature that would predict whether a call falls within the existing service-level agreement (SLA). However, there are so many variables that could potentially impact how long an incident would take to resolve – so making clear-cut predictions was not only extremely difficult, but they might also turn out to be completely inaccurate.

That does not mean that we have totally given up on this project  – but we are going to pause its development for the time being.

Likewise, we have also tried to build out real-time suggestions of Knowledge Items while people are creating an incident.

The goal was to provide agents with on-the-fly recommendations about how to solve an issue when they are creating an incident. However, despite making promising progress, we realized that it would take significant time, energy, and resources to finish this project – so it has been put on hold for now.

We tried another experiment where we used AI to indicate caller sentiment, hoping this would aid prioritisation: the more stressed the caller, the greater the urgency. Multiple third-parties use this functionality, but we found that it’s not so easily translated into service management.

Many inbound calls relate to issues like missing software or broken assets. Unsurprisingly, the AI considers such calls to include ‘negative sentiment’—even though the caller is actually being friendly or neutral. We found potential solutions, but they would have rendered the implementation very difficult.

To be honest, however, it feels a little wrong to classify all these experiments as ‘failures’.

While they have not resulted in any changes to the TOPdesk platform itself, we fully intend on picking back up where we left off and finalizing these projects when we have the necessary time and resources. Plus, we also learned a ton about technology and functional applications of AI.

What we have learned

Over the years, we have learned that it is not overly useful to focus on AI specifically – instead, we are seeking to develop our hyperautomation (as Gartner puts it) capabilities. This means that we want to build all-round solutions that leverage the best of AI, machine-learning (ML), and automation to deliver maximum impact and value to our customers.

These technologies are all interlinked and form part of the same overarching mission: to make software smarter, more context-aware, more personalized, more proactive, and more efficient.

We have therefore developed a number of features with this general goal in mind. For instance, our Knowledge Item Suggestion widget provides suggestions as to which Knowledge Item might be able to help you solve your particular problem.

Then there is our category-based Automatic Call Assignment feature that automatically assigns incidents to the right operator group based on how it has been categorized. Not only does this help speed up the process, but it also eliminates unwelcome mistakes where incidents are sent to the incorrect operator group.

But we have a confession to make: this first version isn’t very smart. It essentially assigns the call to the next available operator in that chosen group, without taking into account other factors including priority and urgency.

The end goal is to make this feature so smart that it finds the best personal match of caller and operator based on estimated call duration, operator day planning, operators’ personal skills, and so on. We’re not quite there yet—but we have a good platform from which to build these capabilities out by using an iterative ‘smartification’ approach.

Both of these solutions align with our ultimate goal of providing users with proactive, context-based suggestions that will ultimately make their lives easier going forward. In other words, they give the same benefits of AI-based solutions – except that they are not technically AI itself.

Likewise, Action Sequences leverage the power of automation to help you create automated end-to-end workflows within both the TOPdesk platform itself as well as with other apps within our Marketplace ecosystem.

So, what is coming in the future?

As stated above, we do not want to think of AI as a goal to pursue in and of itself.

We see smart software as the foundation of the TOPdesk platform in the future and aim to integrate it into every aspect of the platform. However, this encompasses all elements of hyperautomation, rather than purely AI alone.

We cannot currently provide precise information for the features we are developing and when they might be released. However, rest easy in the knowledge that we are doing everything we can do to make the TOPdesk platform smarter, more proactive, and more effective for our users.

Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series where we will examine how we’re leveraging AI to improve how TOPdesk interacts with other apps in our Marketplace ecosystem.

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You’ve probably already heard of APIs before. APIs are crucial to running forward-thinking organizations—their wide-ranging benefits will help make your business more efficient, more connected, and more successful.

Throughout this piece, we’re going to explore what APIs are, why they’re beneficial, how APIs can be used, some examples of solutions that have been developed with APIs, and what we have planned for the TOPdesk API going forward.

What Is an API?

According to multinational software company Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM, an API is “… a set of definitions and protocols for building and integrating application software.” APIs essentially allow data to be transmitted between different software products. But as well as allowing different pieces of software to speak to each other, APIs also define how this occurs: the requests that can be made between systems, how to make them, the data formats to use, and more.

Imagine that your company is reaching the end of its financial year and wants to pay out bonuses to its staff. Departmental managers meet with the executive team to decide who’s going to receive one and how much they’ll be paid. This information is then relayed over to the HR team, who put this down into their all-encompassing employee management system.

However, it won’t be the HR team who actually go ahead and pay out these bonuses—so their system will have to be linked to your finance department’s payroll software. And how do you ensure that this information is successfully shared across these two systems? With the help of an API. The right API will allow both the HR and finance team’s software to speak to each other, with payroll automatically updating based on changes made to the employee management system. Or perhaps the HR and finance team both use an API to create custom reports (using their business intelligence software), before sharing these with their departmental managers and the executive team.

Why Are APIs So Beneficial?

Modern organizations rely upon a vast network of software and applications. Each individual department will have their own ever-expanding ecosystem of tools, all of which serve a different purpose but are critical to the smooth running of your business.

Technology’s great, but it can be frustrating when your different systems work in silos. You have to manually share data from system to system and you’re never sure if what you’re seeing in one piece of software is accurate and up-to-date. That’s why integrations are so important. However, not all integrations are created equal—“point-to-point” integrations (where you custom code integrations for each individual system) can be time-consuming and error-prone.

If your organization relies upon a wide range of tools to function, you need API-led integration. According to CoForge, APIs lead to “greater flexibility, governance, speed and reusability.” Such reusability is crucial—it means that one API can be used for different purposes, including integrating with different systems.

As a result, APIs can make your organization drastically more efficient. Once you expose one piece of software’s functionality in a standardised language, you can then use this information to facilitate integrations with other systems. Imagine you use an API to integrate—and share data with—another internal tool. Both pieces of software will become more valuable to your end users as they’ll now have access to a wider range of up-to-date business data. Once that takes place at scale, you’ll begin to run an interconnected organization where information- and knowledge-sharing is embedded into everything that you do.

But don’t just take our word for it. According to the Mulesoft 2020 Connectivity Benchmark Report, organizations that embrace APIs see significant increases in productivity, agility, and innovation—all while significantly decreasing their operational costs.

3 Examples of TOPdesk APIs

Now that we’ve covered what APIs are and why they’re beneficial, let’s dive into three APIs that we’ve specifically developed to help TOPdesk customers.

Incident Management API

Our general API mainly deals with incident management. Among other things, you can use it to exchange tickets with your suppliers (including ServiceNow, Jira, and Zendesk), as well as sending bills to your customers by sharing key data with your bookkeeping application (thanks to our integration with Exact Online). Display information from incidents on a big screen and integrate with WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams to bring all communication channels within the TOPdesk platform—making life significantly easier for your entire team.

Reservation Management API

Our reservation management API is fantastic at enabling organization-wide facility management. It’s plays a crucial role in a number of our marketplace solutions, such as the Room Reservation Screen solution to have screens displayed outside meeting rooms show when the room has been reserved, and GoBright Room Booking, which allows you to find, and book, available meeting rooms from your phone.

OData API

Our OData API, unlike the other three listed above, is used primarily for the sake of reporting. By integrating with Power BI, you’re able to quickly produce comprehensive reports that leverage data spread across a myriad of different tools and different systems. In a world where having the ability to make quick, data-led decisions is more important than ever before, our OData API is the perfect solution for your organization.

What the Future Holds for TOPdesk APIs

The TOPdesk API makes our functionality available for automation and integration. It will help you create a smarter, more interconnected organization, and will allow you to get the best out of all the tools at your disposal.

However, that doesn’t mean that it’s finished—in fact, far from it. We’re actively working on improving the API’s consistency and trying to use it to expose even more of the TOPdesk functionality.

For instance, we’re currently working on further developing our operations management API, which allows users to create and update operational activities within TOPdesk. Our newest updates will enable users to leverage action sequences to automate customer-specific processes, as well as facilitating integrations with long-term maintenance solutions.

We’re also working to improve the performance of the OData feed. This will allow you to make more accurate, more comprehensive reports, quicker than before. What’s not to love?

Want to start using APIs?

On our TOPdesk API page we provide you with everything you need to know to get the most out of our APIs. You’ll find:

• What’s an API and how to use it.
• Tutorials for how to start using APIs.
• Extensive documentation for all available APIs.

Visit the TOPdesk API page.

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The importance of prefixes

Prefixes are a must for any organization that uses TOPdesk to handle a large number of incidents and changes. Besides preventing information from potentially ending up in the wrong place, it also has its own benefits. By choosing a unique enough prefix, you can add other customers’ incident numbers in an email’s subject line—thereby allowing mail import to import it correctly (without needing to create any new incidents, for example).

Why changing your prefix is tricky

However, changing your prefix is an entirely different matter. It’s a complicated problem to fix, which is why so many organizations postpone its implementation—and it’s why we waited so long to pick this up, too. But why is changing your prefix so tricky?

First, you need to pick a prefix that everyone agrees on. Then, you need to make sure the mail import will still import emails with your ‘old style’ incident/change numbers into the correct incidents and changes. And you need to somehow make sure that old incident/change references in action/request fields still work. Needless to say, this is quite a daunting task—so we waited until we started running into some real problems that could frankly no longer be ignored.

Our biggest prefix problem: importing emails

There was one major problem that we needed to solve first and foremost. Due to the way we numbered incidents and changes, we were at risk of accidentally importing a reply to a change into an incident.

The situation was this: we had no prefix for incidents, but we did have a prefix for changes (CH) and change activities (CA). We also had mail imports running for both incidents and changes. For those of you who don’t know, the mail import first checks for any numbers that look like incidents, then for changes and change activities. Our changes and change activities were numbered yy mm xxxx and our incidents yy mm xxx.

Everything was going fine until our change activities started to go beyond 999 a month (so they no longer started with a 0). Suddenly, the numbering looked an awful lot like an incident number and the mail import could have imported responses to a change activity into an existing incident. This was obviously a security risk, so it was enough of a pain for us to finally invest the time and energy required to change our prefixes for good.

How we fixed it

The act of changing a prefix in TOPdesk is simple enough: dive into the settings and make the necessary adjustments. But as mentioned in the beginning, changing the prefix comes with its own bundle of problems. This meant that we had to properly prepare and plan in order to ensure that it impacted our users (both customers and colleagues) as little as possible.

The first point of order was to decide what our new prefix was going to be. After some research into our customers’ most used prefixes, we decided on TDR (TOPdesk Reference). Reference starts with the same letter in most languages, and if tasks and workflows take off, we’ll already be ready to eliminate things like ‘incidents’ or ‘changes’.

The next question was: when should we implement the change? Given that the numbering would start again at 001 after we made the change, we wanted to do it as close to midnight on the last day of the month as possible—so we chose the 31st of August. This meant the new numbering would come into effect on the 1st September, when incident numbering was due to start at 001 anyway.

Solving the problem of the old vs new prefix

But there was another problem—what should we do with old incident numbers? This problem is multifaceted.

First, we have our friend the mail import. What would happen if customers reply to an email which features the old incident number in the header? We fixed this by adding the new prefixes to all our email actions a month before we made the actual change and removing it again afterwards. Because we just added letters in front of the existing numbers/change prefix, this did not affect the mail import in any way. After the change, if a customer responded to an ‘old’ email, the mail import would recognize the new prefix and import it correctly.

One of our technical application managers wrote a beautiful query to ensure that old incidents would still be found and that all the references within the request/action fields would still work properly. If you’re interested in checking it out, contact your customer success team—they’ll be glad to share it with you.

How we flipped the switch and nothing broke

The only thing left was to ensure that our customers and colleagues alike were made aware of the upcoming change. Therefore, we decided to publish a news item detailing what would be changing, and why, and we also communicated this internally on our TOPdesk intranet.

The first hurdle came at the beginning of August when we changed the subject lines to all our outgoing emails before publishing this upcoming change to customers and colleagues. There were a few questions and queries, but by and large, everyone seemed to grasp what was about to change. By the time that August 31st arrived, all we had to do was ‘flip the switch’ as close to midnight as possible—everything went so smoothly that nobody even ended up noticing the change!

Do you consider changing your prefixes?

Wondering if you need a new prefix? Alternatively, do you already know that you need one but you’re not sure where to start? Our expert consultants here at TOPdesk can help you plan and execute your desired changes with minimal impact to your end-users. Contact your customer success team to see how TOPdesk can help you change your prefixes for good.

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