CCS HelpDesk, CCS Service Request Upgrade Information

CCS Service Request 5.0  for Microsoft Outlook

New version Released March 2010

We are very excited to announce a new upgrade for our popular Service Request and Help Desk program. By incorporating the feedback from the 1000's of customers around the world who use our program, we have built an effective, yet simple, system to manage your service and support needs.

Over 20 new features have been added in the 5.0 version of CCS HelpDesk and Service Request!  Since version 3.0 we have added over 75 new features!  Check out our video tour of version 5.0

Would you like to upgrade to 5.0?  Check out our Upgrade FAQ.

Version 5.0 features      

• Service Request Templates - Create and load templates, 10 new templates available
• Email capture - Link email correspondence to tickets
• Action Manager - Launch applications or URL from inside a ticket
• Web Form Parser - Convert web forms (intranet and extranet) into tickets
• Direct Link to Contacts - Link from the ticket to Contacts and Activities
• Multi-Department ticket router - Route ticket to multiple departments
• Global Service Area - top level service area for call center or service desk staff
• Enhanced Service Area Manager - add and delete service areas easily
• Mobile Notifications - Notification emails in mobile text format option
• Automated Installation process - pick and choose service areas, configure client install

CCS HelpDesk and CCS Service Request merge into single application

CCS Service Request was a natural progression of the CCS HelpDesk application. Over the years we saw many of our customers expand use of the IT Help Desk application beyond IT to support additional departments such as HR, Facilities and more. Often we customized the application to support the additional department and it required multiple instances of the Help Desk. CCS Service Request is an application that is more flexible and allows easy addition of new service departments while allowing the employee to submit tickets from a central point.

Both CCS Service Request and CCS Help Desk were built on the same code base, with CCS Help Desk actually being an implementation with a single service area. In version 5.0 we decided to offer a single application. All the features of the previous versions of CCS HelpDesk are present along with the new 5.0 features. Upgrading to CCS Service Request will allow you to add new service areas (departments) without reinstalling the application, only a license key is required.   See Service Request Demo >>>

Service Request Templates- Service Area Manager Utility

Now you can easily create, export and import templates with the Service Area Manager. This utility allows you to easily add new service areas, export templates and import pre-defined templates. These templates come pre-setup with categories, types and templates already defined. New folder groups are automatically created in your public folders. From these you can quickly customize the settings to launch a new service area (department) service desk. Crow Canyon offers many new Service Request Templates including:

• IT Help Desk
• HR Service Desk
• Facilities and Work Order Desk
• Admin Desk including copy services, mail room, events and security
• Building Maintenance
• Public Works
• Parks and Recreation
• Code Enforcement
• Customer Service (product support)
• Client Service (banking)
• and more coming!

In the future we would like to create a community section on our website where templates can be shared among our customers.

Email Capture

Previously when a tech or staff person needed to ask additional questions or gather more information, they were able to launch an email from the Assigned Ticket form, but the email and the reply (email thread) went to the assigned staff's personal email box. This meant the staff person would have to manually update the activity log to capture the information exchanged.

With version 5.0, an email folder is added to the Service Request folders and is used to capture all emails related to tickets. From any ticket your staff can generate and email to the requester, and capture any replies specific to that ticket.

Web Form Parser - populates tickets from external web forms

Want to capture tickets from external web forms on your website or intranet?  But your requesters are external to your organization?  Or you don't want to run the CCS Service Request web forms?  Now you can setup a simple web page form on your external website or Intranet and have the information captured parsed into a ticket.  This powerful new feature  provide additional options for those customers supporting external customers or end-users on the road without Exchange sign-on access.

Direct Links to Outlook Contacts and Activities Tab

From the contact field within the ticket, link directly to the Outlook Contact record and access the activities tab to see all email, tasks, appointments, messages notes or documents.  This is a key feature to assist in customer and client service applications of the product and allow customer views of all activities.

Launch external applications or websites from ticket with Action button

You're in the Assigned Ticket form and you need to execute an IT tool, or invoke your HR application or link out to your favorite forum. Wouldn't it be nice to just hit a button? Action Links allow you to link out to external forums, external KB, back-office applications, IT tools, Google Groups, launch Google search. MSFT search, etc. An Actions List Manager utility to manage the links and what they connect with or what program they open. Each Action in the list has the Name to show in drop list, what URL to link to, and any parameters to add from fields on the ticket.

Multi-Department Ticket Routing (example "new hire")

Create global categories which allow creation of requests that go across multiple departments such as new hires, or events.  Define a global category which in turn will spawn tickets across multiple departments.  An example would be a New Hire request would create a ticket in IT (to setup a new system), HR (to setup payroll and benefits), Facilities (to setup an office).  These tickets are linked to a global ticket which all of which can be viewed through the linked ticket tab.

Global Service Area

The optional Global Service Area feature supports those organizations such as call centers who have a group that can close tickets immediately or need to route them to a supporting department for assignment.  This allows for a central dispatch model rather than a purely distributed department model. 

Improved Upgrade and Installation

Installation of Service Areas (CCS Service Request) is totally utility driven, and include the ability to easily import and export Service Area Templates. This will open up the opportunity to share departmental (HR, IT, Facilities etc.) among customers. The upgrade process will be made much easier with in-place upgrades for minor version, eliminating the need to install the new version.

Other Improved Features:

• Knowledge base article ratings - allow users to rate effectiveness of articles
• Track number of resources assigned to tickets within a Project
• User defined form fields can now be drop down choice or text entry
• Work Log can now be filtered by technician view
• Event Sink (email converter) Manager provides for easier setup and editing

Version 4.3 features      

Work Log for Quick Resolution - provides ability to create work log entries when using Quick Resolution feature.

KB article usage counter -  Added field to KB articles to indicate how many times it was used to solve issues, allows rating measurement for KB articles 

Auto fill date received - automatically fills in the date received field when the ticket is open for assignment.

Ticket closed by - Field to indicate who closed the ticket.  Useful if multiple assignees are working on tickets.

New Version auto check - clients would check to ensure client is latest version from network drive. 

"Additional Contact" Label change - ability to change the label on additional contact field on form.

Hide additional fields in Field Manager utility - 9 additional fields may now be hidden.

Auto Due date based on Category - set due date based on category of request

Version 4.2 features  

Field Manager Utility - As the product has matured, many fields have been added to address the needs of a wide variety of organizations. However, not everyone needs all the fields provided on the forms. The Field Manager Utility allows you to choose which fields to present or hide on the forms and notification emails.. Additionally, you can choose which fields are required to be filled in before submitting a ticket.

Billing and Cost Module - This module allows you to set billing rates and increments which are applied to the time tracking data captured in a ticket.

Export Utility - an Outlook-based form with accompanying Access database (mdb file) to allow customers to manually export Assigned and Completed ticket data to a database. This utility will sit in the Reports folder as “Export Utility”.

Hide link in Assigned message - Option in “Notification on Ticket Assignment” utility to hide the link back to tickets in emails sent to the users.

Set Calendar Folder utility - Point to default Calendar for making appointments from the ticket. Allows you to point to another Outlook Calendar than your personal calendar. Great for managing service appointments or schedules.

Option to “Display Assigned Ticket?” when assigning - This feature allows the assigned ticket form to be displayed at the time of assignment . This eliminates the need for the assigner when assigning to him/her self to have to open up the assigned ticket form from the Assigned Ticket folder..

Utility Settings Import and Export Utility - This utility allows you to export all your settings (List Manager, Notifications etc..) to an XML file and restore them at a future time for upgrades or reinstalls. Also Crow Canyon will be offering new templates for quick setup of specific application of the software (vertical industry templates, specific uses).

Features In Version 4.1:  

Rapid Installation and On-Demand Deployment - Install with one button install for Outlook, and Exchange Server installations. Client on Demand eliminates the need to install client software manually or pushed over the network. The first time the end-user opens a helpdesk ticket, the software is automatically loaded from a network shared location on to the client.

Approvals - In the List Manager Utility you can set up certain category and type of requests to require approval be for being processed by the help desk. Example of these might be software upgrades, IT purchase requisitions etc. When the end-user opens a ticket with this type of category and type, an approval box appears to fill in the specific approver name. The ticket will then be routed to the approver to approve or deny the request. If approved it moves to the HelpDesk folder for processing.

Detail Templates - You can now collect more information via our template feature. A template can be defined to appear with a category and type of request. For example if you have a specific electronic form you need filled out with a IT purchase requisition, it can be linked to in the Detail section of the ticket for filling out and attachment to the ticket. A template can also be simple text which asked the requester for more information.

Required Fields - You may now select which fields must be filled in before the ticket can be submitted.

User Defineable Fields - Additional user definable fields have been added to the assigned ticket form and request ticket.

Version 4.0 features  

New Name: This new upgrade will be named "CCS HelpDesk 4.0 for Microsoft Outlook" to comply with Microsoft's trademark agreements and naming conventions for certified Microsoft Office products. It is an upgrade of Outlook Help Desk 3.0 and is the next version in that line of programs.

New Editions: One of our challenges has been to provide powerful features for our larger customers while keeping the product simple and efficient for are smaller customers. In support of this we now offer CCS HelpDesk standard edition and CCS HelpDesk Professional Edition. The professional edition includes additional features typically required by larger organizations.

CCS HelpDesk 4.0 for Microsoft Outlook builds on the success of our earlier versions of Outlook Help Desk. We continue to have all the great features of version 3.0, including the email and Web interfaces. In addition, version 4.0 comes with these new features and improvements:

Improved notification options - Utility to setup staff notification emails based on selected problem category, excellent for emergency notifications by pager, text to cell phone.

Required fields for ticket submission - Designate what fields are required to be filled in before allowing submission of the ticket.

Assigned Tickets with KB integration and better logging

• Expanded logging features and notifications 
• Staff notes; log entries can be marked private, and these entries are not sent to user 
• Knowledge Base integration - send, create or display a KB article from a ticket 
• better time tracking 
• ticket highlighted if overdue or high priority 
• four custom fields 
• fields for additional contact and vendor support ID. 
• Resolution box and drop-list summarize the fix for future reference 

Improved Knowledge Base -

• integrated with Assigned Ticket 
• available over the Web 
• searchable over the Web 

Automatic Reply to user when ticket is submitted 

• user gets response immediately that the ticket has been received 
• each ticket is given a Case number that the user can use when referring to a ticket 
• response is given whether ticket is created by email, over the web or in Outlook 

Locking of Tickets prevents Conflict messages 

• New "Record Lock" utility prevents conflicts 
• Only one person at a time can have the ticket open for changes 
• Others can view the ticket as read-only when it is locked 

Quick Resolution - option to quickly record and close a new ticket rather than assign it.

Ticket Assignment by designated staff only 

• only designated staff members can assign tickets. 
• users do not have access to the ticket assignment page and cannot assign tickets. 

Integration with Asset Tracking/Auditing software

• assigned tickets can be set to integrate CCS Network Inventory, a powerful asset tracking software that we now offer as a separate purchase 
• ticket can be linked to other asset tracking software as needed 

Enhanced Web pages - no login, KB access, attachments uploading

• no login required for Window users -- Integrated Windows Authentication used 
• flexible listing of tickets 
• Knowledge Base available over Web 
• Attachments can be uploaded and viewed over the Web 
• separate user views, users only see their own tickets 

Improvements to Utilities

• List Manager lets you set defaults for each list 
• Multiple Pop Up messages can be configured 
• The sending of Completion messages is enhanced -- message can go to user or tech and a utility controls if the staff is asked or not before sending message. 
• Ticket Color utility includes pre-set themes that make it easy to change colors 

License Manager - License level information is tracked and number of seats is validated - Note you need to make sure your license level is up to date, see upgrade FAQs.

New features in CCS HelpDesk Professional Edition

• Escalation Manager - escalate tickets and take action (notification, change priority etc.) based on your service level criteria. 
• Full Web interface support - adds web support so staff can modify, add to log, and close tickets over the Web 
• Export facility for export to SQL or Access 

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