KACE Product Support

Hi all,

I am extremely new to KACE and have been tasked with creating a basic Service Desk/Change Management process in our environment per Payment Card Industry compliance standards. In the past, I worked in two different helps desks (one had a heavily modified version of Outlook 97's Journal as a help desk tool and the other was HP's OpenView ServiceDesk app (which was less than stellar or was because of how the SD admins managed it)). I have been reading the manuals and have been tweaking the application to customize it for our needs.

In our case, we will begin by having managers put in tickets. We have no dedicated help desk staff. Our current process involves the same management putting in Altiris tickets, but Altiris doesn't have some of the things that we noticed KACE having. These tickets end up getting emailed to my team which includes systems administrators, computer operators (PC Techs), and systems support (level 2 PC Techs). Someone then goes in and grabs the ticket. I have a few questions about the Help Desk module and how I can customize it to fit our needs.

a). Do labels replace the typical "Groups" that you see in other SD apps? I know that in the past, we had (for example) a Network group and in it are the names of the network technicians that can pick up tickets. If this is the case, how does one segregate tickets to various queues? Is this an assumption that anyone watching the queue will move the ticket along or can a rule be setup where the user picks the "Network" category and through the automation, it gets assigned? But, in this case, does it get assigned to a label, a user or does it just stay unassigned until someone picks it up. Is there a way to create a Network group? (See, I'm getting more confused! [:)])

b). How can I create a workflow for an approval process that involves more than one person to approve? For example, we have a need to create a network port request template where at least two people need to approve the request as a part of a servicedesk module requirement of the PCI compliance checks. I was assuming that a ticket queue would be needed, but the more I think about this, it may need to become a process. But even if it does, can you have multiple approvers?

c). Finally, Can ticket templates be created and saved? For some of our users that put in the same tickets over and over, it would be nice to designate a template where the end user can just fill out a few fields while the other items are pre-filled and maybe even the ticket routed by a rule. If not, do the ticket queues basically replace that option?

I think this sums it up. I'm working on a proof of concept now as we use the KACE tool heavily for asset management and deploying software. Rather than spend more money on a dedicated Service Desk app, we figured we would see if KACE's Help Desk module could accomplish the same thing.

Thanks,
Brian