SmartStart Self-Led Project Plan

for SolarWinds Service Desk

EDUCATION AND DESIGN

□ Success Criteria
These questions allow us to understand the goals and success criteria to ensure
a smooth and successful implementation process.

• What resources do you have dedicated to this project?

• Do you have a current ticketing system?

– If yes, does your ticketing system have a subscription end date?

• How will you receive tickets?

– Email, chat, portal?

• W hat groups/departments/teams are going to be involved in using the

application?

• What modules are you planning on using? Here is a list of the various modules:

• Incidents, Problems, Changes, Change Catalog, Releases, Service Catalog,

Solutions, Asset Management, Procurement

• Do you want to take a phased approach? What are your Go-Live criteria?

Here are some examples of different Go-Live approaches:

• Internal - External

• Email Ticketing - Service Portal

• Service Desk - Asset Management Departmental

• Asset Management Phased Module Based

□ Incident Routing and Workflow Education

□ Incident routing:
Incident routing is beneficial to your Service Desk because it allows automatic
assignment of the incidents sent to SolarWinds Service Desk. This automatic
®

assignment saves you time and ensures your incidents are visible to the
correct Service Agents.

SolarWinds Service Desk supports the automatic routing of incidents based

on several conditions you can set up within the Setup menu of the application.
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You’ll want to look through the various ways you can route an incident to
the desired assignee within SolarWinds Service Desk as well as how this
hierarchy of automatic routing will function.

The order of ticket assignment based on your settings will be:

1. Automations

2. Subcategory Default Assignee

3. Category Default Assignee

4. Site Default Assignee

5. Department Default Assignee

6. Default Assignee for Account in Service Desk Settings

7. Not Assigned

□ Incident Workflow
Email, portal, or chat? How will you have tickets flow into your Service Desk?

Have you ever wondered how incidents should flow through your service desk?
You’ve probably asked yourself many different questions about how to run your
service desk using SolarWinds Service Desk.

Where do my incidents go when they’re submitted? How can my technicians be sure

to not miss an incident? Is there a difference between a resolved or closed incident?

Video - Submitting a Service Desk Ticket:

Documentation

□ Incident States
□ Out-of-the-box incident states include:
• New

• Pending Assignment

• Assigned

• Awaiting Input

• On Hold

• Resolved

• Closed

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• Custom States:
Documentation

• Incident Management 11:

Documentation

□ Incidents vs. Service Requests

One of the most common questions we receive during implementation is,
“What’s the difference between an incident and a service request?” While most
people are familiar with “tickets” or “incidents,” they may not understand these
terms when you throw them into the realm of the service catalog. If the service
catalog has you exploring a strange new world in ITSM, we’ll clarify the difference
between a traditional incident and service request.

□ Incident:
An incident is a break/fix issue that needs to be resolved. This might be
something not working properly or broken. For example, this would include
a broken printer, an application not loading properly, or a blue screen.

□ Service Request:
A service request is a request for a pre-approved service your organization
can offer to its end users. You have the option to build service catalog items,
which can include various information collected from your end users as well
as a “behind-the-scenes” process of tasks and approvals sent to certain
groups within your organization. The service catalog can be used to build out
request forms for employee onboarding and offboarding, various equipment,
or an office move.

□ API Documentation
SolarWinds Service Desk API

• Service URL:
Documentation

• For European-based customers, please use:

Documentation

□ What is the SolarWinds Service Desk API?:

The SolarWinds Service Desk REST API allows customers and developers
to expand and build on the SolarWinds Service Desk platform. SolarWinds
Service Desk provides an API you can use to retrieve and update service desk
and asset inventory information from your SolarWinds Service Desk account.

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□ What does the SolarWinds Service Desk API do?:

The SolarWinds Service Desk API allows anyone to create, retrieve, update,
or delete service desk or asset information. The API can be leveraged with
many different modules in SolarWinds Service Desk including but not limited
to computers, software, printers, risks, other assets, contracts, software
licenses, incidents, and service catalog items.

The API makes it easy to integrate SolarWinds Service Desk with additional
applications. If there’s no native integration with SolarWinds Service Desk,
you can use the SolarWinds Service Desk API to create an interface.

Authentication - The API authentication is token-based. Admins can generate

a token from their user profile on the user setup page. This token can then be
provided to the API developer for them to gain access to items in SolarWinds
via the API. Admins can also re-generate their tokens from the user setup
page, which will invalidate all previously generated tokens.

□ Please review the SolarWinds Service Desk API Documentation for detailed
information:

Documentation

□ SolarWinds THWACK ®
Community

□ Product Newsroom - Check out what gets released in real time:

Documentation

□ Training Videos - View our collection of training video:

Documentation

Explore the Product Roadmap - Interested in what we’re working on? Check
out what our product team is launching in the Service Desk next:

Documentation

□ Ask the Community - Collaborate with the rest of our customers in this
section:

Documentation

ACCOUNT BASICS

□ Organization: Sites and Departments

□ Click Here for Organization in Service Desk:
Documentation

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□ Time Zone and Default Language:

This is the default time zone and language that displays through the account
unless a time zone or language is specified for a user.

□ Sites and Departments:

Sites and Departments are essential to your setup if you wish to be able to
accurately report on where your tickets are coming from and where your
assets live. You’ll be assigning sites and departments to your assets, users,
and tickets.

The key here is to be able to accurately report on how things are moving through
your service desk—where tickets come from and where your assets live.

□ Sites:
Most of the time, sites refer to your physical locations. You’ll enter each of
your physical locations as a site.

In some cases, you might want your sites to be specific buildings on a

campus or your customer names. Just make sure it makes sense for your
reporting measures.

□ Departments:
Departments will typically be the organizational structure that runs throughout
your company. Some potential departments might be Human Resources,
Sales, Information Technology, Marketing, etc.

□ Organizational Setup Documentation:

Documentation

□ Business Hours
Click Here for Business Hours in Service Desk:

Documentation

You’ll define your business hours in SolarWinds Service Desk as the hours in
which you offer support to your end users. You can scope your Service Level
Management rules and Reports around Business Hours.

© 2021 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved. | 219-EN page 5

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□ Business Hour Records:

You’ll need to specify a business hour record for each site. If all your sites
have the same support hours and are in the same time zone, you can just
have one set of Default Business Hours. If your sites have different support
hours or if the sites you support are in different time zones, you’ll need to
create different business hour records for your different scenarios. You’ll
need to assign your business hours to your sites in the Organization menu.

□ Scheduled Time Off:

You can define additional days where business hours are not in effect. For
example, holidays, company off-site days, and election days should be added.
You can also import a pre-defined holiday calendar from the selection drop-
down. Make sure to de-select holidays that don’t apply to your organization.

□ Business Hours Setup Documentation:

Doccumentation

□ User Import
Click Here for Users in Service Desk:

Documentation

□ User Provisioning Options:

User Provisioning refers to how you’ll upload your user attributes like Site,
Department, Reports To, Job Title, etc., into SolarWinds Service Desk. This
can be done through an IDaaS partner, our open REST API, a .csv upload, or
through manual creation.

□ IDaaS (AD Provisioning and Deprovisioning):

You can choose to partner with one of our IDaaS providers as a customer of
SolarWinds Service Desk.

• Azure:

Documentation

• OneLogin:

Documentation

• Idaptive:

Documentation

• OKTA:

Documentation page 6
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□ API Scripting:
You can script in your user attribute information using our open REST API.

• SolarWinds Service Desk Built API Script:

 - You can use an API script already included in your implementation

package or you can purchase an API script from SolarWinds.

• User Created API Script

- We have resources available to empower you to manage your own user
scripting.

• GitHub Ruby Script:

Documentation

• SolarWinds API Documentation:

Documentation

□ CSV Import:
You have the option to import your user attribute information via .csv import.
Please see the template and template guide attached below for details.

• How to Import with CSV:

Documentation

□ Manual Creation:
The last option is to create your users manually by adding each new user
individually. Please see the tutorial video linked below.

• How to Create Users Manually:

Documentation

The last option is to create your users manually by adding each new user
individually. Please see the tutorial video linked below.

How to Create Users Manually:

Documentation

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□ Roles
Click Here for Roles in Service Desk:

Documentation

Each user in SolarWinds Service Desk is assigned to a role to identify their

specific access within the application. There are four default roles created
in each account: Administrator, Service Agent User, Service Task User, and
Requester. These roles also double as license types.

In most cases, you’ll be fine with the default roles, but you can add custom
roles if needed. If you start to add custom roles or adjust the existing roles,
you’ll become familiar with permissions and restrictions. The permissions or
restrictions assigned to each role allows the application to know what types of
information the user can access. Let’s go into more depth regarding permissions
and restrictions.

□ Administrator:
This is the all-powerful administrator role. This role exhibits the highest level
of access to the application. Any user assigned to this role will have access
to submit tickets, work tickets, and use the setup menu. This is a licensed
role and will count against the number of licenses you purchased.

□ Service Agent User:

This role is for technicians who will be using the system as service agent
users. This user will have access to the system to work incidents or manage
assets. They’ll have access to everything except setup, benchmarks, and the
ability to delete items in the application. This is a licensed role and will count
against the number of licenses you purchased.

□ Service Task User:

This is an upgraded end-user role. A user in this role will have access to the
Service Portal side of SolarWinds Service Desk only. However, they’ll also
be able to see the “My Tasks” menu on the Service Portal, which will enable
them to manage tasks and approvals. Assigning users to this role will also
enable them to manage tasks and approvals through email. This is not a
licensed role.

□ Requester:
This is your basic end-user role. As an end user, this person will only have
access to the Service Portal. They won’t be able to access the application
side of SolarWinds Service Desk or see the “My Tasks” menu on the Service
Portal. This is not a licensed role.
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□ Permissions and Restrictions

Permissions and restrictions tell the application what type of information the
user can see when logged in to SolarWinds Service Desk. Each role has a set
of permissions and restrictions associated with it. These items differentiate
each role from one another. The best way to design a role is by giving them
permission to what they need to access. Once they have permissions, you can
add restrictions to scope down the permissions they’ve been given.

Several different articles below will walk you through building these out. You
might also find some great examples of building roles for departments other
than IT, such as Facilities, Human Resources, or Marketing.

□ Roles and Permissions Guide:

Documentation

□ Categories and Subcategories

Click Here for Categories in Service Desk:

Documentation

Categories and Subcategories are used to categorize the Incidents and Service
Requests coming through your service desk. You can also categorize your
Solutions in SolarWinds Service Desk using the same list of categories.

Incident categorization exists primarily to classify incidents to provide initial

support. Initial support means proper analysis, evaluation, and if required,
routing. Classification is neither to determine root cause nor technical causes
of the incident.

When you allow your employees to specify a category for their break/fix incidents
on the Service Portal, you can set auto-routing rules for these incidents to the
correct group of technicians based on the employee’s selection. Having a well-
defined set of categories and subcategories will also empower you to create
informative reports on the types of incidents and requests you take care of with
your service desk.

□ Categories:
Categories are the top-level selection used to gather an idea of what this
incident pertains to. If end users might be making this selection, make sure
employees understand the category selections.

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□ Subcategories:
Subcategories are the lower level of selection when categorizing an incident
or a service request. This selection gives employees and technicians the
ability to provide another layer of granularity when describing their issue or
the service request item.

□ Default Assignee:
Don’t forget to fill in Default Assignees for both Categories and Subcategories.
These selections enable you to auto-route your incidents based on the
category and subcategory your employee selects on the Service Portal. We
typically recommend using Groups as your default assignees for visibility
and ease of use. If you want to learn more about incident routing, click here.

□ Examples:
Please review our Category and Subcategory example list below. We know
this list won’t align with every organization, but it’s a great starting point for
creating your selections.

□ Category Documentation Page:

Documentation

□ Video Tutorial - Setting Up Categories:

Documentation

□ Groups
Click Here for Groups in Service Desk:

https://app.samanage.com/setup/groups

Groups are created to associate multiple users together. These can be groups
of approvers, administrators, teams of technicians, or departments, to name a
few. In most cases, groups can be selected wherever you would select a user.
You can set a group of users as the default assignee or use our inline editing in
the Incidents menu to quickly reassign an incident to a group of users.

□ Group Assignments:
We always recommend your default assignees are set to a Group. This allows
for better visibility if an employee leaves the organization or goes on vacation.
All users in the group will receive notifications if the group is assigned to an
Incident or a Service Request workflow task.

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Groups also come into play when you want to get multiple people involved
as a part of workflow processes. You can assign Service Requests as well as
workflow tasks within a Service Request to groups. You can also associate
computers, other assets, and contracts to Groups.

Users can be added to a Group once they have been imported into SolarWinds
Service Desk. You can select multiple users at once to add to a group.

□ Groups Setup Tutorial:

Documentation

□ Queues
Click Here for Queues in Service Desk:

Documentation

Queues are a repository of tickets waiting to be assigned. This allows the IT

manager to review incoming tickets and prioritize assignment to ensure their
team is working most effectively.

□ Queue Use Cases:

When you have a shared workload, tickets can be placed in a queue. The
status is automatically set to Pending Assignment.

Anywhere ticket assignment is not predetermined and depends on availability,

acceptance, etc. For example: Incidents queue, High Priority Changes queue,
VIP queue, Network issues queue, Escalations queue, etc.

□ Implementing Queues:
Documentation

□ Queue Setup Documentation:

Documentation

□ Service Level Management

Click Here for Service Level Management in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Service Level Management feature in SolarWinds Service Desk is used to

execute the support guidelines and agreements your company wishes to provide
your employees. We use SLA rules to represent these standards within incident
management. When creating your rules, please make sure each rule is truly a
breach, as each incident can only breach once.

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Let’s talk through how to create an SLA rule.

□ Name:
This is the name of your SLA rule. Please consider your naming scheme, as
this will be important when you continue to create rules.

□ Target:
The target is what you’re trying to accomplish for each incident. This could
be how quickly you want the incident resolved, commented on, or assigned.
You can also choose a target of no actions taken, which means you want an
action taken on the incident within a certain amount of time.

Once you have chosen your target, you’ll need to select a timeframe for your
target. This can be done in hours or minutes.

□ Scope:
Once you’ve selected your target, you can refine this by defining a scope for
each target. The scope will narrow down your target, so it only applies to the
specific incidents within that scope. This can be set by category, priority,
site, department, or requester. You can select more than one scope per rule.

□ Action:
The action happens when the rule has been breached for a specific incident.
Upon breach, you can change the priority, re-assign the incident, or notify a
group or individual. You can also add specific tags for the incident.

Please keep in mind the system will automatically notify the incident assignee
in addition to what you have selected here.

□ Video on Creating Service Level Agreements (SLAs):

Documentation

SERVICE DESK CONFIGURATION

□ SSO
Click Here for Single Sign On in Service Desk:

Documentation

Single Sign On allows your users to sign in to SolarWinds Service Desk using
their Active Directory credentials. Below you will see our recommended options
for SSO; however, we support any SAML 2.SSO, so feel free to hook up with
something else if you don’t see it here.

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□ IDaaS:
• A zure:

Documentation

• OneLogin:

Documentation

• Idaptive:

Documentation

• OKTA:

Documentation

• Google Apps:

Documentation

• ADFS:

Documentation

□ Email Settings
Click Here for Email Settings in Service Desk:

Documentation

This is where you’ll find all settings related to the different types of emails
coming in and out of your SolarWinds Service Desk.

□ Email Drop Box:

Your email drop box in SolarWinds Service Desk has already been set up. To
receive incidents by email, send an email to the email listed in your account.
You can also set up a forwarding rule on your email server to send all emails
from your internal support address to the drop box email in your account.

Your email drop box will be located in your account within the parentheses
in the Email Settings help menu.

□ Reply Email Address:

It’s best practice to enter a reply email address here in the email settings as well.

The reply email address will ensure everything looks like it’s coming from
the same email address your employees sent their message to. This will
typically be your internal support address. (*Please note this functionality is
not available for customers on the EU data center.)
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□ Blocked and Allowed Addresses:

We allow you to adjust the setting for various email addresses and domains
that can create tickets in your system. For very tight security around this
manner, we recommend specifying allowed domains. If you’re only concerned
about a few email domains, you can leave the allowed list open and use the
blocked domains.

□ Whitelisting IP Addresses:
Documentation

□ Domain Mapping
Click Here for Domain Mapping in Service Desk:

Documentation

Domain Mapping is used to change the URL your users access to log in to
SolarWinds Service Desk. Instead of this being tied to your account name, you
can customize the URL.

□ Requirements:
There are a couple of things to note for this process; please see below:

• CNAME Record in DNS:

- You must create the proper CNAME record in your DNS before adding the
domain into SolarWinds Service Desk.

• Creating a CNAME Record in DNS:

Documentation

• SSL Certificate:

- It’s strongly recommended that you purchase and upload an SSL

certificate in conjunction with this functionality, as SolarWinds Service
Desk no longer supports Non-SSL Domain Mapping. SSL Certificate
upload can take up to 48 hours.

• Single Sign On:

- If you’re currently using Single Sign On with SolarWinds Service Desk, the
domain mapping adjustment may affect the routing of your login page.
Please make sure to update your login redirect with your SSO provider.

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• Wildcard SSL Certificates:

- You can use a wildcard certificate with SolarWinds Service Desk;

however, this cannot be done natively within the SolarWinds Service Desk
application. You’ll need to send this information to our support team at
[email protected]. This can take anywhere between
48-72 hours to process, so please plan accordingly. Please see the article
below for requirements.

□ Domain Mapping Documentation:

Documentation

□ Service Portal
Click Here for Service Portal in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Service Portal setup menu allows you to customize the look, feel, messaging,
and functionality of the Service Portal for your employees.

□ Look and Feel:

We allow you to customize the look and feel of your Service Portal by adding
a logo and favicon, so your employees will know they’re in the right place.
You can specify the primary and secondary colors in the header space on
the Service Portal. Please refer to our Service Portal Design Guide for tips
on how to make your Service Portal look amazing.

□ Messaging:
You also have the option of customizing many different areas of messaging
on the Service Portal as well. This includes the Title, Main Message, Sign Up
Message, Announcement Message, Incident Field Setting, and the Menu
Navigation Titles shown at the top of the Service Portal page.

□ Functionality:
Some of the other items in this section of setup have to do with the way
your employees will be interacting with the Service Portal. You have many
different options for customizing the functionality your employees are given.
For example, you can hide or unhide selections like category, priority, and
due date or give them the ability to mark their own requests as resolved.
You also have the option of adding specific domains that can access your
Service Portal.

□ Service Portal Setup Tutorial:

Documentation page 15
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□ Video: Employee Service Portal:

Documentation

□ Chat
Chat facilitates real-time communication between end users and agents who
support the systems and resources they rely on. Chat allows both parties to
maintain active attention—helping agents resolve issues faster and more
efficiently.

Documentation

□ What are the benefits of chat?:

• Faster, more efficient way for end users to engage with service agents.

• Improves employee satisfaction by providing a direct communication

channel for instant interactions with agents, helping them get the

• Increases agent productivity by providing a chat queue that will allow them
to efficiently engage with multiple end users at the same time.

• Improves first-touch-resolution and time-to-resolution metrics, which can

reduce your cost per ticket.

□ How to Implement Chat:

• Chat is easy to implement and manage and promotes portal adoption.

• Chat is natively built into your service desk, with a back-end interface for
agents and portal access for end users.

• A llows you to quickly implement chat into your service management

processes.

• The full chat correspondence is captured by your service desk.

• Allows agents to convert chats into incidents without missing any details.

□ Activating Chat:
Before you activate chat, you may want to establish a process to help you
better set and manage the goals and expectations of chat for both your
agents and end users. Some good questions to ask are:

• What kind of traffic are we getting to our portal, and how much of it do we
feel will be converted to chat interactions?

• Are we getting enough portal traffic to justify opening chat? If not, do we

want to use chat to encourage more portal activity?
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Pro tip: To better understand how to properly staff your chat queue, leverage
the Incident Trend and Incident Heatmap Reports. The Trend Report will
show you the busiest days in the week, while the Heatmap Report will show
you the busiest hours of the day. By understanding your historical statistics
on when your service desk is busiest, you can better forecast the times chat
will be used the most and staff your team accordingly.

□ Service Desk Settings

Click Here for Settings in Service Desk:

Documentation

SolarWinds Service Desk allows for customization of the Service Desk to fit
your company’s processes. This menu will allow you to customize the way your
technicians interact with the various features of the incident workflow.

□ Service Desk Name:

This function allows you to enter a Service Desk name for your company.
This name is used in the “From” field in email notifications and in the service
portal.

□ Sign-In Image:
This image will show on the native SolarWinds Service Desk sign-in page.
If you’re redirecting to a Single Sign On (SSO) login page, this image will be
irrelevant.

□ Default Landing Page:

This will be the default landing page for all agents. Every time an agent logs
in to the application, this is the page they’ll land on. If you allow agents to
customize this, they’ll find the override setting in their profile card.

□ Custom Resolution Codes:

Custom Resolution Codes are used to report on the different ways your team
resolves an incident. You can customize these codes to match your business
logic. You can add new custom resolution codes, delete existing ones, and
make this field mandatory for your technicians.

□ Auto Tagging
Tags are used in SolarWinds Service Desk to add search terms to your
incidents. You can check this box if you want SolarWinds Service Desk to
automatically generate tags.

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□ Incident Settings:
□ Close Inactive Resolved Incidents:
This feature allows you to select a duration after which inactive incidents
will be moved from a Resolved state to a Closed state. An incident is
considered inactive when it has no new comments, and no changes are
made to the incident. We typically recommend anything from 5 - 14 days
depending on your organization.

□ Reopen Resolved/Closed Incidents:

This feature allows you to reopen closed or resolved incidents when a
new comment is made by the end user either via the portal or email.
Keep in mind your technicians will still receive a comment notification if
this is turned off and your comment notifications are turned on.

□ Default Priority for New Incidents:

This feature allows you to set the default priority for new incidents. You
can adjust the default priority to Low, Medium, High, or Critical.

□ Comment Settings
□ Comments Visibility:
Here you can set the visibility of comments added to incidents in your service
desk. Once set, this will be the default setting for any new comments added
in the incident view. Public comments will be visible to both the technicians
and employees, while private comments are only visible to technicians.

□ Comments Sorting:
Turn the toggle to “On” to display newest comments first in the incident
view. To reverse the order, switch the toggle to “Off.”

□ Customer Satisfaction Surveys:

Customer Satisfaction surveys are a great way of knowing what your
end users think of the level of service you’re providing. SolarWinds
Service Desk allows you to send out Customer Satisfaction surveys for
all incidents or just certain categories of incidents. You can also turn the
surveys off completely, but we don’t recommend doing so.

If you choose to send surveys, you can select when the survey will be
sent, the frequency in which they are sent, and the threshold for the
customer satisfaction widget on the dashboard.

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□ Custom States
In this section, you can rename system states, create your own new custom
states, and adjust the order in which they appear in the drop-down menu. Today,
we allow for the customization of states in the Incident module as well as the
Changes module.

□ Custom Incident States:

This setting allows you to rename or create custom states for the Incident
module. You also have the option to change the order in which the custom
states appear in the drop-down menu for incidents. Additionally, you can
determine if the custom states are affected by the SLA rules by checking
the “Apply SLA” box next to each state.

□ Custom Change States:

This setting allows you to rename or create custom states for the Changes
module. You also have the option to change the order in which the custom
states appear in the drop-down menu for changes. There is no option for
SLAs here, as the SLAs don’t apply to the Changes module.

□ Custom States Documentation:

Documentation

□ Automations
Click Here for Automations in Service Desk:

Documentation

This feature provides a powerful, easy way to trigger actions based on different
conditions of various triggers in SolarWinds Service Desk. We’re going to cover
the different components of creating an automation, so you can start exploring
with your own automation rules.

□ Trigger:
Selecting a trigger is the starting point of your automation rule. The trigger
happens in SolarWinds Service Desk to spur an automation rule to run. This
list will continue to grow as we expand on this feature, but currently, we can
set triggers on objects being created or comments being added.

□ Scope:
The scope narrows down what the trigger will apply to. Stay tuned for updates
to this feature as we plan to add scoping options. For now, all automations
are scoped around both Incidents and Service Requests.

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□ Conditions:
When these conditions are present, the actions selected below will be
triggered. Conditions can be set to require all of them to be met or only some
of them to be met to initiate the actions.

□ Actions:
These actions will be initiated when the conditions have been met. You can
have as many actions as you’d like.

□ Video Tutorial - Building Automation Rules:

Documentation

□ Creating Custom Automations:

Documentation

□ Service Catalog
Click Here for Service Catalog in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Service Catalog allows you to create a catalog of pre-approved services

and requests your team offers to your organization. These service catalog items
can be requested by your employees, or they can be requested or scheduled
internally by your technicians.

□ Examples:
You have several options when it comes to using the SolarWinds Service Desk
Service Catalog. Here are some examples of what we find our customers
creating:

• Employee On-Boarding

• Employee Termination

• Equipment Request

• Scheduled Maintenance

• Software Access Request

□ Details:
You’ll find these fields at the top of the Service Catalog item creation menu.
This information is the static characteristics of this Service Catalog item that
will not change when this item is requested. This includes things like title,
description, category, and a picture.
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□ Variables:
The variables section will become the form the end user will fill out to make
the request. You can select from many different data types including text,
dropdown, date, attachments, and multi-pick lists. Collecting this information
upfront allows your team to start delivering rather than wait for additional
information. These variables can also be marked as mandatory, which will
force the requester to provide this information when requesting.

□ Process:
The Process section is where you map out what happens in your organization
once the Service Catalog item has been requested. By using a workflow of
approvals and tasks, the service catalog process arranges your business
practices into one streamlined procedure.

□ Introduction to the Service Catalog:

Documentation

□ Video - Creating a Service Catalog Item:

Documentation

□ Video - Two Service Catalog Items HR Can Use:

Documentation

□ Solutions/Knowledge Base
Click Here for Solutions in Service Desk :

https://app.samanage.com/solutions

The Solutions module in SolarWinds Service Desk allows you to build a database
of useful articles, knowledge base items, or FAQs. You can allow everyone in your
organization to view these items or have them restricted for internal use only.
Solutions are perfect for documenting resolution steps for commonly submitted
incidents.

□ Examples:
• Email Password Reset Instructions

• How to Set Up Voicemail on Phone

• How to Install Software

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□ Details:
□ Creation:
There are several different ways to create a Solution in SolarWinds Service
Desk. We typically recommend creating them one by one as it allows you
to format them easily and efficiently.

• New Solutions Created Manually

• Directly from a Resolved Incident

• CSV Import

□ State:
When creating solutions, you can mark them as an Internal, Draft, or
Approved state.

• Draft - Draft Items Only Visible to Technicians

• Internal - Approved Items Only Visible to Technicians

• Approved - Approved Items Visible to Technicians and Employees

□ Use Cases:
Let’s talk about some of the different ways you can use the solutions you’ve
created in SolarWinds Service Desk.

□ Technicians:
Solutions can be used as responses within an incident by adding them
as comments that go out to employees. You can also add solutions
internally, so your technicians can use them to solve problems efficiently.

□ Service Portal:
Your employees can also access these Solutions from the Service Portal
Solutions menu. This allows them to self-service and access quick and
seamless assistance.

□ Smart Suggestions:
Our system will automatically suggest solutions for both technicians
and employees. This allows us to help you provide the right resources
to your organization in real time.

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□ Custom Forms and Fields

Click Here for Custom Forms and Fields in Service Desk:

Documentation

Documentation

This customization allows you to add additional fields in various modules of

SolarWinds Service Desk. While the initial implementation may warrant an influx
of these items, the creation of custom fields and forms will follow you throughout
your use of the application.

□ Custom Forms:
Custom forms refer to the different modules you can add custom fields into.
These forms will serve as the identifier for the location your custom field
will appear in. You can create one form for each module available to you.

Documentation

□ Custom Fields:
Custom fields will populate throughout the application. You can create many
different types of fields such as text, dropdown, checkbox, date and time,
and user selections.

Custom fields can be useful for capturing additional information on specific

types of incidents or on the asset management level. When custom fields
are being used, they’ll show as filtering options both in the Incidents menu
and the Reports menu.

Documentation

□ Notifications
Click Here for Notifications in Service Desk:

Documentation

This area allows you to configure the notifications sent to your technicians
(assignees) and employees (requesters and/or CCs) based on your preferences.

□ Email Notifications:
You can customize the different notifications sent out to both your assignees
and requesters based on the different selections you see in this section. If
the requester option has been selected, you can also have notifications sent
to the CCed contacts on the incident. These settings are global for each
user type.

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Typically, we suggest you turn on the notifications for Incident Received,

Incident Resolved, and Incident Commented for both the assignee and the
requester. You’ll also want to turn the Incident Assigned notification on for
assignees, so the new assignee will be notified if the assignee changes. Don’t
forget the assignee notification for New Task.

□ Default Timeout Period:

You have the option to define the default timeout period for links to approvals or
exported data sent via email. Here you can enter the amount of time in days for which
you’d like the timeout period to be. We regularly recommend 14 days for this setting.

□ Expire RSS Feeds:

This selection will expire any RSS feeds been exported from SolarWinds
Service Desk. The RSS feed will no longer update.

□ Weekly Summary:
SolarWinds Service Desk will send a weekly summary of your account’s
performance if you’d like. Here you can select which users will receive the report.

□ Notifications Setup Tutorial:

Documentation

□ Problem Management
The SolarWinds Service Desk Problem Management module allows you to
manage the lifecycle of your company’s problems. Problems are defined as the
cause of one or more incidents. A problem could be an incident happening many
times or an incident affecting many people in your company.

What is the objective of problem management?

The goal of problem management is to minimize the number and the severity of
incidents (symptoms) and possible problems to your company. Using problem
management allows your organization to proactively avoid future problems and
incidents by identifying solutions to current problems.

□ Benefits:
• Enhances productivity of IT staff members

• Provides more consistent service delivery levels

• Ensures an increased ability to satisfy the technology needs of end

users

• Improves ability to adhere to service performance requirements

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□ Problem Examples:
• Occurrence of the same incident many times

• Incidents impacting many users

• N etwork diagnostics revealing systems not operating in the

expected way

• Use Case Example - Joe and Tyler are support engineers for
Company A. Their desks are side by side. One day, Joe leans
back and tells Tyler “ugh, another Outlook issue.” Joe swivels
in his chair, “You working on one, too? I just had two incidents
come in.” Turns out, Joe and Tyler have been trying to solve the
same problem. Instead of getting frustrated over lost time, their
manager, Jessica, creates a problem in SolarWinds Service Desk,
attaches all the incidents to the problem, and thus cuts out the
repetitive work.

□ Problem Record Creation:

There are two ways to create a Problem in SolarWinds Service Desk:

• Manually - New problem record is created as it relates to proactive

concerns.

• From an Incident - Create directly from an incident as a technician

realizes many related issues. You can and should attach incidents and
changes to the problem, so you can see the hierarchy and relationships.

□ Problem Components:
□ State:
When creating Problem records, you can mark them as Open, Pending
Change, Known Issues, On Hold, or Closed state. The state is a signifier
of what status the problem is in.

• Open - This is the initial state of created problem record.

• Pending Change - This is a problem awaiting a change process.

• Known Issue - This is a problem record with a documented root

cause and workaround.

• On Hold - This is a problem that has been put on hold (can be
on hold for various reasons, such as no current workaround or
solution).

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• Closed - This is a problem record that has been “resolved.” If a

problem doesn’t have a resolution, the problem would stay in the
“Known Issue” state with a valid workaround documented.

□ Root Cause:
Root cause(s) and root cause analysis are focused on identifying
and documenting the origins and underlying causes of problems,
asking and answering the question, “What caused things to break?”
Root causes are documented in problem records. The process is
deceptively simple: if you remove a symptom and the problem doesn’t
happen, it’s not part of the root cause. Examples:

• Software has a bug

• Equipment has corrupted memory

□ Symptom - A symptom is a departure from normal functioning (can be

an incident). Symptoms are documented in problem records. Examples:

 • Application error or malfunction

 • Loss of network service

 Workaround - Workarounds are temporary fixes that go with your problem

management process if a permanent solution is not yet achievable.
Workarounds are documented in problem records, so technicians can
refer to this information. Examples:

• Restarting services in an application

• Failover to secondary equipment.

□ Problem Management Documentation:

Documentation

□ Video: Problem Management 11:

Documentation

□ Change Management:
The SolarWinds Service Desk Change Management module allows you to
manage the process responsible for controlling the lifecycle of all changes. A
change is defined as the addition, modification, or removal of anything that
could affect IT or end-user services. The objecti’ve of change management is to
enable beneficial changes to be made with minimum disruption to IT services.

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What is the objective of change management?

As an IT service management discipline, change management ensures the

procedures and methods employed to enact change are standardized and promote
the prompt and efficient management of any changes to IT infrastructure. The goal
of change management is to establish standard procedures for managing change
requests in an agile and efficient manner to drastically minimize the risk and impact
a change can have on business operations.

□ Benefits:
• D ecreased adverse impact on business operations and improved
visibility into IT change

• Adherence to government and other compliance regulations

• Improved risk management and increased staff productivity

• Reduced service disruptions and system downtime

□ Change Types:
• Standard
• Normal
• Emergency
• Ad hoc

□ Change Examples:
• Changes stemming from business initiatives with either an internal or
external

• Application, hardware, software, network, documentation changes

Application, hardware, software, network, documentation Migration from one

data center to another

• OS upgrade

• Patch deployment

□ Change Record Creation

There are several ways to create a change record in SolarWinds Service Desk.

• Manually - New change record is created as it relates to proactive concerns.

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• From an Incident, Problem, or Release record - Create directly from an in an

incident, problem, or release record. You can and should attach problems,
releases, and configuration items to the change record. This will enable you to
see the hierarchy and relationships.

□ Change Components
□ State:
When creating change records, you can mark them as Open, On Hold, Waiting
for Approval, Approved, Declined, Closed Completed, and Closed Incomplete.
The state is a signifier of what status the change is in.

• Open - This is the initial state of the created change record.

• On Hold - This is a change that has been put on hold.

• Waiting for Approval - This is a change awaiting approval.

• Approved - This is an approved change.

• Declined - This is a rejected change.

• Closed Complete - This is a change record implemented and/or resolved

to full completion.

• Closed Incomplete - This is a change record closed without being fully

implemented or resolved.

□ Change Plan:
A change plan formally documents the process/procedures for the intended
change and allows your organization to detect and record the change.
Example:

RP Hotfix 4.2.11 B1needs to be installed in prod environment.

Change Plan:

1. Devise communication plan.

2. Devise action and test plan.

3. Full back up.

4. Stop ERP.

5. Apply Hotfix.

6. Start ERP.

7. Test as per Test Plan.

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□ Rollback Plan:
The rollback plan formally documents the process/procedures to be followed
if the change doesn’t go as expected. Example:

• Restore from backup.

□ Test Plan:
The test plan conveys how the team will test the changes before they go
live. Example:

□ Test Plan:
1. Review Test Plan.

2. Check version in About screen.

3.Perform test transactions.

□ Changes:
Documentation

□ Change Catalog:
Documentation

□ Change Management:
Documentation

□ Video: Change Management 101:

Documentation

□ Video: Creating Change Templates:

Documentation

□ Release Management
The SolarWinds Service Desk Release Management module allows you
to manage the processes/procedures responsible for building and testing
a release and all the activities supporting the release effort. Releases are
defined as new pieces of functionality that could be delivered systematically
as a series of changes. Release Management interfaces with other ITIL service
management processes across the service lifecycle, including Problem, Change,
and Configuration Management.

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What is the objective of Release Management?

In ITIL, release management is a key process in Service Transition, and this

process should be thought of as a coordination and collaboration process.
The goal is to roll out updates in production, managing the risks involved and
responding quickly to potential incidents. It’s critical to have a formalized ITIL
release process to ensure deployments are released on schedule.

Release management doesn’t replace the specialized functional processes, but

coordinates activities between them in a service-oriented fashion with change
management leading the effort.

□ Benefits
• Documenting successes and sometimes failures enable you to understand
opportunities for improvement and ensure smoother and more strategic
deployments in the future.

• Comprehensive audit logs help you visualize any updates and approvals made
during the release process.

• S treamline deployments to reduce the need for multiple disruptions and

outages.

□ Examples
• New or updated hardware

• New or updated software

• New or updated documentation or processes

□ Release Record Creation

There are two ways to create a release record in SolarWinds Service Desk.

• Manually - New release record is created as it relates to proactive concerns.

• From a Change record - Create directly from a change record. You can and
should attach related changes and configuration items to the release record.

□ Release Components
□ State:
When creating release records, you can mark them as Open, On Hold, Waiting
for Approval, Approved, Declined, Closed Completed, and Closed Incomplete.
The state is a signifier of what status the release is in.

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• Open - This is the initial state of the created release record.

• On Hold - This is a release that has been put on hold.

• Waiting for Approval - This is a release awaiting approval.

• Approved - This is an approved release.

• Declined - This is a rejected release.

• 
Closed Complete - This is a release record implemented and/or resolved
to full completion.

• 
Closed Incomplete - This is a release record closed without being fully
implemented or resolved.

□ Plan:
This release plan formally documents the plan/outline for the intended
release. Example:

Upgrade ERP to v5 Release Plan

1. Devise Project Plan and Costing.

2. Assign resources.

3. Develop Upgrade Plan.

□ Build:
This build plan formally documents the process/procedures to be followed
for the intended build/migration/process of the release. Example:

□ Build Plan:
1. Restore prod instance in non-prod.

2. Run upgrade

3. Take timings

4. Finalize upgrade procedure.

□ Deploy - Release/Deploy/Go-Live Details. Example:

• Deploy Plan

• Execute as per Upgrade procedure.

□  Releases Documentation:
Documentation

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□ Reporting and Analytics

Click Here for Reports in Service Desk:

https://app.samanage.com/reports

You have your service desk and all the data that comes with it. How can you
consolidate this data to identify what’s working and what’s not? Our reporting
capabilities allow you to quickly identify areas for continued improvement.

□ Reports:
In our classic Reports section, you can report on SLA breaches, CSAT scores,
ITIL processes, and overall resolution times to pinpoint areas to improve how
you serve the organization moving forward.

• Video Tutorial: Creating Reports:

Documentation

• Sharing Reports:

Documentation

□ Audit:
In the Audit Report, you can quickly see security updates, changes made by an
individual user, or hardware or software changes. The audit trail will show you
which user made the change, the source, action, date the change was made, and
a message associated with the change was made, and a message associated
with the change.

• Audit Tutorial:

Documentation

□ Custom:
The Custom Report section allows you to see some of the additional
information we can pull from SolarWinds Service Desk. You can export any
of these reports and have them sent to your email to download.

□ Benchmarking:
Automatically captured from your SolarWinds Service Desk, Benchmarking
compares the performance of your service organization against industry
benchmarks in real time. This repor t will be helpful 6 - 9days after
implementation to determine your operational success and how it compares
with similar companies in your industry.

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□ Reports and Analytics Documentation:

Documentation

□ Procurement
Click Here for Procurement in Service Desk :

Documentation

With a robust procurement module in SolarWinds Service Desk, you can organize
all your contracts and purchase orders. This allows you to keep track of all your
licensing, maintenance, and subscription obligations in a single location.

□ Contracts:
You can build contracts in SolarWinds Service Desk to quickly reference
contractual terms and limits. When you align contracts in the procurement
module to relevant assets and software licensing they support, you can
demonstrate compliance. You can create the following types of contracts in
the SolarWinds Service Desk:

• Software license

• Maintenance

• Lease

• Subscription

□ Importing Contract Information:

You have the option to import your item and purchase information
for each contract. Contracts need to be created before importing this
information.

□ Purchase Orders:
You can build customized order forms to initiate the purchases your
organization and employees need. Using approval processes to get the
required signoffs on POs before purchases are made can help make sure
everything runs smoothly.

□ Vendors:
With so many technology vendors, it’s critical to keep a comprehensive
database of all vendors, giving you the ability to quickly contact your
hardware, software, and service suppliers when you need them. This vendor
list will follow you to the Purchase Order section.

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□ Reconcile:
The Reconcile report provides you with an opportunity to create Software
License contracts from tags being used on your software titles. SolarWinds
Service Desk uses tags on software titles to aggregate them across versions.

ASSETS

□ Deployment of Asset Agent/Scanner

Click Here for Deployment in Service Desk:

Documentation

Asset information can be collected and imported into SolarWinds Service Desk
with the Discovery Agent, Discovery Scanner, or Discovery for Chrome OS
platform.

□ Discovery Agent:
This is an application installed on Windows and Mac computers and
gathers hardware and software information. The information is sent
back to SolarWinds Service Desk to track and manage these assets.
The Discovery Agent must be installed on each computer you’d like to
track. There are several ways to deploy the agent to your computers.
Whether you’re deploying individually or to your entire organization at
one time, you’ll find the agent by going to the Deployment setup menu
or by clicking the link at the top of this card.

□ Discovery Agent Guide:

Documentation

• Group Policy

 This is our best practice for deploying the agent to your organization.
This option eliminates the need for your users to have administrator
privileges and makes this a streamlined process by using your
Active Directory. Please see the PDF attachment below for detailed
instructions.

• D omain Login - This is recommended for Windows deployment to

deploy on all computers that log in to the domain. Your local user
accounts must have local administrator rights on their computers to
use the domain logon script procedure. You’ll find instructions for this
in the setup menu.

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• Email - This manual activation procedure is based on sending an email

asking your users to manually install the agent. You can find the agent
and email template for this in the setup menu.

• JAMF - You can install our agent with the Jamf application. Please see
the following article for instructions:

Documentation

• Individual Deployment - You have the option of downloading the agent

and deploying it individually to each computer. Make sure to select the
correct operating system before downloading the agent. Once you’ve
downloaded the agent, you can launch the installer. You’ll see more
specific instructions in the setup menu.

• Discovery Agent Guide:

Documentation

□ Discovery Scanner:
This is an application installed on one or more segments of the network and
uses agentless technology to pull information on all devices connected to
your network by scanning IP addresses.

• 
Discovery Scanner Guide:

Documentation

□ Discovery for Chrome OS:

You can import and synchronize Chrome OS information from the Google
Admin Console.

• 
Google Chrome Book Tracking:

Documentation

□ Asset Settings
Click Here for Asset Settings in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Assets setup menu allows you to define several different settings related
to the various Assets in your Inventory module.

Assets Documentation:

Documentation

□ Backup:
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You can back up the data in your account by requesting a backup. After
requesting a backup, your request will be added to a processing queue. Requests
will be processed in the order in which they are received. You’ll be notified by
email when your backup is ready. You can request a backup immediately or
schedule a weekly backup of your account’s data.

□ Differentiate Other Assets by Serial Number:

This gives you the option to differentiate assets stored in the Other
Assets section by the Serial Number. If this is not selected, you may
have duplicate items showing in your Other Assets menu.

□ Auto Generate Asset ID for Other Assets:

We can automatically generate sequential Asset IDs for your Other Asset
items. Enabling this option will generate a unique Asset ID for any new
item and any existing items that don’t already have an Asset ID.

□ Render Barcodes for Computers:

By default, SolarWinds Service Desk will generate a QR code for each
asset. However, you can enable this option to generate both QR codes
and barcodes for all assets. We recommend using QR codes as a best
practice.

□ Computer Assignment Rules

This functionality enables you to assign your Computers to a Site and
Department based on different information collected by the agent. Here
are some of the criteria you can choose from:

• Domain

• IP address

• External IP address Network cards

• IPs

• Name prefix

• Active Directory

• Organizational unit path (Chrome OS)

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□ Other Assets
Click Here for Other Assets in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Other Assets section is used for managing assets not running on an
operating system. The SolarWinds Service Desk agent can’t be deployed to
these items, so we give you a great option for storing all other assets here.

□ Importing Other Assets:

These items will be imported manually into the system. We can create each
asset manually or we can upload a list of assets through a .csv import.

□ Manual Creation:
You can create the assets manually by going into the Other Assets section
in the Inventory module and selecting the + button. Enter the requested
information and create the asset.

□ CSV Import:
The most streamlined way to import your assets into this section is by using
the .csv import option. You can enter your asset information into the template
attached below and import it directly into the Other Assets section. Please
review our template guide below before proceeding.

□ Examples:
Here are some examples of what some of our other customers have stored
in the Other Assets section.

• Routers

• Web cameras

• Monitors

• Desks

• Chairs

• Peripherals

□ Risks
Click Here for Risk Settings in Service Desk:

Documentation

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Click Here for Risks in Service Desk:

Documentation

The Risks module allows you to see various alerts for potential issues or hazards
occurring in the application. These risks can come from both the Service Desk
and Asset Management modules.

□ Examples:
Here are some examples of the potential risks you could see in this section.

• Low hard drive disk space

• Greynet software installed

• No antivirus detected

• Computers not reporting

• Expiring contracts

• Past due incidents

□ Customization:
There are various customizations you can create to determine what
information populates in your Risks module.

□ Low hard drive disk space:

The application will notify you of the different computers with a “low”
level of disk drive space. However, you can set the threshold for this
notification in the Risks setup menu. Any computer reporting a level of
disk space lower than the threshold will report as a risk in the application.
You can also choose to monitor only boot drives (C:), instructing the
system to ignore any other disks running low on free space (CD-ROM
and floppy drives are ignored).

□ Greynet software installed:

In SolarWinds Service Desk, Greynet software is any unauthorized
software installed on your organization’s computers. The Risks section
will notify you of any Greynet software installed on your computers. You
can add software titles to this list in the Risks setup menu. If you’d like to
see a list of your current Greynet software, please contact our support
team at [email protected].

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□ Remote Support
Click Here for Remote Support in Service Desk:

Documentation

SolarWinds Service Desk integrates with different remote support vendors to

provide a convenient way to log in to your organization’s computers without
having to leave the application.

□ Current Integrations:
These are the vendors we currently integrate with. We’re working with
additional vendors to expand our offering. Please note these integrations
require paid licensing with the respective vendor.

• Dameware
®

• Dameware Instructions:

Documentation

• TeamViewer

• LogMeIn

• Rescue

• GoToAssist

□ Integrations Documentation:
Documentation

□ Configuration Management Database (CMDB):

A CMDB (Configuration Management Database) contains up-to-date
information about all components of information technology systems used
by an organization as well as the relationships between these components.
This database is organized in a way that clearly defines the relationships and
dependencies among the components stored. Each component is defined
as a Configuration Item (CI) and often associated with other CIs to show how
they work together to help deliver IT services.

□ The Service Desk CMDB:

The SolarWinds CMDB data model has a parent/child hierarchy and
provides out-of-the-box CIs while allowing you to create additional
custom CIs to ensure your data model most accurately reflects your
physical and virtual IT infrastructure. Defining your CIs is step one. We

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then offer an extensive CMDB Data Model to help you when defining the
relationships and dependencies among your CIs.

The CMDB data model is built so each CI type inherits the layout and
fields of its parent CI. This allows for time-efficient customization of the
data model to meet each organization’s business needs.

• E xample - When you add a custom field to the System CI type layout,
it will appear on all its child layouts, such as computer, network device,
router, etc.

□ CMDB Documentation:
Documentation

□ Video-CMDB:
Documentation

TESTING AND GO LIVE

□ Testing
It’s important to test before you go live. Here’s a list of items we encourage
testing before you flip the switch.

□ Roles and Visibility:

Can your technicians see what’s pertinent to them? Please log in to each
role to make sure these settings are set up correctly for your technicians
and end users.

□ Email Settings:
Are emails correctly forwarding into your SolarWinds Service Desk incident
queue? Please send an email into your system to ensure there are no security
protocols preventing this from working correctly.

□ Email Notifications:
Can your organization receive emails from the SolarWinds Service Desk
system? Please create a test incident with notifications turned on to ensure
there are no security protocols preventing this from working correctly.

□ Auto Assignments:
Are your incidents routing to the appropriate users or groups? Please create
a few test incidents with different criteria to ensure these are routing to the
correct category and assignee.

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□ Service Portal:
Can your users easily access the service portal? Is the SSO working
appropriately? Is everything displaying as designed? Please test with
several technicians and end users to make sure the sign-in and displays are
functioning properly.

□ Service Catalog Items:

Are your Service Catalog items displaying properly on the Service Portal?
Are the tasks and approvals routing to the correct people? Are the tasks and
approvals working as designed or as you expected? Please request each
of your category items once before go live to ensure these are working and
routing to your satisfaction.

□ Service Agent User Training

We believe it’s extremely important for each of your technicians using the
SolarWinds Service Desk to understand how and why to use each component
of the application.

□ Training Syllabus:
Below you will find the information typically covered during a Service Agent
User training session. This training typically lasts anywhere from 1 hour to
1 hour and 3minutes.

• Service Desk (45 minutes)

<< Service Portal (How Requesters Use)

– Run through of how tickets and service requests are submitted

– Overview of Home Page and All Menus

– Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning

<< Dashboard (How to Customize)

– Widget

– Personalization

<< Service Desk > Incidents

– Incident workflow (preview, triage)

– Customize column view

– Filtering (saving and customizing filtered reports)

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<< Incident View

– Title, attributes, reassigning

– Commenting (private vs. public, solutions)

– Actions (merge, clone)

– Relationships (spawning incidents, problems, changes)

– Problem and change management

– Attaching CIs to incidents

– Time tracking

• Asset Management (15 minutes)

<< Overview of Inventory Module

– Computers

• Overview of all information (software, lifecycle, audit, etc.)

<< Other Assets

– How to import

– Filtering reports

<< Overview of CMDB

– Creation of items

– Relationships

• Reporting (15 minutes)

<< Overview of Reporting

– Dates

– Grouping

– Additional features

• Customized Report Request from Customer

□ Service Agent User Training

We also believe it’s vital for your end users to have resources for understanding
how to interact with the Service Portal. If the Service Portal is a new functionality
for your organization, this will be very important for Service Portal adoption and
success.
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□ Training Syllabus:
Below you’ll find the information typically covered during an end user training
video.

• Overview (15 minutes)

<< Home

– Search Bar

 Overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning

– Popular services and useful articles

– My requests

<< Solutions

– Explanation of knowledge base

– How to access FAQs, knowledge base, solutions

<< Service Catalog

– Explanation of service request

– How to submit a request

<< New Incident

– Explanation of break/fix incident

– Entering data related to incident

 Title

 Description

– Selecting data for fields

 Category/subcategory

 Site/department

 Custom fields

<< My Requests

– Importance of checking incident/request status

<< My Tasks

– Tasks

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– Approvals
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□ Go Live Procedures
Ready to go live with SolarWinds Service Desk? Congratulations! We’re happy
you’re part of the SolarWinds family. We’re here to remind you of a few items to
consider before you flip the switch.

□ Technician Training:
Ensure Service Agent Users or internal technicians have been trained to use the
SolarWinds Service Desk application to manage tickets and inventory. Please
reach out to your Onboarding Specialist if you need assistance with this.

□ End User Communication:

Inform your Requesters or end users that you will be switching to SolarWinds
Service Desk. Please update your users regarding any changes to their daily
workflow.

You can find email templates to send to your organization here:

Documentation

□ Forward Existing Email:

Forward new or existing support email address to the email drop box
associated with your SolarWinds Service Desk account.

□ Reroute Portal Domain:

Update and redirect any URLs for the Service Portal. This includes making
sure the CNAME, DNS, and routing is correct for your new Service Portal URL.

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