Improve your IT service delivery and profitability with ServiceDesk Plus MSP

June 22, 2023 5 minutes read

it-service-delivery-process

As a managed service provider, your constant goal is to boost the efficiency of your service delivery to enhance profits. To achieve this, MSPs need to strike a balance between investing in the right set of tools, and designing service delivery processes that complement the ITSM requirements of the customers. When either of these two factors lag, the operational efficiency takes a hit, and profitability suffers.

Identifying the key set of features, available in ITSM and professional services automation (PSA) platforms like ServiceDesk Plus MSP, is the first step to streamlining the MSP's IT operations.

In this article, we will discuss features including:

Standardize request resolution processes with
necessary automation

Request life cycle (RLC)

Request Life Cycle in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Ticket life cycle

Request Life Cycle in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Service request life cycle

Request Life Cycle in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

 

 

A standardized approach to incident resolution and service delivery helps technicians navigate through ticket statuses and human errors to avoid delays and SLA violations. With ServiceDesk Plus MSP, you can visually design a standardized lifecycle for various types of incidents and service requests that guides your technicians to handle, resolve, and deliver tickets with minimal delays.

  • Build request life cycles on a simple visual drag-and-drop canvas.
  • Pass tickets through a predetermined sequence with predefined request life cycles.
  • Define conditions and actions for tickets to move between statuses.
  • Set ticket information access controls at various points of the ticket life cycle.
  • Trigger automated notifications when a ticket changes status.
  • Initiate custom scripts to execute fine-grained actions whenever required.

Get a detailed log of the overall time technicians spend on different activities

Timesheet management system

A time sheet submitted by technician for approval

Monitor the overall efforts of every technician by converting worklogs into time sheet entries, and sending them through an approval process—all before invoicing the client. Bill your clients accurately, by enabling your technicians to keep a log of the exact efforts they've invested in different activities.

  • Get a consolidated view of time spent by technicians across different activities.
  • Enable technicians to submit and recall a draft, and enable managers to approve or reject time sheets with comments and allow resubmissions.
  • Maintain data privacy and accuracy with a role-based approval process.
  • Set hourly goals per day or week, or the duration of your choice, to ensure productivity.
  • Enable the time sheet submission period to be daily, weekly, or biweekly.

Plan, manage, and assign tasks to technicians for optimally utilizing the resources

Resource management

Resource management in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Get all the necessary technician-related information at a glance. With a bird's-eye view of technician activities, find out whether the workload has been distributed evenly or not, and utilize all your resources effectively.

  • Get a consolidated view of time spent by technicians across different activities.
  • Track and manage time required for each activity by technicians.
  • Check out the task scheduled over different time frames, along with the start and end dates of each task.
  • With the color coded display, gain a better understanding of each task based on status, priority, and task type.
  • Get the time span of each task on an hourly or daily or weekly basis.

Track, manage, and schedule jobs to on-field
technicians efficiently

Field service management tool

Maps integration in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Juggle technician tasks among different client locations like a pro, to conserve resource time and effort. Manage field staff effectively and assign them to client locations based on proximity. This enables you to prioritize jobs, provide consistent quality services, have fewer unnecessary and cancelled visits, and achieve higher performance. Say good bye to availability issues and boost efficiency on the field.

  • Access Zoho Maps easily from the ServiceDesk Plus MSP console.
  • Pin the exact locations of your clients on the world map.
  • Enable your technicians to update their live locations through the ServiceDesk Plus MSP mobile app.
  • Access the field staff and client contact information from the same interface with ease.

Create personalized service plans and automate recurring bills

Automated billing system

Billing and contracts configuration in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

MSP billing software

Billing and contracts configuration in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Automated billing management

Billing and contracts configuration in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

Managed services billing software

Billing and contracts configuration in ServiceDesk Plus MSP

 

 

Facilitate the streamlined processing of invoices and bills, and ensure that your billing is always accurate. Leverage accurate billing capabilities to manage service plans for various accounts. Establish personalized service contracts with your clients, automate the creation of bills, define unique service plans, and keep your services organized, monitored, and invoiced promptly upon their completion.

  • Design predefined service plans to bill your clients.
  • Block incoming requests at the end of the service plan, or provide additional use options to your clients.
  • Create service contracts and associate agreed-upon service plans to each account.
  • Notify your clients before the contract expiration and renew contracts upon expiration.
  • Associate taxes and discounts from within the service contracts.
  • Print and share ad-hoc bills, and job sheets to your clients with ease.

Gain better visibility into your business without writing complex queries

IT service delivery metrics

MSP Business Dashboard

You need a consolidated view of all critical service desk and business metrics to know where you stand, and to make informed business decisions. The live, built-in MSP Business Dashboard in ServiceDesk Plus MSP provides key metrics at your fingertips of your entire MSP operations, with insights into areas like revenue, customer satisfaction, and technician productivity.

  • Gain insights into your business operations with widgets on revenue generated, billable and non-billable hours, managed assets, live progress of projects, and more.
  • See where the trouble lies with insights into technician performance, SLA compliance, worklog cost, ticket inflow trends, and customer satisfaction, and fix any inefficiency.
  • Customize each widget based on multiple chart types.
  • Provide role-based access to the business dashboard and share it with the right stakeholders.

Utilizing these capabilities, you can significantly boost the operational efficiency of your business and its profitability. ServiceDesk Plus MSP has integrated best-practice for ITSM including problem management, change enablement, and IT asset management. It includes a powerful project management module to help your technicians plan and carry out various projects successfully, and a comprehensive knowledge base so you can provide your clients personalized self-help.

To enhance your operational efficiency and provide outstanding IT services to your clients, ServiceDesk Plus MSP is equipped with smart automations, codeless customizations, extensive reports, and tight integrations with essential IT management tools.

Watch how these features can help you increase your operational efficiency:

About the author

Aditya Oswal, Product Marketing Analyst

Aditya Oswal is a product marketer at ManageEngine, A division of Zoho Corp., where he drives several marketing initiatives and contributes with marketing collaterals on all levels. He has authored guides on managed service providers (MSPs), PSA software, and field services management for MSPs in addition to managing various user education and thought leadership webinars addressing ITSM challenges experienced by enterprises worldwide. He specializes in organizing campaigns for product releases, user education programs, and more for ManageEngine's flagship ITSM products and shares a keen interest in managed services and the customer support industry.

Additional resources

 

The time to give your IT service operations and profits a significant boost has arrived!