2023

Aug

Have more control over your projects with these new settings:

New features
  • Fine-tune project schedules and their child entities effortlessly with Schedule Settings.
  • Use Cost Settings to accurately calculate the project's actual cost by including costs from the project's child entities.
  • Define permissions for when the project and child entity operations reach completion status using Closure Settings.

Manage your frequently occurring problems with Problem Templates:

New features
  • Problem Templates can now be created to manage the frequently occurring problems in your IT environment. With Problem Templates, relevant information can be captured or even auto-populated when initiating a problem request by building the template to the organization's requirements.

Visually manage the conversation flow of Zia, our AI chatbot:

New features
  • Zia Workflows now enable you to visualize the various conversational paths that can take place between your users and Zia, the virtual agent. You can also manage the conversations right from the graphical canvas, such as adding more options or changing Zia's response action.

Enhancements to the Change module:

Enhancement
  • Additional fields can now be added to all stages in a change template.
  • ServiceDesk Plus now supports user acceptance testing and release stages for the change module.
  • The Tasks and Notes tabs are now available in all stages of change requests, where users can tag other users in notes using the @ symbol.
  • Users can now print data from any stage in change requests.

Enhancements to the Projects module:

Enhancement
  • Administrators can now select Allow technician to view resource management while configuring roles to enable technicians to view the resource management chart under their Home tab.
  • Users with the View Project permission can now be configured as project owners.
  • Administrators can execute custom functions only on the projects where they are added as an owner.

May

Do more with business rules and custom triggers

Enhancement
  • Create business rules and custom triggers for notes and notifications. Service desk teams can now perform condition-based automations on notes added by technicians to tickets and notifications sent by users, technicians, or system notifications. Custom triggers can now be used to send approvals.
  • The conditions for business rules and custom triggers can now also be configured using custom functions.
  • Business rules now support If-If, If-Else actions for incident and service business rules and can update multi-select fields.
  • The technician fields can now be updated with group roles.

Custom Modules feature gets new enhancements to expand capabilities

Enhancement
  • The following additional field types are now supported for Custom Modules: File Upload, Phone, URL, Email, Percentage, RTA, Boolean, and Date.
  • Business rules and custom triggers can now be applied to custom module records. Business rules can be used to configure field updates and execute custom functions and scripts, while custom triggers can be used to send notifications and execute custom functions and scripts.
  • Custom Modules now supports the import of bulk records using CSV, XLS, or XLSX files and records in Custom Modules can be exported as HTML, PDF, CSV, XLS, or XLSX files.

Automate condition-based assignment of service SLAs

Enhancement

SLAs for service requests can now be automatically assigned using custom actions in business rules, and users now have the option of choosing their SLA if the 'Allow user to choose SLA while raising a request' option is enabled.

Enhancements to additional fields

Enhancement

Single line: Set character limits by specifying the minimum and maximum number of allowed characters.

Decimal: Enter a maximum of 13 integers and up to three decimal places as decimal field values.

Numeric: Set an allowed numeric range by specifying minimum and maximum values.

Note: These changes are applicable only to the additional fields for Releases, User, Projects, Worklogs, Space, Facility, and Custom Modules.

Improved and accurate software metering

Enhancement

Admins can define thresholds or ranges to classify software applications based on usage. The thresholds are based on the Run Time, Run Count, or both. These values are obtained from the Endpoint Central scan data.

Note: Currently, this feature is available only for users who have purchased Endpoint Central.

Solutions get a major overhaul

Enhancement
  • A new Associations tab on the solution details page allows solutions to be linked to existing solutions, and will list all requests and problems associated with the solution.
  • Users and technicians can add comments and feedback for solutions under the Feedback tab on the solution details page.
  • Solution owners or SDAdmins can now disable comments and reset the ratings of a solution using the Actions menu on the solution details page. Additionally, SDAdmins can globally enable or disable ratings and comments for solutions under the Solutions Settings.

Quality-of-life improvements

Enhancement
  • Administrators can now configure different scanning schedules for IT assets with and without a UEM agent under Admin > Schedule Scan.
  • Configure instance-specific approval reminders and clarification reminders, and customize instance-specific reminder emails.
  • Technicians can now initiate chat with requesters from Microsoft Teams using the ServiceDesk Plus bot.
  • The purchase order list view gains a UI revamp to improve user experience.
  • In-line images can now be uploaded to the notification email template for Request Notification Rules.
  • SDAdmins can choose to update empty values from Active Directory to ServiceDesk Plus during user import.
  • Organization admins can store their official contact details to help us reach them instantly during any security update or release under Admin > Security Settings > Security Alerts. There will be no marketing communications sent, only updates and release notices.

Track and manage Microsoft 365 subscriptions and licenses from ServiceDesk Plus with the brand new integration

Integrations

Microsoft 365 details like subscriptions, licenses, and services can now be fetched and tracked in ServiceDesk Plus. Track individual subscriptions and licenses in one place to manage and optimize Microsoft software compliance.

2022

Nov

Custom modules for a personalized business experience

New Feature

Create custom modules to display a collection of specific records and custom admin configurations to address unique business requirements. Multiple custom modules can be created for different use cases.

To create custom modules, go to Admin > Developer Space > Custom Modules.

Enhancements to make easier approvals

Enhancement

The My Approvals widget gets a brand new UI to improve user experience. Approvals are now distinguished by unique module icons.

Approvals can also be responded to using the Take Action option in the slider panel.

Sep

Execute custom actions on requests when their conditions remain unchanged

New Feature

Perform custom actions on requests if their conditions remain unchanged for more than the intended time. For instance, when end users do not provide the required information to technicians on time, send timely reminders. Similarly, with request timers, you can configure rules to send notifications to technicians, send updates to stakeholders, trigger webhooks, execute custom functions, escalate requests, perform field updates, and do even more when specific criteria are met.

Set global formats for the date, time, and time zones

New Feature

Enable uniform formats for the date, time, and time zones for all users across the application by overriding personalized settings.

Gauge the security status of your application using the security meter

New Feature

Keep tabs on the security status of your application using the security meter. Classify the level of security as unsecured, weak security, moderate security, or highly secure based on the security score. Secure your application effectively by quickly accessing security settings.

Handle problems effectively with these new enhancements

Enhancement

The Problem Management module is now available as an add-on for the Standard Edition of ServiceDesk Plus. Automate problem workflows with custom triggers. Perform actions like sending notifications to stakeholders and executing scripts and custom functions when specific conditions are met. Control data in third-party applications using custom functions for problems.

Oversee periodic maintenance better using the Maintenance module

Enhancement

Devise maintenance plans well ahead of time using the calendar view and sort them conveniently with the list view. Get the complete picture of a scheduled maintenance operation by viewing its details and history and managing the associated requests. Suspend or restart scheduled maintenance operations according to your business requirements.

Build task dependencies on a visual canvas for a better user experience

Enhancement

You can now create task dependencies by simply connecting the source node of one task to the target node of the destination task. You can also track the progress level of each task. Task dependencies now support API integration.

Resolve requests swiftly with new enhancements to the Microsoft Teams integration

Enhancement

Administrators can create commands to execute actions via the ServiceDesk Plus bot within Microsoft Teams. Technician groups can be mapped to their respective channels in Microsoft Teams to trigger notifications in these channels when requests are assigned.

Get the necessary clarifications before approving tickets

Enhancement

Approvers can seek clarification from requesters before approving or rejecting tickets using the Need Clarification button to converse with them right from within the Request Approvals pane. Spot tickets that are pending clarifications sought by approvers with the Pending Clarification indicator.

Gain hands-on experience with the latest features of ServiceDesk Plus

Enhancement

Use the one-time, one-month, free trial license to explore and familiarize yourself with the latest features of ServiceDesk Plus.

Enhancements to reports and dashboards

Enhancement
  • Analyze ITSM metrics with graphical enhancements

    View graphical charts rendered by Zoho Charts on your dashboard. Visually track ITSM metrics using new chart types, like funnel and pyramid, and maximize widgets to gain in-depth insights.

  • Perform intricate analysis by drilling down to service desk metrics using the Reports module

    Sort requests based on the date and period. Traverse the resulting tree structure by hovering over and choosing the required constituents to gain an in-depth understanding of requests. Share the drill-down analysis with technicians using the URL.

  • Generate and manage reports better with other enhancements

    New reports can be created when existing custom reports are edited. Multiple reports can be scheduled periodically. Also, reports can be exported and emailed in XLSX format, including for requests, purchases, and software. Technicians can be informed when admins edit or delete their reports.

Other enhancements to ServiceDesk Plus

Enhancement
  • Capture additional details like the subject and description when raising a request via Zia.
  • Associate releases with configuration items and and view their relationship maps.
  • Import, add, and edit the details of vendors with their associated products and services in bulk using XLS, XLSX, and CSV files.
  • Sort and prioritize requests by creating custom views using specific criteria with an advanced filter.

Quality-of-life improvements

  • Customize the appearance of text across the application by uploading custom fonts from your operating system or by using supported font files.
  • Enable technicians to personalize their workspace with custom color settings in the list views of requests, changes, and releases.
  • Help approvers promptly apprise technicians of various events, like assigning requests, adding notes, and approving and rejecting requests, using in-app notifications.
  • Alert users about events in the ServiceDesk Plus application, even if they are browsing other websites.
  • Facilitate easy password recovery for users when they log in to the application by enabling the Forgot Password? option.
  • Allow users to enable the dark theme for their application, which is user and instance specific, with a simple toggle switch.

Integrations

Integrations
  • Manage endpoints easily by integrating with UEM solutions

    Integrate UEM solutions like Patch Manager Plus, Remote Access Plus, Application Control Plus, Vulnerability Manager Plus, Device Control Plus, and Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) with the Enterprise Edition of ServiceDesk Plus to manage endpoints effectively.

  • Track the call history of your service desk using telephony integrations

    Keep tabs on the details of incoming and outgoing calls to and from the service desk. Raise a request when a call remains unattended by a technician.

You can read the entire list of improvements rolled out in the latest release here.

Jan

Manage spaces across campuses

New Feature

The new Spaces module, now available with the facilities service desk, enables facilities management teams to optimize their organization?s space usage and stay on top of their workspace management across all campuses.

Organizations can visually map all levels of their campus?from buildings to rooms?and link the amenities and facility services to individual spaces. Facility managers can also associate tickets and assets with all the managed spaces for easier service management.

Ensure asset availability at all times by keeping inventory stocked

New Feature

IT managers or asset managers can easily make sure that the asset inventory stays at optimum levels. When the asset inventory falls below a certain threshold, email notifications can now be configured to notify relevant technicians. The new configurations can be found under Asset Replenishment in the Assets module.

Chat with requesters from tickets

New Feature

IT technicians can improve ticket resolution times by initiating a chat with the requester right from the ticket details page.

Effortlessly import asset data from SolarWinds

Integrations

The new SolarWinds connector helps import scanned asset data, such as network devices, workstations, and servers, from SolarWinds instances to ServiceDesk Plus.

Set custom operational hours for each day of the week

Enhancement

Operational hours can vary depending on the day of the week, so a static setup just doesn't work. To address this, you can now configure custom operational hours, along with a break session, specific to each day of the week. Exclusion rules can also be configured to define the non-working days of each month.

Manage changes better with the new enhancements

Enhancement

The latest release has several new enhancements in change management. Change admins can configure settings related to editing, approval actions, or email notifications in a change request via Change Configurations. Those with the ChangeOwner or SDChangeManager roles can manage tasks in the change implementation stage even after the change is closed. Task-related notifications can also be sent after change completion.

Finally, a change that has been deleted can now be restored later if needed.

Access any service desk instance in the ESM portal using alias URLs

Enhancement

Organization admins can now allow users to access any service desk instance in the ESM portal directly with alias URLs. Admins and instance owners can configure these URLs under Instance Settings in the ESM Directory. On accessing the URL, users will be redirected to the Home tab of the instance.

Analyze how well technicians resolve tickets over chat

Enhancement

The reports module now includes predefined chat reports such as Chats initiated by requester, Chats answered by a technician, Unanswered chats, and Completed Chats.

Quality-of-life improvements

Enhancement
  • Replace UI labels with any preferred text using the inline edit option. Currently, this is applicable only for labels in the following sections: Headers, Home, Requests, Tasks, and Worklogs. To access this option, go to Help (the ? icon) and click Translations.
  • Embed video links in knowledge articles in the Solutions module to share information better.
  • Access Advanced Analytics in an embedded view under the Reports tab. Advanced Analytics now supports SSO for simpler access.
  • Organize tabs in the navigation menu and allow technicians to personalize the tab order (the Admin page > General Settings > UI Customization > Organize Tabs).

2021

Sep

Plan and implement effective releases with the brand-new release module.

New Feature

The new release module brings strong release management capabilities to ServiceDesk Plus, helping you transform your release efforts by leveraging best practices to plan, build, test, and deploy releases to your production environment. Release management works in tandem with change and project management to ensure smooth deployment of releases across your IT infrastructure.

Build graphical release workflows to define release strategies, configure useful automations to accelerate releases, and set up standard operating procedures for releases in your IT infrastructure.

Improve self-help support with Zia.

New Feature

Zia, our AI assistant, is now available as a conversational virtual support agent. You can now ask Zia to perform a variety of help desk operations, such as raising requests, assigning technicians to requests, and viewing solutions and announcements, all from a single chat window. Zia can handle L1 tickets to free up technicians' time and provide rapid support for users.

Curate custom product tours to improve self-service portal adoption.

New Feature

Create custom product tours to educate users and familiarize them with the self-service portal. You can create tours in multiple languages and automatically provide requesters with an appropriate tour based on their preferred language.

Reconcile software with ease.

Enhancement

Keep your user repository updated with Delta Sync, which pulls the latest user details from Active Directory into ServiceDesk Plus. Delta Sync minimizes the data payload transferred during an import, and it is scheduled along with the full scan. To schedule the next import or view past imports, go to the ESM Directory or the Admin tab, then click Active Directory.

You can also schedule LDAP imports to periodically sync user details from all the available domains with ServiceDesk Plus. To schedule LDAP imports, go to the ESM Directory or the Admin tab, then click LDAP.

Ensure data privacy compliance with better control over PII and ePHI.

Enhancement

You can now mark additional user fields that contain personally identifiable information (PII) or electronic protected health information (ePHI) to identify the sensitive information collected and stored in ServiceDesk Plus. Technicians' and end users' PII and ePHI in marked fields will be handled in accordance with data privacy regulations to ensure user data is protected.

Other quality-of-life improvements.

Enhancement
  • The all-new Group Role is a support-group-based role that can be associated with support groups and used as a criterion for various service desk automations like support group notifications, SLA escalation notifications, request life cycles, custom triggers, backup technician assignments, sharing dashboards, and approvals.
  • You can now configure webhooks for the request module that enable users to call an external URL or API to facilitate communication between ServiceDesk Plus and any third-party application.
  • You can specify which file types to permit and which to restrict.
  • Incident, service request, and release template customizations now support up to four columns and up to 12 fields in a single row.
  • Default contract types can now be deleted, and deleted contracts can be maintained as inactive contracts if they are associated with other contracts.
  • Custom notification sounds can be configured for chat messages, broadcast messages, announcements, and technician notifications.

You can read the entire list of improvements rolled out in the latest release here.

June

Make way for better ticket template and category predictions with Zia.

New Feature

Zia, our AI-powered assistant, now suggests both ticket categories and templates during ticket creation to help users submit the most relevant information. Zia continuously learns from the data in the application. She inspects every incoming request and learns user behavior to improve ticket category and template predictions.

Each of Zia's predictions is recorded and can be evaluated and marked as a correct or incorrect prediction by the user. This feedback will be used to re-equip Zia with training data, enabling the bot to make better-informed decisions in the future.

Improve asset discovery with the new, unified agent.

New Feature

The new agent from ManageEngine Endpoint Central offers improved asset discovery, remote control, and warranty tracking capabilities and is available for all ServiceDesk Plus users with the Professional and Enterprise editions. This transition to a unified agent helps harness Endpoint Central's agent-based asset discovery capabilities and more in ServiceDesk Plus.

Learn more about the new, unified agent here.

Protect sensitive data with encryption.

Enhancement

Additional fields in templates and forms can now be encrypted to collect specific ticket information while maintaining anonymity. All encrypted fields will be hidden in reports, ensuring compliance, data protection, and security.

Analyze survey data with the improved Analytics Plus integration.

Enhancement

The advanced analytics integration supports survey data from ServiceDesk Plus. Create and manage reports and dashboards based on survey data to gain better insight on user surveys.

Reconcile software with ease.

Enhancement

Reduce clutter by merging multiple entries of the same software, with licenses and purchase orders carried over seamlessly. The most recent of the two software becomes the parent, and all licenses and purchase orders transferred to it will automatically take its name, making it easy to track all your software licenses and POs.

Leverage the new ServiceDesk Plus add-in for Microsoft Outlook.

Integrations

Good news for Outlook users: ServiceDesk Plus is now available as an add-in for Outlook. Using this add-in, users can raise requests and track their progress from their Outlook mailbox. Technicians can also perform a variety of ticket actions, like editing, picking up, or even assigning requests, without leaving Outlook.

Other quality-of-life improvements.

Enhancement
  • Design resource sections that can be reused in multiple service templates.
  • Automatically associate IT assets with sites based on the asset's IP address.
  • Improve the user experience with reimagined UI elements across header quick links, global search, and more.
  • Change the orientation of the header pane to suit your preference.
  • Move error emails that stop the mail fetching schedule to a separate folder and continue processing the next email.
  • Automatically categorize computers based on their chassis type.

You can read the entire list of improvements rolled out in the latest release here.

Let's support faster, easier, and together