News

ManageEngine Reinforces ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand with Application Creation Platform

Zoho Creator-Based Platform Lets IT Staff Build User-Centric Custom App

  • Automate help desk, general IT and business processes with custom apps
  • Create apps using a drag-and-drop interface, no programming skills needed
  • Ensure tight integration between service desk tickets and custom app data

PLEASANTON, Calif. - November 5, 2013 - ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, today announced the launch of its highly extensible custom application creation platform for ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand, the SaaS version of its ITIL-ready help desk software integrated with asset management. Based on Zoho Creator, the new online platform lets IT help desk managers and staff use their web browsers to create online custom applications for automating help desk, general IT and business processes - no programming required.

IT organizations worldwide face a diverse range of challenges. While help desk software can serve most of an organization's ITSM needs, many other business processes linked with IT are often handled using manual or semi-automated practices, including paper and electronic documents, email, and legacy intranet applications. In addition to requiring human intervention, the manual and semi-automated processes have no connection to the help desk or its data, creating more paperwork and workflow challenges for the IT team.

"The scope of services provided by IT teams is expanding rapidly, and traditional service desk applications are not able to keep pace," said Rajesh Ganesan, director of product management at ManageEngine. "While IT teams can build applications based on their company's process changes and additions, integrating those apps seamlessly with their central ITSM system has always been a challenge. ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand bridges this gap, letting IT teams rapidly build, launch and manage custom applications as extensions of their service desk."

Custom App Platform Extends ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand

The new ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand custom application platform supports a variety of use cases. The IT team might be asked to develop a conference room booking application by a member of the facilities department who wants to be able to check for date conflicts and reserve slots in the chosen conference room. The HR department admin might request a leave application that automatically submits each entry to the requester's manager for approval. Meanwhile, the office manager might ask for a comprehensive procurement application with a tiered approval mechanism.

The custom application platform for ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand gives users a drag-and-drop interface for creating and configuring highly flexible user interfaces and UI components on the fly. Users can also define business logic and approval workflows to automate processes with minimum scripting.

The platform includes a drag-and-drop report builder that lets users visualize data in multiple formats and drill down on critical information. The platform also lets help desk staff define fine-grained access permissions to end users of the custom application. All processes related to the custom apps - from creation to launch and management - are performed from a web browser. The resulting custom applications can be made available to end users via the end-user self-service portal which is part of ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand.

To streamline workflows, custom applications built on the new platform can closely interact with help desk tickets in ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand. Data fields in the custom apps can be configured to look up key data in ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand such as technicians, requesters, category, status, level, priority, sites, departments and assets. To keep the help desk and the applications in sync, the platform lets IT teams automate ticket creation, update and closure in ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand every time a record is submitted or updated in the custom application.

"With this custom app platform, we could significantly reduce emails and cut down on paperwork," said Tarek Saade, IT service desk controller at averda, the largest environmental solutions provider in the GCC and MENA region. "When our users access and raise requests through these applications from their self-service portals, everything is so much more centralized and so much more organized. Building apps on this platform is easy. I got the first one up and running in minutes, and I am no programmer."

Pricing and Availability

The custom application creation platform with ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand is available immediately as an add-on with all editions.

Prices start at $25 per custom application. ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand starts at $14, $24 and $54 per month for the Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions, respectively. A fully functional 30-day trial version is available at https://ondemand.manageengine.com/service-desk/signup.html.

For more information on ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand, please visit https://ondemand.manageengine.com/service-desk/index.html. For more information on ManageEngine, please visit http://buzz.manageengine.com/; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter at @ManageEngine.

About ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand

Building on the success of ServiceDesk Plus On-Premise with 23,000+ customers, ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand is a complete, SaaS-based, ITIL-ready help desk system for businesses of all sizes. With integrated asset management, ITIL workflows, Service Catalog, knowledge base, a self-service portal, extensive reporting and pay-as-you go pricing, it enables IT organizations to provide best-in-class service to their users at unmatched value. For more information on ServiceDesk Plus On-Demand, please visit https://ondemand.manageengine.com/service-desk/index.html.

About ManageEngine

ManageEngine delivers the real-time IT management tools that empower an IT team to meet an organization’s need for real-time services and support. Worldwide, more than 72,000 established and emerging enterprises — including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500 — rely on ManageEngine products to ensure the optimal performance of their critical IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, desktops and more. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corp. with offices worldwide, including the United States, India, Japan and China. For more information, please visit http://buzz.manageengine.com/; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter at @ManageEngine.

Media Contact:

Ahana Govinda
ManageEngine
ahana.g@manageengine.com
Follow us on Twitter: @manageengine