Best Practices

If you're an application manager, chances are you already send some kind of report or update upward, whether that's a weekly email or a dashboard nobody quite trusts.If you're a manager, you might be after something different than what's currently landing in your inbox.We want to hear from both sides of this: admins, what do you currently report on, and how? Managers, what do you actually wish you had more insight into?Tell us which side you're on, and share your answer below.

We're always looking for ways to make the day-to-day at the service desk a little lighter and you're the ones who know exactly where the friction really is.Every service desk has one: the ticket that lands in your queue and you already know, word for word, how it's going to go. Maybe it's the fifth password reset before lunch. Maybe it's the same "how do I request X" question that comes in every single week, dressed up slightly differently each time. Maybe it's not even a big task, it's just one that eats ten minutes of context-switching for something that barely needed a human at all.That's exactly what we want to hear about.So here's our question: what's the ticket type or question you'd love to have off your plate? Not necessarily the hardest one, or the most annoying one — just the one that quietly takes up more of your day than it deserves. The one where you can predict the entire conversation from the subject line alone.A few things that might jog your memory:Is it something you

Contracts, suppliers, expiry dates, SLAs, contract management touches almost every part of an organisation, yet it's a topic we don't see a lot of shared knowledge on.One thing that tends to help keep it under control is assigning three clear roles:the contract owner: responsible for the budget and the need behind the contract the contract manager: negotiates with the supplier and checks whether agreements are being met the contract administrator: records contract data consistently and keeps it up to dateWithin TOPdesk, you can combine this with features like automatic alerts before a contract expires, linking underpinning supplier contracts to the services you deliver yourself, and a supplier assessment that supports your procurement process.That's the theory, the practice is more interesting. How have you set this up?Do you work with the three roles above, or split responsibilities differently? Do you manage contracts in Asset Management, in Contract & SLM management, or keep a s

Rolling out a new tool, application, or process is one thing. Getting your team to actually use it day to day is another challenge entirely. What tends to slow things down for you — training, timing, resistance to change, something else?We hear this come up a lot, and we'd like a clearer picture of what's really going on.Share your experience below — we're curious how others handle it.

With the new KB it seems to not be possible to move Archived KI??Context - where a KI is to be removed and has links to tickets they cannot be deleted so our go to was to archive them and move them to an Archived “folder” - this now seems impossible so archived KI sit in non archived folders:I realise that you can filter archived and active KI, but as a TOPdesk Application Manager this is just untidy!!Any thoughts folks?

Bij onze mooie organisatie lopen wij meermaals per week aan tegen het volgende probleem:De vestiging van een ticket is niet altijd betrouwbaar, omdat automatisch de standplaats van de aanmelder wordt ingevuld.Wij hebben 800+ vestigingen, waarbij 1 medewerker (lees; aanmelder) soms op wel 10 vestigingen flexibel inzetbaar is en dus ook tickets kan aanmelden.Vanuit AFAS wordt de standplaats van een aanmelder gekoppeld, die vervolgens standaard bij nieuwe tickets van deze aanmelder wordt gevuld (zowel op SSP als de behandelaarskant).Doordat dit veld altijd van tevoren al gevuld is, kunnen wij niet de aandacht trekken naar dit veld in het geval de vestiging niet hoort bij de melding. Je kan in een ticket kiezen (los van het aanmeldersblok) tussen het koppelen van een locatie of het koppelen van een object. Dit biedt dus ook geen structurele oplossing.We missen in TOPdesk een betrouwbaar en verplicht vestigingsveld dat bij ieder ticket aangeeft op welke vestiging de melding betrekking heeft

Self-service is a hot topic for a lot of teams right now, and we're curious where you stand. Pick the option closest to your situation, there's no wrong answer, we're just mapping out where the Community is at. We'll share what the results look like in a follow-up post once the poll closes, so keep an eye out.

Knowledge management tends to get talked about in an IT context. But many of you have rolled TOPdesk out much further — to facilities, HR, student support, finance and more.We are curious: how does KM actually work for those departments?Do they have their own knowledge base, or do they share one with IT?  Are their articles a different shape — more procedural, more policy-heavy? Have they found their own rhythm for keeping knowledge fresh? Are they using the AI features — Knowledge Explorer, Create KI, the Writing Assistant?No rush on this one. Drop in whenever you are back from the summer break we will check in on this thread throughout August and September. 

I’d like to hear from the TOPdesk community about your experiences with generating knowledge items using AI.In our experience, the AI often makes the resulting content too short. Even when we provide a detailed solution summary with multiple steps, it tends to generate either:A very brief summary or short explanation; or A numbered 1–2–3–4–5 step plan containing only headlines, without enough detail or context.This means we often need to expand and rewrite the generated knowledge items manually.Have you experienced the same issue? If so, have you found any effective prompts, settings, instructions, or other tricks to make the AI generate more complete and detailed knowledge items?I’d be particularly interested in tips for ensuring that the AI:Includes all relevant solution steps; Provides sufficient explanation for each step; Maintains the desired level of detail; Produces a consistent knowledge item structure; and Avoids oversimplifying the source information.Any experiences or recomm

New since January and easy to miss: dedicated Knowledge Management reports are live in the Reporting Hub.What they show you:Which knowledge items are being updated — and which are being neglected  Which items collect the most positive or negative user feedback  An overview of creation and change dates across your active KIsNo OData exports. No spreadsheets. Right there in TOPdesk. Read the full product update here.Tried it yet? Let us know what you find. 

Knowledge management isn't a one-off project, it's a habit. At most service desks, the knowledge base just kind of happens: someone writes an answer, a colleague writes a slightly different one, and before you know it ten people are working from ten versions of the same answer. That costs time — operators rewrite answers that already exist — and it costs consistency, since the same question gets a different answer depending on who picks it up. New colleagues also take weeks longer to become productive. And now that AI reads along and helps decide more and more, that problem only gets bigger: a messy knowledge base doesn't just slow your team down, it makes AI useless.Getting the basics right starts with one simple question: what do you do when a new ticket comes in? The answer should always be the same. First, search the knowledge system — not as a second step, but as the starting point. Found it? Use the knowledge item and link it to the ticket. Didn't find it? Solve the ticket, and a

KM advice is everywhere. Review your knowledge base regularly. Set an owner for every article. Archive what is out of date.All reasonable. Mostly aspirational.So here is the honest question: what is the one knowledge management habit your team actually sticks to? Not the one you aim for, the one that genuinely happens, every time.Drop it below. The more specific, the better.

The new SSP is live, and some of you have already switched. Time to put those portals to good use.We're big believers in learning from each other and nothing beats seeing a real portal from a real organization over a polished demo. So, this is your space to show what you've built, share what worked, and give others something concrete to learn from.Drop a screenshot of your new SSP and tell us:What your homepage looks like, tile layout, banner, the works One thing you carried over from your old setup One thing you changed or had to rethink How your end users are responding, especially to the search bar and the new layoutNot everything has to be perfect. In fact, the honest setups, the ones where you figured something out the hard way, are often the most useful to the people still deciding whether to switch.A few of you have already shared your experiences in the launch thread ​@Andrew Crawford, ​@Sanne Haller would love for you to bring your setup over here and give us the full picture.

Every knowledge base has one. The article from years ago that nobody has updated, nobody has archived, and nobody dares to delete.What is yours about? And more importantly — why is it still there?Maybe it is because:Nobody is sure if it is still accurate, but removing it feels too risky  It was written for a product version from years ago but still gets views  The person who wrote it left, and nobody owns it anymore  It keeps getting applied to incidents, so it must be useful... right?Share your most legendary outdated knowledge item in the comments. And if you have actually cracked how to keep your KB fresh we want to hear that too.

Voor het versturen van incidenten e-mails binnen onze organisatie gebruiken wij de TOPdesk mailserver. Ook hebben we vaste templates die ondertussen binnen de organisatie bekend zijn.Nu willen wij soms ook e-mail versturen die niet direct aan een incident gekoppeld zijn of soms ook wel als we bijv. een major melding naar een andere afdeling moeten doorzetten maar wij nog wel steeds verantwoordelijk zijn voor de informatievoorziening naar de rest van de collega's. Hiervoor koppelen we alle medewerkers aan de melding en gebruiken in het adresveld Personen gekoppeld aan meldingHebben jullie een manier om zonder al te veel gedoe via TOPdesk een e-mail naar de gehele organisatie te sturen?

Wij zijn op zoek naar een best-in-class organisatie waar TOPdesk wordt ingezet binnen een professioneel ingerichte serviceorganisatie. Belangrijk daarbij is dat rollen, verantwoordelijkheden en eigenaarschap helder zijn belegd, zodat de continuïteit niet afhankelijk is van één kartrekker of sleutelpersoon.Specifiek zijn we op zoek naar inzicht in hoe governance, beheer en eigenaarschap structureel zijn ingericht binnen een toekomstbestendig organisatiemodel.Wij zijn zelf een zorgorganisatie, zijn er (zorg) organisaties die dit structureel ingericht hebben? 

The new SSP looks and feels different from the classic portal. For most end users, that's a good thing but "different" without any context creates confusion and unnecessary support tickets. A little preparation goes a long way.If you're planning to switch, or are already considering it, here's a step-by-step approach to make the transition smooth for the people who matter most: your employees. Before you switchExplore it yourself firstDon't switch before you've spent meaningful time in the new SSP yourself. Navigate it, test it, and note what's changed, especially where the search bar sits, how the tile layout looks, and which pages still temporarily redirect to the classic SSP (like reservations management or certain forms). The Update Guide is your starting point. It tells you exactly what's ready, what isn't, and what to prepare before you go live. Read it before you do anything else.Test it in your test environment firstGot a test environment? Use it before you make the switch. Ena

Since the launch of the new SSP, a number of you have run into the same visual issues: a logo that looks smaller than expected, blurry tile images, or a banner that doesn't display the way you set it up. You're not imagining it, and you're not doing anything wrong.Before diving in: if you haven't seen it yet, the Update Guide is your first stop. It covers exactly what to prepare before switching, including image formats, sizing guidelines, and what to expect. A lot of the issues reported after launch could have been avoided with it. Worth bookmarking!Now, here's what's going on with the most common visual issues and what you can do about them today.Logo appears smaller than in the old SSPThe new SSP handles logo sizing differently from the classic portal. Uploading a larger image won't fix it, this is a current limitation of the new interface, not your configuration. It's on our list and will be addressed as part of the broader SSP Designer work.Tile images look blurry or don't fit pro

How is your IT team setup in terms of support services?I’m intrigued to know how others have their IT support setup and who they are supporting. This will give me (and hopefully other members) an idea of the options available to us.Currently, our setup is to provide internal support to 1110 users with the following under my role as Service & Support Manager:L1 Service Desk: Service Desk Manager, 2 x Senior Technicians, 4 x techniciansL2 Systems/App support: Systems Manager, 2 x senior technicians, 4 x techniciansService Delivery: SD Manager, 1 x technician Who looks after your Microsoft licensing and other vendor licensing? Who does the research & development to see what end user devices we should bring in to the device lifecycle? Who makes sure devices are still in support by the manufacture (BIOS, Samsung, Android UI etc)? Who is managing the PSTN switch over (UK)? Do you outsource any of your support services? Really interesting to know how our support model and resourcing c

We've all been there. A tricky incident comes in. Your team investigates, digs around, eventually finds the fix. The customer is happy, the ticket gets closed. Job done.Three months later, the same incident comes in. Different technician. Same investigation from scratch. Same fix, eventually.The knowledge existed. It just didn't survive the ticket closure.This is one of the most common patterns we see in service organisations, and it's easy to dismiss as a technical problem. Unstable system. Flaky integration. Vendor issue. But more often than not, it's a knowledge problem. The solution was found once, it just wasn't captured in a way that made it findable the next time.Every repeated incident is a signal. It's your service desk telling you: something worth knowing didn't make it into the knowledge base.The impact is bigger than it looks. Repeated incidents mean duplicated effort, longer resolution times, unnecessary escalations to senior staff, and customers waiting for answers that t

Hi all, We are looking for an easier way to get overviews of SSP forms that are linked to a change template (and which template) and vice versa.Our current practice is using "SSP” in the titles of change templates so we can sort on this. In the notes section of the template we write down the name of the linked SSP form. However, this is error prone as one might forget, or updates on one or the other aren't processed and cause confusion. Does anybody have a more stable solution that doesn't depend on human perfection?As far as I know there is currently no option for an “automated” overview or export for linked templates and forms in TOPdesk. But if this is present, I gladly find out!Thanks for your input!

Is there a way how I can get information about the first-time resolution rate by creating a filter etc. without creating a new report?The goal is to get an overview about how many tickets could be solved by the first Person who started working on the ticket and was able to change it to status “completed” without forwarding it to another person. So what I want to see the rate of : a ticket is received - Supporter 1 is starting working on it and Supporter 1 can solve the ticket and changes it to completed.