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OneDesk can be configured for organizations which service internal end-users. There are some settings to change and best practices to adhere to for this workflow to be as seamless as possible.

Configuring OneDesk for Internal End-Users

An example of servicing internal end-users include an IT team working on tickets submitted by other departments in their own company. 

Make the following changes inside OneDesk if you are serving internal end-users rather than external customers.

Internal Quick-Start Step 1: Views and Items (Tickets, Tasks, Projects)

1.1 Default View Setup - By Portfolio

Portfolios hold your projects, and represent the main structure of how you want to organize your projects. They can be named after different departments, teams, or some other categorization which is useful to you. 

Since your end-users are all from the same company, turn off the “By Customer” default view. Hover over the “Views” section and select the cog wheel to edit the default views you see. Uncheck “By Customer”.

1.2 Project Setup

Once you have created portfolios to represent the departments and teams, create projects to place inside these portfolios. Similarly to how portfolios act as containers for your projects, projects act as containers for your tickets and tasks. You can create projects with the same “Add” button you used for portfolios.

To avoid filling projects with too many items over time, break them down in a cohesive manner, such as by quarter or by year. An example of a setup is shown below:

You can also create folders inside projects with the “Add” button. Create folders to further organize your tickets and tasks.

After configuring projects, you are all set to work on tickets and tasks. 

1.3 Tickets vs. Tasks, Auto Forward Setup

Tickets will represent the items you are working on for your internal customers, mostly submitted by these customers directly via email, webforms, the customer portal, or through the live chat.

Set your support email (eg: support@yourcompany.com) to auto forward to the OneDesk ticket creation email [ticket@______.onedesk.com] 

This way any incoming email your support center receives is created as a ticket inside OneDesk.

More information on setting up auto forward for Gmail, Outlook.

Add your support email to the “Never add as follower” list in emails -> appearance settings to prevent email loops. More info on loops.

Tasks will represent work created by your internal team to work on, such as personal projects unrelated to tickets being submitted by end-users, or further steps to address stemming from a ticket.

Internal Quick-Start Step 2: Automations and Routing

Workflow automations are a powerful tool in OneDesk. When used correctly, automations can greatly reduce the amount of time you spend doing repetitive tasks like assigning items to your users and making sure items are placed in the correct project. 

Access automations by selecting more applications -> administration -> the item you want to make automations for > Workflow Automations. Automations can be run on Tickets, Tasks, Projects, and Timesheets.

OneDesk maintains a list of useful automations which you can access here.

2.1 Automations to Disable

In the “Workflow Automations” section for tickets, disable the following automations:

• Creating any ticket -> add to “Sample SLA” 
• As an internally-servicing organization, SLAs are likely not needed. If they are, create your own from the “SLAs” section and add them to this automation instead of the sample.
• Changing status to “finished” on any ticket -> send Customer Satisfaction Survey 
• As your customers are colleagues in the same organization, you probably don’t need to have a satisfaction survey be sent.

In the “Workflow Automations” section for tasks, disable the following automation:

• Updating status on any task -> create a customer reply
• Since tasks in internal organizations should be for independent duties, there is no need to inform users when their status is changed, as users will do it manually.

Internal Quick-Start Step 3: Customer Apps

As an internal group working on items for other users in the same organization, your customer apps will be where colleagues go to submit tickets and to check the status of the items you are working on for them.

Internal service organizations will embed the customer apps widget onto the homepage of their support center or intranet. Alternatively you can just supply your end-users with direct links. To embed the widget, go to more applications -> administration -> customer apps -> website widget, and scroll down to the “put the widget on your website” heading.

Customer Portal, Webforms, and Knowledgebase are also available as standalone pages. These can each be accessed by direct links found at in the “Customer Access URL” column in the customer apps settings. Links to these standalone pagescan be placed on your support center or embedded as iFrames.

More information on embedding:

• The Customer Portal
• Webforms
• Customer Apps in General

3.1 Customer Portal Setup

Internal-service organizations should change their customer portal visibility settings such that end-users can only see items which they are marked as requesters on. 

Access the customer portal settings from more applications -> administration -> portal, and select the option “Their own requested items” from the dropdown under “What items can the customer see on the Customer Portal?”:

After following these steps, your internal-facing support organization has hit the ground running with OneDesk.