ADMIN: Configuring the Co-managed Help Desk

Enabling and disabling Co-managed Help Desk

Co-managed Help Desk is available to Autotask Premium and Ultimate customers, but it is disabled by default. To enable it, check the box to the left of the Co-managed Help Desk feature on the Activations tab. Refer to Activations.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  Please be aware that while you can deactivate the Co-managed Help Desk, some of the UI changes introduced by co-management are not reversible.

The following pages and options become available:

Product area Description

Admin > Features & Settings

The Co-managed Help Desk section appears in Admin > Features & Settings. It includes the following additional pages:

  • Co-managed Setup: refer to Co-managed setup.
  • Co-managed Security Levels: this page displays the subset of the security levels on the Security Levels page that have the Co-managed Help Desk license type. Refer to Co-managed security levels.
  • Co-managing Users: this page displays the subset of users who were assigned a co-managed security level. Refer to Managing internal resources and co-managing users.
  • Unmapped Co-managing Users: this page displays the subset of users who were assigned a co-managed security level before the 2022.2 release. These users were not required to be associated with a customer contact.

Organization page
  • On the Tools menu of the Organization page, the Enable/Disable Co-management menu item appears. Refer to Tools menu.
  • On the accessory tab strip of the Organization page, the Co-management tab will become available. Refer to The Co-management tab.

Contact page
  • On the Tools menu of the Contact page, the Enable/Disable Co-managed Access menu item appears.
  • On the accessory tab strip of the Contact page, the Co-managing User tab will become available. Refer to The Co-managing User tab.

Ticket page
  • The Co-managed Visibility field becomes available in ticket categories and can be displayed on the Ticket page.
  • The Save & Transfer to Co-managing User button appears on the Edit Ticket page.
  • Associated co-managing users can be assigned as primary or secondary resources.

Time entries and notes
  • The Visible to Co-managing Users check box becomes available on ticket time entries and notes, task time entries and notes, as well as quick notes and quick tine entries.

Workflow rules
  • Co-managing User will become available for workflow rule events.
  • Assigned to Co-managing User and Co-managed Visibility will become available for workflow rule conditions.
  • Co-managed Visibility will become available for workflow rule updates.

Notifications
  • The Primary Co-managing User and Co-managing Team variables become available on notification panels and tabs on the Edit Ticket, Edit Task, Service Desk Workflow Rule and Project Workflow Rule pages.
  • The Internal & Co-managing publish type becomes available in the Actions: Create Ticket Note section and on the Notification tab, the Create Note from Notification Content section.

Form Templates
  • The Internal & Co-managing publish type becomes available on task note and ticket note form templates.
  • The Internal Notes visible to Co-managing Users selector becomes available on task time entry and ticket time entry form templates.

The Co-managed Help Desk can be disabled if all co-managing users have been deactivated. To deactivate the Co-managed Help Desk, clear the check box on the Admin > Activations tab.

NOTE  Co-managers who are the account manager for an organization cannot be deactivated. You must first assign a new account manager to the organization, and then deactivate the co-managing user.

When you deactivate the Co-managed Help Desk, the following will happen:

  • Co-management will be disabled for all organizations that had it enabled.
  • Tickets that were assigned only to co-managing users may become unassigned.
  • Workflow rules where co-managing users were referenced may not fire or be broken.
  • On the Co-managed Setup page, the associations between organizations, co-managing users and co-managing teams will be deleted. You will not be able to retrieve them if you re-enable Co-managed Help Desk.

We recommend that you review all automated processes that involved co-managing users.

No changes will be made to the following:

  • Existing ticket data, including the co-managed visibility setting on a ticket
  • The Internal & Co-managed Publish To setting on notes, time entries, and attachments

Configuring co-managed help desk features

To get started with the co-managed help desk, the following setup tasks must be completed:

  • You need to review the Co-managed Help Desk (system) security level and, unless this 100% meets your requirements, create one or more co-managed security levels. Refer to Co-managed security levels.
  • You need to create co-managing user accounts. All co-managing users must be associated with a contact. You can either start with a contact and create a co-managing user account for them, or create both at the same time. If you had co-management enabled before the release 2022.2, you may need to associate the user account with a contact record. Refer to Adding or editing a co-managing user.
  • Finally, you need to associate organizations with co-managing users or teams. Refer to Co-managed setup.

Configuring Autotask to support the co-managed help desk

While your co-managed help desk will be up and running after the previous configuration steps, something as far-reaching as sharing your Autotask instance with external users should prompt you to re-visit your Autotask configuration. There are a number of areas in Admin where you should create items for the exclusive use by co-managing users.

The following topic steps you through a number of features where you can improve the workings of the co-managed help desk: Configuring Autotask to support Co-managed IT.