What do they have in common?
JIRA is now a rapidly expanding set of management tools of various kinds. It has its solid foundation and functional extensions that allow customization to almost all requirements.
ServiceDesk is a separate chapter that adds Service Management functionality, making an ITSM solution. Incident, problem, change level, service level agreement, or customer portal are now all part of a current help desk. Workflow fulfilling the “best practice” solution according to the ITIL criteria. Response times tailored to the requirements of each type of task. Having one place where users choose a particular type of requirement they want to create, each with its own set of necessary or complementary fields, makes available a large number of combinations so that we can cover even the most critical systems or the most demanding expectations.
Insight, as a complement to the JIRA system, offers asset management, inventory management, and the ability to create a reference between individual objects. How they relate, how they complement or depend on each other. Tangible and intangible assets. Is it possible to use a combination of assets and ITSM? Working together in JIRA, these two systems combine the world of organized management & ITSM with the world of asset management.
ServiceDesk for Assets
How is it used? Probably every user has encountered a situation where their computer did not work. The notebook does not start, the printer does not print, the server or the application is not available, the coffee maker is not working, or the other end, the roof leaks. All assets that Insight manages and its own tables of information can be used like a help desk. Report a malfunctioning printer without having to read all the verbiage from the manufacturer. By simply selecting from available asset objects, information is passed to the end agent who processes the request. Immediately. Using all available information about the asset, without needing any more duplicative information from the user reporting the issue.
How it works in reality
The basic requirement for many companies is to have an available system for their own employees. A system that helps employees quickly and efficiently do their work. Give them everything they need, when they need it. This was not the case with one client, who asked us to create such a system. Many employees, lots of equipment and various service agreements. It’s no longer just the need to access something in the infrastructure. On the contrary, the infrastructure is running, but now it is necessary to take care of it in a good, efficient, and especially fast way. In critical situations, a slow fix can have serious repercussions on the quality of the services offered. Such a critical moment is, of course, just what the client wants to avoid. So how can you achieve ServiceDesk and Insight?
First, key assets into a DB
The most desirable business benefit is the ability to select a particular type of object for which the user chooses to open an incident. Getting this functionality is a combination of these systems. You choose what type of message you are interested in at the customer portal, and in the next step you select the desired object. Similarly, our customer required such functionality for their employees. The end-to-end solution included creating a database of all asset objects in the company that were key to the client, as well as all of their specifications. These were made available to JIRA to work with. See the attached sequence of pictures.
Then every reported asset incident has its own history, like any other ITSM solution. The difference is found in the given object, in the Insight system, where a section is dedicated to all incidents reported on the object. No need to search and filter incidents, they’re built-in directly on the home screen. The number, their status, and even all relevant follow-up messages.
Report system failures and consequences
Insight, in conjunction with ServiceDesk, is not just a help desk on current incidents. Insight hides, but tracks, the interdependencies of systems and their mutual influences. This makes it easier for agents to identify further risks associated with any outage. Is the incident server not available? What apps or services are affected by this? Which users are, or might be, affected? Which people should be informed first? Is it necessary to inform all users?
Insight and automation
The required element of every good system is automation. Not just for the purpose of speeding up work, but rather minimizing the human factor as a cause of error. With a large amount of managed information, it’s possible to lose one report very quickly. For example, in the case of a client, it was important for him to be sufficiently informed in advance of the expiration of certificates and licenses. The built-in automation functionality allowed us to set up filters whose parameter was just the date of expiration. In such form, the customer will be informed by mail every month before the expiration date, and again, two weeks before the expiration. For more sophisticated automation, the extensions used are described in the following blog post.
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Peter Pešta
Atlassian consultant
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