FROM HuGE LOGFILE TO CONVENIENT REPORTManaging countless servers is not easy. How do you search all logfiles and create convenient reports of this information? Over the past year, Dutch health insurance provider CZ Tilburg has been using the SCOM-TOPdesk link to manage their IT infrastructure from TOPdesk.

20 CuSTOMER IN FOCuS Photography: Jonas Mertens

Tom Taminiau, technical application manager for CZ

CuSTOMER IN FOCuS 21Text: Stefanie Klaassen

The how and why of SCOMTom Taminiau is a specialist in the Technical

Application Management department. Here

he works with the SCOM (Microsoft System

Center Operations Manager)-TOPdesk link and

makes sure that the application runs properly.

Taminiaus department is part of a larger IT

department. There are about 180 of us,

says Taminiau, but CZ is a big company with

over 3,000 employees in total. Here at the IT

department we do everything ourselves. We

maintain our own website, manage workfl ows

and have our own server park here in Tilburg,

with another park of almost the same size in a

nearby city.

At a certain point the decision was made

to have SCOM feature more prominently

within the company. At CZ we pay close

attention to the processes and monitoring

is very important, but it takes a lot of time

and manpower, says Taminiau. That is why

we started using this tool. If something goes

wrong in the middle of the night, SCOM sends

you a text message so you can fi x the problem

before the workday starts. TOPdesk and

partner 3Ffi ty created the link in two days.

Straightforward reportingSCOM lets organizations see server error

messages. Thanks to the TOPdesk-SCOM link,

these can be put through to TOPdesk in two

clicks. But why do this in TOPdesk, if SCOM

has already indicated that something has

gone wrong in the IT infrastructure? Taminiau

explains. We want to register everything.

If a hard disk breaks or is full, SCOM lets us

know. But we did not have a clear view of

the number of errors that were generated

for things that broke or did not go well. Now

everything is clearly registered in TOPdesk,

the link grants us insight into these processes

and we can send monthly reports. This lets the

management immediately see what is going

well and what isnt.

Relief for the service deskThe TOPdesk-SCOM link has resulted in a lower

workload for the service desk at CZ and a

more effi cient registration procedure. Before

we, meaning the IT department, had to email

the helpdesk to create a ticket for ourselves

in TOPdesk whenever we received an alert in

SCOM, explains Taminiau. This then had to

be put through to the right person within our

IT department.

This is no longer necessary. TOPdesk knows

which user is linked to the incident type

and automatically assigns the incident to

this person. The incident is put through and

processed in TOPdesk. Taminiau says, Every

day we receive various types of incidents for

different clusters, persons or departments.

For instance, if we receive an incident relating

to Exchange, it is automatically sent to the

Exchange manager. This burdens fewer

people: fewer people are now involved with

the incident process.

Shorter linesNow the lines in our registration process are

so much shorter, everything is faster, explains

Taminiau. This saves time for the helpdesk,

but also for us. This lets us get straight back

to our work. In the morning we log in and

put the most important alerts through to

TOPdesk. After registration we process it

straight away. At fi rst you were dependent on

the duration of the helpdesk when an incident

was assigned to you. For that matter, we do

not register incidents in TOPdesk ourselves, to

help maintain the overview. We only register

such incidents via SCOM.

Previously this process was not only time-

consuming, but a lot of knowledge was

also lost. The help desk information was

not always as complete as you would want:

they cannot know the technical details of

everything, so they are not always able to

properly explain the situation. With TOPdesk,

this step is now removed. One click and

everything is sent to TOPdesk, and you

immediately have all the information you

need right there on your screen.

All in allTaminiau says that the TOPdesk link with

SCOM has made his work a lot easier. He

believes that every organization that uses

both tools should have this link. Its simple,

he says. If you use SCOM and have TOPdesk,

this link is a solution. You can seamlessly

integrate your service management and

your system management. Soon we will be

upgrading SCOM and switching to the newest

version of TOPdesk. We are very satisfi ed with

how things are going now.

THE LINES IN OUR REGISTRATION PROCESS ARE SHORTER AND EVERYTHING IS MUCH FASTER

22 CuSTOMER IN FOCuS

The server park in Tilburg

comprises about 1,000 registered machines.

On average we receive 250 to 300 system messages per day. But that is not to say that these messages are always acute.

For instance, we currently have

94 critical alerts, of which only 1 is vital.

An agent goes through the server logfiles and any handmade monitors, and reports on errors or anomalies.

SCOM checks what should happen with the incident: should an email be sent, or is it

so urgent that it requires a text message?

SCOM in FaCTS

CuSTOMER IN FOCuS 23

24 TOOL

is a TOPdesk consultant. He is specialized in documenting and

sharing knowledge about TOPdesk and service management.

COLin BaSSanT

Your service desk uses TOPdesk intensively. You register incidents and changes, put these through to the correct operator and keep track of your own task list. However, you may not be using all the useful features TOPdesk offers. One of these is the Caller Card.

Telephone? Open the Caller Card!The Caller Card is the step that comes before

registering an incident or request for change.

You can open the Caller Card when a custo-

mer calls, for instance.

On this card you can select the correct cal-

ler and register information in the Notes fi eld.

After hanging up you can create a new fi rst

or second line incident or request for change

with the press of a button. All information you

entered on the Caller Card is automatically

copied to the new card, the selected caller is

linked and your notes from the Notes fi eld are

moved to the Request fi eld. But that is not all

you can do with the Caller Card.

All information at handDid you know that you can also use the Cal-

ler Card as a search screen? When you select

the caller or branch, all incidents registered by

this caller or branch will appear on the Logged

Incidents sub tab. The Changes sub tab pro-

vides an overview of all requests for change

previously registered by the person or branch

in question. This helps you quickly fi nd the

incident or change you need.

Using this sub tab can be useful when a

customer contacts you about the status of a

certain incident, for instance. Of course, when

you pass this information on to the customer,

you want to update the incident in TOPdesk.

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN USE THE CALLER CARD AS A SEARCH SCREEN?

ARE YOu uSING THE CALLER CARD?

tOOl 25

You can do this by filling in the Notes field,

selecting the incident in question on the

Logged Incidents sub tab and using the Add

to selected Incident button. The text from the

Notes field is automatically added to the inci-

dents Action field.

Linking incidents to major incidentWhen you are dealing with a large malfunc-

tion, you may receive many incidents about

the same topic. In such situations, it is impor-

tant to register how many incidents you

receive. The major incident feature in TOPdesk

lets you link all these incidents to a single inci-

dent that has been assigned major incident

status. This enables you to update the major

incident with information on how the situati-

on progresses. When the problem is resolved,

all linked incidents can be closed at once.

The Caller Card makes it easy to link new

incidents to existing major incidents. On the

Major Incidents sub tab you can find an over-

view of current major incidents. When you

receive a call about such an incident you only

have to select the right caller, select the major

incident and then click on the Create new inci-

dent on the basis of selected Major Incident

button. This creates an incident featuring all

the information from the major incident. The

incident is also automatically linked to the

major incident. The only thing you need to do

is save the incident.

The Caller Card as starting pointAs you can see, the Caller Card offers a lot of

benefits. I advise you to use the Caller Card

as your starting point for every incident or

change. You can add a shortcut to your Quick

Launch Bar by clicking on the pen icon in the

bottom left corner.

The Caller card features all incidents logged by this caller

Text: Colin Bassant

26 TOPDESK ON TOuR

WORKING TOWARDS SHARED SERVICES

During the run up to TOPdesk on Tour 2013, TOPdesk launched the Collaboration Barometer*. This barometer measured the level of collaboration with customers and other

departments. TOPdesk customers proved to be well on their way towards a shared tool, service desk and working processes for HR, FM and IT.

0%

05%

10%

15%

20%

25%

37%

No shared tool

Tool shared by two departments

Tool shared by three departments

63%

42%

81%

14%

24%

03%

27%

21%

47%74%

Small group uses the SSD Entire organization uses the SSDSSD ideal for calls

Nothing shared Two departments Three departments

One tool for several departmentsOver 63 per cent of respondents uses TOPdesk for

several departments. 42 per cent shares the tool

between two departments; 21 per cent uses the

tool for HR, FM and IT.

0%

05%

10%

15%

20%

25%

37%

No shared tool

Tool shared by two departments

Tool shared by three departments

63%

42%

81%

14%

24%

03%

27%

21%

47%74%

Small group uses the SSD Entire organization uses the SSDSSD ideal for calls

Nothing shared Two departments Three departments

tOPDEsk ON tOUr 27Text: Jordi Recasens

0%

05%

10%

15%

20%

25%

37%

No shared tool

Tool shared by two departments

Tool shared by three departments

63%

42%

81%

14%

24%

03%

27%

21%

47%74%

Small group uses the SSD Entire organization uses the SSDSSD ideal for calls

Nothing shared Two departments Three departments

Self Service Desk as central registration desk74 per cent of respondents uses the Self Service Desk to

support their users. This roughly corresponds with the

percentage that indicates that the Self Service Desk is the

ideal way to receive calls, namely 81 per cent.

Shared tool, service desk and processes24 per cent of respondents has two departments sharing

not only a tool but also processes and a service desk.

in addition, 3 per cent has arranged this for the three

supporting departments Hr, FM and iT. They are already

well on their way to shared services. 14 per cent of

respondents has not yet started organizing shared services.

Shared Service ManagementYou can cut costs by setting up a shared tool, service desk and processes. Moreover, doing so will

help you better meet your customers expectations of your services. TOPdesk sees the Shared Service

Management trend as the future of service management. Introducing a shared tool is a great fi rst step

towards collaboration between several supporting departments.

* The Collaboration Barometer was fi lled in by 210 participants.

28 wOrkiNg smArtEr

You want to be able to analyse interesting data in TOPdesk, such

as the equipment you manage in Configuration Management, the

customer details in Supporting Files and process information on

process cards. In TOPdesk you can analyse this data using reports

on the Dashboard pages.

If you would rather work with Excel or a reporting tool, you can use

TOPdesk to easily export data in Microsoft Excel format. You can

consult exported data offline, or use it as a source when importing

it to a different information system. I discussed these possibilities in

the previous TOPdesk Magazine.

In this article I will tell you about the CSV Export Wizard. This add-on

is useful if you regularly perform the same export, wish to export

data from linked cards or want to use data from tables that do not

have a card. An example of this is a list of all operators and their

operator groups, or a list of all current calls sorted according to the

operators branch.

CSV Export Wizard add-onThe standard TOPdesk interface enables you to easily export data

that can be found on the cards. If you regularly perform exports or

want to export more data, the free CSV Export Wizard add-on may

be what you are looking for.

Unlike TOPdesk, the CSV Export Wizard generates CSV text files

instead of Excel files. CSV stands for comma-separated value. In

such files the end of a column is indicated using a specific delimiter

such as a comma or semicolon. New rows start on a new line. Many

programs, including Microsoft Excel, can work with this file type.

The CSV Export Wizard can export the same data as TOPdesk. In

addition, you can also export:

1. Data regarding linked cards, such as extra information about

objects, callers, operators, or a calls suppliers.

2. Data for which there are no cards, such as drop-down lists

and categorization.

3. References to the same table, such as categorization or

sub branches.

ExPORTING DATA FROM TOPDESK (PART 2)In the previous TOPdesk Magazine I showed you how to easily export interesting data from TOPdesk to Excel, enabling you to process it in another system. In this article I will explain more about the CSV Export Wizard add-on.

Photography: robin Kuijs

is an information distribution coordinator. He is specialized in

technical issues and optimizing processes.

PaTriCK MaCKaaiJ

wOrkiNg smArtEr 29

After installation, every operator can start the CSV Export Wizard via

http://[TOPdesk server hostname]/tas/secure/csv/.

The CSV Export Wizard starts by choosing a source: a selection you

previously saved in TOPdesk or a table from the database (Image 1).

If you wish to open the fi le in Microsoft Excel, it can be useful to

select a Column delimiter that is the same as the character that

has been set up as the List Separator in Microsoft Windows (Control

Panel > region and Language > additional settings). In European

Windows installations the default List separator is a semicolon, in

American installations it is a comma. Excel will then automatically

divide the data into columns.

Select the Row delimiter that suits the operating system you will

use to open the export fi le. The Include column name option ensures

TOPdesk exports the database fi eld names in question as the fi rst

row functioning as a header above the columns. Some programs

require double quotation marks around the content of a fi eld:

activate Use quotes for this.

Using Open fi le at execution, you can indicate whether you wish

to immediately open the fi le and edit it further or save it at a fi xed

location. If you select the latter, indicate what should happen to the

existing fi le: overwrite or append.

You can determine the fi lename using Save result as. To include date

and time in the fi lename, activate this option: Use a timestamp in

the fi lename.

In the next screen (Image 2) you can indicate the database fi elds

you wish to export. The CSV Export Wizard displays the fi eld name

Image 1 Step 1 in the CSV Export Wizard Image 2 Step 2 in the CSV Export Wizard

TIP: You can set up a standard location in the CSV Export

Wizard. To do this, adjust the location.save parameter

in the bespoke-work-resources\csvexport.

properties fi le. Please note the double slashes and

Text: Patrick Mackaaij

30 wOrkiNg smArtEr

from the TOPdesk card and the field name in the database. If the field is related to another

card, you will see the name of the table in question in the Linked table column. Clicking

on the plus icon opens the field selection for that table. Data that links to itself, such as

categories and subcategories, can be exported one level deep.

You can discover what a table is called in TOPdesk via Help > DataDict. Here you can

see that Category and Subcategory are linked to the Classificatie table, for example. If

necessary, contact your TOPdesk application manager if this menu option is not available.

The Save Export button lets you save settings for exports. This enables you to quickly

switch between different structures for your export files, saving you the trouble of setting

up the columns to be exported each time.

TOPdesk saves the settings of the saved exports on the TOPdesk server. The default

location for this is web\secure\csv\properties. When removing the CSV Export

Wizard, such as when you wish to install a new version after an update, TOPdesk empties

this folder. This is why it is advisable to make a copy of this folder before updating. You

can also adjust the default location in the bespoke-work-resources\csvexport.

properties file via the location.properties parameter and restart TOPdesk.

You can open saved reports in the first screen of the CSV Export Wizard using the Saved

Exports button. From here you can edit, run or delete a defined export.

Automatic exportsTOPdesk can run a saved export when you access a URL. For Windows Server, look at

Scheduled tasks and the tool cURL (http://curl.haxx.se/). Include an operators login

details in the URL using the parameters j_username and j_password. The TOPdesk

setting Settings > Technical Settings > Login Settings > Operators Section > allow

parameters in the UrL must be activated for this.

aDD-OnS FOr TOPDESK

TOPdesk offers Enterprise customers a number of add-ons to address questions

relevant to several customers. Add-on installation usually happens under

supervision of a TOPdesk consultant, who can provide information and take

care of the initial set-up. You can request the CSV Export Wizard add-on via the

TOPdesk Extranet.

TIP: If you frequently use the CSV Export Wizard, the overview of saved reports or a specific report, you can create a shortcut to them on your Quick Launch Bar.

Editorial

Want to comment? Go to

www.scribd.com/TOPdesk

The TOPdesk Magazine covers subjects

that are topical in the world of

professional service desks in IT, facilities

and other service providing organizations.

TOPdesk Magazine is intended for

managers, service desk employees,

facilities organizations and electronic

city councils anyone who is involved

with supporting clients on a daily basis.

This concerns both the processes and the

technology behind these services.

TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk

publication

Tel: +44 (0) 207 803 4200

Email: editorial@topdesk.com

Editor-in-chief: Nicola van de Velde

Editors: Leah Clarke, Nienke Deuss, Timme

Hos, Stefanie Klaassen, Milou Snaterse

Translators: Leah Clarke, Nicola van

de Velde

Contributors: Colin Bassant, Judith

Disberg, Claudia Funk, Patrick Mackaaij,

Jasmijn Moerman, Jordi Recasens, Marieke

Spapens, Robbert Petterson, Bram Verheij

and Courtney Wheeler

Layout: Elise Kerner

Photography: Menno van der Bijl,

Aad Hoogendoorn, Robin Kuijs and

Jonas Mertens

Copy editor: Leah Clarke

A print run of 6,000

Quarterly magazine

Languages: Dutch, English

+31 (0)15 270 09 60contact@designagencyddc.comwww.designagencyddc.com

WORK TOWARDS A

SUCCESSFUL SELF SERVICE DESK!

Please feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities of your Self Service Desk promotion.

The more your end users use the SSD, the more time and money you will save.

After a successful promotion, your end users will be motivated to log their calls in the SSD.

32 KLANT IN BEELD

tips + tricksUploading files using drag and dropFrom TOPdesk 5.2 onwards it is possible to upload files in

the Operators Section before you save the card. You can

do this using the Upload a file button in the progress

trail. After clicking on this, you can immediately select one

or more files. It is no longer necessary to first save the card

before you can add files.

Moreover, it is now possible to upload documents or

screenshots using drag and drop in all browsers except

Internet Explorer. This lets you move several documents from

your desktop or a folder to the Action field in TOPdesk. The

files are uploaded once you release them in the Action field.

Uploading files using drag and drop is possible in all TOPdesk

modules that have a progress trail. It is also possible to click

on Upload a file in all internet browsers; doing so lets you

navigate to your files.

Using HTML tags in comments in the Self Service DeskFrom TOPdesk 5.2 onwards you can use a number of HTML

tags to format the comment text for calls and reservations

in the Self Service Desk. This makes it easier to present

instructions or other information to your callers in a clear

way. In addition to text formatting, it is now also possible to

create a table or add an image, for instance.

1. Under Settings, go to the Module Settings

for the Self Service Desk.

2. Select Call Management or reservations

Management.

3. On the General tab you can adjust the

text in the comments field for a number

of languages. *

> You will now see the comments with HTML

formatting when you create a new call or

reservation in the Self Service Desk.

* Permitted HTML tags: a, b, blockquote, br, caption, cite,

code, col, colgroup, dd, dl, dt, em, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, i, img,

li, ol, p, pre, q, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td,

tfoot, th, thread, tr, u, ul.

Please note: advanced HTML features are not supported and

are therefore removed when saved.

TOPdesk UK limited t +44 (0)20 7803 4200 e info@topdesk.co.uk w www.topdesk.co.uk

TOPdesk nederland BV t +31 (0)15 270 09 00 e info@topdesk.nl w www.topdesk.nl

TOPdesk Deutschland GmbH t +49 (0)631 624 00 0 e info@topdesk.de w www.topdesk.de

TOPdesk Belgium bvba t +32 (0)3 292 32 90 e info@topdesk.be w www.topdesk.be

TOPdesk Magyarorszg Kft. (Hungary) t +36 1 301 0190 e info@topdesk.hu w www.topdesk.hu

Copyright 2013 TOPdesk UK limited. Although this magazine has been produced with the utmost care and attention, the writers cannot be held responsible in any way for any damages that may occur due to errors and / or deficiencies in this publication.

TOPdesk Danmark a/St +45 7015 7500 e info@topdesk.dk w www.topdesk.dk

TOPdesk Consulatoria e Tecnologia De Software - Eirilit +55 11 3040 2817 e info@topdesk.com.brw www.topdesk.com.br