Anything is possible with the tools you already own, and during last week’s Community Open Floor, we saw how many customers are taking this concept to heart. We talked about work we are currently engaged in and projects we plan to pursue this year.
Improved User Experience with Home Page Customizations
Some projects involved customer home pages. We talked about interesting choices and how to serve information close to the accessibility and efficiency found on the internet.
What kinds of features and functionality offer a better user experience? One possibility included JavaScript tweaks that produced a home page offering:
- More direct access to information, like a “do you have a problem” button linking to a request offering page, and an “I need something” button linking to service request
- Better use of real estate, including a three-column grid, using advanced toolbox
- Custom icons
- An analyst dashboard that contains: my requests, my work and team work widgets that pull in all analyst-related elements in an at-a-glance view. A customized work item grid makes this possible.
Most loved the idea of displaying top offerings on a home page with one-click access.
Reduced Clicks Taken to Reach Information / Accomplish a Task
At one customer site, the IT team reduced the number of clicks to access a change request from six to two. How was it done? They added “create incident request” and “create service request” buttons that link to the default template and a “create change request” drop-down menu that links to each main template, with the ability to choose the degree of urgency.
Announcements
We discussed interesting ways to display announcements, including the addition of imagery. It’s a project that’s on the radar screen of a few customer companies. At one site, back and forth linking to the intranet is being explored to display the same announcement on different pages.
It’s a task also possible via portal API.
Integrations
The more visibility a service desk has into company technologies, the better the service they can provide. One team explained how they are using APIs to help analysts see inside a desktop app and link back to the portal to perform work. Links to Active Directory and other applications make the process very smooth.
Dynamic Data Page
For some environments, it’s a project well worth pursing: using the dynamic data page for a user and rendering his or her tickets onto the page. As the page is built out, you’ll assimilate a complete profile that includes contact information, work items, assets, consumables and licenses to configuration items tied to the user and history, etc.
We talked about ideas for the dynamic data page, including the ability to control different form layouts for different groups and create multiple layouts, controlling who sees what. It’s an area many customers want to dive into, but they are planning how to prioritize it into the projects slated for the year.
To help, the Cireson team plans to address some of these issues in a pre-recorded demo, with further discussion planned for the next Community Open Floor meeting. We’ll talk about:
- How to override the blue “I” on a dynamic data page
- How to customize the user dynamic data page, including forms for end users vs forms for analysts
- How to bring in custom properties
- Exposing deeper cam data on those pages, in the context of the user form and analyst form
Tune in to see these examples and a lively discussion around the work we want to do in 2022.
We cover Cireson Portal and SCSM hacks, along with your insights and questions in biweekly Community Open Floor sessions, and we’d love for you to join us. Register now!
