Automated Workflow Implementing Automated Workflow, Escalation and SLAs Autotask has an advanced set of automated escalation and workflow tools to help you establish, track and manage customer service and support standards. And, if you are part of the growing trend of delivering Software As A Service (SaaS), you may be required to guarantee the availability of software on demand. Whether based on contractual obligations (Service Level Agreements, or SLAs) or internal best practices, you’ll need a way to measure and manage the service and support that you commit to provide. You also may be under contract to provide technical support for your software. But if you are like many Software companies, you may offer several levels of support, ranging from free web-based support to priority 24-hour phone support with on-site service if necessary. In order to ensure that you maintain compliance with your commitments, and properly prioritize your support program, Autotask gives you these important capabilities:   Create Workflow and Escalation Rules Autotask lets you create workflow and escalation rules for customer support tickets that are easily defined and customized. These workflow rules indicate when and how an issue is to be escalated and what actions should be performed. You can copy existing workflow rules when building new ones.     Define Automatic Actions With Autotask, you can define automatic actions such as notifications, escalation in priority, change in status, and reassignments to be initiated when service standards and time-based commitments are at risk.     Provide Support Ticket Audit Trails It’s important to be able to produce documentation that details who performed what tasks for what customers, and what the outcome was. Autotask provides support ticket audit trails on each service request. The information displayed includes the events, conditions and actions taken.     Use Notification Templates With Autotask, you can use notification templates -- including system variables -- to create unique messages for each workflow rule. Autotask can open a ticket detail window in the ticketing system right from a link on the email. If your support staff needs to get these notifications in the field, Autotask can send them to multiple devices like Outlook, and e-mail enabled phones and pagers.

Here are three real-world examples of automated workflow and escalation rules:

Example Escalation Rule 1: Whenever your customer, Acme Corporation, uses the Autotask client access portal you installed, automatically route the request to Joe Technician, and move it to the “Dispatch” queue if the job is coded for on-site support.

Example Escalation Rule 2: When an alert comes in from your internal Monitoring system that indicates that one of your main hosting web server has gone down, automatically create an internal service ticket, then assign it to the lead tech with a critical priority and also notify his mobile device and email account. If the alert is still open and idle for 10 minutes, then notify the customer service manager that the ticket needs action now.

Example Escalation Rule 3: All overdue bug-fix tickets from “Jeopardy” or “Premier” customers are sent to a queue called “Immediate Attention”. The ticket status set to critical and a special notification is sent to the service manager.

Once installed, automated workflow and escalation systems such as Autotask will:

• Ensure reliable communication, improve response times and drive best practices.
• Increase utilization by reducing or eliminating the time to constantly monitor queues, triage and review customer service ticket lists.
• Allow you to apply workflow and escalation rules to alerts from server monitoring software.
• Give you the ability to meet and exceed SLAs, heading off problems before they create service issues or financial penalties.
• Keep everything on track so your customers will receive the customer service level that matches their support agreement and your internal best practices.
• Improve your selling process by demonstrating your commitment to the highest level of service and support. Show your prospect how your internal systems give you a competitive advantage over your competition.
  

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