IT is multi-faceted, encompassing various technologies, departmental practices, and support. No matter what industry you’re in, your business needs robust IT service management to keep things on track. But what exactly does IT service management entail? What sort of tools help deliver excellent service, and, ultimately, how does it improve your organization as a whole?
7 min read
7 min read
5 Undeniable Reasons Your Business Needs Client Portal Software
Client portal software is easily one of your company’s most valuable tools. The right customer portal software allows MSPs to keep in touch with their customers and clients—and it can amplify your business’ margins.
7 min read
The Many Facets of ITSM: Adapting ITSM Software to Your Industry
ITSM software isn’t just a specialized tool for a bustling contact center. Virtually every business –– no matter the type, size, or industry –– can reap significant benefits from ITSM technology.
4 min read
How ITSM Software Impacts Critical IT KPIs and Business Outcomes
Business leaders measure company success through various indicators like sales revenue, profits, employee turnover rate, customer retention, and more. Yet, it’s prudent to measure your IT department’s performance as well to understand the complete picture of your organization’s health. If your IT team cannot service your internal stakeholders properly, operations will grind to a halt, with financial loss looming close behind.
6 min read
How to Integrate ITSM Software with Company-Wide Strategic Efforts
Are you considering implementing ITSM software, but aren’t sure it’s worth it? Your hesitance might be due to one question: Will your ITSM platform yield any positive return beyond the IT and customer support departments?
Topics:
ITSM
5 min read
Evolution of ITSM Software & How It Generates Positive Business Impact
It’s no secret –– we live in an era of rapid tech evolution. Advanced tech is a good thing, but the changing landscape demands constant agility from IT professionals and MSPs. The good news is that innovative IT technology and customer service portals can help your support technicians streamline operations and boost your ROI.
7 min read
4 Ways ITSM Software Can Improve Customer Satisfaction (& Retention)
How long does it take your techs to respond to support tickets? A few hours? A few days?
5 min read
Why You Need Top-Notch Security for Your Client Portal Software
Changes in the way workers use technology have led to email as a primary form of communication falling out of style. Today’s businesses want platforms that allow them to have a single location where they can collaborate on projects, store large amounts of information, communicate with clients and manage tickets: like a client portal software
Topics:
Client Portal
6 min read
3 Ways to Save Tech Time With IT Automation
IT techs grapple with new challenges as digital tools grow more advanced. The consistent flow of innovation generates higher dependency on IT MSPs. Perhaps the heaviest demand on these service providers is offering quality customer experiences. Without exceptional customer support, MSPs are likely to lose business.
12 min read
The Power of Integrations in a Client Portal Software
Regardless of their size, MSPs focus on three main areas: expanding their customer base, cutting their costs, and increasing their revenue streams.
3 min read
How Client Portal Analytics Drive Automation & Customer Satisfaction
In the age of Big Data, we have more information at our fingertips than ever before. Nowadays, whatever industry you are in, clients crave transparency: they expect to be able to access data about their projects and the services you are providing them with ease.
5 min read
Improve Your Margins with a Client Portal Equipped with Automations
Business leaders are constantly searching for strategies they can employ to maintain or improve their business’s margins. Through strategic automation of specific processes and tasks, your company stands to become more efficient and more profitable.
Topics:
Client Portal
5 min read
4 Reasons You Need to Upgrade from a ConnectWise Client Portal
ConnectWise, the leading professional services automation (PSA) software in the MSP market, is a crucial component of many IT businesses, but its client portal capabilities are limited. Pairing ConnectWise, or any other PSA, with a versatile, easy-to-use client portal tool will help you get the most out of the software and deliver better service to your clients.
13 min read
3 Ways Client Portal Software Radically Improves Customer Experience
You might be asking yourself: "How can a piece of software improve customer experience? Isn't customer experience more about my actual services and the people who deliver it?"
7 min read
5 Best Customer Portal Solutions
Business leaders looking for a customer portal solution they can use to meet their clients’ needs should do some thorough research into their potential portal choices before moving forward.
5 min read
What Makes a Good Customer Portal Software?
A customer portal is a critical tool for both MSPs and their clients. Techs use the portal to manage work requests, customer relations teams use the portal to provide necessary support, and customers themselves use the portal to get status updates, access helpful resources and communicate with your company.
5 min read
How Do You Use Client Portal Software?
Client portal software can help you gain a competitive advantage in your market and improve your clients’ overall experience in working with your company.
1 min read
Recipes, Leverage and the Quadrant with No Name
Ten years and a million views later, Rory Sutherland’s sweat the small stuff is as relevant as ever. At the heart of this TED talk is a cartesian strategy graph referencing business projects. The vertical axis going from low-cost to high-cost, the horizontal low-impact to high-impact. (Think: Gartner’s magic quadrant but for projects/service.) He labels three of the quadrants, with the brutal dunk on consultancy. But he leaves one quadrant unnamed.
4 min read
How IT Pros and MSPs Can Automate the Employee Onboarding Process
For IT pros and managed service providers, there must be a constant focus on maximizing the efficiency of employee onboarding, and smartly automating the process whenever possible.
Topics:
msp tools
5 min read
How To Create Your Own Client Portal
MSPs looking to provide a great customer experience to their clients while also increasing efficiency are often looking to build a customizable and flexible client portal.
Topics:
DD Portal
Service Customization
7 min read
9 Customer Portal Features You Need In 2021
When choosing your MSP client portal, it is important to consider which features will not only improve the experience for your customers but also create more efficiencies for your team. Beyond a basic user-friendly interface, a powerful customer portal will enable both your clients and your techs to have perfect visibility into tickets, but also to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
3 min read
We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an important announcement
Pull up a chair and pour yourself a glass of milk my friends, because DeskDirector has just released the spiciest version of Broadcast yet.
2 min read
What does a great customer experience look like?
Customer Experience includes anything that can leave an impression on a customer. As an MSP, most of the interactions that shape the experience for your customers happen at the helpdesk level with your IT helpdesk ticketing system.
1 min read
Important info regarding the deprecation of TLS 1.0 & TLS 1.1 servers
IF you are a legacy client user with a version over 5 years old, you will be affected by this change as this only supports TLS 1.0.
3 min read
Success Story: MyTech Partners
MyTech Partners have been DeskDirector users since July 2013 - so that's officially 7 years of partnership. We caught up with James Motz, their STS Manager, and talked about how the product has and still is helping after all these years of usage.
Subscribe to our Release Notes
Just a quick post to notify you of our recent email subscription addition.
Topics:
product updates
Product Release
1 min read
FORMS USE CASE: Smart way to use Conditionals instead of form sections
An alternative to form sections
Sections are an efficacious way to divide a form in more manageable chunks and have only a limited amount of questions shown at a time. What I am proposing today is a different way to obtain the same result just by using Conditionals.
2 min read
New single Sign In Page for your DeskDirector Portal
We're happy to announce we've made big improvements to our login page!
Topics:
Technical
product updates
2 min read
PRO TIP: Save Tech Portal as an App with the new Edge Chromium
Get it done in 3 steps: this is how quick and easy it is to save your Tech Portal as an app on your desktop computer.
2 min read
Help Technicians and Users with 'Task Forms'
what's a 'task form'
A Task Form is a feature that allows you to send additional forms to already existing tickets, making them appear directly in the User Portal for your customers to review and complete.
1 min read
Run DD Tech inside CW Manage
Let's keep it short and sweet: did you know you can run DD Tech inside your ConnectWise Manage?
Topics:
DD Tech
ConnectWise
1 min read
Work From Anywhere
The COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve. You and your customers will want your people to work from home effectively. Many are working from home already.
1 min read
New Onboarding Center is Up and Running!
A jam-packed center for all your roll out needs
After much thought and feedback from our awesome community, we've decided to put all of our guidelines together in one place.
Topics:
Onboarding
News
3 min read
Best Practice: Keep Things Organized and Achieve More with Tags
DeskDirector tags are pretty neat. Currently, you can make use of 3 different types:
3 min read
Markdown and HTML: Tips to Leverage the Power of Custom Forms
DD Forms and Markdown
what is markdown
Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, free and open-source, designed to be lightweight and intuitive. It helps users to edit text in an easy and clean way - which is why we've decided it was the right tool for our DD Portal.
1 min read
Product Release: new, improved look for DD Tech
what's new in dd tech
With the latest DD Tech release we've dramatically improved the overall UX/UI, taking on board lots of the user voice feedback received from DeskDirector's users.
Topics:
DD Tech
Product Release
1 min read
Best Practice: add a homepage link to your portal
Choosing DeskDirector as your main weapon of mass customer success can become even more powerful, you just need to ensure your clients will always find a way to land there.
1 min read
New year. New Decade. New Blog for DeskDirector!
It's a bright (not) sunny (not) day here in Auckland today, birds are probably chirping somewhere and the weekend will be upon us. Eventually. But this is not the news we want to give you!
The exciting news is that we've been working hard on tidying up and released our new blog!
Topics:
News
2 min read
Best Practice: Publishing OneNote notebooks in your Portal
Publishing OneNote notebooks allows you to share relevant content within the Portal. Combine it up with Custom Menus and Menu Items, and you'll have a powerful set of tools that will allow you to customize what your customers can see.
Topics:
Best Practice
3 min read
SPRINT UPDATE 6 - TICKET REPLIES, AVATARS, TICKET COUNT, DRAG & DROP
Here’s a breakdown of what we've focused on our latest Sprint:
Topics:
Sprint Update
4 min read
Sprint 5 Update: New user account switching, notebooks in menus & more
We've been a bit quiet on our sprint updates, but we're going to be bringing them back again. You can check out the release notes for the previous couple of sprints to get an idea of what's changed.
Here’s a breakdown of what we've focused on in Sprint #5:
Topics:
Sprint Update
2 min read
Best Practice: Setting Permissions for your Portal
DeskDirector comes with a powerful list of tools and features that you can enable and configure from your Admin Console - from Request Types to Chat, Branding and the Learning Center (any much more!), you have the power to customize your Portal experience to suit you and your end users.
Topics:
Best Practice
3 min read
Best Practice: Automating your Support Ticket Titles
This article will help you streamline all tickets coming through from the DD Portal and help your team to improve help-desk efficiency.
Topics:
Best Practice
4 min read
Sprint Update 3: New content publishing, branding & Portal shortcuts
Here’s what Sprint #3 added to and improved in DeskDirector:
Topics:
Sprint Update
3 min read
Product Release: New Admin Console is out and about!
We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on our new Admin Console, and we’re happy to announce that it is out. The new Admin Console is easier to use, faster, and comes with a lot of new features.
Topics:
News
Product Release
4 min read
5 min read
New Admin Console, Sticky Broadcast, & More - Sprint Update #1
We here are at DeskDirector work very hard to revolutionize customer service for your end-users. This often means - a continuous improvement of the product. This sprint update we show you the new intuitive admin console which will dramatically reduce your set up time, sticky notifications to make sure all your clients are informed of the critical messages and other massive improvements to make you and your help-desk team more effective and efficient. See how DeskDirector further empowers your PSA - ConnectWise and Autotask.
Topics:
Sprint Update
4 min read
Why is customer experience important for MSPs in 2019?
Customer experience includes anything that can leave an impression on a customer – support interactions, your website, and account management, etc. Most of the interactions that shape the customer experience for your MSP practice happen at the help-desk level with your IT help-desk ticketing system.
Topics:
Business
Customer Success
11 min read
PSA life vs. PSA life with a Customer Experience Platform
According to this report in Datto, standardization of services is the third biggest pain point in the MSP industry in 2018. Your PSA - Connectwise Manage and AutoTask is the backbone of your customer service, but it comes with limitations. You can provide a standard customer service by the industry norm, however with a customer experience platform you can elevate the experience to award winning.
4 min read
How Top MSPs Create a Best-in-Class IT Ticketing System
Efficiency plays a key role in managed service provider (MSP) profitability. Without repeatable processes in place, it’s difficult to manage incoming service requests, train new techs, and scale your business. Top MSPs invest in a PSA — like ConnectWise Manage or Autotask — to gain a robust IT help-desk Ticketing System that centralizes and streamlines service requests.
Topics:
Business
MSP Success
5 min read
6 Ways an efficient help desk improves your bottom line
DeskDirector came into being out of necessity – there were no easy tools available in the MSP Industry to help with customer service.
14 min read
Improve help desk efficiency with DeskDirector
With full access to our demo instance, you will be able to try all our features below. This is a great way to dip your toes in the water and see if DeskDirector is a good fit for you. Over here, we take you through a step by step so that you can set up the instance the way you want!
Topics:
Help-Desk Efficiency
16 min read
Service Customization with DeskDirector
With full access to our demo instance, you will be able to try all our features below. This is a great way to dip your toes in the water and see if DeskDirector is a good fit for you. Over here, we take you through a step by step so that you can set up the instance the way you want!
Topics:
Service Customization
4 min read
3 min read
2 min read
Important Communication for HUD and WPF Users
We will stopping support and development on HUD and WPF products starting from the 1st of July 2019.
3 min read
Must-Try Features of DD Tech
What is an ideal help-desk tool?
A tool that sits on top of your PSA and aids in ticket resolution - that is ALL your techs need on a daily basis. They are not using all the features of a PSA, and the distraction just slows them down.
Hence we found a solution: DD Tech, a help-desk tool for Level 1 & 2 techs.
It helps techs resolve tickets faster - whilst fully integrating with your PSA - and doesn’t require any training. Just click to open and start using.
Now, how cool is that?
2 min read
Try out the learning and onboarding center
Through DeskDirector, you can on-board your clients in a seamless process and educate them about your services. You can also use the Learning Center to make your customers efficient - encouraging them to solve minor issues by themselves. Experience it all be yourself.
2 min read
Hacks for improved customer service - Features checklist
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and that’s exactly how DeskDirector was conceived. We’re a service by an MSPs, for MSPs. When we say that we understand your struggles, we mean it. It is not a mere conjecture, but a first hand experience.
3 min read
Ticket Life-cycle management hacks in DeskDirector
Ticket management is one of the biggest hurdles faced by every MSP. Your aim is to stick to the SLA, avoid lengthy phone calls and get tickets resolved as effectively and efficiently as possible. Try these hacks which will save you time and money.
2 min read
4 min read
Wrapping up 2018 | Climbing the summit
The year is coming to a halting end with some fantastic wins by DeskDirector. Now you can provide the customers with the effortless service you have always wanted with our custom forms, DD tech, email templates, our new user-interface and OAuth integration.
1 min read
How to make DeskDirector Project Successful? Part 2
In this video, we ask Priscila, a client experience manager from Lancom, how does she explain the value of DeskDirector to clients versus using email?
As well as how to introduce DeskDirector to clients that "won't change", someone who used to call you whenever they have an issue? Learn great tips from our top-performing MSPs!
Topics:
Business
MSP Success
1 min read
How to make DeskDirector Project Successful? Part 1.
In this video, we interview Priscila, a customer experience manager from Lancom Technology. Priscila is in charge of creating great customer experiences by leveraging DeskDirector products.
Watch this video to learn how to explain the value of the portal to prospects and how to make it work from a day one for your clients!
Topics:
Business
Customer Success
5 min read
4 Concerns your clients have about your MSP and how to address them
The MSP industry is unstoppable, with the market size expected to grow to USD $527.84 billion by 2022. According to the Harvard Business Review, 57% of organizations view IT as an investment that drives innovation and growth. The industry is only a decade old and filled with great and not-so-great providers. The exceptional MSPs are differentiating themselves by giving their customers compelling IT support options.
Topics:
Business
MSP Success
2 min read
November Product Update: Improved engineer experience
This update marks our second-to-last product update, and we could not be more excited to share our hard work with you this month. This Christmas, give your customers and engineers the ultimate gift – improved experiences.
5 min read
MSP's role in Business and Digital Transformation
The word ‘transformation’ is quite loosely used in IT organizations or managed service providers. If you work for one or are have a related service or product you probably hear the word several times a day. For some, transformation is on the verge of becoming a corporate ‘buzz’ word – used and abused. It further confuses people when you talk about transformation instead of promoting a discussion.
Topics:
Business
MSP Success
4 min read
Client communication portal - new & improved
We are pleased to announce that our improved portal UI is ready to go! We made a huge interface revamp to the main request support page.
In this article, we introduce you to the new and improved request support page of our client communications portal, explain what’s changed from the current design and what benefits you get from it. Let’s dive in!
4 min read
MSP Review: What value does a client portal bring to customer service?
The MSP industry has shifted their thinking from wondering if a client portal is needed to asking what value it brings. LANcom Technology was a pioneer behind these radical changes. Hear what Priscila Bernardes, Customer Experience Manager at LANcom Technology, has to say about the value DeskDirector bought for her and her customers. DeskDirector has been a resounding success with LANcom, with more than 70% of their tickets submitted through the portal.
4 min read
6 min read
5 min read
4 min read
2 min read
First Step on the Way of Creating a Dynamic Customer Experience
How can you be dynamic in the world of standardization? While you can keep your technology stack the same, you should be using a dynamic approach towards your customer experience initiatives.
5 min read
Desktop vs Web – which platform of DD Portal is right for you?
Many clients ask us about the differences between these two platforms, and whether they should choose one over the other. The truth is, there actually aren't many differences between the two versions. At DeskDirector, we believe in feature parity across platforms. The reason we cater to different platforms is that all customers want to engage at their convenience.
3 min read
How to Get More of Your Customers Using DeskDirector Portal?
You can easily increase uptake of DD Portal by re-branding your support emails and linking them back to the portal. Our leading MSPs have been using this technique for years, and they now have more than 70% of customers logging tickets through DeskDirector. In some cases, they get an entire company using DD Portal only.
5 min read
6 Best Practices to Create A Service Catalog in DeskDirector (updated)
People often struggle to describe an issue when they're talking to your IT engineer. In DeskDirector, request types represent your service catalog that helps your customers to select an option that is the most relevant to their needs.
Request types is one of the key features available that you can extensively use to customize your MSP offerings. It doesn't mean that you need to customize your technology stack, you can keep it the same. But you need to customize how you offer it. Your clients might not need everything you have to offer. If you offer "ultimate IT solution" to all your clients, you become a commodity in the eye's of your clients. You need to customize how you deliver your solutions to them, so you can differentiate yourself in the world of standardization.
In this article, we put together five best practices that you need to follow to make your support portal useful and valuable for your clients. As well helping you to create great customer experiences.
1 min read
Getting tickets approved
If you are in the MSP game you will often have customers who want to approve certain jobs before they get done.
Somebody working for your customer asks for the job to be done but somebody else working for your customer must approve it.
This may be a cost control exercise in the case of causal and out-of-scope work or it may be a management discipline, like for account changes.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Are you happy with DeskDirector support?
As an MSP, you would by now be familiar with the term CSAT. You probably adopted some form of customer satisfaction system with your service delivery practices already, and we hope you and your customers are seeing the benefits of it!
2 min read
Important update on Internet Explorer
We are freezing development for Internet Explorer. This means that in the coming months new features will be targeted for the modern evergreen browsers like Edge, Chrome and FireFox. Your users will have a great experience on Edge, Chrome and FireFox, the Windows client and the Mac client. Users can continue using Internet Explorer 11 but 'mileage will vary' and the experience will slowly degrade.
1 min read
New feature: Filter specific companies in the Admin Console
One of the most requested features and significant pieces of feedback we have received from our clients is "The list of companies shows all the companies in my ConnectWise/Autotask, is there a way to filter them to the relevant ones?"
1 min read
2 min read
Introducing CSV Export Feature
You've spoken, we've listened. One of the biggest requests we get here at DeskDirector is for more visibility and reporting.
1 min read
How to Test Out New Features in DD Tech?
We know that some of you can't wait for DD Tech to be released. DD Tech has a goal to make every techs day a great day! We want every tech to be a master of solving complex technical issues, rather than a master of complex ticketing/help-desk systems inside ConnectWise or Autotask.
2 min read
Three ways to log into the Admin Console Login
You can login to the admin console using any one of three intuitive, secure methods
(1) Using your PSA account credentials
(2) Using a token sent to your mailbox
(3) Using your Office 365/Azure AD account
.
(1) Using your PSA account credentials
(2) Using a token sent to your mailbox
(3) Using your Office 365/Azure AD account
.
1 min read
2 min read
2 min read
DeskDirector Consulting Part 2: Small Extensions
In the first video about consulting, we talked about configurations and how DeskDirector Consulting can help busy MSPs to configure different parts of DeskDirector to get the most benefit from it.
In this video Warwick will introduce you to another part of consulting - Small Extensions, watch it now!
4 min read
Desktop vs Web: How to Successfully Introduce DD Portal to Customers
Often MSPs overlook the importance of successfully introducing new software to their customers. In this article, we want to give you some tips on how to choose between desktop and web version when introducing DD Portal to your customers.
1 min read
DeskDirector Consulting Part 1: Configurations
At the end of last year we announced our new consulting services. This is different from DeskDirector Support which will remain the same across all our customers.
There are 3 types of consulting services that DeskDirector Consulting will provide:
2 min read
Introducing More Support Options
DeskDirector Consulting Explained:
- [Video] Part 1 - Configurations
- [Video] Part 2 - Small Extensions
- [Video] Part 3 - Large Software Projects
At the end of the year 2017, we announced that we are going to introduce DeskDirector Consulting.
What does it mean for you? In a nutshell:
- Free ticket based support continues unchanged.
- Our new Consulting team is here for those who want the same advanced configurations as our leading partners have (but don't have in-house resources to implement).
- Consulting will never charge you without your written permission.
- All Consulting inquiries start with the free ticket based support you use now.
4 min read
DeskDirector 2017 Highlights
This amazing year is coming to an end and we thought it would be great to share what we have done during this year, and put some light on what’s coming up in 2018!
2 min read
Older version of DeskDirector will be no longer supported
Here at DeskDirector we want to make sure that our clients can use all the latest features and changes we have to offer. Due to this, we need to say goodbye to the old and welcome in the new.
14 min read
Explaining Admin Console for DD Portal
Catalina is our onboarding specialist and she handles most implementation calls. In this video she talks about setting up your DeskDirector instance and guides you through the back-end of the product. You will learn how to use and manage the DeskDirector Admin Console to provide the best experience to your clients.
[Video Updated April 05 2018]:
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
4 min read
Building a super quick console to manage your ConnectWise tickets
You may have heard that our support team is moving from Zendesk to DD-Tech. This is awesome for our dev team because we get fast, consistent feedback and suggestions from our support team. This is awesome for you because you get features that are tried, tested, and bulletproof.
2 min read
Bringing the web to the desktop
I’m sure we can agree that the modern web is huge, allowing people to access content wherever they have a browser. What is also huge, is the community and ecosystem behind it all.
4 min read
Design Discussion: Ticket Input
DeskDirector Portal has been through many design iterations since its inception as a WPF app. In this article we will be taking a look at how our ticket input has evolved over the years.
1 min read
Scheduled Server Maintenance
DeskDirector will be carrying out some server updates, please be aware of what this means for you.
1 min read
New Feature: Additional Access in DeskDirector
With the release of our latest server version (Admin Console 17.4.1) we are happy to annouce our new feature: Additional Access.
4 min read
Process tickets faster and more accurately -Try DD Tech Beta For Free
DD Tech makes your life easier by allowing you to process tickets faster and more accurately.
The ultimate goal of DD Tech is to provide everything you need to live your entire day in and we need your help to get there. We aim for every interaction in DD Tech to be blisteringly fast and super simple so you can get on with the stuff that matters - helping your clients.
1 min read
Changes to contact permissions | DeskDirector Blog
With our 16.38 server release we're excited to announce our completely revamped contact permission system. The goal is to reduce the number of overall configurations you have to worry about.
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
DD Portal Core (Basecamp!) | Zero Footprint
“There should be a simple and well-priced offering for the Portal alone”
DD Portal is the foundation of our new customer services strategy.
DD Portal Basecamp edition will come with the features everyone uses at a price point most MSPs can afford. With zero footprint and zero deployment it is the fastest way to get DD Portal up and running. It’s a great place to start.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
MSPs Customer Portal - Finally Here!
As we announced in a previous blog post, we were busy working on DD Portal, the new electron-based Client Console. Now, we are finally ready to share it with all our clients. While some of you may have had a play around with the Beta version, now everyone can enjoy the wonders of a self-updating client.
1 min read
Getting ready for ConnectWise 2016.4
The ConnectWise Codebase 2016.4 Beta is out, and in accordance, we are looking into how this upcoming release will affect our users.
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
Start Using Client Security and Filter Who Sees What | DeskDirector
Client security is one of our more quiet changes to the Admin Console. If you are already aware of the feature, great! If not, you should!
Client Security is the feature you should be using to further customise your clients DD experience.
Available in version 16+ of the Admin Console, it will allow you to deliver a more filtered and customisable experience to your clients, as well as reducing the ammount of management you have to do.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Your last windows client deployment, ever.
...well, almost ever.
Finding the time and resources to keep DeskDirector up-to-date can be difficult. But it doesn't have to be.
In an earlier post, we discussed Electron, the framework used to build the new client.
A key feature of this client is the ability to auto-update, removing the need to redeploy for the latest version.
We will take a look at how this all works and what is involved for you and your customers.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Get on the Mac Client Beta | DeskDirector
Your Apple Mac users will have the same great DeskDirector experience as your Windows & Web users very soon. We just need a few people to do a final test before we release.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
New desktop Clients for Mac & Windows | DeskDirector
We're moving our desktop platform development to a Hybrid framework called Electron. We will release a version for Mac and then Windows in the next couple of quarters.
It's a pretty useful framework. It is written by Github and used by Slack so we think its future looks good.
The new platform should give you all the advantages of today's native DD applications without the head-ache of custom MSI deployment.
Our first release will be the Mac client and it is in development now. We're hoping to get something out this quarter.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Request Types System | Another Great Reason to Use DeskDirector
The team here at DeskDirector have been busy working for the last while on our new Request Types engine.
This system is designed to replace ConnectWise's Portal Types and our previous Request Types engine used for Autotask partners.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
New Auto-Login Feature | Global Magic Token | DeskDirector
A big and continued focus of our attention here at DeskDirector is on making it super easy for your clients to use and adopt DeskDirector.
That's why we are launching another, even easier, way to allow clients to log in to DeskDirector Web.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
How to See Computer Warranties in Your RMM & Add or Edit Info
A little while back we created a video on Warranty Master. This is an awesome tool to add and update the warranty information of your ConnectWise or Autotask configurations. It also has some fantastic reports that you can provide clients, and use as a tool to convince them to purchase more.
They have been busy since then and have recently just announced integrations with LabTech, MaxFocus, N-Able and Kaseya.
We've been hearing great things from our partners so in this One Minute Wednesday we show one of these integrations in action, with LabTech.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
How Clients Can Auto Login to DeskDirector Web Easily
Here at DeskDirector we've long known that making it easy for end users to log into a portal is paramount. If you make it hard, then usage will suffer, that's why we try hard to avoid this.
With this in mind in this One Minute Wednesday we explore a brand new way you can have your clients log right into DeskDirector from the emails you send them.
Not only that, they could be taken right to a ticket.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Cool Chat Queue Uses | Inbound Chat Requests From Clients
In this One Minute Wednesday we explore a couple of additional and cool use cases for DeskDirector's new Chat Queues feature.
This includes the ability to have inbound chat requests from clients actually go to their IT department. That way based on the type of request their team could be the best to address the problem.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Make Sure Just The Right Team Members Gets The Chat
Often when you enable clients to chat with your team you want to direct these requests to specific team members. There is exactly where our new feature Chat Queues comes in.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Inroducing DeskDirector Client Console 15.2
We've been pleasantly surprised at the uptake of Windows 10 at both our partners and their client sites.
As a result the team have worked hard and fast to get DeskDirector Client Console 15.2 out the door. 15.2 now supports Windows 10 computers.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
DeskDirector Labs | New Initiative | Try New Features Before Everybody
Today we announce a new initiative at DeskDirector, DeskDirector Labs.
Previously we would release Beta features to select partners to try out and get feedback. With DeskDirector Labs we open the doors to anyone wanting to try new features out before we open them to all.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Personalize The DeskDirector Menu | Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
Many of our partners have customized or personalized DeskDirector to convey their company image. We love this and it's a big part of why we exist.
In this One Minute Wednesday we show you how you can change the name of the menu items in DeskDirector to better match how your clients use it and use the language you prefer.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
DeskDirector Announces 15.1 Release | Integration With ScreenConnect
DeskDirector, the ultimate client portal for Autotask and ConnectWise, this week launched its 15.1 version. This release includes powerful enhancements to the chat messaging system, new notification options, integration with ScreenConnect and more.
2 min read
5 Cool New Features Just Added | DeskDirector
The team have been busy adding some small but great new features to DeskDirector, all of which are from partner requests.
These are now live for all partners and can be used today.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
New Wufoo Form Features | DeskDirector
While we are busy rolling out 15.1 the team have snuck a couple of nice extra features in for those using (or thinking of using) our Wufoo forms integration. These will be live for all on Monday July 27th.
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
OMW - Announcing DeskDirector 15.1
DeskDirector 15.1 is here!
We are so excited to announce the release of our DeskDirector 15.1. The team have worked super hard on this one with many of the core components of DeskDirector re-written from the ground up based on partner requests.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
ScreenConnect Integration | Remote Control | DeskDirector
DeskDirector 15.1 is just days away and we thought we'd showcase just one of the many new features, ScreenConnect Remote Control Integration
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Things Break and Servers Go Down | What To Do?
We've all experienced it, things break, servers go down and the next thing you know all 200 staff at your client are trying to call or email in.
That's just one of the places where DeskDirector's System Notifications or Broadcasts can help.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Trick to Share Different Quote Types With Clients: Quosal & QuoteWerks
As many of you should know we have great integrations with Quosal and QuoteWerks to show quotes in DeskDirector.
From time to time though you might want to share a PDF of a quote, a web quote or simply a web page in the quotes section.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
DeskDirector Releases New Web Version
DeskDirector, The Leading IT Client Portal Provider, releases new Web version
2 min read
5 Creative Uses for Forms at Clients | DeskDirector
While we were traveling around we found several of our partners using our Wufoo integration in many creative ways. This was allowing them to solve problems at their clients using a combination of the DeskDirector portal and forms.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Learn How To Send Notifications With DeskDirector. It's Easy
Well Phill is back from travelling around the US and Canada for 3 weeks visiting our great partners. There is loads we have learnt that we can use to improve DeskDirector into the future.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
How to fix any SSL vulnerabilities you may have in IIS | DeskDirector
Last week we discovered many ConnectWise partners had servers vulnerable to SSL attack.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Tips and Tricks | DeskDirector Web | MSP Support
We launched DeskDirector Web today to all partners, now their clients have a great new option for accessing DeskDirector.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Meet The Winners of our Client Experience Competition | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we announce the winners of our Client Experience Competition.
Topics:
Business
1 min read
DiskDirector | Exciting New Product Announcement | WOW
In this One Minute Wednesday we announce a very exciting new product from DeskDirector.
All is revealed in the video, so check it out and be sure to have a great week!
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Introducing DeskDirector Web | Exciting Times
In this week's One Minute Wednesday we couldn't resist giving you all a quick peek at DeskDirector Web.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
DeskDirector Partner Webinar, 15.1 is coming
In last week's partner webinar we introduced all our Autotask and ConnectWise partners to what's coming in DeskDirector 15.1. You can watch the full recording below.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Unraveling The Mystery of Active Directory | DeskDirector
We are often being contacted with questions about how our Active Directory integration works, or why in some cases it doesn't.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
What's new in DeskDirector 14.4 | Sign Up Today
We've launched our 14.4 version that now includes full support for the Staff HUD in Autotask.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
DeskDirector releases its Staff Heads Up Display for Autotask
DeskDirector, the Leading Customer Portal Provider, releases its Staff Heads Up Display for Autotask.
1 min read
2 min read
Ticket Notifications - Get Alerted by Way of a Desktop Notification
In this episode we take you through another great feature baked into DeskDirector 14.3, Ticket Notifications.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Your Clients No Longer Need to Have a Password to Login
Well we are back with another One Minute Wednesday. In this episode we highlight one of our favourite new features in DeskDirector 14.3, Password-less.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Introducing DeskDirector 14.3 Version | DeskDirector
Here at DeskDirector we are really excited to announce the release of DeskDirector 14.3. In this One Minute Wednesday we highlight a couple of our favourite new feature additions.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
14.3 Version Release | New Smart Client Notifications Feature
DeskDirector announces 14.3 release for ConnectWise and Autotask MSPs including the new smart client notifications feature.
2 min read
IT Payment Automation ConnectBooster Integration | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you another one of our great integrations, ConnectBooster.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Poodle SSL 3 Attack | Continued Use of SSLv3 is Dangerous
As many of you may be aware it has been confirmed that version 3 of Secure Sockets Layer (SSLv3) is vulnerable at the protocol level. As a result of this new security attack (dubbed the POODLE attack) continued use of SSLv3 is dangerous.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
How DeskDirector Integrates with QuoteWerks
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you through how DeskDirector integrates with QuoteWerks.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Why You Should Use Wistia to Host Your Videos | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you through the benefits of adding video to your site and to DeskDirector's Learning Center.
We had such a blast visiting Wistia HQ in Boston we had to create a video about their create platform.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
The New Homescreen in The Staff HUD | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you through the new Home screen in the Staff HUD.
The home screen allows Admins to be able to access the Admin Console (CW Admins only), Deployment Portal (CW Admins only). While the remainder of your team have quick access to the DeskDirector Knowledge base, blog and website.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
How to Impersonate Your Clients With DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we show you a great little tip that will allow you to impersonate one of your clients.
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
DeskDirector 14.2 for ConnectWise and Autotask MSPs
We here at DeskDirector are proud to announce the release of our 14.2 versions with many great new features for ConnectWise and Autotask MSPs
We want to thank our great partners for helping us build an even better DeskDirector. Many of the new features have come from their feedback.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Spell Check in Chat | Chat Auto-Save | Staff HUD Features
In this One Minute Wednesday we explore some of the small and hidden but great new additions to the 14.2 Staff HUD.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
New Features for ConnectWise & Autotask MSPs | DeskDirector 14.2
DeskDirector partners are now able to provide their clients and staff with an even more powerful portal experience in the new 14.2 release.
1 min read
Add a Welcome Screen to Train Your Clients
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you through one of our other favourite features in DeskDirector's Client Console 14.2, how you can easily add a help or welcome screen to introduce DeskDirector to clients.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
August 2014 Partner Webinar | DeskDirector
We just completed the August Partner Webinar, we had a great turnout and thanks to those who attended. It was fantastic to share plans with you, our partners.
In the call Phill explained what's in our 14.2 releases of the Client Console and Staff HUD (coming next week), and went over what is on the roadmap for the coming months.
For those that missed it or want to find out more here is some useful links;
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
ADDING A SCREENSHOT TO AN EXISTING TICKET | DESKDIRECTOR
In this One Minute Wednesday, we take you through one of our favourite features in DeskDirector's Client Console 14.2 and how you can easily add a screenshot to an existing ticket.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Adding YouTube to the Learning Center | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we take you through how to easily add YouTube videos into DeskDirector's Learning Center.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
PagerDuty Allows to Alert our Team When Large Issues Occur
In this One Minute Wednesday we talk about a great tool we recently started using at DeskDirector called PagerDuty.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Send an Email to a Client | DeskDirector
In this One Minute Wednesday we cover how you can send an email to a client and take them to a ticket in their DeskDirector Client Console.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Pop DeskDirector from ConnectWise, an email or a Webpage
In our first One Minute Wednesday we take you through how you can 'Pop' DeskDirector's Staff HUD from ConnectWise, an email or a webpage.
Topics:
Technical
3 min read
Wufoo Integration | Renowned Form Building Application
The integration with Wufoo allows IT Providers to better serve the needs of their customers as they can now provide customizable forms in DeskDirector.
1 min read
Wufoo Integration- the Renowned HTML Form Building Application
We are really excited to announce we are taking DeskDirector to the next level by adding integration with Wufoo.
Topics:
Technical
DeskDirector not affected by OpenSSL (Heartbleed) vulnerability
We wanted to assure all our partners that after a review of all of the DeskDirector infrastructure we are confident our systems are not vulnerable to the OpenSSL (Heartbleed) secrutity threat.
Topics:
Technical
DeskDirector March 2014 Partner Webinar
Please see below the recording from our recent partner webinar.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Vendor API | For HTML/Javascript Application | DeskDirector
If you have written a Connectwise integration there is a great opportunity to take advantage of DeskDirector’s extensibility to make your app
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Add Custom Integrations to the Client Console
Adding custom screens and applications into the DeskDirector Client Console is easy.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Use Custom Tabs to Add Integrations to the Agent Console
The DeskDirector agent console can easily be configured to show information straight out of your knowledgebase/wiki and other Connectwise integration partners.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
New features for Orlando
We’re most excited about talking to you in Orlando about two new features
- Presence
- Integrations
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Branson I.T. Will Save Us From Mass Extinction
Warwick Eade from DeskDirector is very much looking forward to presenting at the HTG Vision Summit on Thursday. His presentation is called “Branson I.T. will save us from mass extinction”. He has been thinking a lot about where Managed Services is heading and, of course, the part that DeskDirector will play in that future.
Topics:
Business
2 min read
Get Ready to Power up Your Service Delivery With DeskDirector
How do you make sure your staff have all the information needed to support your clients at their fingertips?
Let us show you how our new Agent Console can make that a reality and help make you look great in the process
Check out the video below for a sneak peek and register your interest in finding out more by giving us your email at the end of the video.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
ServiceRadar | See those ConnectWise Tickets That Need Attention
Ever wished you could easily see at a glance see those ConnectWise tickets that needed attention now?
Let us show you how ServiceRadar a feature of our new Agent Console can make that a reality
Check out the video below for a sneak peek and register your interest in finding out more by giving us your email at the end of the video.
Topics:
Technical
A new Outlook Add-In for DeskDirector 13.1
One of the most common ways for customers to log tickets is to email the ConnectWise email connector.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Deep linking | New in DeskDirector 13.1
We have been very busy at DeskDirector getting our 13.1 release ready and, with a few weeks to release, we can start talking about the new features.
Topics:
Technical
Chat Transfer With One Click | Chat Gets Better
One of the first requests back we got for chat was for the ability to hand a running chat session from one tech to another
Topics:
Technical
Automate the Messages at The Start and End of a Chat
Your techs will tend to start up and sign off their chat support sessions with the same or very similar messages.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
DeskDirector Learning - Over 100 Free Multimedia Courses & More
It is our goal for DeskDirector that it will help your customer relationships to be closer and go deeper.
Educating your customers in the tools they use daily is a great way place to start.
End user education is, for most of us, a huge gap in our services.
DeskDirector allows you to be the hero that solves that problem.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Get DeskDirector Up and Running in Three Easy Steps
You can get DeskDirector up and running in three easy steps.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Recommendations
One of the toughest cycles we go through is getting recommendations over the line.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Where to start when deploying DeskDirector
DeskDirector has a huge treasure chest of features to help your customer relationship become closer and go deeper.
Chat, mobile, ticket review, ticket flagging, ticket authorisation, invoice review, invoice flagging, VIP management, fast track, recommendations, shared IT, portal types, office learning and customer specific learning will all make a huge difference to the day to day relationship you have with your customer.
But with all these features it's easy to get lost in a feature avalanche so we strongly suggest starting small and growing the service.
DeskDirector can help with this.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
How to make in-house IT your friends and advocates using DeskDirector
| Our customers often have in-house IT people to look after their line of business and ERP systems. |
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Stop Answering Phone Calls and Start Using The Chat
AWESOMENESS #1 - KEEPING THEM OFF THE PHONE
Topics:
Technical
Office training for your customers comes built in to DeskDirector
Wow your customers with a library of free Microsoft training.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Can you tell me who you are?
Nothing annoys and alienates a customer faster than asking for information the customer expects you to already have.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Brand Your Company | DeskDirector
You can brand DeskDirector with whatever name and brand your company would like.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Mobile is coming soon | DeskDirector Technical Blog
We have mobile running on our dev system and we're very excited about it.
With DeskDirector mobile your customers will be able to see all their own ConnectWise tickets as well as add new tickets from their mobile device.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Flag for review | Deskdirector Technical Blog
Sometimes your customers will want to discuss a ticket after it is closed.
Topics:
Technical
2 min read
Anatomy of a DeskDirector Ticket | DeskDirector Blog
Your customer can get to this screen quickly without having to remember a URL and and without having to log in.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
New tickets should come with everything we know about the customer
We should know a lot about our customers from the machine they are logging the ticket from.
Topics:
Technical
1 min read
Why no log-in for DeskDirector is so important
| The original code name for DeskDirector was 'The Lancom Button'. The vision was that a big, bright Lancom button would sit on all our users' desktops and if a user could get to that button they could get to all the services we had to offer. It should be effortless to log a ticket, check on the progress of a ticket or mark a ticket for review. Using our other services should be the same. |
||
| Making that experience effortless starts with avoiding the need to log in. Once you require a customer to remember a name/password pair you have lost the effortless feel. My own experience as customers of other customer portals was that remembering name/password pairs was hard and I only remembered a few. For Lancom, 95% of our end-users didn't use the customer portal. Too hard to get there, too hard to remember account details |
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| We figured that almost all of our customers were securely logged into a Active Directory domain. If the customer is already authenticated by a security provider that's a lot stricter than us then why not trust that authentication. And there you have it - no log in. I will write a future technical piece on how we do it but in summary, if a user wants to access Company XYZ's tickets they will need to be logged into company XYZ's Active Directory. We were able to keep the name 'Lancom Button' for our deployment of DeskDirector because DeskDirector can be branded. |
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Topics:
Technical
