Setting up and running a Drupal service desk

Organisations’ challenges

Many organisations don’t have developers in-house, or only have a limited number of developers. This made it difficult for them to properly support their websites, including ensuring the latest security patch updates are applied to their site/s.

Clients’ transformations — access to expert support

Salsa Digital’s Service Desk provides formal, dedicated support services to over 30 clients. Typical ticket requests from our clients include small feature enhancements and problems or defects.

We also monitor open source software for patches and make sure every website is patched within the recommended time frames. This is particularly important for security patches, where action needs to be taken promptly to protect the site from security attacks.

Once a ticket/issue is raised via phone or the online system, the ticket is:

1. Triaged by our Level 1 Service Desk Agent
2. Assigned to a Technical Lead for initial investigation and estimation
3. Assigned to a Level 2 agent for resolution
4. Tested by one of our QA engineers
5. Passed back to the client for user acceptance testing (UAT)

The process also includes automation. For example if a ticket gets raised as ‘critical’ outside of business hours, it automatically triggers a PagerDuty incident for the infrastructure team. This initiates a phone call to the on-call team member.

As part of the Service Desk offering, the team continuously updates its knowledge base (FAQs) on specific topics so people can self-serve in some circumstances if they'd prefer.

The Salsa Digital Service Desk is run by a dedicated Service Desk Manager (0.5 full-time equivalent) with two Level 1 support agents, three (0.5 equivalent) Level 2 developers and two Level 3 Technical Leads. Customers have the option to purchase service-level backed agreements (SLAs) to ensure specific response and resolution times depending on the ticket’s priority level.

The outcomes — improved customer service

• A dedicated Drupal support service desk for a wide range of client websites
• Client peace of mind — knowing someone is monitoring security patches (and other important patches) and then applying them
• A quick and easy way for website owners to organise feature enhancements
• A customised Service Desk experience that meets the needs of Drupal websites
• Quick and easy access to a team of web development experts
• Customers receive full transparency across the Service Desk , with monthly support statements that include an itemised account of service desk ‘transactions’ and details of how much a ticket cost them
• Opportunity for monthly account check-ins with the Service Desk Manager to ensure customer expectations are being met