Mastering Service Delivery: Service Coordinator as an Autotask Admin
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Editor’s Note: Stephen has been writing this blog for years, and I have had the privilege of providing a bit of color commentary and a few tweaks here and there for at least 3 of that. The article below and the ones before it has been full of MSP GOLD. Literally, at no cost, a blueprint for growing your MSP, improving service delivery, and growing raving fan Clients.
I made the mistake as an MSP owner of not taking advantage of as much information as I could, and my selling price reflected that. I type this from the campground of a NASCAR track. Many of these articles have been edited from various racetracks or vacation spots. The knowledge that Stephen has imparted has allowed working remotely as a convenience and NOT a requirement.
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In the dynamic world of IT service delivery, the Service Coordinator often stands at the nexus of Client satisfaction and operational efficiency. Beyond managing daily queues, a Service Coordinator with strong Autotask administrative skills can significantly enhance service quality and streamline workflows. These key Autotask admin functions empower this critical role:
Workflow Rules: Automating Your
Service Delivery
Workflow rules are the backbone of Autotask automation. For a Service Coordinator, understanding and managing these rules is paramount. Without proper maintenance, workflow rules can become a "tangled mess," hindering efficient ticket processing. Regularly performing a "workflow rule impact study," ideally on a quarterly basis, helps clean up inactive or unused rules and ensures all automated mechanisms, including Client-facing communications, function as intended. This proactive approach transforms chaos into a more "Zen working environment."
The review process is:
Step 1: Copy the WFRs screen and paste it into an Excel Spreadsheet.
Step 2: Copy the Header and WFRs to a clean tab or Spreadsheet
Making sure not to copy the Autotask Filter Row – you cannot delete, modify, or use the Autotask filter in Excel
Step 3: Go thru the WFRs rule by rule and make sure they are all:
In fine working order (have fired in the last 30 days)
All Active (delete any that are inactive as it is faster to create new ones than to figure out what the old ones were doing)
Configured correctly (do what you want/need them to do)
Admin Module: Your Command Center
The Admin Module is your central hub for configuring Autotask. While comprehensive, a Service Coordinator should familiarize themselves with key areas like "account settings and users," "feature settings," and "extensions and integrations." Bookmarking frequently accessed sections, such as the admin module itself, ensures quick navigation.
While we do not expect the Service Coordinator to be a master Autotask System Administrator (it’s certainly a good idea, though, especially to grow your career), there are many functions that need to be done day in and day out, and they are best to know. Things like:
Giving Clients Client Portal access
Fixing, adjusting, or killing WFRs
Fixing or adjusting dashboards or Advanced Live Reports; including scheduling and publishing reports
Incoming Email Processing: Streamlining Ticket Intake
Incoming Email Processing (IEP) is vital for efficient ticket creation from Client emails. Service Coordinators can configure parsers to manage how emails are converted into tickets. Key settings include:
Attachment Filtering: Set pixel limits (e.g., 100x100 or 350x350) to remove signature junk like LinkedIn icons.
Account Matching: Enable "account contact matching the email subject and body" to prevent tickets from being thrown into a "zero account," improving accuracy and reducing manual triage.
Default Settings: Assign a default status (e.g., new), priority (e.g., medium), and queue (e.g., triage queue or monitoring alert).
Notifications: Critically, avoid sending failure notifications to the email originator (the Client). Instead, direct internal failure notifications to yourself or a designated team to investigate before communicating with the Client. Similarly, acknowledge successful ticket creation via workflow rules, not directly through IEP, to maintain control over communication timing and content.
Machine to Machine Email Processing: Taming Alerts
For machine-generated alerts (e.g., backups, RMM, AV), dedicated IEP parsers are crucial to prevent your main triage queue from being overwhelmed. The sources recommend setting up separate alert queues, such as a "master monitoring alert queue," "backup cues," and "other alert cues," to filter out noise. Techs can then pre-triage these alerts, forwarding only those requiring engagement to the main triage queue. When setting up these parsers, ensure the machine's email includes the Client name in the body to enable accurate account matching.
Holiday Sets: Essential for Accurate SLAs
Holiday sets are a small but impactful administrative task. They are critical for the accuracy of SLA automation, resource utilization reports, time sheets, and time entries. Service Coordinators should ensure these are updated annually, typically in early January, as Autotask leverages these dates for many core functions. The historical date stamp of holidays is captured within the relevant records, so you only need to maintain one current set in the system.
Client Portal Access: Empowering
Self-Service
The Autotask Client Portal offers a "win-win" by giving Clients some control and buy-in without constantly bothering service staff. While the user experience is continually improving, it's "worth setting up and encouraging your Clients to do it". Service Coordinators can manage Client portal accounts, enable "Client early access" for automatic awareness, and customize security levels (e.g., Manager, Basic, Advanced) to control permissions. The portal allows Clients to create new tickets (including quick tickets), view existing tickets, and access dashboards. Recent improvements even allow creating tickets directly from dashboard widgets. It's generally advised not to show the assigned Tech or time spent on tickets in the portal.
Recurring Tickets: Proactive Maintenance & Workload Balancing
Recurring tickets are highly valuable for proactive maintenance programs, like "network administration visits." They help drive down reactive "break-fix" tickets and can even generate professional services opportunities. Autotask offers two primary types:
Just-in-Time: Tickets are created just before their due date, allowing for flexible scheduling and balancing the workload across Techs by creating tickets on Monday with a Friday due date.
Scheduled with Service Calls: These block out specific times in calendars for scheduled on-site or remote visits, providing clear visibility for availability reports.
Service Coordinators can use recurring tickets to balance workload across resources by assigning tickets to different primary and secondary Techs within the recurring master setup. Additionally, SLAs can be paused by setting the ticket status to "on hold" when creating service calls in advance, preventing premature SLA clocking.
Summary and Next Steps
By mastering these Autotask admin functions, Service Coordinators can significantly enhance their team's efficiency, improve Client experience, and drive better service outcomes. From automating workflows to managing recurring tickets, these skills empower Service Coordinators to transform chaos into a streamlined, proactive service delivery environment. Embrace these tools and watch your operational efficiency soar.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. Now it’s time to get ahead while others waste time. Take your MSP operations to the next level. Dive deeper into our series on MSP Evolution and discover more strategies to streamline your processes and enhance service delivery. Check out our latest articles on monitoring chaos, workload rebalancing, and automation. Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive insights and tips to keep your MSP ahead of the curve. Go watch some YouTube videos. Read “Unshackled.”
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