TOPdesk administrator leaving: how to secure the knowledge

In many organisations TOPdesk runs on the knowledge of a single functional administrator. While that person is there, it hardly shows. Only when they leave does it become clear what lived in their head, arrived in their mailbox or ran on their account. The notice period is the time to record it.

Documentation belongs in the environment itself

What is configured shows in TOPdesk. Why it was set up that way is rarely written down, and that is exactly what gets lost. Think of the reason behind a category, or agreements that were never put in writing.

Record that explanation in TOPdesk's Knowledge Management rather than a personal folder. Knowledge items are visible in the Operator Section by default, and in the TOPdesk SelfServicePortal only if you set that up. A short explanation per area is worth more than a complete manual that never gets finished.

Accounts and permissions

Start with the administrator. Anyone marked as an administrator on their operator card has full authorisation for all processes. Only an operator who is an administrator can assign administrator permissions. If the person leaving is the only one, set up a second administrator first and have them log in.

With the All selections and All reports permissions you can see the selections and reports the administrator saved as personal. Share the ones colleagues use with all operators or a permission group.

Check My TOPdesk too, TOPdesk's customer portal. If the administrator is the main contact there, in TOPdesk SaaS they alone can delete contact persons or change the contact information profile. Agree who takes over that role.

Integrations, imports and automated actions

Integrations running on the administrator's account end up tied to an archived account once they leave. So archive their operator card only once nothing runs on it any more. In TOPdesk SaaS you find such accounts in the Operator licence overview (Modules > Supporting Files > Overview > Operator licences). Filter on API account and application password. An ordinary operator with an application password points to an API integration.

From now on, run such integrations on an API account. That is a service account that cannot log in to the Operator Section and counts as free in the licence overview. Its application token is shown once, at creation, and you give it an expiration date. Record that date and who renews the token.

Then look under Settings > Import settings, which holds the Supporting Files and Asset Management imports and the mail import. If the mail import uses Microsoft Graph, it needs an app registration in Microsoft Entra ID with a client secret or certificate. Record who manages that registration and when the secret or certificate expires.

In Action Management, the Automated Actions overview shows each action's last execution status and who last changed it. Action sequences authenticate with an application token or through an integration client, and the credentials are stored in connections. Check which connections use the administrator's account.

Imports, the mail import and automated actions all have failure notifications, with one or more recipients. If only the departing administrator's address is listed, nobody notices when something goes wrong.

Work in progress

List the open cards on which the administrator is the operator, such as calls, changes and change activities. Reassign them while they can still explain where things stand. In Change Management an operator can only be selected if the matching task, such as Change Coordinator, is ticked on their card. Check that task for whoever takes over the work.

Also ask about what exists nowhere as a card, such as a half-changed form or a request already promised. Otherwise those loose ends surface later, with someone who does not know where they came from.

Knowledge of releases

TOPdesk SaaS receives new and updated features continuously. The release notes are under the TOPdesk menu > Help > Product News and at releasenotes.topdesk.com. According to TOPdesk's SaaS information, high-impact changes are announced there six months in advance.

Have the departing administrator list the announcements they were following and which ones affect your environment. One example is the change that gives operators without a person card one of their own; TOPdesk says it also affects integrations using the API. Sign the successor up for the Product Update newsletter. Keeping up with TOPdesk releases explains how to check what each update means for your configuration.

Handover checklist

• A second administrator has been set up and has logged in.
• The configuration and the reasons behind it are recorded in Knowledge Management.
• Personal reports and selections that others use have been shared.
• The main contact role in My TOPdesk has been handed over.
• Integrations, imports and automated actions are listed, each with its account, the expiry date of its token or secret, and an owner.
• Integrations that ran on a personal account now use an API account.
• Failure notifications go to an address that stays.
• Open cards have been reassigned, and half-finished configuration is completed or described.
• Announced changes that affect you are described.
• Only then is the operator card archived.

A successor or outsourcing

With an internal successor, the handover works best with a period of overlap. Otherwise, the completed checklist is where the successor starts. With Copy operator profile you copy the permission groups, operator groups, Quick Launch bar, dashboards and filters of an existing operator to the new card. Check the tasks and the administrator setting separately afterwards.

The other route is outsourcing functional management. An external party takes over the work, while the environment, the data and the accounts remain yours. Which form fits, including a mix of both, is covered in Outsourcing TOPdesk administration: when it pays off.

If your functional administrator is leaving, we can use the overlap to take over the knowledge that would otherwise leave with them. After that you choose: we take over the administration, or we pick up the work that stays open until you have found a successor. See TOPdesk Functional Management for how that works.