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TOPdesk functional management, arranged structurally
An ITSM tool nobody maintains slides backwards on its own: the configuration falls behind the organisation, releases pile up and the reporting stops adding up. Functional management is the work that prevents that. With us you can arrange it in two ways — and they stand apart from each other.
What functional management of TOPdesk involves
Not keeping the server running — TOPdesk does that itself in the cloud. Functional management is about the configuration: whether the tool still does what the organisation needs.
Keeping the configuration current
Categories, operator groups, permissions, standard solutions and forms. A reorganisation or a new department changes the configuration; if that does not happen, calls end up in the wrong place.
Working through releases
TOPdesk ships updates several times a year. Someone has to read the release notes, test what touches your configuration and decide what to switch on. Otherwise you are two years behind on functionality you wanted all along.
Keeping processes aligned
Incident, change and problem management only work when the tool supports them the way they were designed. That means maintaining workflows, escalations and target times.
Self-service portal and knowledge base
The portal is the face of the IT department. Forms that are wrong, a knowledge base that is out of date and searches that return nothing send people straight back to the phone.
Integrations and automation
Integrations with HR, Active Directory or an asset source, and automation through Events and Actions. Manual work that comes back every week can almost always be automated.
Reporting that adds up
Numbers you can steer on: resolution times, workload, recurring calls. Reporting nobody trusts is worse than no reporting at all.
Two ways to arrange it
They do not exclude each other and nothing locks you in. The difference is what you buy: ongoing administration or a delivered project.
Managed Services
You buy an outcomeA fixed monthly amount covering the administration: Monitor, Managed or Fully Managed. We plan the work, we watch the releases, and under Fully Managed we account for response time and user experience.
- From half a day to four days a week
- A fixed monthly rate, on a term of 6 or 12 months
- AureaDesk Pro dashboard included
- Fully Managed adds an SLA and the Expertise Desk
TOPdesk consultancy
You buy a projectConfiguring a module, building an integration, running a migration or getting the reporting in order. Work with its own scope and a deliverable, which does not come back every month. That can be a single assignment or a series that grows out of the first.
- A prepaid bundle or a quoted project plan
- No subscription, no term
- You decide what gets delivered
- Available separately from a management package
What comes past in a normal month
Functional management is not a project with an end date. It is a fixed way of working: the same round every month, so that a backlog never builds up rather than having to be cleared later.
Every month we follow the same route: carry out the open changes, check the TOPdesk release notes against your configuration, look at workload and resolution times in the dashboard, trace recurring calls and make one improvement that brings the number of calls down. At the end of the month there is a report saying what happened and what was left.
That way of working is the first thing to go when functional management is a task somebody does “on the side”. Not because they cannot do it, but because the day's calls always come first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between functional and application management of TOPdesk?
Functional management is about whether the configuration still matches what the organisation needs: processes, forms, permissions, reporting. Application management is about the layer underneath: integrations, APIs, imports and whether an update breaks anything. With TOPdesk in the cloud those two largely coincide in practice, and we do both. What is left of genuinely technical management — servers, backups, availability — TOPdesk does itself.
How many hours of functional management does an organisation need?
It varies a great deal. It depends on the number of operators, how many modules you use, how many integrations are in place and how much changes in the organisation. And on how the configuration stands today and where you want to take it. The TOPdesk quick scan gives a grounded answer in sixty minutes, and it is free.
Our administrator is leaving in two months. What now?
That is the moment to call, not the week after they have gone. During the overlap we can take over the knowledge that would otherwise walk out with them: why the configuration is the way it is, which agreements hold informally and where the loose ends are. After that you can choose: a package that takes over the administration, or consultancy for the work that would otherwise wait until you have recruited.
Do you work alongside an in-house administrator?
That is exactly what Managed is for. You decide where our hours go; we pick up the backlog, the configuration they are stuck on and the weeks when nobody is there. Coaching is part of it and comes from the same hours.
Our TOPdesk has only just gone live. Do we need functional management already?
Especially then. An implementation is a project: a team is assigned, there is a budget and there is a day it is finished. The administration that follows has none of that — it runs on, week after week. The first requests arrive shortly after go-live, exactly when there is no settled way of working yet to pick them up.
Does the environment stay ours if we outsource the administration?
Yes. With every package the client remains the owner of the environment, the data, the licences and the accounts. The TOPdesk contract is in your name, not ours. Our administrator accounts are personal and named, so your own logging always shows who changed what; on termination you revoke them yourself.
How do we see what has been done?
Every unit of time spent is recorded with a description of the work. You get a monthly statement and can request it at any point in between. On top of that the AureaDesk dashboard runs on your own data: resolution times, workload and recurring calls are visible live, not only in a monthly report.
What happens if we stop?
In the final month we hand over free of charge: documentation of the configuration, all integrations and accounts listed, and a handover conversation with whoever takes it on. Everything we configure sits in your own environment rather than in a folder at our end, so nothing walks out with us.
Start with a free TOPdesk quick scan
Sixty minutes online looking at the configuration together. You get concrete improvement points and an estimate of how much administration your environment actually needs. No obligation, including when you buy nothing afterwards.
An hour on your TOPdesk environment?
The TOPdesk quick scan is free and without obligation: one online session of about an hour in which we walk through your environment together. You leave with concrete improvement points, even if you buy nothing further.