Blog

It’s been a while since our last update and we apologize: it’s been as chaotic here for the last few months as we know it’s been for you. We’ve taken advantage of the break from the day-to-day and built out some huge platform improvements. This update is really several updates rolled into one and is our largest so far. Hopefully, you’ll like it!

We’re very proud to announce Helpdesk Buttons Version 1.1, which is available now. The highlight is a new powerful automation and integration engine we are calling Tier2Assist. 

With Tier2Assist, you can build out custom workflows with any other website or software.  Additionally, we have broken out and improved our Dispatch Rules, and built an integration with Google Forms, which we’ve called Tier2Forms. We have added a drag-and-drop visual code editor that will help even non-coders build complex and powerful automations. We have also been tinkering with our endpoint management and added a few preview features of what it will be capable of.  All of this and a slew of quality-of-life updates are in this release.  

We’re building out a library of examples and scripts in our documentation; we hope that you’ll keep us posted with how you’re using the Tier2Tickets software and accompanying physical Helpdesk Button. As always, thanks for your insight and interest!

Read on for the full scoop: 

• Tier2Assist: Tier2Assist is an entirely new, and very big feature. It will allow you to populate a new GUI screen with additional options that the end user can select after they have submitted a ticket. The options shown are dynamic and can be displayed based on the user, the request they are making, at random or via a third party API. 

This is what it looks like to the end user: 

Something we learned early on is that everyone wants to do things a little bit differently.  As a result, we prioritized a framework that anyone could use to do whatever they want, based on any combination of diagnostic script results, API calls, and/or end-user inputs, including message text, identifying information, and selections. Some examples of things that you can do with Tier2Assist include:
 

• Launch a Scheduling Application like TimeZest or Calendly if the end user has selected “schedule an appointment”. 
• Offer to reboot the end users computer if it has been on for a long time.  
• If the user needs Office installed, allow them to remotely trigger your RMM script for their computer that installs Office. 
• Launching a chat or remote access session if they select the chat option.
• Bring them to any number of forms If they are asking for an administrative request instead of a technical one.  For example, If the user has indicated they have a new hire it takes them to our onboarding tier2forms questionnaire to find out their role and what they will need.
• At random, ask the end user to rate the quality of your service, if they rate it highly you can follow up with a link to your google reviews page and ask them to rate you there. 
• If the user is requesting training, you can direct them to their Bigger Brains account. 
• Add any messages you always want users to see: You can put links to your referral program, or employee training videos or any promotions you are running.

There is too much to list, but you get the idea.  Anything you can build you can now make self service and put in front of the user dynamically.  But what if you’re not a coder? We’ve built out visual drag-and-drop coding tools.

• Visual Drag and Drop Rule Creation

See what it looks like here: 

We’ve updated our Automation Rules to include a new visual editor that makes it easier to implement anything you can think of. You can now use our simple Blockly editors to create custom Python code that triggers bespoke Dispatcher Rules or Tier2Assist actions. Even veteran coders will find themselves switching back and forth between the raw code and the visual editor to troubleshoot and find syntax errors.  We think you’ll like it once you give it a try. 

• Dispatcher Rules. Similar to our Tier2Assist, we have reworked our Dispatcher Rules (formerly “Advanced Integrations”).  They are now more powerful and also let you use our visual code editor. Triage your tickets without a human dispatcher! Some examples: 
  • Auto-Priority Assignment
  • Triage ticket to specific queue (i.e. Printing, VPN, server)
  • Elevated Priority based on Email, Name, or Company (i.e. VIP clients)
  • De-escalate Priority based on Billing Status or other characteristic

• Tier2Forms. Our new integration with Google Forms lets you let users create or append to tickets directly from a form you’ve made in your Google account. Great for new hires/onboardings, Sales Requests, or any other processes where you need to gather extra information that you often have to chase users down to complete! Create a Google Form, link it to your Tier2Tickets account, and when users fill it out, we’ll create a ticket with that information in it. Very nice on its own, even more powerful when tied in with our Tier2Assist Automation Rules, so that forms show up when they are triggered by keyword(s) or selections.
    
• Device Management. No more dealing with a static list. Sort, search, select, and send actions to devices with our agent installed on them.
  • Filter, Select based on device attributes like Mac Address, IP, or hostname.
  • Toaster Notifications: send simple messages to endpoints of your choosing.
  • Remove and Remote Uninstall: easily remove our service from clients you’re offboarding and have no longer have access to their devices.

• Backend Updates.
  • Menu. We’ve moved our navigation menu around to flow more naturally and to better serve you. 
  • User Logs. Looking to see what your team has updated on your account and when? We keep logs on a few actions and intend to add more in the near future. Let us know if you have a request!
  • Software Management. We’ve taken your feedback and cleaned up the account set up and management so everything you need is in one place and follow a more sensical set-up. 
    • Integration Settings 
      • We’ve added fields so you can better set up your default values for incoming Tier2Tickets
      • Auto-Remove endpoints that fail to check-in for 90 days. Check this box and we’ll better help you manage your active endpoint/license relationship.
      • Opt-in for Remote Access Tool. As you know, our Remote Access Tool built on Apache Guacamole is fast and easy to use especially for backup on clients who don’t have your tools already installed. This feature is opt-in so you can choose if it’s ideal for your stack or not.
      • Add a Tier2Form connection
    • User Interface is its own page now, make your changes, and hit update to see them live!
  • Subaccount Permissions. PLEASE NOTE: In order to use many of these new features, your main account holder will need to update subaccount permissions to include Automations. Please review permissions to ensure all of your technicians can access the portions of Tier2Tickets you expect them to be able to modify. Because of the power of these new features we wanted to make them opt in, rather than just let your staff do new things with existing permissions. 
    
    
  • Tier2Scripts. Now, you can preview .ps1, .cmd, .bat, .txt files you upload within the browser. When Tier2Tickets is initiated on your user’s device, run any other diagnostic reports or tools your team values. Power up your software to append or upload any particular files or statuses you’d like to see on each report. Script in your RMM to download and install when you’re downloading and installing the Tier2Tickets MSI.

Bug Fixes:

• Endpoint Trimming: we fixed a bug where endpoints weren’t being trimmed on 90-day non-checkin. We’ve also added this as an opt-in feature.
• Fixed bug in which getting the last logged in user caused high CPU load on domain controllers
• Fixed bug in which duplicate MAC addresses were created when the software is installed on Hyper-V
• Fixed bug in which the software would launch twice on a single button press on terminal servers in which there are two open sessions of the same username
• Fixed a bug in which occasionally the conf file could become corrupt and the software unresponsive if the end-user launched the software twice in very short succession