Please reference in conjunction with our article How Service Desk Requests are Prioritized. With the release of the Electric User Hub, Electric is now realizing a true Priority Service Model based on urgency and impact. This support model is used by best-in-class Service Desk solutions across the world today as it reduces the number of chat interactions necessary to gather actionable information, leading to more efficient and timely request execution.
Introduction
Electric's approval process is essential to customer security and trust. Approvers are contacted by Electric frequently, as many of the requests made by end-users have financial or security implications of some kind. It's important to align the proper employees to review these requests so that they can be actioned quickly and accurately.
The number of approvers designated by your company may vary based on the number of applications you use, types of licenses you purchase, etc. We recommend having 3-5 approvers to ensure efficient engagement. Employees in roles like IT Managers, Department Heads, People Team Leads, and Operations Directors make effective approvers.
Types of Approvers
General Approvers (GA) are the stakeholders responsible for reviewing requests related to purchases of licenses or hardware and access/permissions changes. They may also be referred to as Primary Approver(s) and Approver(s). Primary approvers, unless otherwise noted, will be contacted first and most frequently.
Hardware Approvers (HA) are the stakeholders responsible for reviewing requests related to procurement, device repair, and inventory. Depending on the size and structure of your team, you may decide to have anywhere from 1-3 people to facilitate these requests.
Application Admins (AA) are the stakeholders responsible for approving or revoking access to applications that are not supported by Electric during onboarding and off-boarding. The number of these approvers that your company has will vary based on the number of unsupported applications used.
When are Approvals Needed?
This section outlines the most common requests that Electric will need to contact an Approver for, as well as which approver type (GA, HA, and/or AA) will be consulted.
Access Requests (GA)
Adding or removing a user(s) from an email group(s)
Inviting a user(s) to SaaS applications
Providing a user(s) access to accounts belonging to other users
Password resets for an account/computer that does not belong to the requester
Entering local administrator credentials for standard user accounts
Updates to SaaS Applications (GA)
Editing information such as email account names, Slack channel or group names
Changing permissions and privileges
Changing settings to any platform in a company that will affect a user(s)
Managing licenses, including adding and removing licenses
Financial Matters (GA)
Ordering hardware and accessories
Procuring SaaS licenses
Device pickup/shipping
Device Repairs
Onboarding or Off-boarding (GA, AA)
Onboarding or Off-boarding an employee(s)
Making changes to an onboarding(s) and/or off-boarding(s)
Granting or revoking application access for an end-user
Hardware Requests (GA, HA)
Provisioning or re-provisioning
Decommissioning of any device
On-Site Projects (GA)
Setting up new Voice Over IP phones at a company
Large-scale data migrations/upgrades
Any project that requires the PM team to be involved
Any request that is labor intensive and needs to be billed separately
Network Changes (GA)
Changing credentials, including WiFi passwords
Renaming the SSID
Rebooting the router
Upgrading firmware to network equipment
Making service changes to current ISP contracts
MDM Requests (GA)
Any additions or changes to your MDM instances, including application deployments and policy updates.
How are Approvers Contacted?
Any ticket that requires approval now goes through a systematic workflow within the Electric Service Desk portal at help.portal.electric.ai. Approver(s) will receive the request via email with an Approve/Reject button. If rejected, the ticket is closed and the user is informed the organization rejected their request. If approved, the user gets a response and the ticket is then put in the queue for action. All approvers will be informed of the approval/rejection in a separate email.
Approval Timelines
As an Approver, it is important tickets are actioned in a timely manner. These are timelines to be aware of when receiving an approval request:
You will receive two follow-ups to approve a request before a ticket is closed. These automated follow-ups will be sent two and four hours after the initial approval request.
If the approval request is still unanswered after 24 hours from the second approval follow-up, the ticket is closed.
The 24-hour timer will only be in effect Monday through Friday from 9:00 am - 9:00 pm ET. While you will not receive approval requests during non-working hours and on the weekend, you can approve requests at your convenience.
This timeline pertains to all approval requests.
You will see an email with the HELP case number and the Subject Line of the original ticket submission.
If you have questions regarding an approval request you receive, Electric recommends approving the request and adding notes to the request. You will be redirected to the original ticket where you can add notes and ask questions. Notes associated with a Rejection will not be seen by the Electric team.
If you have additional questions/feedback regarding the approval workflow, please contact the Electric Product Support team at product-support@electric.ai.
Need to add or remove an approver? Contact your Customer Success Manager.