Product version: 2024.R03L.01

New Features and Enhancements

SLAs for Problems 

Category: IT Service Management

Users can now set up SLAs for problems, enabling stronger governance and effectiveness for problem management. To enable SLAs for problems, go to My team > SLA and OLA policies and activate the toggle under the Problems tab.

Note: Enabling SLAs for problems activates the 'Due by' field, business hour policies, and email notifications for problems that breach SLAs.

Task Reordering and Dependency 

Category: IT Service Management

Users will now have the ability to reorder and define task dependencies associated with parent entities. With drag-and-drop functionality, users can seamlessly reorder tasks to match their priority and execution sequence. With automatic stack rank updates and finish-to-start dependencies, ensure flexible task management and improve process efficiency.

More details here.

Archival of Historic Tickets

Category: IT Service Management

With the addition of ticket archival functionality, users can experience faster load times while ensuring efficient ticket management, enhancing the speed and efficiency of service delivery. 

Note: Admins can now configure the duration for archival starting from March end. Automatic archival of tickets will commence in May 2024 based on the duration selected. Once archived, admins will receive email notifications confirming the action. 

More details here. 

Improved experience for ticket field suggester

Category: IT Service Management

With the new experience, users can understand ticket field suggestions better by getting a comparative view of current and suggested field values to pick what is best and most appropriate.

More details here.

Enhanced resolution note generator

Category: IT Service Management

The enhanced resolution note generator includes support for additional actions, improved analytics capabilities, and more enhancements enabling a more seamless user experience.

Here’s what we support now:

• Ability to use business rules to hide/mandate/disable resolution note field  
• Support for resolution note field in ticket APIs
• Track changes to resolution notes under activities 
• Get analytics support on resolution notes
• Export resolution notes during ticket exports

More details here.

Generate articles with ticket context using Freddy Copilot

Category: IT Service Management

With the improved help article generator, generate articles based on existing ticket context in addition to the information from public sources. Build context-rich self-serve articles that can deflect tickets with the right resolution steps captured from existing ticket conversations. 

Nested folders for an improved Knowledge Base

Category: IT Service Management

Create a well-organized and easily navigable knowledge base by nesting folders up to 10 levels deep. With the ability to nest folders to a greater depth, users can now access information quickly and efficiently, reducing search times and improving overall productivity. Categorize and subcategorize resources with ease, creating a streamlined navigation experience. 

More details here.

Easily download Analytics widgets and reports in-app

Category: IT Service Management
Users can now easily download reports and widgets within Freshservice. Multiple reports and widgets can be downloaded simultaneously as well. In cases where the download size is large, the report or widget will be sent to the user’s email ID.

Cross-module reporting in Analytics

Category: IT Service Management
Users will now be able to visualize metrics from different modules within Freshservice on a single chart. With this agents will be empowered with cross-module trends to make informed decisions.

Note: This feature will be available for all Pro, and Enterprise customers and for customers who have purchased the Freshvisuals (Analytics Pro) addon.

Fair use policy and limits for On-Call Management

Category: IT Operations Management

Users can now be assured of receiving timely on-call notifications while not being flooded by unnecessary notifications with the introduction of the fair use policy and limits for On-Call Management. The policy sets limits at the agent level on the number of notifications they can receive per channel. 

Note: This policy will come into effect from 27th March 2024. 

More details here.

Sandbox support for Status Page

Category: IT Operations Management

Enterprise customers using the Legacy Sandbox can now experiment with the Status Page feature within the sandbox environment before setting up a new page in their live production setups. This allows them to refine configurations, agent permissions, and page aesthetics, while also gaining comprehensive insight into its functionalities. This would aid in minimizing potential errors upon deployment to a broader audience.

Please note that at present, synchronization of settings between the production and sandbox environments is not available.

Configure alert expiration period

Category: IT Operations Management

Users now have greater control over alerts with the introduction of configurable alert expiration dates. Up until now, an alert that came into the system expired after a hard limit of 7 days. This meant that when a similar alert came in after 7 days, it was not aggregated as the previous alert was no longer there. With this enhancement, users will now be able to change the default value of 7 days and choose a value between 1 to 30 days. 

Alert data archival policy

Category: IT Operations Management

Users will now be able to manage alerts easily with the introduction of the alert data archival policy. With the reduced clutter, they will be able to easily access the most relevant alerts. As per this policy, if an alert hasn't been modified in the last 6 months then it will automatically be moved to an archived state. An archived state is a read-only state where a user will be able to view the alert, but will not be able to perform any actions on it. However, such alerts will be available for reporting. 

Note: We are rolling out this feature in phases, with availability to all customers expected by the end of April. 

More details here.

Enhanced view of alerts list page

Category: IT Operations Management

Users will be able to analyze alerts with greater ease with default views like "Critical & error alerts", "Unacknowledged alerts", and "Alerts acknowledged by me". They will also be able to freeze and unfreeze columns, reorder columns, change column width, and use the compact view as well.

Workflows for alerts are now available 

Category: IT Operations Management

New users of the Alert Management System will be able to resolve incidents faster with a deeper analysis of alerts using workflows. They will be able to use nested logic to simplify the execution of multiple conditions, notify individual agents when an alert is created or updated, perform actions on external systems using webhooks, and more.

Note: Existing users of the Alert Management System are requested to stay tuned to our Release Notes for updates on when they will be migrated from Alert Rules to workflows for alerts.

More details here.

Assignment History for Asset

Category: IT Asset Management
Users can now effortlessly access a detailed log showcasing the complete assignment history of assets directly from the asset inventory and requester profile. With a comprehensive asset assignment history:

• Gain a transparent view of asset usage patterns, streamlining audit procedures and ensuring accountability.
• Obtain valuable insights into asset utilization patterns, enabling more informed provisioning decisions and efficient troubleshooting processes. 

More details here.

Important update: We have updated the release timelines of this enhancement. This will be available on 5th April, 2024 instead of 27th March, 2024.
 

Asset Discovery Sources

Category: IT Asset Management

With the Asset Discovery source field, admins can now maintain a comprehensive record of all sources that have played a role in an asset's creation or modification over time. This offers a centralized and detailed view to track the diverse sources influencing the asset data with precision.

We've also revamped Freshservice Managed Asset calculations to incorporate the new Discovery Source field. Now, your managed asset calculations will be based on the Source field, ensuring accuracy and precision in asset management. 

More details here.

E-signature for generated documents via. Dropbox sign

Category: Freshservice for Business Teams

Users across HR, Legal, Finance, and Procurement (as well as in other areas such as ITSM) can sign and approve various documents, such as purchase orders, contracts, and invoices. 

With this, users can sign and approve documents quickly without the need to print, sign, and scan hard copies.

Onboarding/Offboarding attributes added to ticket API

Category: Freshservice for Business Teams

Users will now be able to consume crucial attributes around onboarding/offboarding (visible as part of ‘Description’ in the Ticket UI) through the ticket API. This would be possible with the newly added ‘onboarding context’ and ‘offboarding context’ fields. These fields would contain onboarding/offboarding-related attributes that can be added to tickets from different stakeholder forms in the onboarding/offboarding workflow. 

Workspace attributes added to serverless ticket events payload

Category: Freshservice for Business Teams

Users creating apps for Freshservice will now be able to retrieve the workspace of a ticket from the payload of certain ticket events. These events are ‘onTicketCreate’, ‘onTicketUpdate’, and ‘onConversationCreate’. This would be possible through newly added attributes ‘workspace_name’ and ‘workspace_id’

More details here

Introducing Scheduled Data Exports for Project Analytics

Category: Project Management

Users will now be able to generate detailed project reports by scheduling project data exports at any time of choice. These reports can be scheduled to be received either at an API URL or over email. 

Additionally, to enable fast project data feeds into BI platforms or custom applications for native reporting, these data exports will be incremental. Project data exports will be available for Projects, Project Tasks & Project Time Entries modules.

Note: This feature will be available for all Pro and Enterprise plan customers.

More details here.

Comprehensive project reporting with custom metrics and attributes 

Category: Project Management
Project admins and users can now create their own metrics & attributes that suit their requirements. These custom metrics and attributes can be defined and derived by applying arithmetic / logical operators and a variety of functions on existing metrics & attributes.
Note: This feature will be available for Pro and Enterprise plan customers only.

More details here.

Enhance UX with the Revamped In-product Project Analytics Homepage 

Category: Project Management
Agents can now get a better, clutter-free visual experience with easy access to Recent, Favourite, All, Curated, Owned, and Shared reports related to projects along with convenient access to Trash and Settings.

More details here.

Resolution note generator 

Category: Mobile

Agents can now add resolution notes for tickets from the mobile app to aid quick references. For customers with the Freddy co-pilot addon, this includes an AI-powered resolution note generator encompassing the root cause, actions taken, and resolution. 

Note: This feature will be available before the end of March 2024 and requires app updation.

More details here. 

Important updates

Mailbox Authentication for Custom Domain Users

Google and Yahoo have announced a new set of mandatory requirements for email senders to protect email domains, maintain healthy delivery rates, and reduce spam rates. This change will be effective from April 2024.

Who will be impacted?

All Freshservice customers who have custom domains and have not enabled SPF and DKIM will be impacted by these mandates.

What can you do?

Configure DKIM and SPF authentication and publish a DMARC record to avoid outgoing email disruptions before March 31, 2024.

More details here.

Reminders for upcoming upgrades and deprecations

Follow-up to our “Notices for new upgrades/migration activities” communication sent in Nov 2023.
The following change will be made effective by May 2024. Ensure that you’re prepared for it in your Freshservice account.

• sRollback] Incremental Data Exports in Freshservice

We will NOT be upgrading to Incremental Data Exports from May 1st, 2024 as communicated in November, 2023 and will continue to support Full Data Exports until further notice.

What can you do?

If you are currently exporting large data volumes and would prefer a faster way to get your data exports, we encourage you to try Incremental Data Exports. Please reach out to us at support@freshservice.com and we will enable it for you.

More details here.

• Discontinuation of Team Huddle

The Team Huddle feature will be discontinued by Apr 1st, 2024, as we will be focussing on our integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack, where we will continue to further enhance and add new collaboration features.

Who will be impacted?

If your agents use Team Huddle for collaboration, you will be impacted by this discontinuation.

What can you do?

Explore and transition to our Slack and MS Teams based collaboration capabilities, or stay tuned for our upcoming “Share Ticket” feature.

Reach out to support@freshservice.com if you have any questions about this change.

More details here.

• Discontinuation of the legacy Slack Servicebot App 

As the new Servicebot supports enhanced capabilities, the legacy version of Slack Servicebot app will be discontinued by May 1, 2024

Who will be impacted?

If you are currently using legacy Slack Servicebot app for ticket notifications, you will be impacted by this deprecation.

What can you do?

Please install our new Servicebot from the Freshservice Marketplace. 

More details here.

• Discontinuation of Conversational UI

As Freshservice prepares to focus only on the latest version of the support portal and collaboration platforms like Slack and MS Teams., the legacy Conversational UI platform will be discontinued by May 1, 2024.

Who will be impacted?

If your employees currently use the legacy Conversational UI interface of the support portal for their everyday requests and interactions with Freshservice, you will be impacted by this discontinuation.

What can you do?

You can choose from any of the following options: 

If you have specific use cases that you would want us to help you with, please reach your customer success manager, or write to us at support@freshservice.com.

More details here.

• Discontinuation of Canned Response Suggester & Solution Article Suggester

Since the new Reply Suggester, which is part of our currently available Freddy Copilot offering, is an enhanced version of both the Canned Response Suggester (CRS) and Solution Article Suggester (SAS), and can perform more meaningful actions, these will be discontinued by May 1, 2024.

Who will be impacted?

If you were using either CRS or SAS, you will be impacted by this discontinuation.

What can you do?

Try out the Reply Suggester feature in Freddy Copilot. It is currently on public beta and will be available as a paid feature starting Feb 5th, 2024.

Note: Users will be able to create and use canned responses and solution articles. Only the ‘suggester’ (that intuitively suggests responses or articles) will be discontinued.

If you have further queries, please write to us at support@freshservice.com. 

More details here.

Bug Fixes

These were the product defects detected, and they have now been fixed.

• Some customers were unable to edit an agent profile with a 'The page you were looking for doesn't exist.' error/page. As a result, they were unable to add any permissions to any agent.
• In Workflow Automator, the ‘copy’ icon in the execution logs of a Web Request Node was not working as expected. 
• In On-call management, we rectified an issue while viewing page 2 onwards of the on-call schedules page which required a page refresh to view the correct schedules.
• Widget exports from the Analytics module were missing data.
• Some customers were unable to use the Resolution Notes placeholder for custom fields in email notifications.
• Some agents were unable to view the list of tickets from the dashboard widget.
• Updates to certain fields in the assets module weren’t being logged in activities when the field was cleared.
• Unable to download the Discovery Probe when the Agent’s primary language is Japanese.
• Agents were unable to apply filters using custom fields in the change calendar.
• When “Can see all tickets from this department” was checked on requester profiles, an additional field called “Can see all tickets from associated departments” also appeared to be checked.