This feature is available only in the Enterprise Edition of Endpoint Central MSP.
As a part of IT administration, you will have the need to deploy various software to various users/computers. This is not only a routine task, but also consumes a lot of your time and effort. You will have to deploy multiple software configurations to the required target. Endpoint Central MSP adds another easy approach to accomplish software deployment, by introducing Self Service Portal. Self Service Portal allows you to publish software to the target users/computers. Unlike manual software deployment, you can publish the list of software to the group (target users/computers). You can empower the users to install software based on their needs. This helps you to save a lot of time and enhances productivity.
Self Service Portal is currently supported only for Windows and Mac (version 10.8 and above) operating systems.
You will find the self service portal on the Endpoint Central MSP server by navigating to this location, Software Deployment -> Deployment -> Self Service Portal. You can create a Group which contains the target users/computers and publish the available software. Computer based and User based software can be published via self service portal. You will have to specify the software which needs to be published from the list of available software. When a software is published from the Endpoint Central MSP server, the same will be updated on the target computer during the subsequent 90 minutes refresh cycle. You can add/remove software which were published in the self service portal. When multiple versions of a software is being published, you can see multiple entries of the same software on the self service portal with the difference in its version. List of software on the self service portal will be synced once in every 90 minutes. User can also choose to sync it manually by clicking on "Sync Now" icon on the right corner of the Self Service Portal. When a software is successfully published for a computer/user for the first time, you will find self service portal added to the agent tray, start menu and as a desktop shortcut on the target computer.
To enable users to access the Self Service Portal, follow these steps:
Users will now be able to access Self Service Portal by right-clicking the agent tray icon in the system tray and selecting "Self Service Portal"
Users can access self service portal from any one of the following methods:
On opening the self service portal, users can see the list of software that are published. Users can choose to install any number of software from the self service portal. When they click on "Install" option, the installation will be initiated. When a user chooses to install more than one software at a time, installation will be initiated for the first software and the rest will be queued. Software will be deployed sequentially. When a software is installed from the self service portal, the software status will be marked as installed.
If the user has uninstalled the software manually, then the uninstallation status will not be reflected on the self service portal.
Configuring this settings will allow you to customize the way self service portal should be displayed on the managed computers. You can configure the settings from here : Software Deployment -> Settings -> Self Service Portal Settings. You can specify the options, based on which self service portal will be displayed on the agent tray, desktop shortcut or start menu. You can also choose to re-brand the icon displayed on the self service portal. You can upload your organization's logo and name, so that the same will be displayed on the managed computers. Re-branding will allow the users to easily recognize that the software is distributed by their IT team and will encourage them to use it. You can also automate the publishing process by grouping the software as commercial or non commercial. You can choose to automatically publish the non commercial software to "All Computers" group. Users can choose to install the software themselves. If you are using Endpoint Central integrated with ServiceDesk Plus, then you can choose to automatically publish commercial software to "All Computers" group. However users will have raise to request for approval, before installing the software.
.NET 4 should be installed on the managed computers, for self service portal to work. .NET 4 will be automatically installed on the managed computers, you can choose to install it on the server machines by enabling the check box, under self service settings.
You can choose to publish software to all the users, however limit the users from installing software which are not essential. If you are using Endpoint Central integrated with ServiceDesk Plus MSP, then you can choose the approval mode while publishing software, as "with approval" or "without approval". If you choose to publish software using "without approval", the users will be allowed to install the software by clicking on it. If you have chosen, to publish a software with approval, then the user will not be allowed to install the software, but can raise a request for approval. A help desk ticket will created and updated in the ServiceDesk plus, once the technician approves the request, users will be allowed to install the software. After the user installs the software, the status will be updated back to ServiceDesk Plus MSP and the help desk ticket will be closed automatically.
This feature is available only for Windows.