Freshservice implementation

I selected, deployed, and operate Freshservice as the company's integrated IT service management platform. It replaced a spreadsheet-based asset inventory and ad-hoc ticketing with one ITIL-aligned system now operating at thousands of tickets a year across incident, problem, change, request, asset, and knowledge management for more than 1,000 employees across 80+ offices in North America.

More than "we use Freshservice." The unified service-delivery platform that turned IT operations from a tools-and-spreadsheets posture into a managed service: every ticket categorized and tracked, every asset inventoried with assignment / warranty / cost, a structured knowledge base, and a Power BI reporting layer running on top.

Pre-Freshservice state

When I took the IT Manager role in October 2022, the inherited service-delivery posture was a fragmented set of tools without unified workflows:

• Asset inventory on spreadsheets, with no centralized assignment, warranty tracking, vendor/purchase-cost record, or lifecycle status. Reconciling who had what computer required asking around or guessing at filenames.
• No ITSM ticketing platform in the modern sense. IT requests came in through email and Teams DMs; no shared queue, no SLA visibility, no historical record, no category data.
• No structured knowledge base. Repeated questions got repeat answers; no Tier-1 deflection mechanism.
• No service-delivery metrics to bring to leadership.

Platform selection

Selected Freshservice after evaluation. The selection rationale prioritized:

• Native ITIL alignment for the six service-management domains (incident, problem, change, request, asset, knowledge management).
• Asset management built into the same product as ticketing, so the asset record and the ticket about it live in the same place.
• A knowledge base that supports structured folder taxonomy and end-user-facing publication for Tier-1 deflection.
• A REST API surface that would support downstream reporting and AI integration.

Asset inventory transformed

Migrated the entire asset estate off spreadsheets into Freshservice with structured records. The live inventory spans the full computer fleet (laptops, desktops, servers), monitors, docks, access points, firewalls, switches, per-office ISP circuits with speed, vendor, and account details, security keys, and the long tail of peripherals.

Every asset record carries assignment to a user, location, acquisition date, end-of-life date, warranty expiry, cost, vendor, and hardware identifiers, plus circuit and account details for ISP connections. This is the source-of-truth inventory that onboarding, offboarding, M&A integration, and the legacy server replacement program all run against.

Vendor relationships tracked: Dell as the corporate hardware standard plus Amazon, CDW, a Meraki reseller, Dell Outlet, and eBay for refurb where appropriate.

Knowledge base as a discipline

Articles organized by tool and topic across every IT domain: Microsoft 365 (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive), endpoints (laptops, desktops, peripherals, printers), networks and ISP info, phones, software and SaaS apps, line-of-business systems, scripts and automation, onboarding/offboarding, security policies, identity, FAQ, and general knowledge.

Most of the library is authored personally. A second IT technician has become a substantial contributor under mentorship, and a third contributor, more recently onboarded, is ramping.

Articles cover both end-user-facing how-tos (for Tier-1 deflection) and IT-internal procedures. The fact that two more authors now contribute is itself the outcome of an editorial discipline that did not exist before.

Ticket operation

Thousands of tickets a year, with volume growing every year as acquisitions land and MSP scope comes in-house.

Top categories by lifetime volume: software, email, HR, Entra ID, purchasing, hardware issues, cloud services, printing and scanning, network, alerts, and laptop provisioning.

Incidents outnumber service requests roughly two to one, with only a couple of Major Incidents in the platform's entire history.

Roughly a third of the lifetime ticket volume handled personally on top of strategy work, by deliberate choice to keep hands on the operational ground rather than living purely above it. A dedicated technician is the deskside / L1-L2 lead and handles the majority share.

Reporting infrastructure on top

Two independent things read this platform. Freshservice reporting infrastructure is the executive layer: Power BI connected directly to the Freshservice REST API, years in continuous service. The AI-augmented IT operations platform is separate, later work built for the IT team on its own Postgres backbone. They share a source system and nothing else.

Outcome

• ITSM operating model in place across all six service-management domains on one platform with consistent workflows.
• Asset inventory transformed from spreadsheets to live records with full assignment, warranty, vendor, and cost tracking.
• A knowledge base in production across every IT domain. Tier-1 deflection where there was none. Multiple authors contribute under shared editorial discipline.
• Every ticket categorized and tracked; SLA visibility, queue prioritization, and executive-level reporting now exist.
• Reporting infrastructure layered on top of the REST API, giving leadership and the IT team fast answers from live data.
• Provisioning time compressed from hours to minutes for new-user onboarding.