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Photography: Robin Kuijs

PATrICk MACkAAIJ
is an information distribution coordinator. He is specialized in technical issues and optimizing processes.

ARE YOU READY TO CELEBRATE?

For the last couple of years, TOPdesk has offered free bespoke work to give your own installation a temporary festive makeover. Examples of this include the recent Christmas bespoke work, but also themes to celebrate the Olympics. The bespoke work is easy to install and remove.

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Here at the TOPdesk office, we naturally use our software to support you. During the holiday season a few years ago, employees came up with the idea to give the software a festive theme for Sinterklaas, a holiday celebrated on 5 December in Belgium and the Netherlands. After receiving enthusiastic feedback from colleagues and customers, we decided to create Christmas bespoke work as well. After all, Sinterklaas is only celebrated in two countries. The Christmas theme would let people all over the world give their TOPdesk a festive look in December.

Behind the scenes

At TOPdesk, we do our very best to ensure that the bespoke work is available on time. We start with a brainstorm about the possibilities. Afterwards, our graphic designers get started on creating a design. We try to incorporate yearly variation in the bespoke work, and take into account our multilingual software and user base. Our Customer Solutions team converts the design into a zip file with bespoke work for the prevailing TOPdesk versions. Testers make sure the bespoke work and TOPdesk function correctly with the latest versions of the three biggest web browsers.

Holidays and events

It has now become tradition to regularly release themes. We are currently designing a new look and feel for the following holidays and events: Football European and World Cups Olympic Games (winter and summer) Halloween (new in 2014!) With our latest version of the European/World Cup bespoke work, we went a step further. In addition to the special football TOPdesk look and feel, you could also display the latest results for the games and groups.

Installing the bespoke work

Once the bespoke work is available, you can find it on the TOPdesk Extranet. The description of the bespoke work lists the most important system requirements. If you have a TOPdesk acceptance environment, we advise you to use this to test the bespoke work in your own environment. Despite our careful process, it is possible for something unexpected to happen with bespoke work. The installation steps are described in the readme file included with the bespoke work. In practice it boils down to selecting the bespoke work zip file in the Administrator Console and restarting TOPdesk. Look and feel bespoke work can run alongside other customer solutions or add-ons. When installing the bespoke work, TOPdesk automatically checks whether files overlap with installed customer solutions. If this is the case, you will receive a warning. If you use several TOPdesk environments, you probably use the adjustable TOPdesk look and feel colours to differentiate between the various installations. Keep in mind that using this bespoke work will overwrite these colours. You can deactivate and remove the bespoke work via the Administrator Console.

Supported web browsers and TOPdesk versions

The temporary bespoke work is intended to be and should remain just a little something, so we only test it on the most prevalent web browsers and TOPdesk versions. In practice, the bespoke work works on the latest and second-latest released version of TOPdesk. In terms of web browsers, we limit ourselves to the latest version of the three most used web browsers. The readme file included with the bespoke work lists which versions have been tested.

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TOPdesk in your house style

In addition to festive themes, you can also give TOPdesk a custom look and feel that matches your organizations house style. Your application manager can upload your organizations logo and adjust the title and background colour for TOPdesk in the Functional Settings. Many customers use these options to visually distinguish the various TOPdesk installations within their organization. We can deliver a bespoke work zip file for you based on a specific design (for a fee). You can contact the Customer Solutions team for an estimate of the costs and duration. If you have an idea for your own TOPdesk look and feel, we can translate this to a custom design.

Editorial
Want to comment? Go to www.scribd.com/TOPdesk The TOPdesk Magazine covers subjects that are topical in the world of professional service desks in IT, facilities and other service providing organizations. TOPdesk Magazine is intended for managers, service desk employees, facilities organizations and electronic city councils anyone who is involved with supporting clients on a daily basis. This concerns both the processes and the technology behind these services. TOPdesk Magazine is a TOPdesk publication Tel: +44 (0) 207 803 4200 Email: editorial@topdesk.com Editor-in-chief: Milou Snaterse Editors: Nienke Deuss, Timme Hos, Stefanie Klaassen, Milou Snaterse Translators: Leah Clarke Contributors: Jan Dijkshoorn, Raoul Eggen, Ron van Haasteren, Fiona IJkema, Patrick Mackaaij, Niek Steenhuis, Bram Verheij Layout: Louise van der Laak Photography: Menno van der Bijl, Aad Hoogendoorn, Robin Kuijs Copy editor: Leah Clarke A print run of 7,500 Quarterly magazine Languages: Dutch, English

When is the bespoke work available?

We communicate the availability of the themed bespoke work via a number of channels: social media, our website and the TOPdesk Extranet. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.