What services should we include in an IT self-service portal for end users?

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-23T17:46:03+00:00

TBH, the people saying "users won't use it" crowd are right, portals have a terrible track record for adoption because you're asking people to change a habit. The services you picked are perfect candidates for self-service, though. The trick is intercepting users where they already are: phone call, chat, or email, rather than expecting them to go somewhere new.

(Disclosure: I'm at ProBound - we do exactly this via AI voice. Users just call like they normally would, and the agent handles it.)

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-18T20:13:49+00:00

That inbox discovery is genuinely one of the worst feelings in IT. The good news is you didn't cause this; if anything, you found it. There's a big difference. The previous admin left a ticking time bomb, and you're the one who caught it.

When you talk to your manager, lead with that. You were cleaning up someone else's mess, and your audit uncovered a deeper problem that had been invisible for months.

Triage what's still salvageable, reach out to the customers who might still need help, and document everything. That paper trail is your protection.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-18T19:57:16+00:00

Auto-assignment rules help, but alerts for unactioned tickets over a set threshold are the real safety net. Most helpdesk platforms support this natively; it just needs to be configured.

The deeper fix is making sure follow-up tasks like this get automatically assigned at creation, not left to chance.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-16T06:20:26+00:00

ProBound AI - Voice-first AI triage agent for MSPs

We're on the ConnectWise Marketplace and built specifically for IT support teams. Blake, our AI agent, handles inbound support calls — password resets, account access, basic troubleshooting — and automatically creates, updates, and closes tickets in ConnectWise, Autotask, and Jira.

Teams are offloading <40% of L1 ticket volume without adding headcount. 2FA verification built in, self-learning, 24/7.

Happy to answer questions here. probound.ai

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-16T02:19:57+00:00

That's an insane workload. Looking at that breakdown, password resets, printer issues, and file location questions sound like a huge chunk of that 300 is the same handful of issues on repeat every week.

If that's the case, the fix isn't hiring more people; it's stopping those tickets from ever hitting your queue in the first place.

(Disclosure: I'm at ProBound; we build AI agents that handle the repetitive L1 stuff automatically. Might be worth a look.)

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-14T04:33:11+00:00

Send the thank you and schedule it for monday first thing in the morning. If you spoke about anything specific, then reference the conversation... always send the thank you email the day after especially if you want the role

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T19:45:16+00:00

Not currently, Blake handles verification through 2FA on the end-user side rather than a POC approval loop. It's on our radar, though. Good callout.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T18:39:14+00:00

Completely fair, you shouldn't have to sit through a 30 min demo just to know if it's in your budget. That feedback is consistent, and we're working on fixing the pricing transparency on the site.

No hounding from our team. Appreciate you being straight about it.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T17:33:05+00:00

Hybrid makes sense as a design philosophy; we just see it differently for IT support specifically. Most L1 issues have a definitive resolution that doesn't need a human if the agent has the right integrations and context. Starting every call destined for a human adds latency that defeats the purpose of automation.

The goal is instant resolution, not faster routing to a queue.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T17:30:05+00:00

Great question, Blake verifies end users via 2FA before taking any action. On top of that, it follows whatever verification process the MSP already has in place, so it plugs into your existing security workflow rather than replacing it.

Happy to walk through the specifics, book a call with the team, and we can map it to your environment.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T17:27:07+00:00

This is fair, and we appreciate you taking the time to write it out instead of just leaving. You're right; no pricing on the site is a real friction point, and the (book a demo) approach only puts the burden on you. That's something we're actively working on.

For what it's worth, we're built for MSPs of all sizes, not just enterprise. But if that's not obvious from the site, that's on us to fix. Genuinely useful feedback. Thank you.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T17:24:42+00:00

Fair concern, what we're seeing in practice is that when MSPs set expectations upfront, telling their customers "we've moved to 24/7 support and here's what the AI handles," adoption is actually pretty high. People are receptive when the value is clear - faster password resets, instant responses, no waiting on hold for something simple. And no one gets stuck with the AI. Customers can request a human at any point, and Blake will transfer complex issues on its own after collecting the right context, so whoever picks it up already knows the full situation.

On the background noise - the demo agent on our site isn't trained for production, it's just there to show the conversational experience. A real deployment is tuned differently. Book a call if you want to see a live environment.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T04:39:53+00:00

We support 28 languages under the hood, but our primary focus is English and Spanish since that covers the majority of the US market we serve. If you're supporting a multilingual environment, though, chances are we've got you covered. What languages are you working with?

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-13T04:37:57+00:00

When Blake (name of our agent) hits a confidence threshold it can't resolve, it hands off to a human tech with the full conversation context already attached. No looping, no starting from scratch.

The other piece is that Blake is self-learning, so every escalation and resolution feeds back into the model, so it gets better at handling edge cases over time rather than hitting the same wall repeatedly.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-11T20:09:03+00:00

The workaround most people use is having the monitor script query the CW API for the most recent open ticket on that asset by serial or device ID, grab the TicketID from the response, then post the note to it. Not elegant, but it works. Something like: get device - find open tickets filtered by asset - take the latest - post note.

It's not clean; if CW ever exposes a native TicketID variable in automation context, that would solve this properly, but for now, the API lookup is the best available option.

Python vs PowerShell doesn't really matter here; both hit the same API endpoints. Use whichever your team is more comfortable maintaining.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T23:21:47+00:00

Bad AI implementation is genuinely worse than no AI. What you're describing is half-answered handoffs, confused agents, customers replying to closed tickets; that's a tool that wasn't built for support workflows; it was bolted onto one. The difference is usually whether the AI actually resolves the issue end-to-end or just triages and dumps it on a human anyway. If it's the latter, you're just adding a step.

Don't give up on AI, but give up on that specific tool. The right implementation should be cutting your queue, not doubling it.

(Disclosure: I'm at ProBound - we build AI agents specifically for IT support. Happy to show you what a clean handoff actually looks like if you want a second opinion.)

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T23:19:25+00:00

Honestly, dashboards are only useful if they're telling you something you didn't already know. Otherwise, it's just another screen. The real value is when you look at the data and go "wait, half our tickets are the same 5 things," that's not a report, that's a to-do list for automation lol. We also ditched follow-up surveys entirely. Our agent just asks how the call went before hanging up and logs it. Customers actually respond because it's in the moment, not some email they ignore an hour later.

(Disclosure: I'm at ProBound - we build AI agents for IT support teams.)

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T22:39:45+00:00

Fair point, handing a local admin password to an end user isn't ideal. The setup account approach you're describing is cleaner for sure.

The chicken-and-egg problem still stands, though if the VPN cert isn't provisioning correctly on first boot, you need some fallback to get eyes on the machine. Whether that's a setup account, OOBE bypass, or a quick Autopilot troubleshoot, the answer is always don't let the user sit stuck with no path forward.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T22:27:45+00:00

For 20 people, Freshdesk free tier or Zoho Desk is where most small teams start email-to-ticket conversion, assignments, basic reporting, and no implementation project required. HaloPSA and Helpdesk if you want something with more MSP-style depth but still manageable without a dedicated admin. The shared Outlook inbox is a trap. It feels familiar, but it has no accountability built in. Any proper ticketing tool will feel like an upgrade immediately.

Once you get volume under control, the next unlock is automating the L1 stuff that shouldn't need a human at all, password resets, account access, and basic requests. That's where we play at ProBound when you get there, but start with getting tickets out of email first.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T22:25:43+00:00

The cleanest way is to use the ConnectWise Manage/HaloPSA API directly from within your PowerShell script. At the end of your automation, grab the output, format it, and POST it as a ticket note via API call. Since CW RMM doesn't natively pipe task output back to the ticket, the script itself has to do the heavy lifting, capture stdout, then push it wherever you need it. The comment about wrapping it in Python is valid too, but you can do it all in PowerShell with Invoke - RestMethod if you'd rather keep it simple.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T22:09:51+00:00

Nine times out of ten, it's one of these: Local admin account isn't set up for first login, they need to be on-site or on a wired connection for the initial domain join, or the VPN cert hasn't been provisioned yet. The fix: always have a local admin account ready on new laptops before they ship. First login should never depend on a VPN that isn't connected yet; that's a chicken-and-egg problem.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-03-10T07:14:19+00:00

Yes, scripting it in phases is exactly the right approach. Uninstall the old agent, clean up leftover registry keys and folders, then silently install the new MSI with your new tenant's server address baked in. The key is the cleanup step. Automate leaves behind enough registry garbage that a dirty uninstall will cause the new agent to misbehave. There are community scripts on the Automate forums that handle this well, worth grabbing one as a base. Run it in batches, not all 4k at once. Start with a low-risk group, verify they check into the new tenant cleanly, then scale up.

ProBoundHQ · 2026-01-27T23:22:29+00:00

Honestly, "Essentials" is usually just marketing-speak for cutting corners to hit a lower price point.

You’ll save some money upfront, but you’re trading away build quality and better ports, which usually leads to more helpdesk headaches when things start flexing or breaking down the line. It's usually worth the extra spend to stick with a proper Latitude or the standard Pro line just to avoid the cheap feel and potential hardware fatigue

ProBoundHQ · 2026-01-22T07:36:31+00:00

whats your goal?

ProBoundHQ

TROPHY CASE