Transforming IT Service Delivery through Automation and Centralization

Founded in 2012, DeskDirector was born out of the founders’ deep understanding of the challenges faced by IT service providers and internal IT departments. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive solution that could consolidate disparate systems, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver a seamless user experience, the company set out to revolutionize how organizations manage their service delivery.

A common challenge among managed service providers (MSPs) was the inefficiency of email-based ticket management. DeskDirector’s clients, who were MSPs, struggled to provide their end-users with a centralized, user-friendly portal to manage support tickets. The constant back-and-forth through email led to confusion, lost tickets, and a suboptimal customer experience.

The application, which provided integrated ticketing, project management, and billing capabilities, had been a huge success, attracting hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses across multiple industries.

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Key Highlights

• DeskDirector serves over 500 Managed Service Provider clients.
• The company manages around 30,000 to 40,000 support tickets per client.
• They host data in 5 regional clusters, each managing 100-150 databases.
• DeskDirector leverages RavenDB to provide high-performance, scalable ticket management solutions for its clients and overcome the API limitations of the professional services automation (PSA) platforms. This is enabled by advanced features like indexing, full-text search, and data modeling.

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The DeskDirector team was managing an SQL Server database that had grown to over 1.2 TB in size, with more than 500 customer tenants. The complexity of managing schema changes, indexing, and backups had become a significant burden on the IT operations team.

However, the team struggled to manage the underlying data infrastructure as the customer base grew. Initially, the company opted for a multi-tenant architecture, where all customers shared a single database. This approach worked well during the early days but became a major pain point as the data volume and complexity increased.

Seeking a Better Approach

DeskDirector recognized the need for a solution to give their MSP clients a branded, self-service portal for their end-users. The key was integrating with the existing PSA platforms, such as ConnectWise and Autotask, the backbone of their clients’ operations.

To handle the integration with the PSA platforms, the company initially consumed the APIs directly but found that the APIs didn’t provide the necessary sorting and querying capabilities. To tackle this challenge, DeskDirector turned to RavenDB as the foundation of their application, previously evaluating several database technologies, including both relational and NoSQL options.

By leveraging RavenDB’s flexibility, they were able to create a seamless integration between their web-based application and the disparate data models of ConnectWise and Autotask.

“RavenDB offers great flexibility. We support two distinct platforms with different data models, allowing us to create separate collections and indexes for each. Additionally, we can create indexes based on the specific needs of different customers rather than creating both indexes simultaneously.”

Jason He, Lead Developer at DeskDirector

The technical approach was as follows: DeskDirector replicated the ticket data from the APIs of these PSA platforms into their own RavenDB database, allowing them to provide a rich, searchable, and user-friendly interface for end-users to manage their support requests. This approach enabled DeskDirector to overcome the limitations and performance issues of the PSA APIs, providing a superior experience for their clients and their clients’ end-users.

The technology stack:

• Backend: C#, .NET
• Frontend: Angular, HTML
• Database: RavenDB

RavenDB’s approach, which allows for creating separate databases for each tenant, perfectly fits the DeskDirector’s requirements. By leveraging indexing and querying capabilities, the team created a streamlined, high-performance CRM platform that could scale effortlessly as the customer base grew.

Streamlining Data Management

One of the most significant benefits of the RavenDB-based architecture was the ease of data management. Instead of a monolithic database, the system now consisted of hundreds of smaller, isolated databases – one for each customer.

Now, the data is split across five regional clusters to comply with data sovereignty requirements. The company has a central licensing system that manages customer subscriptions and allows the application servers to verify the customer’s license status.

“The key insight for us was that we didn’t need a true multi-tenant architecture. We wanted the ability to completely isolate each customer’s data while maintaining a centralized management and licensing system.”

Jason He, Lead Developer at DeskDirector

This level of automation saved the team significant time and effort and reduced the risk of human error and data inconsistencies. Moreover, quickly spinning up and tearing down databases as customers came and went proved a major operational efficiency.

Enabling Cutting-Edge Features

With the underlying data infrastructure taken care of, the development team focused on building innovative new features for the CRM platform. RavenDB’s rich set of capabilities, such as its faceted search and set-based data operations, empowered the team to deliver highly customized and responsive user experiences.

The ability to quickly and efficiently migrate data between different data models, a common challenge in the CRM space, was also greatly simplified thanks to RavenDB’s set-based operations feature.

The Future: Optimizing for Growth and Compliance

The introduction of data compression features and the use of RavenDB’s built-in backup and restore capabilities are being evaluated to ensure efficient disk usage and reliable data protection.

Additionally, with the increasing focus on data privacy and compliance, DeskDirector is exploring ways to leverage RavenDB’s flexibility to address regulations such as GDPR. The ability to selectively delete customer data and maintain appropriate data retention policies will be crucial as the company grows and serves clients in various regions.

DeskDirector’s success story demonstrates RavenDB’s power in supporting innovative, scalable, and user-centric software solutions. By leveraging RavenDB’s features, such as flexible data modeling, high-performance querying, and seamless data management, DeskDirector has delivered a transformative ticket management platform that empowers MSPs and their end-users.

As DeskDirector continues to evolve and expand, RavenDB remains a trusted partner in their journey, providing the stability, flexibility, and scalability needed to succeed in the dynamic world of IT service management.

About the company

DeskDirector is a leading provider of all-in-one automation and client portal software, empowering businesses across various sectors to streamline their operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive higher efficiencies.