Years ago, when I served as Senior Director of IT for a $3 billion division that had recently been carved out through private equity, I faced a problem familiar to many technology leaders: we had a small IT staff but global systems that needed to stay up 24/7.
Commercial monitoring and help desk solutions existed, but most were outrageously expensive and didn’t offer the flexibility or escalation logic we needed. So, rather than compromise, we decided to build our own.
Automating Escalations and Server Monitoring
- Our goal was simple — prevent downtime, especially on weekends and holidays when coverage was thin.
- We designed a custom .NET-based application with a SQL Server backend called HDPlus (Help Desk Plus).
Here’s how it worked:
- HDPlus continuously monitored key systems.
- If a server’s disk space dropped below a defined threshold, it automatically created a help desk ticket.
- The system then alerted the on-call technician assigned to that server.
- If there was no response within 15 minutes, the ticket automatically escalated to the next level — first the manager, then the director, and ultimately to me if needed.
This automation ensured that critical systems supporting global operations never went down due to something as simple as a full drive. Over time, HDPlus saved us from multiple potential outages without expanding staff.
Built-In Change Control — All data center activity required an approval change control.
In my career, I’ve always been a firm believer in rigorous change control.
HDPlus incorporated a robust change control module.
- Each change request was submitted through HDPlus and tagged as a change control ticket.
- The system automatically notified all stakeholders based on predefined tables of responsibility.
- Recipients could approve or reject the change from any device — even mobile.
- A change requires an odd number of approvals to ensure clear consensus.
- Even non-approvers could be included for awareness, ensuring no surprises when changes went live.
This approach turned change control into both a governance mechanism and a communication tool, improving transparency and coordination across teams.
We held weekly change control meetings to approve or disapprove a change.
Integrated Asset Management
HDPlus also served as a comprehensive asset management system.
It tracked every device in our data centers and facilities, including:
- Asset tags, serial numbers, and installation dates
- Hardware specs, firmware versions, and support contacts
- Maintenance and warranty contracts (including PDFs and renewal reminders)
- System dependencies — both upstream and downstream
This data wasn’t siloed — it was directly integrated into help desk tickets and change control workflows, ensuring full visibility when managing incidents or implementing changes.
Disaster Recovery Manager
Another key module was the Disaster Recovery Manager (DRM).
It helped teams build step-by-step DR plans and, during execution, automatically emailed instructions and task ownership to responsible personnel.
Each DR step was linked to relevant assets, ensuring plans were both actionable and accurate.
We later spun this capability off into a standalone DR product called DR Manager.
Policy and Procedure Management
Compliance was another focus area.
The Policy Manager module allowed us to:
- Publish company policies with assigned owners and approvers.
- Track which employees had acknowledged and accepted each policy.
- Automatically send reminders for reviews and certifications
This created an auditable record proving policy compliance — invaluable during internal or external audits.
Audit Manager
To complete the suite, we built Audit Manager, which:
- Logged and tracked audits.
- Allowing auditors to directly access their assigned audits in HDPlus
- Managed audit findings (“audit points”) as tickets with assigned owners, due dates, and resolution tracking
- Automatically escalated overdue or ignored items.
This made audits interactive, transparent, and measurable.
Modernizing HDPlus for the Future
While the original HDPlus was built in .NET with SQL Server, we’re now rewriting it in Python using the latest MySQL versions — and developing native mobile apps for iOS and Android.
The vision remains the same: a comprehensive IT management platform that unifies help desk, change control, asset tracking, policy management, and audits — but now modernized for the mobile, cloud-first era.
Conclusion
HDPlus was born out of necessity — but it became much more than a stopgap solution. It was an early example of intelligent automation and process integration that modern ITSM tools only later caught up to.
Sometimes the best innovation doesn’t start with a vendor — it starts with a problem, a small team, and the determination to build something better.
If you are in need of a solid, well designed helpdesk application and not willing to spend a small fortune to have customizations, auto-ticket creation, automatic escalation, policy and audit management linked with a strong change control process I invite you to reach out to us and lets discuss. You find our pricing very competitive, and our skill superior. Don’t settle for “can solutions” that claim to support every data center and IT need, build your own with HDPlus.
Contract us at: ACOMDev.com
