Last Updated: May 21, 2026
Thanks for checking in on what’s new in SolarWinds Service Desk. Below are details of what we have recently released and what we’re actively working on. For items in development, specifics may change as we continue validating scope and timing.
At a Glance
Recently Released | Now | Next |
|---|
Core - Approvals compliance
- Reopen controls for closed/resolved tickets
- Dynamic form layouts
- Longer custom field labels
- Runbooks/Resolution Summaries in Advanced
GenAI - Tone enhancer
- Problem linking
- Generate runbooks/processes from KB
Analytics - Custom widget for asset records
Workflows/Automations - Graphical workflows
- Auto-attach runbooks
- Process integration actions in automation rules
- Variable replacement phase 2
- Quick filter bar
SLA Notifications & UX - Personalized notification settings
Security & Admin - Sandbox phase 1
- PHI data masking
- Unique process integration naming
- Email suppression management
- Shareable links from mobile app
Integrations - Built-in Entra ID connector
- Jira multi-connector
- Intune field matching
ESM & UX - Shared forms & logic
- Custom data forwarding
| AI & ML - Requester bot
- Autonomous AI agents
- Requestor bot for Slack/MS Teams
Process Automation - Approvers list in workflows
Integrations - SolarWinds Portfolio enhancements
- Built-in integrations with digital agreements and conferencing tools
- SMS notifications
Scale & Efficiency - Project Management
- Sandbox phase 2
- New
field types: URL & Multi-pick user/groups - Setup Recommendations
Analytics - Faster, more visual reports
- Conversational analytics experience
- Expanded BI and AI assistant tool connection
Asset Management - Single asset view
- Check out/check in
- Dedicated asset reports
SLA Management - Recurring SLA policies
- Flexible SLA start modes
- SLA policy re-application
ESM - Move data between Service Providers
- Combining tenants
| AI - Agent assist bot
- Admin co-pilot bot
- Additional Autonomous Agents
Process Automation - Edit steps in graphical workflow builder
- Cascading automation rules
- Structured field and list types
Integrations - Expanded built-in process integrations (e.g. Okta, MS Teams, Monday.com)
Scale & Efficiency - Dynamic forms for changes
- Migrating change variables to custom fields
Asset Management & CMDB - Combining CI discovery data with relationship mapping
- Flexible software normalization
- Support for multiple Google Admin Consoles
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View the full breakdown of what's in progress, what’s coming, and what is already available in the descriptions below.
Forward-Looking Statements
This section contains forward-looking statements regarding future product plans and development efforts. SolarWinds evaluates features and functionality before any final generally available release. Information here should not be interpreted as a commitment to deliver any specific feature or functionality, or to deliver it within a particular timeframe. Product plans and priorities can change at any time.
What We’re Working On for SolarWinds Service Desk
This section highlights the features and enhancements currently in development, design, and research. It is intended to give you an early look at the areas we are exploring and building, along with the functionality and use cases these future updates are intended to support. As plans evolve, details may change before release.
(P)=Planned for Premier Tier
NOW — Actively in Development
Delivery of features and enhancements expected in the next ~3 months.
AI & ML
- Requestor Bot — An AI-powered chatbot that gives requestors a conversational way to use the platform. It remembers user context and coordinates the necessary actions to deliver relevant responses within the platform.
- Autonomous AI Agents — We are building an AI agent framework to support autonomous agents that can take action on their own. The first agent in development is an Auto-Classification agent that automatically assigns incoming incidents to the appropriate category and subcategory based on the nature of the issue, without human intervention.
- Slack and MS Teams (P) — Brings the new Requestor Bot experience and capabilities to Slack and Microsoft Teams. Requestors can already access the existing virtual agent there, this will also extend the next-generation conversational experience beyond the SWSD Portal.
Process Automation
- Approvers List in Workflows — Lets workflow approvals use multi-user custom fields as the approver source, so admins can dynamically assign the right set of approvers for each request based on form inputs, workflow updates, API calls, or process integration results without hardcoding approvers.
Integrations
- Enhanced Integration with SolarWinds Portfolio Products — Enhancing the existing native integration between SWSD and other SolarWinds portfolio products, such as SolarWinds Observability SaaS, SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted and SolarWinds Incident Response, to enable movement of information in both directions and expanding the scope of integration beyond events/alerts to include CMDB.
- Built-in Integrations with Digital Agreement Management Tools — An out-of-the-box process integration brings DocuSign into Service Desk workflows so teams can handle signatures and approvals for requests like onboarding, policy acknowledgment, or asset handoff without leaving the platform.
- Built-in Integrations with Conferencing Tools — An out-of-the-box process integration brings Zoom into ticket workflows so agents can quickly create meeting links for live troubleshooting and keep collaboration tied to the record.
- SMS Notifications — Delivers urgent ticket updates by text message so critical communications reach on-call teams, frontline staff, and other users who may not be watching email.
- Output Variable Abstraction — Simplifies built-in process integrations by exposing a predefined, human-readable set of returned values for each action so admins can map IDs, links, statuses, and messages into SWSD fields and downstream workflow steps without inspecting raw JSON or vendor API docs.
Scale & Efficiency
- Project Management — Project planning built into the service desk; track tasks, owners, and timelines alongside daily tickets in one place, without switching to a separate tool.
- Sandbox Phase 2 (P) — Completes the test-and-deploy lifecycle for SWSD configuration changes by enabling comparison and sync between sandbox and production for key admin objects like runbooks, automation rules, catalog items, and dynamic form rules, resulting in safer rollouts and less manual copying between environments.
- New Field Types:
- URL — Admins will be able to capture web links in a new field type as validated, clickable fields instead of plain text, improving data accuracy and making it easier for agents and requesters to open the right page directly from the record across web and mobile.
- Multi-pick Users/Groups — Lets admins and end users select multiple users or groups in a single custom field, making it easier to capture all relevant stakeholders for scenarios like incidents with multiple approvers, collaborators, or impacted people.
- In-product Setup Recommendations — An in-product guide that audits current setup and surfaces a personalized list of suggested capabilities not yet enabled but well-positioned to benefit from.
Analytics
We're making significant investments in analytics and reporting across SWSD. Here's what's coming and in what order:
- Faster, Better-looking Reports — We're rebuilding the entire reporting backend to deliver reports that load in milliseconds instead of seconds. At the same time, we're upgrading the visual experience with modern, visual charts. We can expect the same reports we use today, but faster and cleaner, more interactive look and feel.
- Ask Data Questions in Plain Language — We're adding a conversational analytics experience to SWSD via AI. Instead of navigating to a report, you will be able to ask questions for things like, "why did SLA breaches spike last Monday?" or "which team has the most overdue tickets?" and get instant answers. Like all our AI tools, it only reads only your data and answers you directly, scoped to only your account.
- Connect Your Own Tools — Use your own BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, etc.) and be able to connect them directly to SWSD data. Build your own dashboards, blend SWSD data with your internal data, and run your own analysis. This will be opened for AI assistants like Copilot and Claude, so you can query our SWSD data from whichever AI tool you already use.
Asset Management
- See All Assets in One Index — No more bouncing between different indexes to see your whole asset landscape. All your assets will be in a single unified index with filtering so you can find the asset you are looking for.
- Check Out/Check In — Easily understand who has what asset, when it's due back, and its condition at check out and check in. Ideal for loaner situations or seasonal device deployments.
- Recurring SLA Policies — Allows admins to configure SLA policies to automatically reset and re-start after each cycle, enabling ongoing commitments like "agent must respond within 1 hour of every customer reply" to be enforced and tracked throughout the life of a ticket.
- SLA Duration Start Mode — Allows admins to configure whether an SLA timer starts from ticket creation or from the moment a ticket first enters the SLA's scope (e.g., after triage or a priority change), so SLA metrics reflect when the obligation actually began — not just when the ticket was logged.
- SLA Policy Re-Application on Scope Re-Entry – Allows admins to opt in to having an SLA policy apply a fresh instance each time a ticket re-enters its scope (e.g., when reopened or bounced back to a team), ensuring the same service commitment is enforced every time it applies — not just the first time.
ESM
- Move Data Between Service Providers — Tools to move or copy entity data—such as catalogs, incidents, and requests—from one Service Provider to another.
- Combining Tenants into ESM – Helps customers consolidate separate SWSD environments for departments like IT, HR, and Facilities into a single Enterprise Service Management (ESM) organization, where each department operates as its own Service Provider with preserved separation for data, workflows, permissions, portals, and SLAs.
NEXT — Planned
Delivery of features and enhancements expected in the next ~6 months.
AI & ML
- Bots for Administrators and Service Agents — Extending the conversational interface being developed for Requestors to Administrators and Service Agents, resulting in AI powered assistants for all platform user personas.
- Additional AI Agents — Add to the list of AI Agents that specialize in various tasks, such as troubleshooting, provisioning, KB management, work allocation and assignment, etc.
Process Automation
- Edit Steps in the Graphical Workflow Builder — Existing workflow steps will be editable directly in the Graphical Workflow Builder, reducing the need to switch to the textual builder for quick edits.
- Cascading Automation Rules — Automation rules trigger other automation rules in sequence, enabling complex, multi-step workflows to run end-to-end without manual chaining or custom scripting.
- Structured Field Types — Introduce a new Structured type Custom Fields, that encapsulate multiple subfields, enabling more complex integration workflows without workarounds.
- List Types — Introduce list type custom fields, that would allow a list of fields to be referenced together, enabling more complex integration workflows without workarounds.
- Built-in Functions — Built-in functions for frequently used operations, such a substring, sum, average, min, max, etc.
Integrations
- Expanded Built-in Process Integrations — Native integrations for a growing library of popular business tools like Adobe Acrobat Sign, Okta, Microsoft Teams, Monday.com, and more, reducing setup time and eliminating the need for custom API work.
- Revamped Process Integrations Index — A redesigned index page that makes it easier to find and manage process integrations in one place.
Scale & Efficiency
- Dynamic Forms for Changes — Extends SWSD’s existing dynamic forms engine into the Change Management module, so change request forms can adapt in real time based on user selections.
- Migrate Change Variables to Custom Fields — When creating a change or change catalog item you have to recreate the variables each time which is hard to manage and leaves open the possibility of incorrect data being collected. Migrating the variables to custom fields will give changes the same abilities as other objects (reuse fields, dynamic forms, form logic, and reporting on custom fields)
Asset Management & CMDB
- Dependency Mapping via Discovery + Impact Analysis — Combines CI discovery data with relationship mapping to show downstream impact of an outage or change in real time.
- Advanced Software Normalization – Currently, normalization requires a 100% title match, leaving some identical software un-normalized. We will normalize based on key attributes and known titles for a cleaner, more accurate software inventory.
- Multiple Google Admin Console Support — Lets users connect multiple Google Admin Consoles to import Chrome OS asset data into SWSD, making it easier to manage device inventory across distributed environments. This also lays the groundwork for future actions on Google-managed devices through those connections.
- Asset Reports — Dedicated built-in reporting for asset data including ownership, inventory, and lifecycle status.
Recently Released
This section highlights the features and enhancements that were recently released in SolarWinds Service Desk. It is intended to give you a quick view of what is now available.
(L)=Labs | (P)=Premier Only
Strengthening the ITSM Core
- Approvals Compliance — Validates that only the designated approver can take action on approval/task email links, preventing accidental completions by spam filters or unauthorized users.
- Granular Reopen Controls for Closed and Resolved Tickets — Splits the reopen configuration into separate toggles for Resolved and Closed tickets, giving admins tighter control over ticket lifecycle and reporting accuracy.
- Improved Transparency in the Computers Index — The default Active Computers view now makes its filters visible, and a new All Computers view lets admins see the full computer inventory without hidden exclusions.
- Dynamic Form Layouts (L) — Lets admins break long forms into clear sections with draggable titles and separators across Custom Forms, Runbooks, Service Catalog, and Change Management, making complex forms easier to scan, reducing form fatigue, and improving data accuracy for both end users and technicians.
- Longer Custom Field Labels (L) — Lets admins set a line limit (1, 2, 3, or unlimited) for field label display, preventing truncation of descriptive labels in multi-column forms.
- Expanded Access to Runbooks and AI-Generated Resolution Summaries — Gives Advanced customers access to two capabilities previously only available to Premier, including up to 3 Runbooks per account and up to 250 AI-Generated Resolution Summaries per month.
GenAI
- AI Tone Enhancer (L)(P) — Refines technician ticket replies into professional, empathetic responses with a single click, while preserving ticket IDs, URLs, dates, and error codes exactly as written.
- Intelligent Problem Linking (P) — Uses AI to detect patterns across incidents and suggest when agents should either create a new problem record or link an incoming incident to an existing problem, so teams can identify root causes faster, avoid duplicate investigation, and reduce repeat incidents.
- Generate Runbooks/Processes from Knowledge Articles (L)(P) — Uses SolarWinds AI to convert an existing knowledge base solution into a structured, repeatable runbook or service catalog process.
Analytics
- Custom widget for asset records — Enables admins to build custom report widgets scoped to asset records, expanding analytics beyond ticket data.
Workflows and Automation
- Graphical Workflows (L) — Displays runbook and service catalog workflows as an interactive flowchart, making branching logic easier to audit and understand at a glance.
- Attach Runbooks via Automation — Allows automation rules to automatically attach, replace, or remove runbooks on a ticket based on predefined conditions, with optional auto-start for runbooks with no mandatory fields.
- Process Integration Actions in Automation Rules — Enables automation rules to trigger external process integrations as an action, turning the service desk into a centralized workflow orchestration hub.
- Variable Replacement Phase 2 (covering Runbooks, Change Processes, and Automation Rules) — Lets admins insert live ticket, requester, and custom-field data into notifications, record updates, tags, and workflow conditions, so automations can send context-rich messages, update fields dynamically, and route or label records based on real-time data instead of static values.
- Quick Filter Bar (L) — Adds a persistent filter bar to the ticket index for fast sorting by type, assignee, group, state, priority, and more, with the ability to save custom views.
SLA Management
- Advanced Scope Builder — Gives an Automation-style AND/OR condition builder for SLA scope targeting against any ticket field, custom field, or ESM attribute, helping teams apply the right SLA more accurately and reduce manual efforts.
Notifications & User Experience
- Personalized Notification Settings — Lets individual users control exactly which notification triggers they receive on each channel (Email, Slack, MS Teams), with comment anchoring for threaded Slack/Teams updates.
Security & Administration
- Sandbox Environment Phase 1 (P) — Creates a siloed environment mirroring production for safely testing configurations before rollout; includes groups, users, custom fields, and service catalog items.
- PHI Data Masking (L) — Extends the existing PII/PCI masking engine to automatically detect and mask Protected Health Information across ticket fields, user inputs, and text attachments.
- Unique Process Integration Naming — Enforces distinct naming for process integrations to prevent conflicts and maintain clarity across workflows.
- Email Suppression Management — Gives admins control over email suppression lists, including visibility into which addresses are blocked and why.
- Shareable Links for ITSM Objects on Mobile App — Lets mobile users share secure deep links to incidents, tasks, problems, and changes directly from the app via native iOS and Android share sheets, making it faster to collaborate with teammates without resorting to screenshots or manual copy-paste.
Expanded Integrations
- Microsoft Entra ID Built-in Connector (L) — Replaces complex API configuration with a no-code interface for automating user lifecycle actions (Create, Update, Disable, Delete) directly within workflow steps and automation rules.
- Jira Multi-Connector (L) — Allows Service Desk to connect to multiple Jira instances simultaneously, with conflict resolution via connector-prefixed project names and ESM-level visibility controls.
- Intune Field Matching — Gives admins the flexibility to match Intune asset owners via email address or User Principal Name (UPN) to accommodate complex Entra ID configurations.
ESM
- Shared Forms & Logic — Enables organization-level admins to create shared custom forms and dynamic form rules that propagate consistently across all service providers, eliminating duplicate setup across departments.
- Custom Data Forwarding — Ensures custom field data travels with a ticket when forwarded between ESM service providers, with a pre-check that warns agents when a field mismatch would cause data loss.
See more, plus additional items that were released, in the full release notes
