If you could design a custom helpdesk ...
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If you could design your own custom helpdesk what would it include. There is one caveat, it has to be built on or be compatible and/or work with one of the following: CRM, SharePoint or MS Project.
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I would need it to be dynamic, so that if there are categories they can be expanded, but also I would want it to be smart, so that you don't have 30 slight variations of the same thing for some category, whether that is a software title or a classification of something. I want events time and date stamped as well as identified by the user who submitted the event. I want to be able to add notes and have each time I add a new note create a new time stamp for each note. My current helpdesk has a description field where all the troubleshooting notes go, but you can't tell when each not was added, or by whom. That's another big one. Troubleshooting notes need to be identified by the technician who added them. Taking a case over where two other technicians have worked it and not having a clue who did what is horribly confusing!
Those are the basics off-hand.
Thanks,
A.J. -
Of those I think that Sharepoint makes the most sense. Most widely available, for one thing.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Of those I think that Sharepoint makes the most sense. Most widely available, for one thing.
I absolutely agree Sharepoint makes the most sense.
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Here is my wish list
- Client/User Side portal for ticket tracking and viewing tickets
- Email Ticket submission and tracking
- Tiered / Layered / Grouped tickets
- Project tickets that don't fall in the general ticket queue
- Categories - both restricted or unrestricted
- Technician permissions, eg. they can only see / interact / close tickets that they have permission to.
- Category defined permissions; same as the previous note but at a category level
- User feedback to managers (semi or fully anonymous)
- Reports... oh so many reports... Anything that has a quantitative measurement should be reported against. There should even be a report of reports (Slightly comical but managers seem to love everyone)
- Speaking of reports... they should include graphs because every presentation is better with graph, especially when detailing value
- Priority system
- Device tickets that don't need a user associated with them
There are probably more but I ran out of steam.
Of those three Sharepoint would be the most preferred.
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Features that aren't available in my current helpdesk that I would really like.
User updates via texting- Users can signup for a texting service that allows them to update tickets via SMS or MMS. They can also receive ticket updates this way
Attachments via MMS - I have users that don't know how to take screenshots on their PC. However, they can take a picture with their phone and send it. This would be also very useful for troubleshooting mobile devices
Ticket Grouping Suggestions - This is so simple, but I have yet to see it implemented. Wouldn't it be nice to see a list of similar tickets when viewing a ticket? Kind of like shopping at Amazon and you see similiar items to the one you are viewing. It would be nice to be able to link and re-categorize similar tickets on the fly as well.
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Keep the ideas coming!
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@thanksaj said:
My current helpdesk has a description field where all the troubleshooting notes go, but you can't tell when each not was added, or by whom.
Really? That's pretty damn bad. What are you using?
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@IRJ said:
@thanksaj said:
My current helpdesk has a description field where all the troubleshooting notes go, but you can't tell when each not was added, or by whom.
Really? That's pretty damn bad. What are you using?
Our system is called Insight. Every technician despises it...it really flows more like a CRM than a ticketing system. That's probably what it really is.
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@IRJ said:
Features that aren't available in my current helpdesk that I would really like.
User updates via texting- Users can signup for a texting service that allows them to update tickets via SMS or MMS. They can also receive ticket updates this way
Attachments via MMS - I have users that don't know how to take screenshots on their PC. However, they can take a picture with their phone and send it. This would be also very useful for troubleshooting mobile devices
Ticket Grouping Suggestions - This is so simple, but I have yet to see it implemented. Wouldn't it be nice to see a list of similar tickets when viewing a ticket? Kind of like shopping at Amazon and you see similiar items to the one you are viewing. It would be nice to be able to link and re-categorize similar tickets on the fly as well.
I like the trending tickets idea. Maybe an algorithm that looks at ticket content and titles and says "lots of users are having issues logging into AD" and gives dynamic suggestions that are both built-in and can be customized. A correlation engine of sorts... If 3 or more users are all unable to login to their PCs with AD, and the tickets are all opened within 2 hours of each other, it opens a ticket or sends an email suggestion/notification to have you check your DC. Something like that, or even custom rules like that, would be sweet!
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Trending would be interesting and if it is just "these tags are hot now", that is easy. If it is a "what are people describing", that's not.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Trending would be interesting and if it is just "these tags are hot now", that is easy. If it is a "what are people describing", that's not.
The problem is tagging is that you would need people to do the tagging, and users are lazy. They won't tag their tickets, especially if they are opened via an email. Now if you have a system that analyzes the ticket and assigns tags dynamically that way, that could work.
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@thanksaj said:
The problem is tagging is that you would need people to do the tagging, and users are lazy. They won't tag their tickets, especially if they are opened via an email. Now if you have a system that analyzes the ticket and assigns tags dynamically that way, that could work.
Yeah, ticket AI is not really realistic. Especially as humans can rarely figure that out. Tagging is far less work than putting in a meaningful ticket.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
The problem is tagging is that you would need people to do the tagging, and users are lazy. They won't tag their tickets, especially if they are opened via an email. Now if you have a system that analyzes the ticket and assigns tags dynamically that way, that could work.
Yeah, ticket AI is not really realistic. Especially as humans can rarely figure that out. Tagging is far less work than putting in a meaningful ticket.
My point is, you can't count on your users to put in meaningful tickets. You have to assume that, by default, your user will submit a "HEEEEELP!!!! The internet isn't loading!" as their ticket. You can try to train users and condition them all you want, but in the end, it's a futile dream...
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@thanksaj said:
My point is, you can't count on your users to put in meaningful tickets. You have to assume that, by default, your user will submit a "HEEEEELP!!!! The internet isn't loading!" as their ticket. You can try to train users and condition them all you want, but in the end, it's a futile dream...
And my point is "garbage in, garbage out." The best AI ever, including real I (humans), can't derive a meaningful trend from bad tickets. If they aren't good tickets already, you can't get a trend.
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@thanksaj said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
The problem is tagging is that you would need people to do the tagging, and users are lazy. They won't tag their tickets, especially if they are opened via an email. Now if you have a system that analyzes the ticket and assigns tags dynamically that way, that could work.
Yeah, ticket AI is not really realistic. Especially as humans can rarely figure that out. Tagging is far less work than putting in a meaningful ticket.
My point is, you can't count on your users to put in meaningful tickets. You have to assume that, by default, your user will submit a "HEEEEELP!!!! The internet isn't loading!" as their ticket. You can try to train users and condition them all you want, but in the end, it's a futile dream...
What might be more realistic is a template-based system. If they use a portal, they have fields to enter things like computer name, etc. If they submit by email, create a template they HAVE to use for the ticket to even be recognized. That's the only way I can think to generate some kind of order or standard for your tickets.
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Templates help a lot with tickets. That's why most ticket systems make you use a ton of drop downs to fill out common fields and then just an extra text description field.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
My point is, you can't count on your users to put in meaningful tickets. You have to assume that, by default, your user will submit a "HEEEEELP!!!! The internet isn't loading!" as their ticket. You can try to train users and condition them all you want, but in the end, it's a futile dream...
And my point is "garbage in, garbage out." The best AI ever, including real I (humans), can't derive a meaningful trend from bad tickets. If they aren't good tickets already, you can't get a trend.
I agree. It was a suggestion, but one that would not be utilized very much of the time due to how normal tickets look, unless you.. (see previous post)
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@scottalanmiller said:
Templates help a lot with tickets. That's why most ticket systems make you use a ton of drop downs to fill out common fields and then just an extra text description field.
Yup. I think that's a great system honestly. You are guaranteeing certain info from your users and not making them guess what you need to at least get started. Generating a template for email submissions that can be parsed by a ticketing system would be awesome as well. Basically just an email version of the portal form.
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We used to get alot of bad tickets, but having proper categories really curbs this. We force the user to choose different categories, but we can also change them quickly if they use the wrong category
