The LONI Ticketing System ticket.loni.org

OTRS ● OTRS is a popular open source, free ticket management system; ● it is: – highly flexible – fairly easy to admin and customize – and being written in Perl, so Michael loves it!

Why Use a Ticket System?! ● allows us track all help requests much more easily; ● provides a means of quantifying how much “help” we give; ● it makes us look and act professionally wrt customer service;

Getting Started ● Login using LONI

Setting Preferences ● once logged in, selected “Preferences” in the top menu; ● one can set: – initial view (queue view/new ticket view) – notification events – “favorite” queues – look and feel (theme, queue view) – refresh frequency (queue view)

Ticket Listing View

Ticket Queues ● queues are just ways to organize tickets based on some criteria; ● initially, most ed tickets are put in the “INCOMING-QUEUE”; ● everyone should help classify tickets;

Classifying a Ticket

Claiming a Ticket ● Admins should do this eagerly; ● Different ways to do this: – click the ticket's “Lock” link – click the “Reply via ” link ●

Claiming a Ticket When “locked,” the ticket is hidden, but accessible in your “Locked Tickets” view.

Reply Via

Assigning Tickets ● this should be done only by our managers;

Internal Notes ● may be added by anyone, not just the owner; ● not seen by original issuer of ticket; ● helpful for collaborating on a ticket or keeping notes on the issue at hand;

Internal Notes

Searching Tickets

Saving Searches

Saved Searches When results are returned, this URL may be bookmarked. This is useful for quickly jumping to favorite saved searches.

Ticket Work Flow 1.Classify the ticket; 2.Claim the ticket (eagerly); 3.Work the ticket through resolution; 4.Close the ticket!

Claiming a Ticket ● means you take responsibility for its resolution – even if you need others to do some of the work; ● you become its advocate, and interface directly with the user; ● in order for our system to work, everyone must be proactive about owning tickets;

Advanced Ticket Topics ● Splitting/Merging – used to join related tickets, or – to split a single ticket dealing with several unrelated issues; ● Priority – determines how important a ticket is; ● Escalation – automatic increase in priority based on time passed;

Summary ● most importantly, we all need to start using the ticket system; ● this includes: – classifying tickets – claiming, then working tickets ● we're all learning how to use the system, so I encourage feedback and discussion regarding all aspects of the system;

Thanks!