Do you use a Ticket System/Help-desk System?

[KoolTech]

Hi guys,

 

I work at 2 large primary schools and we don't have a ticket system but it seems a lot of places do. I was wondering how many people do use one for jobs? Should we be?

 

We currently use Outlook and Tasks to manage work and it seems to work fine for us. Always felt ticket systems were too business like and impersonal but can see there uses, especially in a High school.

[Lonix]

We use email, reply to all (including our general email) to say tasks done. We talk, share the same office.

 

We also say when we go off to do them (reply to all as well).

 

AS much as I would like a help desk, our current setup which was originally a temp is working well and I'm happy to stick to it. If anyone ever questions what we do, only have to look at all the emails (easy to filter out my teams names).

[LeMarchand]

I'd love to have a ticketing system! (Hell, I'd love it if they even emailed me!) The biggest barrier to it is lack of support from SMT. If it could be agreed that everyone had to use such a system it would be great. Unfortunately the preferred way flow for fault reporting is:

 

1) Notice problem.

2) Complain about it to nearby staff for a few days/weeks/months.

3) Wait until I am either carrying a heavy object or heading home/to another school and tell me verbally.

 

[smurfomatic]

I'd love to have a ticketing system! (Hell, I'd love it if they even emailed me!) The biggest barrier to it is lack of support from SMT. If it could be agreed that everyone had to use such a system it would be great. Unfortunately the preferred way flow for fault reporting is:

 

1) Notice problem.

2) Complain about it to nearby staff for a few days/weeks/months.

3) Wait until I am either carrying a heavy object or heading home/to another school and tell me verbally.

 

 

That fault reporting seems very familiar! You missed the step where the problem is described in the vaguest terms, like "my whiteboard's not working" or "I can't get on the internet"...

 

Our fault reporting system is email - send me a message and I'll deal with it - or, if it's really critical (or the problem means you can't email me) contact me on my work mobile.

[timbo343]

We use spiceworks and its working great. We justbdirect everone to it. It works that well the siteteam and catering wanted one too so fired up 2 more VMs and installed spiceworks on them.

[KoolTech]

That fault reporting seems very familiar! You missed the step where the problem is described in the vaguest terms, like "my whiteboard's not working" or "I can't get on the internet"...

 

Our fault reporting system is email - send me a message and I'll deal with it - or, if it's really critical (or the problem means you can't email me) contact me on my work mobile.

 

This is how we do it now also. Its Me, IT tech and Apprentice across the schools. Staff email me and I distribute were necessary and I also have a work mobile for urgent jobs.

[Novalee]

I've voted no. We do have one (Spiceworks) and the odd teacher uses it, but in general it isn't used and we don't use it to manage jobs. We used to, but it just sort petered off. (Is that the word? Petered?)

[robyholmes]

Spiceworks hear and the vast amount of jobs go through it. So helpful to look back on what you did last time. Also, it means you can't forgot to look at a job. Staff have a shortcut on there desktop to the user portal to report the faults. Its also used to track purchases.

[pcstru]

We currently use Outlook and Tasks to manage work and it seems to work fine for us. Always felt ticket systems were too business like and impersonal but can see there uses, especially in a High school.

"too business like"? IMO you should have a ticketing system as part of professional service delivery - even if you are a lone tech doing part time support. Broadly speaking A ticketing system should allow recording of jobs, communication about the jobs and analysis of the jobs. On a more detailed level, you will want each ticket to be able to show the time line both in terms of history, state of the job now and the forecast for when the next step will be completed. A good system should be central to communications, able to update the right people at the right time and reduce the need to do mundane things like type all the relevant names into the to field in an email. In analysis it can help spot trends and identify areas where being proactive or delivering training might reduce demand. Good analysis can also help senior management understand what we do, what the demands are and what happens when we are and are not effective. It should form a knowledge base - the first port of call for when you get "ah, we had that same problem two years ago" and the most time consuming thing was the research to know exactly where to hit the pipe.

 

Does that mean a task list in outlook can't be a ticketing system? Personally, I don't think it is sophisticated or robust enough given that there are good (according to some), free systems. It's also the kind of requirement that is very easy to cater for with Sharepoint or (probably in some way) Google Apps, assuming you have made the investment anyway in the necessary skills.

[clockend25]

We use spiceworks; we have a single support email address from which tickets are auto-generated. Works well, although there are still numpties who try to circumvent it and go directly to individual staff. They normally learn their lesson the day they need something fixing urgently but have only sent an email direct to someone who's not on site.

[m25man]

We use Zendesk the 3 agent free version (not quite free $25 pa charitable donation) works fine some limitations but ticks all the basic boxes and there are phone/tablet apps.

[Zer0]

1 more for Spiceworks. Most staff use it, but we still get calls and emails, which we direct them to the helpdesk or create the ticket for them ourselves. It just keeps everything organised, can see who does what tickets, how many you have had in a week or a month, run reports to help see what the most problematic thing is. So much stuff.

 

They also have a cloud version if you're short on space/budget for a server.

 

If I moved to somewhere where they didn't have a helpdesk it would be the first thing I'd get approved for. Or moan like everyone else until I got it approved, that seems to work for everyone else!

 

I don't know why people would prefer to not have one, or use it. Force staff to use it. Create the tickets from their calls/emails until they realise they have this tool. Immediately respond to the people who use the helpdesk and take your time with the people who don't (depending on urgency, of course). People will start to realise who's getting seen first. And explain why you see the others first, because you have a reminder to do a job and not having to remember about it and to check/search emails for jobs.

 

Makes life much easier.

[rogerdnixon]

We are also a long standing Spiceworks users. Works great. Link in managed bookmarks for staff - vast majority use it. Mobile app works well when I'm out and about. Best of all its free (other than the cost of its ssl certificate).

[unixman_again]

Hesk which is free - it's OK but the search for closed tickets is quite poor. At the last school we used SysAid, which is closely related.

[Fazza]

One of the Primary Schools we support uses Spiceworks.

 

We ourselves use Hornbill SupportDesk as it's cheap (a few hundred quid a year) and it's FITS compliant. Simple to use, easy to log Incidents and answer questions/queries. It has loads of other features from an Inventory to a KnowledgeBase that you can take advantage of.

 

THere are 2 main reasons we have a helpdesk system; the first is so we cant forget to do something and secondly it's a great way to communicate with everyone who has logged an incident/question/query.

[DGardiner]

We use Zendesk the 3 agent free version (not quite free $25 pa charitable donation) works fine some limitations but ticks all the basic boxes and there are phone/tablet apps.

 

 

Is this still a thing? i really did like zendesk but it costs too much when fresh desk is free for the amount of users we need

[DavePa]

OSTickets here - came free with the hosting package and does everything we want. It is only used internally by the IT team and nobody else - this is by design as we want to have some consistency on fault reporting.

[Bob_the_Goon]

We use Freshdesk. It's free for up to three technicians. Definitely worth while using a helpdesk if there is more than one of you.

[rickjames]

We use Marval here, for the most part is works.

 

Previously used Spiceworks and Sysaid at other places. SW was great, Sysaid kinda fell flat because staff still couldn't be bothered logging stuff.

[CHiLL]

We use Spiceworks. Its an excellent help desk, with extra features such as an inventory and a purchasing section. It isn't massively used in the school I work in now, however my last school used it heavily.

[jedwards2]

I've tried ZenDesk, OneorZero, OSTicket and a couple of others - the names escape me. The one that has stuck though, mainly because of the interface and the way it works, but also the fantastic community, is Spiceworks. I would heartily recommend it.

[TechMonkey]

I'd love to have a ticketing system! (Hell, I'd love it if they even emailed me!) The biggest barrier to it is lack of support from SMT. If it could be agreed that everyone had to use such a system it would be great. Unfortunately the preferred way flow for fault reporting is:

 

1) Notice problem.

2) Complain about it to nearby staff for a few days/weeks/months.

3) Wait until I am either carrying a heavy object or heading home/to another school and tell me verbally.

 

 

Announce with much fanfare that to help better serve the school you are going over to a helpdesk. Make sure it accepts email to ticket function. Now when anyone catches you while carrying heavy object apologise profuse but tell them your memory isn't what it used to be so could they put it on the helpdesk, just send an email to [email protected]. Now if anyone ever complains you can point to the helpdesk and say that there is no ticket so how could you be expected to fix it. Publish stats on how wonderful you are as there are no issues with the network. Anyone causing a fuss that you haven't fixed x in months now has to justify why they didn't submit a ticket. Keep a sign saying "Sorry this will take a while, please send you issue to [email protected]" next to your phone so if anyone turns up while you are on the phone you can hold it up. Make sure tickets are dealt with before any issues dropped on your desk (except obviously urgent things or SMT issues). Anyone starting a conversation saying "I know I should create a ticket...", tell them that they are right and you would love to help right now but you have to get to the other side of the building and you are certain 10 other people will ask the same by which point their issue will have been pushed out of your head so if they send a ticket you can get straight on it as soon as you are back.

 

Support from SMT is always great but it can start from a grass roots. We now have management come to us and ask us to show how many tickets there are on X. If there are none, they shake their head, tell us never mind and then tell the moaning member of staff that it can't be that important if they couldn't take a minute to send an email. It can be hard and needs strong will from your self but it can and will work and helps you in the long term. Make out that it helps them, that if used you can use it to get new kit if there are enough tickets to show kit doesn't work properly. Make out that it helps you, that you can show that you need help as you have so many tickets to deal with and they will benefit by having quicker help.

[Bankesy]

Hello

 

Over most my time in education IT support I've used a spreadsheet to keep track of jobs.

 

I would say it's quite well developed with the ability to set a tick or cross next to each job and a total count of open and overall jobs. There are also columns for the name of the person experiencing the fault, the nature of the fault, location, time, date and notes on the resolution.

 

Obviously there is nothing automated about this and you have to fill it in yourself but I'm pretty sure I have a blank copy somewhere if you would like to see it.

 

On another occasion a school I worked at had Sitehelpdesk which does offer a client part: Service Desk Software, Web based Help Desk Software with ITIL features

[Homer]

Using OPSoftware's OPSmartDesk here, it works quite well but it is slightly annoying in some of it's features and usability is a little lacking in some places but on the whole it does a good job.

[victormadrid]

I recommend to check Help Desk Software Integria IMS | Integria IMS