Take a Ticket: Help Desk System Explained
Posted on Thu, Jan 05, 2012
By Robert J. Vernam
Ever go to your Help Desk Support person to tell them about an issue only to be asked to fill out a ticket? You’re trying to tell them about your issue now — why are they asking you to go fill out a ticket?
This can be a frustrating situation for any member of a non-IT department. You now have a problem, you want to tell the IT person about it so it can be resolved quickly, yet you get referred to an impersonal ticket system.
Believe it or not, there are a few good reasons for this.The menial task of inputting your issue into an IT ticketing system has many benefits for both the IT department and the business.
Expediting, Tracking, Solving Common Issues
First, with an IT ticket system, the IT department can create, track, and update issues within a central repository, making their job much easier.
There also is now a record of the issue in writing that is saved and can be reported against. This allows the IT department to prove that they are actually doing work while also leaving them with a constant reminder, no matter how small, that an issue exists so they can’t forget about it when they get distracted with another one soon after yours.
From the business side, having an IT ticket system can be very helpful in determining common issues. If many people are having the same issue, like a printer that keeps jamming, it may make more sense to replace the printer rather than have constant productivity downtime due to the jams. Without an IT ticketing system to record and track the issue, the printer problem may be overlooked.
Depending on the size and needs of your company, IT ticket systems can range from simple to very complex and can be open source or very expensive — but having an IT ticket system is a must if you want to keep your IT department efficient and the entire company, too.
Robert J. Vernam is a DocuTech systems engineer and certified Cisco CCNA.