IT tickets

Hey guys, can someone explain to me how the IT ticketing system works?
I know that many ticketing software out there, but if you could give me a general idea what it looks like and how to use it, that would help a lot.
Also, with screenshot of the software with some examples, will be greatly appreciated.

The reason I asked is, I am applying for a IT helpdesk (tier I), and they use a ticketing software, I can't remember what it was, but according to the manager that every call we get we have to make a ticket for it.

I think they might train me how to use it, but I want to be ready before I started to work.

Thanks,
thm

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Mike-Mike

i am sure you'll have some training on it, my current position is giving me six weeks. I have worked here and at AT&T and they both have had proprietary systems.

DevilWAH

Its ver y simple,

simple a way to track work, and keep cusomers updates.

there are so many varitions on the thmeme it is impossible to really summorise.

but in a way its a bit like this form,

you start a new thread (new ticket)

update it and put comments on it as you carry out the work.

close it (lock thread) once the work is complete

In fact I have worked on soem ticket systems that are very much like a forum to look at.

On tope of logging the comments, they normaly have a timmer running to insure ticket are closed in a decent time frame. And you have to fill in details such as customer name, company, type of issue, contact details, etc etc.

Then reports can be run to see how quickley work is getting turned around and what are the main issues..

All a ticket system is is a way to monitor the work load on the department, and insure jobs dont get forgotton.

Some ticketing systems have complext work flow where once one person closes there part of the ticket it automatily passes on to the next person in the line. (imagen creatign a computer accont where you may have one person in HR filling in the new users details in a system, and then when they close there part it automatinly opens a ticket in the IT support desk to create the acount, while firing of another to the helth and safty department to sort out some trainng, another to finance to sort out there payroll etc etc...

how ever they are all much the same, and compinies are aware taht there are hundrads on the market, and all are usualy cusomised to an indivual companys needs. So the wont expect you to know theres the day you start and any decent company will give you traingin to show you how they want to use there system and what they want to get out of it.

cyberguypr

If you want to see a ticketing system in action go here: AdventNet ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

We use this to manage 400 users and works smoothly.

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Hey guys, can someone explain to me how the IT ticketing system works?
I know that many ticketing software out there, but if you could give me a general idea what it looks like and how to use it, that would help a lot.
Also, with screenshot of the software with some examples, will be greatly appreciated.

The reason I asked is, I am applying for a IT helpdesk (tier I), and they use a ticketing software, I can't remember what it was, but according to the manager that every call we get we have to make a ticket for it.

I think they might train me how to use it, but I want to be ready before I started to work.

Thanks,
thm

You'll get used to the system and i'm sure you'll have training. Some places use in house software, some use ready made packages I.E. Remedy. That is one of the biggest training points for a help desk spot is the ticketing system. You'll probably start off slow, but as you remember where everything is you'll get into the groove and it'll be second nature within a couple of months.

That's Remedy for an example.

it_consultant

We use H2Desk because it is cloud based and wicked cheap.

Help Desk Software, Web-based Help Desk, Customer Support Software by h2desk

ODNation

cyberguypr wrote: »

If you want to see a ticketing system in action go here: AdventNet ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

We use this to manage 400 users and works smoothly.

We use the same thing... We've been very satisfied with it

thehourman

Hypntick wrote: »

You'll get used to the system and i'm sure you'll have training. Some places use in house software, some use ready made packages I.E. Remedy. That is one of the biggest training points for a help desk spot is the ticketing system. You'll probably start off slow, but as you remember where everything is you'll get into the groove and it'll be second nature within a couple of months.

That's Remedy for an example.

Do you have to fill out the entire window for a ticket?

I am a little bit confuse about this support ticket works. Who makes the ticket the IT guy or the clients?

@cyberguypr,
That one is kind of easy to understand. because I can interact with the demo.

Repo Man

Remedy is a pain in the ass. I used Siebel Help Desk in my last position and thought it was very good.

MAC_Addy

The last place I worked we used Track-It... I hated it, it crashed all the time, messed up all my custom views. ugh. Hated it.

My job right now we're running a program called Kaseya. It's awesome. It has a built in remote desktop feature, so if someone can't do something you just remote in. It has loads of built in features for security, management and viewing tasks on computers.

I'm not sure how expensive it is, but I'm sure it's up there. It's a really good program if you're a traveling tech with a laptop, you can just use your aircard and pull up anything you need to work on.

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Do you have to fill out the entire window for a ticket?

I am a little bit confuse about this support ticket works. Who makes the ticket the IT guy or the clients?

@cyberguypr,
That one is kind of easy to understand. because I can interact with the demo.

Generally you take the call, fill out the fields that are required. Chances are not all of them will be, we only had to fill in about half of ours for reporting purposes. Depending on the process is what you do with the ticket. Every desk is going to be different in that regard.

it_consultant

Kaseya is something like 20K for the software seed plus hardware and yearly contracts. The kaseya remote desktop is glorified VNC, which is free, and the software push is only SO SO when compared to just using WSUS.

MAC_Addy

it_consultant wrote: »

Kaseya is something like 20K for the software seed plus hardware and yearly contracts. The kaseya remote desktop is glorified VNC, which is free, and the software push is only SO SO when compared to just using WSUS.

I've used VNC for years, and I know, I know... it's just gloried. But it's good when you have multiple sites (all of which are more than 150 miles away). Its easy to look up their computer name and just click.

But with all the management tools it comes with, I think it's worth it for the company I'm working for. But for a smaller company, I wouldn't recommend it.

If I were an IT manager of a small company (250 or less) I'd just use something cheap for tickets, or even just make yourself a small form and post in on the intranet. And for remote desktop I'd use VNC:Free with a password to connect with.

If you do use VNC, be sure to tell your users that you're about to remote in... i've had countless times where I've logged in, started working and they've turned the computer off because they thought it was a virus doing something... (Yes, a virus is fixing your printer).

cyberguypr

Is anyone using SpiceWorks?

Forsaken_GA

people email an address that imports their email into the ticketing system, which is then presented to me via a ticket.

I make a few snarky comments, slam the ticket closed, and go back to playing mafia wars

DevilWAH

Like Forsaken in my last job people could send and email that woud get automatily converted to a ticket,

you could also go on to a web page and fill in a form and it would create the ticket (most online help systems on the web use some form of ticketing system at the back end)

or you could phone up and a first line engineer would fill out the ticket manualy on the ticketeing system

As a third line engineer picking up the ticket the only way I new whish was used to create the ticket was a single field that either said "Recived from web/mail/desk/phone"

generaly there are also fields on the form used to rasie the ticket to chose what area the problem is, hardware, application, remote access. So if you have a web form the user is filling in, they chose this them selves and it gets routerd directly to the correct team to deal with it.

I ahve seen ticketing systems based on excel, ms access, right through to the high end ones such as sibel, remedy, supports works, ITSM, costing 20K an upwards.

A company of 20 users a spreed sheet will work fine, but once you have 100 or in many cases thousands of customers, you need a system to manage the calls comeing in.

The largest systems have a central data base running on dedicated SQL or other powerfull data base servers. many types of entry methods (even seen ones that can convert voise message to text and use that, or scaned docuemts).

And mutiply portals for various engineers and managers to pick up work and run reporting.

thehourman

Has anyone have use Unicenter?

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Has anyone have use Unicenter?

That's what i'm using now at this new job. I despise it in every way possible. I hate how it opens new windows for absolutely everything, no matter what browser you're using. Luckily we can use whatever browser we want, Maxthon is the only one that will actually force it to use tabs. So I spent a good portion of my afternoon setting up Maxthon. It's actually pretty useful. USD also is super slow, could be my company, I don't know, but it runs even slower than Remedy and that says something.

SteveLord

cyberguypr wrote: »

Is anyone using SpiceWorks?

I was just thinking of that. I tried it a few times and could never get it to detect all my hardware properly. Might go back to it sometime when I have time to play around with it. Pretty robust for something free with little adware.

Danny boy

At my workplace we use a ticketing system called HEAT, which is pretty straightforward - a lot easier than Remedy looks like based on that screenshot.

thehourman

Hypntick wrote: »

That's what i'm using now at this new job. I despise it in every way possible. I hate how it opens new windows for absolutely everything, no matter what browser you're using. Luckily we can use whatever browser we want, Maxthon is the only one that will actually force it to use tabs. So I spent a good portion of my afternoon setting up Maxthon. It's actually pretty useful. USD also is super slow, could be my company, I don't know, but it runs even slower than Remedy and that says something.

Can you tell me more about Unicenter except the browser part? How hard to learn and get use to it?

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Can you tell me more about Unicenter except the browser part? How hard to learn and get use to it?

It's been fairly simple for myself, just because i've done help desk before and used a couple of other ticket systems. It's really just getting the layout down and knowing where everything is. Sure they can teach you where everything is, but you've really got to get your hands on it for a couple of weeks taking calls before you'll be able to know where everything is without thinking. Overall learning a ticket system isn't usually difficult, it just takes some hands on time and you'll get it down.

A ticket system is only going to be so complex. Take for example filling out an order form on a website. It's kinda like that, except you do it 30-40 times a day, every day depending on volume. That's the other thing as well, most ticketing systems from what I know are customizable to some degree, as with the picture of Remedy I posted, the version I used didn't look anything like that. Chances are the version of USD i'm using isn't going to look much like yours either.

rfult001

As a Remedy Administrator I find all of the Remedy bashing comments kinda funny, considering I see a screen of Remedy 6, which sucked, and many people still use much older versions that are still running on Pentium 3 boxes. In the end you're responsible for your own infrastructure. Upgrade your hardware, move on to Remedy 7, and you'll be shocked at fast it can be.

Back to the OP, it is different everywhere you work. You will likely be trained on any system you touch. Most of these systems have workflow in place that doesn't require you to fill out half of the fields that you might see. On the implementation of Remedy that I manage user can submit tickets themselves via a requester console, they can email the helpdesk and the system automatically creates a ticket, or they call us. Generally, the agent enters the user id (or some other bit of info) and hits enter to automatically fill in all of the user info (most of which is pulled from LDAP). You then fill out the summary, notes, and categorization then submit; the ticket is then automatically assigned to the appropriate group.

Bear in mind that this will vary from system to system, as well as according to the processes that the company has in place. In some places you can find yourself working with Incidents, Problems, Asset, and Change management, where all the information is populated using CTI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_telephony_integration); in others you may be working in a CRM software, which has its quirks and different uses, and entering all the data manually.

Just relax, ask your employer if they will be training you on the system and take whatever comes your way. You'll pick up whatever system they throw at you in no time.

Good luck with the new job!

Hypntick

rfult001 wrote: »

As a Remedy Administrator I find all of the Remedy bashing comments kinda funny, considering I see a screen of Remedy 6, which sucked, and many people still use much older versions that are still running on Pentium 3 boxes. In the end you're responsible for your own infrastructure. Upgrade your hardware, move on to Remedy 7, and you'll be shocked at fast it can be.

Yeah the version of Remedy we used looked nothing like what I posted. It was just an example, chances are we used something even older. I do know that ours went down fairly regularly and even on a dual core it ran pretty slow. Then again that could be the amalgamation of other software that we had on our systems as well. After using USD for the last couple of weeks, believe me I really want Remedy back.

jtoast

rfult001 wrote: »

In the end you're responsible for your own infrastructure. Upgrade your hardware, move on to Remedy 7, and you'll be shocked at fast it can be.

We use remedy 7 and its extremely fast..granted I work for a huge corporation that literally does thousands of tickets a day.

The problem with your question is that its completely different depending on the company involved. Hell, my wife works for a small hospital and they log tickets into excel..heh.

When I worked for Directv, all we did was fill in a few fields on a web form and that was it. Here at CoP we have so many different departments that simply figuring who to send the ticket to can be a challenge. Luckily I'm one of those departments instead of being helpdesk so I rarely have to deal with that.
EDIT:
Forgot to attach the images. This is what I see when I go to open a ticket. The info blacked out in image "Screen1" is a list of open tickets assigned to either myself or my team, depending on how I have my views set.
EDIT EDIT:
Heh also forgot to black out the server name in the second image. Fixed.

Screen2.JPG

Screen1.JPG

SharkyMarky

The "IT Ticketing system" you mention is a pretty generic term. It could be any one of the off-the-shelf systems such as BMC Remedy, Peregrine Service Center, or Siebel (now owned by Oracle), to name a few. On the other hand, they could be using a program written in-house, in which case you would not be able to get any experience with the software unless you worked at that company or one of its affiliates before.

You may want to find out more information from the employer first. If you've already been offered the job, then the manager is already satisfied with your skills and aptitude for learning new systems, and will provide you with whatever training you need once you start.

thehourman

Hypntick wrote: »

Yeah the version of Remedy we used looked nothing like what I posted. It was just an example, chances are we used something even older. I do know that ours went down fairly regularly and even on a dual core it ran pretty slow. Then again that could be the amalgamation of other software that we had on our systems as well. After using USD for the last couple of weeks, believe me I really want Remedy back.

Hypntick is this the same Unicenter your using, or may be similar to yours YouTube - Unicenter Service Desk r12 Presentation: Part1

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Hypntick is this the same Unicenter your using, or may be similar to yours YouTube - Unicenter Service Desk r12 Presentation: Part1

Yep, that'll be it. I imagine our version is a little bit customized from the standard vanilla version but that is the exact type of request log I see every day. Not a huge fan of it, but now that i've found a browser that'll allow me to open the new requests in tabs instead of windows i'm feeling slightly better about it.

thehourman

Cool, I am going to start watching that video tomorrow.

I hope, learning that or any trouble ticket software won't be hard.

Hypntick

thehourman wrote: »

Cool, I am going to start watching that video tomorrow.

I hope, learning that or any trouble ticket software won't be hard.

It usually isn't, it's going to take you a week or so to get used to where everything is. After that, it's going to be second nature and you'll be closing/routing tickets as fast as you care to deal with your calls. Depends on your job's level of volume, sometimes i've done 30-35 as a nice steady day with as many as 80+ during severe multi-site outages. But then again it's a help desk, it's not how fast you do your tickets, it's if you fix it or route it to the right people and ensuring that you're doing your customer service as well. Provided you're going to actually be talking to people on the phone. Get more flies with honey than $%&^ and all that.

zerglings

Remedy is pretty cool. Then again, that's the only ticketing software I've ever used. We recently upgraded ours to a newer version. Forgot what version we're running on. But, a lot of different IT departments have their own way of interacting with it. Different departments have different ways of interacting with it. Remedy desktop software, web based, in house intranet site, cellphone to put ticket to read ticket and put it on work in progress - very useful for Field service techs, and etc.