What
Posted by MikeWright on Nov 3, 2009
Every now and then I get asked about some of the basic objects in IssueTrak. Most of the questions revolve around the Organization, Departments and Locations. So in the next couple of paragraphs, I will attempt to clear away some of the fog and make the view a little clearer. Now remember, while Organizations are required, Locations and Departments are optional features, so they do not have to be used in an IssueTrak site.
Let’s begin with the Organization. An organization is simply the company where you work. I work for IssueTrak, so when a User record is created for me, we add the Organization “IssueTrak” to my profile. As a member of the IssueTrak Organization, every issue I enter will be submitted under the IssueTrak Organization. In a site that has only one organization, that may not be important, but in some sites we use many Organizations, so their importance is greatly enhanced. Other Organizations could be customers of IssueTrak, companies who have bought our products or services and who need to report issues to us. This is how the IssueTrak support site is set up. Each of our customers has an Organization record created in the Support site and their user records then have their organization associated to it. This provides a way for us to know what customer Organizations are submitting issues to us and allows us to report on it. Additionally, we can limit the view of the issues to members of the submitting organization only. By using internal Organizations, a checkbox parameter on the Organization record, we can filter the view of a user to only issues submitted by others in their Organization. So users who work for Customer A can see all issues submitted by other Customer A users, but not see issues entered by users in the Customer B’s Organization.
Now let’s look at Departments. A Department is a work unit in a company. For example, the Sales Department sells products and services while the Payroll Department processes payroll and handles payroll issues. By associating a Department to a user on their user record, we will then be able to see which department has submitted the issues, as well as which departments have been assigned the issues. Many times a manager needs to know what Departments are submitting issues to his department. Other times, it is important to assign an issue to a Department. If the issue has to do with payroll, we assign the issue to a user who is associated to the Payroll Department and now IssueTrak can report on the issues that are assigned to that Department. There are also times when we need to assign to a specific Department and split the work in the site. Usually we do not want users of the Sales Department to view issues that have been assigned to the Payroll Department. By checking the internal checkbox parameter on the Department, we can filter the view of the issue to only members of the Department of the Assigned User on the issue. This gives us the capability to use IssueTrak for multiple Departments separately within one site.
A Location is generally defined as the place where a user works, for example Central Office, Warehouse, Store 14049. Each user can be associated with a Location just like an Organization or a Department. The Location information will fill into the issue automatically at submission just like the Department and Organization. This tells us where the issue is being reported from, allowing us to dispatch personnel to the correct location, or just report on issues coming from a particular location. Unlike Department and Organization, a location can be changed when the Issue is submitted, allowing a user to be associated with a home location, but report issues at another location. Locations cannot be used to filter Issues like Departments and Organizations.
IssueTrak allows you to choose whether Departments and Locations are used in your site. Each site is different according to what you want to accomplish. Some examples of typical setups are listed below.
IssueTrak used as an internal Help Desk at a company: One Organization, no Departments or Locations
IssueTrak used for IT Help Desk and Facilities Management at a company: One Organization, two Departments and no Locations
IssueTrak used in a school district for IT Help Desk: One Organization, many Locations for each school within the district
IssueTrak used for IT Helpdesk and Facilities Management at a school district: One Organization, two Departments, many Locations
IssueTrak used for Customer Support at a company: One Organization for the Company and an Organization for each customer
IssueTrak used for Internal Support and Customer Support: One Organization for the Company and an Organization for each customer, two or more Departments
IssueTrak used for Customer Support of multiple customers with multiple locations: One Organization for the Company and an Organization for each customer and a location record for each customer location.
IssueTrak used to support a large multi-Department, multi-Location Company: One organization for the company, multiple Departments, and multiple Locations
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IssueTrak
Posted by Elysa Dickinson on Aug 21, 2009
Virginia Beach, VA (August 21, 2009)―IssueTrak, an internationally recognized leader in issue tracking, help desk and customer service software, has released IssueTrak Version 9. The new version includes a number of features that give customers the ability to customize IssueTrak for uses outside the company’s traditional stronghold of help desk and customer service departments.
“More and more of our customers are using IssueTrak in innovative ways – to track issues in facilities maintenance, accounts payable, human resources or purchasing,” said Hank Luhring, CEO of IssueTrak, Inc. “Once they start using it, they just want to do everything in IssueTrak. These new features make it much easier to use IssueTrak in departments across the enterprise, wherever it is important to keep issues from falling through the cracks.”
With Version 9, customers can create customized issue screens for various departments and types of requests. If someone selects “Human Resources” as the type of issue they need to submit, they then see a screen designed specifically for human resources issues. If they select “Purchasing” instead, they see a completely different screen that prompts them to fill in fields relating to purchasing.
Using customized screens like this removes a lot of confusion for the person submitting the issue. Instead of having to answer questions that are not relevant, he or she sees a form that asks only for the information that particular department needs for that specific type of issue. This saves frustration for the end users and simplifies the resolution process for the department.
Other customization features in IssueTrak 9.0 include the ability to define the terminology that is used for issue subjects, types, projects, locations/regions, and the knowledge base. Menus can include links for easy access to other websites, such as the company’s Intranet. Custom fields of various types can be added to issue, user and organization fields, and defined as required or private.
Version 9 also includes a number of other improvements and enhancements, including:
- Management Dashboard: Users can now display open issues by subtype, location, region and severity on the dashboard and home page.
- Home Page: Users can choose to use the Summary, As Submitter, Assignee or Next Action reports on the My Issues screen as their home page.
- Login History: The last login date and time can display on the user’s home page, with a link to login history. User login attempts and login history can be viewed on each user’s record.
- Email Distribution List Default: An email can be sent automatically to a distribution list when new members are added.
- Billing Module Line Items: When adding billing module line items to issues, labor hours can be subtracted from service contracts.
- Enhanced Documentation: IssueTrak’s documentation now includes more examples, recommendations and best practices.
Pricing and Availability
IssueTrak 9.0 is available now. Customers who are using the hosted (Software as a Service, or SaaS) version of the software have already been upgraded. Customers who are running the software on their own servers can download the upgrade at http://support.issuetrak.com. Upgrades are free to all customers with current support and maintenance contracts.
About IssueTrak
IssueTrak develops, sells and supports issue tracking software. First released in 2000, its signature software package has become a robust platform for internal and external customer support, IT help desk, workflow management, and issue tracking throughout the enterprise. The 100% web-based software is currently used by more than 1,500 companies in 34 countries, and across 54 major industry groups. Based in Virginia Beach, VA, the company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Inc 500, Inc 5000, and Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
More information about IssueTrak is available at 1-866-ISSUETRAK or www.issuetrak.com.
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IssueTrak
Posted by Elysa Dickinson on Aug 14, 2009
Over the years, IssueTrak has welcomed a number of government and defense customers. Due to their recent demand for Common Access Card (CAC) and smart card integration with IssueTrak, we are excited to announce successful implementation of CAC and Smart Cards authentication at several customer sites. IssueTrak’s government, military and defense contractors can now easily authenticate their users and sign in to IssueTrak using their CAC and Smart Cards. –>
Recurring
Posted by Douglas Christian on Feb 5, 2008
One of my favorite features in IssueTrak is Recurring Issues, which can be used to earmark matters that occur daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually, annually or just once at a future date.
These issues function much like normal issues. Email notifications can be sent, end dates can be set; a recurring issue can be part of a project and can also carry tasks using the task manager.
Anything that needs to get done on a regular basis is a great candidate for a recurring issue. An example of a recurring issue might be routine maintenance on servers or equipment. These maintenance items can be set up once in IssueTrak as recurring issues and the necessary steps can then be documented by adding tasks. If you combine recurring issues with tasks, you have all of the ingredients necessary for a successful maintenance plan. The recurring issue can include the steps necessary for successful completion of tasks, which can be automatically assigned based on your preferences. When the maintenance is complete, the closed issue can serve as a maintenance record. –>
Use
Posted by Elysa Dickinson on Dec 12, 2007
One reason companies and support operations use a tracking program such as IssueTrak is to measure the level of service they are providing their customers. IssueTrak reports on a variety of metrics that help measure performance levels, including how long issues stay open. Every support staff works hard to try to solve problems and close customer issues as soon as possible. There are times when an issue can not be closed because of factors outside of a support representative’s control. For example, a customer may be slow responding to their support representative to say whether a proposed solution solved their problem or not.
With IssueTrak version 7.0, it is possible to stop the clock under circumstances like these using Substatus Rules. Under Administration – Substatus you can set up an issue sub status, such as waiting for customer response, and then indicate that for issues with this sub status the clock will be temporarily stopped and the length of time necessary for the customer to respond will be not be counted against the issue for reporting purposes. Customers who are slow to respond will not increase the issues’ Time to Close statistics and Service Level Agreements will not be adversely impacted. All escalation activity will stop as well. This feature can be found in the Administration section under Substatus -> Rules. –>
IssueTrak
Posted by admin on Nov 26, 2007
Help Desk Software and Customer Service Support Software - IssueTrak offers customizable, web based help desk software and customer support software solutions for IT help desk, help desk ticket tracking, customer relationship and service management.
When Your Employees And Customers Are Waiting for Answers
It Costs Them Time and You Money.
IssueTrak is your solution. IssueTrak is designed to help your organization more effectively
track, resolve, and report on the issues that affect your business, resulting in improved efficiencies,
reduced costs, and a higher quality of service.
The IssueTrak Difference
• Licensed by the number of Advanced Users
• Power and End Users are free
• Task Manager to facilitate workflow and
process improvement
• Pre-built and custom reporting
• Management dashboards that provide key
metrics at a glance
• Recurring Issues function so repetitive tasks
are not overlooked