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How Do You Manage Requests in Your Organization?
StormShadw asks: "How do you manage IT requests in your organization? There seems to be a lack of software solutions specifically designed to track requests. Most that I've been able to find are either problem tracking systems or bug tracking systems, neither of which completely fit the 'request management' model. I work for a large bank and my department supports all of the internet web presence and online banking applications for the company. We receive hundreds of requests a week (my department has 51 people in it), typically through a variety of mediums (phone, email, hallway conversations). It's impossible to manage all these efficiently when there is no centralized system. What's the solution? What do you all use?"
"There is a 'workflow' aspect to many of these requests: we do our thing, then pass it off to the UNIX admins, firewall folks, or DBAs to process another portion of the request. Ideally, I'd like to have a web based system where our customers (internal lines of business) can submit their requests, get status, etc. We would also manage a queue of work through a web interface, assigning requests internally or to other teams we work with. Email notifications could be generated when requests are completed."
I just tell anyone who needs any work done from me to file it in our intranet bugzilla site. Tracks status, assignment, etc.
"More organs means more human." - Zim
A couple of years back I had need of an issue tracking system. Double Choco Latte was one of the systems I used. The source code is well laid out and easy to modify if you have special needs.
There are a lot of features, not sure if it will cover all of your requirements. It actually had more features than I needed at the time I was using it.
"A sample size of one is really just statistical masturbation."
Does the job for me.
Little, yellow, different, better.
No way!! I just finished an evaluation of HelpSTAR and it sucks hard!!!!!!!!
We didn't even finish the evaluation period because we got so much negative feedback from users.
It's mostly stupid UI crap, like you can't send a request with "Fwd" or "Re" in the subject line (wtf?) - they say it's to prevent loops.
Attachment handling is awkward - have to click about three levels deep if you want to save it as a file rather than execute it.
There's no way to see all currently open tickets (well, there supposedly is but it doesn't work right).
You can forget about searching for anything like a closed ticket as the search function is terminally useless.
Argh!
That's just scratching the surface, I could go on for hours...
To be fair though, if all you have is a call-center you might be able to make it work acceptably. Most of our issues revolved around email and file attachments.
Disclaimer: I am the author/maintainer of WebCollab.
A possible alternative to RT is WebCollab.
At least one of my users is familiar with both projects and prefers WebCollab.
Apart from that it's Open Source and the code is reasonably easy to follow. Tailor matching to your organisation shouldn't be too hard. Judging by the patches and comments I get, some of users are doing just that
.We use it. If done right, I can see it working ok. Too bad the 'do it right' guys are busy doing other applications. In our current implementation, I can say this... At least once a day, I go to a co-workers desk and say: "Hey, come here and look what Remedy just did." If nothing else it is a good laugh at least once a day. Yesterday, this guy came to me and said he opened a ticket to just to view it's status, and that triggered an e-mail to the user stating he had started the change request. Then, he tried to change the status to say he was not working on it. It e-mailed the user again saying he was working on the ticket again.
My nick gives you a clue that I work for a pretty big company. We have been using Remedy for a couple of years now. It seems to work well for us. Scalability doesn't seem to be an issue. We have hundreds, maybe thousands of staff, multiple thousands of sites and, I think, workstation numbered in 6 digits.I don't have a clue how practical it would be for a small operation but it is enterprise ready.
Profanity - The sign of a small mind trying to express itself.
Reading some of the other posts here it seems a lot of people have problems with Remedy. I must admit I think it's an excellent product, powerful and flexible enough to meet any need you may have. Where I think people have come across problems with it is in situations where it is not properly supported or implemented ( it does take a dedicated developer / support team to keep it working efficiently and evolving to meet the changes to your structure ). I have used it in a 1st Line Support scenario and now in a 2nd, 3rd Line Support scenario and provided you are willing to work with it it's an excellent system. However it's amazing the number of luddites you come across, even in IT companies, who instantly hate Remedy the moment they set eyes on it: "This just takes too long, with my post it notes and memory I always know what I'm doing" "Why should I have to bother typing stuff into this pile of junk once I fixed someone's problem?" But really these people miss the point, the power of Remedy ( for us at least ) is that the 1st line helpdesk can see in seconds any open requests and give an up to date appraisal of what is happening with the request to the user or any other interested party. Any further info from the user or whatever can be instantly transmitted across to whoever is dealing with the problem. In short I like it but I imagine it's very expensive both initially and to support it thereafter.