Here is a step by step for the care desk ticket request lifecycle.

  1. A requester either fills out a request in the on-line portal or emails caredesk@emnet.org
  2. The caredesk 'dispatcher' program will look at the available information in the request (subject line, description, or portal drop down values like category) to determine which group or individual should address the request. Groups include IT, AV, Facilities, Maintenance, Websites, Database Vendors, and the generic 'care desk team'). If the dispatcher program can't figure it out, it is forwarded to the care desk angel staff member who reviews and assigns to an agent( designated person with a care desk login in IT, Maintenance, Housing, AV, Phones etc)
  3. If the dispatcher can determine the group it assigns the main person of the group and sets the status to Pending. Pending status means that the request is received but the support agent has not started working on it.
  4. The care desk system will automatically send a response to the requester that a ticket was created. 
  5. The care desk system sends the assigned agent a message with a link to the newly created ticket
  6. The support agent's role is to pick up the ticket from their email or on-line at the care desk and reply to the requester with either some questions or an estimate when the ticket might get work started/finished. When this initial human reply is sent the ticket is changed to an Open status which means it is in process.  It is also possible that the ticket is temporarily set to an 'assessing' status while the agent analyzes the problem.
  7. Sometimes the support agent is so busy that the original Pending request sits for a while in the queue. That is when the care desk angel steps in to contact the requester, gather more details or set expectations. It is our goal at care desk to get back to the requester as soon as is possible for us so that they not only have the automated notification that a ticket was created, but some human concern expressed also.
  8. The agent or care desk angel may send replies to the requester via email. The requester can reply to these directly (but don't copy others in the To: section as it can create duplicates if the other replies back to you). All transactions are saved in the Care desk
  9. Sometimes the request cannot be resolved for various reasons (not policy to do so, is part of larger project later, or other reason) if the request can be done after a number of other items it might get changed to the status 'Deferred' and we will review it periodically to see if it can be resolved then. The agent will contact the requester with a reply email in the care desk system telling them that this request is being deferred or closed.
  10. When the support agent has resolved the ticket and changed it's status another automated email will go to the requester. That email contains a little rating survey for scoring the satisfaction level. It also allows the requester to reply and say 'this isn't resolved' which opens the ticket back up. Don't reply to the resolution email with 'Thanks' because the care desk thinks you want to reopen the ticket. Just click on the rating icon and comment there.