Matthew MaderosMatthew Conlon

Information TechnologyMassachusetts College of Art & Design

Matthew.maderos@massart.eduMatthew.conlon@massart.edu

NERCOMP 2008

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Implementing A

Helpdesk Ticketing System But Were Afraid To Ask!

MassArt1,300 undergraduates300 graduate students600 faculty and staff

Information Technology12 full time staff 3 co-op students 5 work-study students

The Product ChosenUnipress/Numara FootprintsPurchased Version 7.0Currently running 8.0

Background• Current home grown access system lacked

numerous features that were essential for a functional helpdesk

• Out grew old system time for a more powerful system

What we were looking for…• An easy to use web based ticketing system•Integrated with our LDAP and AD systems•Custom reporting•Able to fit our allocated budget •Expandable to other departments•Mechanism to automatically provide status updates• Future expandability

• Asset Tracking• Application deployment,• Knowledgebase

Project Time LineWith backing of CIO and area VP money allocated

July 2005Established budget of +/- $15,000 Goal to have system in place for September 2006February 2006 demo various products March 2006 bid went out to vendorsApril 2006 contract awarded to FootprintsMay 2006 general testing with usersInstallation and rollout August 2006Footprints administrator Matthew Conlon

attended training: November 2006

Implementation & FeaturesInstalled

Running on Windows Server 2003Dell server w/ dual Xeon processors, 8Gb RamLinked to AD via LDAPLinked to existing SQL serverIncoming & outgoing email notificationEditable interfaceStepped through Project Wizard

ConfiguredLDAP issuesAddress book issues

Re-configuredFootprints 2.0Footprints 2.5

What didn’t work…What’s your “Title”?What kind of problem is this?Master ticket: to use or not to use?Email overload/out of office?What is critical?!?!Email submissions/spamMarketing/user training

BenefitsPriority and notification featuresAllows for better issue trackingA new helpdesk, a presencePeople are coming back!Customizable agent and customer rolesIncoming email ticket generation:

helpdesk@massart.eduCustomer interface displays ticket historyTickets can be added to knowledgebase after being

resolvedLed to drop down dependencies…3,800 tickets in 18 months

August 2006 – March 2008

(note in first nine months only 2 months with over 200 closed tickets, in the next nine months there were 6)

What we learned, so you won’t have to…It’s more about process than product…No system will fix a bad work flow processKeep perspective on the way issues are handled by

the human before we can determine how the software will process them

Look into vendor training on your product…At first glance the administrator training for your

product might look long, boring, and pricey, but look again

Allows you to fully customize and maintain your system in-house without spending time calling vendor tech support.

Not all systems are created equal…All have strengths and weaknessesWeb-based vs. Client-based, small or large scale, fully featured or bare bonesAsk around, do a site visit

Customization is key…The more you use the software the more you will

want to tweak, trust usExpect that you will redesign the system at least

once for customizations Make sure that your product can be customized

to your needs

What we learned, so you won’t have to…

Scale the product accordingly…Make decisions about which entities will be

using your solution early and make them clear

Split cost with involved departments if possible

Be aware of agent license costsCommunicate the benefits of new system to

users for buy in

The FutureSurvey systemExpand knowledgebaseAutomate reportingMore ticket templatesInventory/asset managementApplication deployment tool

Questions?

Matthew MaderosMatthew Conlon

Information TechnologyMassachusetts College of Art &

Design617-879-7888

Matthew.maderos@massart.eduMatthew.conlon@massart.edu

THE TOUR

http://footprints.massart.eduhttp://helpdesk.massart.edu