IMplementing free ticketing system to handle user support

1. Implementing free ticketing
systems to handle user support
Suzanne McCahan, PhD
Nemours/Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children
Bas de Veer, MS
Institute of Translational Health Sciences
University of Washington
Taryn Stoffs, MS
University of Florida

2. Suzanne McCahan, PhD
Nemours/Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children
• Nemours installation
• Active users: 238
• Projects in production: 404
• Project types
• Without surveys: 256
• With surveys: 540
• Longitudinal: 145
• Repeating instruments/events: 8
• Project purpose
• Research : 410
• Operational Support: 140
• Quality Improvement: 202
• Other : 44
• ACCEL installation
• Active users: 66
• Projects in production: 100
• Project types
• Without surveys: 20
• With surveys: 163
• Longitudinal: 15
• Repeating instruments/events: 0
• Project purpose
• Research: 47
• Operational Support: 59
• Quality Improvement: 48
• Other: 29

3. Request Tracker – a free ticketing system
• Freely available – GNU General Public License
• System has been in use by the Nemours Research systems
administration since 2002
• Used to support users of Nemours Research file servers, email
system, two installations of REDCap
• Three staff members respond to requests
• Thirteen queues
• Requests to move REDCap projects to production are separate from other
types of requests
• Different queues for the Nemours and ACCEL REDCap installations

4. Request Tracker – system requirements
• https://bestpractical.com/
• Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBDS, Solaris or Unix-like operating system
• Perl (at least version 5.10.1)
• SQL database – (MySQL, Postgres, Oracle or SQLite)
• Web server that supports FastCGI (Apache, Lighttpd or nginx)

5. RequestTracker functions that we use
• Email request creates a ticket
• Assign owner of ticket and re-assign owner of ticket
• Tracking of all ticket actions
• Record amount of time worked on a ticket (summed up
automatically)
• Reply to Email message to add correspondence about a ticket
• Web pages
• Send correspondence about a ticket
• Reports
• Search with filtering by numerous criteria

6. Request Tracker email
• Receives email sent to defined email addresses
• Each Request Tracker queue has a specific email address
• Sends auto-replies unique for each queue
• This uses customizable action scripts
• ‘Watchers’ are emailed
• Individuals can be set up for individual messages or all ticket correspondence for a
specific queue
• Ticket correspondence can be entered into web page and automatically
emailed to the appropriate individuals
• Tickets automatically created using requests from REDCap (move project to
production, move drafted changes to production, Contact REDCap
Administrator)

7. Request Tracker
Home page
• List of open tickets that
admin who is logged in
owns
• List of queues and links
to lists of tickets
• New unowned tickets
• Create a new ticket in
any queue

8. Request Tracker
Information about a single ticket
• Total time worked on project
• People involved in ticket
• Dates
• Created, started, updated, closed, etc
• History
• Correspondence with requestor
• Comments to RT administrators
• Status changes
• Owner changes
• Time worked

9. Request Tracker
People associated
with a ticket
• Owner
• Requestors
• CC for email
• Add new people
to ticket

10. Request Tracker
Search for tickets
• Criteria
• Ticket ID
• Subject contents
• Queue
• Status
• Owner
• Dates
• Requestor
• Time Worked
• Fields in report can be
customized

11. Request Tracker
Reports
• Criteria
• Always for a single queue
• Resolved tickets
• By owner
• Resolved in a given date range
• By owner
• Created in a given date range

12. Bas de Veer MS
Institute for Translational Health Sciences
• Main production installation
• Active users: 5.908
• Projects in production: 2.213
• Project types
• Without surveys: 781
• With surveys: 1432
• Longitudinal: 1.144
• Repeating instruments/events: 101
• Project purpose
• Research : 3.075
• Operational Support: 1.309
• Quality Improvement: 1.275
• Other : 364

13. osTicket– a free ticketing system
• Freely available – GNU General Public License
• Collaboration with UW Health Sciences Library (HSL)
• Hosted by HSL since September 2016
• Seven librarians respond to first level requests/questions
• Escalate tickets to second or third level (i.e. Bas)
• Tickets are generated from emails sent to a general support email
• Redundancy in case of server failure
• Users were used getting help via email

14. osTicket– system requirements
• http://osticket.com/wiki/Installation
• Linux (CentOS), Windows operating system
• PHP (at least version 5.3+)
• SQL database – (MySQL, 5+)
• Web server that supports the basics (Apache etc)

15. osTicket functions that we use
• Email request creates a ticket
• Assign owner of ticket and re-assign owner of ticket
• Automatic classification of standard requests
• Tracking of all ticket actions
• Easy handoff between agents
• Dashboards/Metrics
• Canned responses
• Knowledgebase (once I get around to populating it)

16. osTicket Metrics
• Over 7000 tickets processed so far
• About 125 to 150 tickets on average per week
• 2/3 handled by the first line
• API requests
• Create requests
• Copy requests
• Change requests
• General questions
• Rest by 2nd or 3rd line
• New outside user sponsorship
• General questions
API
17%
Change
22%
Create
21%
Copy
7%
Outside user
8%
General
25%
TICKET BREAKDOWN
(1 MONTH PERIOD)

17. osTicket Ticket Overview

18. osTicket Ticket Detail

19. osTicket Dashboard

20. Taryn Stoffs, M.S.
Clinical & Translational Science - Informatics and
Technology Group, University of Florida
Production Instance REDCap-Phone Instance
• Active users: ~4,500
• Total projects: ~2,600
• Projects in production: ~1,200
• Projects in development: ~1,200
• Project types:
• Without surveys: 59%
• With surveys: 41%
• Longitudinal: 27%
• Repeating instruments/events: 2%
• Project purposes:
• Research: 65%
• Operational Support: 12%
• Quality Improvement: 18%
• Other: 5%
• Uses Shibboleth to manage accounts
• Launching REDCap Mobile very soon!
• Launching in August 2017
• Used for projects needing Twilio services
• Separate instance needed to clear security review due to
firewall issues.
• Stored PHI will be kept to a minimum.
• Projects will be moved to production instance after data
collection is complete.
• Will use Shibboleth and User Whitelist to manage access
and accounts.
• Will require support staff to be more hands-on in projects
(granting access, creating projects, etc.).
• $1,000 flat fee per project.
• User support will be on a for-fee basis only.

21. Using REDCap as a free ticketing
system
• When I came aboard, no ticketing system was in place - all requests came via
email to my regular work email.
• I created a REDCap survey to use as a ticketing system, track help/meeting
requests, cut down on the number of vague/important detail-lacking emails, and
log the time spent on each request until a better solution came along.
• I used REDCap because it was what I knew, would be helpful with NIH reporting
requirements, and thought it would be good to use our own product
(advertising!) to show users its flexibility. I also had no IT/$$ support available at
this time.
• All links within REDCap for support help direct users to this survey. I use Survey
Notifications to know when a request has been submitted.
• As of October 2014, over 1,300 tickets have been processed so far…

22. Survey Instructions

23. Help Request Survey

24. Help Response and Tracking form

25. REDTRAC$ – Using a modified REDCap as a free
ticketing system
• May of 2017, REDTRAC$ was born (still in development).
• This became one of the Computer Engineering graduate student’s projects they
worked on during the summer.
• Kept the existing REDCap survey and continued to use REDCap as ticketing
platform.
• Automated, real-time data feedback for support staff to know how much free
time a user has consumed.
• REDCap system tells the requestor how much free time they’ve used so far in
the survey confirmation email (piped in from another project).
• Ability to run monthly reports to see who has gone over their limit for
invoicing.

26. REDTRAC$ – Using a modified REDCap as a free
ticketing system
• Uses plug-ins, hooks, DETs and cron jobs.
• 2 separate REDCap projects: 1) intake survey and 2) user data
• DETs migrate data from intake survey into the user data project
• System requirements:
• Standard REDCap installation.
• REDCap version that supports Repeating forms and events.
• REDCap project with a help request survey and a tracking form.
• Someone to install and maintain the plug-ins and hooks.

29. Let’s Discuss!