[otrs] Looking for others in our field using OTRS
I'm interested in locating other companies using OTRS in the same field we are in. We are a small IT services shop, and as such, don't have the manpower on staff to dig in and tweak OTRS. I'd love to chat with someone about how you use OTRS, what workflow you've implemented and any customizations you've made. Obviously, it is your expertise in customizing OTRS we're looking for, so if you have developed some customizations we would like to implement, I'm definitely not above paying you for your time! As a business model, we have scheduled maintenance visits to client locations that we perform. During those visits, we work on any number of tasks. Each task we work on for a client should be a ticket. Sometimes we also perform remote work and unscheduled work. As far as billing, we typically bill for the visit, and not for each task. So we don't really use the time units in the tickets in OTRS, as they don't have a lot of meaning for us. So I am looking for how others have integrated time tracking with ticket tracking. Based on suggestions of others here, I am looking at tying together a timesheet type package with OTRS (currently evaluating Timetrex and a few others). Obviously, if you are in the same geographical location as me, you might not want to share these secrets with me, and I understand. I am in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area, so if there is anyone who would like to share how they've implemented OTRS in this type of business, please let me know! Feel free to drop me a line off the list as well, as this might not be 100% pertinent to others here. ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/
[otrs] Exploring OTRS
I am exploring different ticketing systems and finding that one component we really need is not found in virtually any of them. I really like OTRS due to the mature communications structure, and wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions for whether OTRS is a good fit for what we need. We currently perform scheduled IT service for clients. At this point, OTRS fits perfectly, because it gives clients the ability to submit their own tickets, set their priority, and receive feedback on the service being done. There are 2 things I am seeking that I'm not 100% sure about with OTRS. The first can probably be done by someone with some SQL and reporting skills. I'd like to be able to put together a summary of a visit to a client, in order to put together their monthly bill. It would allow them to see what was done during a particular visit. As the work done in OTRS is timestamped, I assume we could build a report that would let them see what is done when. The other part, though, has me a little stumped in my searching about the Internet regarding OTRS. I'd also like to be able to track the visit itself as a time unit. This is different from time spent on a ticketed item itself, as any that are worked on during a visit don't really have a time applied to them. We might work on 5 different items during a visit, and trying to split time up between them becomes difficult. That is where we would like to just track time for the visit (arrived at left at). I'm almost beginning to think we need to have a separate app developed that allows basic time tracking (time sheet?) in this manner, then tie together a MySQL query that will take the time of the visit from the timesheet app and find all the work done for the client during that time... Does anyone have any experience with using OTRS in this manner? Is it all doable inside OTRS itself, or am I looking at tying a few different systems together? If so, does anyone have a good suggestion for a timesheet app that would allow us to track time spent at a client location? ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/
Re: [otrs] Exploring OTRS
Yeah, I find it is kind of difficult to express what I mean. John goes to Widgets Inc. John's scheduled appt is 2 hours, but due to varying circumstances, may end up there longer, which is why we need to track time, so we can bill the overage time. While there, John has 6 different ticket items to work on. We want John to record what was done on a ticket-by-ticket basis, which is where OTRS is perfect. But for any individual ticket, we don't care to record time, as John doesn't usually sit down and work on one ticket from start to end. He might work on ticket 1, then ticket 2, then come back to ticket 1. You get the idea. One solution we've used in the past is to create a separate ticket JUST for the visit itself. In that case, we could use the free text fields for timestamps and report based on those stamps. But what I'd REALLY like, and this is where I'm thinking I might need to have another app developed/integrated with OTRS, is to have a begin visit button, which then allows picking the client, and then an end visit button. Essentially, all this would do is capture a start and end time, along with client and technician ID's to a table, then we could use those timestamps for billing, reporting, etc... -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Pagliaroli Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 2:56 PM To: otrs@otrs.org Subject: Re: [otrs] Exploring OTRS Why not just put some free text fields in the ticket and allow your agents to log in, enter the start/end time for their activities, then sum that up in a report? Or is what you're trying to do a bit more complex than that? -Original Message- Message: 3 Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:21:33 -0600 From: Aaron Spurlock [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [otrs] Exploring OTRS To: otrs@otrs.org otrs@otrs.org Message-ID: The other part, though, has me a little stumped in my searching about the Internet regarding OTRS. I'd also like to be able to track the visit itself as a time unit. This is different from time spent on a ticketed item itself, as any that are worked on during a visit don't really have a time applied to them. We might work on 5 different items during a visit, and trying to split time up between them becomes difficult. That is where we would like to just track time for the visit (arrived at left at). ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/ ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/
Re: [otrs] Exploring OTRS
That's a great idea to integrate a time tracking apps 'ID' into the free text field of a ticket. Have you used any time tracking apps you'd recommend to help jumpstart my search? Thanks! -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter Beckman Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 3:32 PM To: User questions and discussions about OTRS.org Subject: Re: [otrs] Exploring OTRS On Mon, 11 Aug 2008, Aaron Spurlock wrote: Yeah, I find it is kind of difficult to express what I mean. John goes to Widgets Inc. John's scheduled appt is 2 hours, but due to varying circumstances, may end up there longer, which is why we need to track time, so we can bill the overage time. I don't think OTRS is built to be a time tracking and billing system. Sure, there is rudimentary support for this using Time/work units, but it is not designed to do what you say: have an agent log in, and track the time from login to logout, or click to click, and have all tickets touched during that time reported as part of his/her day. The problem comes in where you have a single agent working for multiple companies at the same time. What if John is working on site, and during that time he takes a call, and works on another ticket that is for UPS, Inc? Does John need to stop what he's doing, log out of OTRS for that company, log into OTRS for another company, then deal with the ticket? Then log out and log back in again to get back to his on-site job? While you CAN do this, I doubt OTRS development will take this track. Why don't you just use an existing time tracker, then with a block of time ID, you can put into the ticket that block ID. Then you can search by blockID and see what tickets were associated with that block (freetext field). There are better time tracking systems out there. Beckman --- Peter Beckman Internet Guy [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.angryox.com/ --- ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/ ___ OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/ Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs Support or consulting for your OTRS system? = http://www.otrs.com/
