IT support software: The importance of status mapping with Integria IMS for ticket management.
Whether you’re in the market for new IT support software, or you’re already an Integria IMS user and want to learn more about the tool, read on, because today we’re going to take a look at status mapping and how it can help your team to get the most out of ticket management.
What is status mapping?
IT support software like Integria IMS comes with the ability to fine tune or tweak some parameters that can be critical when it comes to managing your tickets. Status mapping is one of them, and before we go any further let’s take a look at some core concepts.
Firstly, as you know, there are different kinds of tickets, among which are incident, query or complaint tickets, and they all have different purposes and different paths to follow during their lifespan, from the moment of being opened to the time when they are closed. Organizing this life cycle is improved if you have a status mapping function.
With Integria IMS, tickets may be viewable by all users and also have specific fields for each individual user. Furthermore, groups or individuals who will receive the tickets can be specified. You decide who can see a ticket and who can resolve it, and who cannot.
In second place, it’s important to understand the fields specific to each ticket. Each ticket has its own fields, which can be of various types, e.g. text, text area, numeric, etc. Moreover, for each ticket you can add as many additional fields as necessary.
“Status mapping”
One of the most important fields on the tickets, it allows the user to track all the steps that a ticket goes through during its existence in order to know a ticket’s status at any given time and what its next status will be. A clear example of a ticket’s life cycle can be seen in the following graphic:
As you can see in the image, when a new incident is opened it goes to unconfirmed status. When it’s resolved the status changes to resolved and finally to closed. In case anyone needs to do so, tickets can be reopened. The most common situation is that the ticket is assigned to a group or department and, when the ticket is opened, other colleagues will know that someone is working with that ticket.
Status mapping enables users to have a clearly defined workflow. A defined workflow means that the user can organize the order in the chart above, changing it if necessary, adapting it to get the most out of the organization and resolution process. The user will be able to indicate the steps to follow until the ticket is closed, and even indicate if the ticket is to be reopened or reassigned to another colleague.
Another screenshot shows the life cycle of an Integria IMS ticket.
Another example: Imagine that you have just contracted some new IT support software. You’re getting to know the software’s functions when you suddenly realize that something is not to your taste. Your staff is supposed to resolve at least 100 incidents per month and, to ensure that the ticket order is respected, you decide to use status mapping, making sure that the “new” ticket can only be given one of two statuses; “assigned” or “pending third party”. From “assigned” the ticket will only be able to go to “closed” or “pending closure”. On the other hand, from “pending third party” they can only go to “assigned”.
Another important function in relation to status mapping is the automatic creation of a ticket “epilog” when a ticket is closed. This is where the result, the problem and solution are logged. This information will go on to create a knowledge base for future reference.
To summarize, status mapping provides greater control over ticket management, but you’ll need IT support software such as Integria IMS to really improve the management and organization of incident services.