Inspiration from the weirdest places...
July 27, 2011
Today my apartment complex upgraded their website to provide more features. One of the features was "Submit a trouble ticket", where you filled out various fields such as "Category" and "Priority". Then you wrote a description of the problem.
On a whim, I tried it out, since one of my windows had refused to latch, and my AC unit had been putting out a funky smell. I submitted two tickets, got immediate email notification that my tickets had been accepted to the queue.
Two hours later, a maintenance guy knocked on my door. He fixed my window, cleaned the AC unit, and fixed a latch problem on the sliding glass door that I had forgotten to report.
For those of you keeping score, my apartment's maintenance department has a better Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) than any IT department I've ever worked in. And a trouble ticketing system that many companies would be envious of.
The next time someone in management tells you that you don't need a ticketing system, tell them about my apartment complex. Maybe that will change their tune.
Posted in System Administration
Email me
content rss
July 27th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
They probably read Tom Limoncelli's latest blog post.
July 27th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Management arguing *against* a ticketing system? Preposterous! Without one, they actually have to gauge the work you do instead of just pulling reports out of it.
July 27th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
So, what system are they using?
July 28th, 2011 at 8:40 am
That is pretty cool...I'd never heard of an apartment complex using a ticketing system online. However...wait and see how prompt they are after the newness wears off. :)
I am a firm believer that when used correctly a ticketing system can be a great commodity to have at your disposal. It can help with time management, structured views of repeat issues, etc.
However there are the negatives. The biggest that I see all to often is management using reports they generate from the #'s and averages as the "see all" summary of what workers have been doing. As useful as these reports can be did you actually read some examples of maybe why ticket A took longer then ticket B. Did you actually read through the actual resolve of the issue to see why maybe worker A is taking longer then worker B?
# crunching only goes so far...if you don't look deeper then just a generated report you're not going to see the "true" picture.
October 24th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
[...] ideas. It’s hard to tell where the next bout of inspiration will come from – be it my apartment complex or the aviation [...]