Dear helpdesk agents (those of you who resolve tickets via Footprints),
Thank you for your help during today's helpdesk change-over. This change-over has now taken place. We would also like to use this opportunity to remind you what has visibly changed:
* A new project name in Footprints for new queries: UKIROC.
* A new support address: [log in to unmask]
* A new automatic interface between our local helpdesk and the GGUS helpdesk in Germany. Tickets assigned to UK/Ireland in the GGUS are now copied automatically to the UK/Ireland helpdesk and changes are automatically copied between the helpdesk (after a short delay).
There will be very little difference when using the new project, except more of the information will be available in the UK/Ireland helpdesk, therefore we ask that the GGUS ticket is not referenced unless really needed.
What you need to do
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Please ensure you use the UKIROC "project" for new issues and the "GGUS" project for ones started before 23rd. The project you are working on can be selected from the small drop-down menu at the top right of the Footprints screen (if you are logged on), when replying to emails from Footprints the correct project is automatically chosen. If you do have any outstanding issues on the 23rd then these will remain in the OLD helpdesk and we will keep them synchronised with their GGUS helpdesk copy manually.
Issues to be aware of
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There are a few limitations of the importer, due to incompatibilities between the Footprints and GGUS model of helpdesks:
* Parts of the history before a GGUS ticket is assigned to the UK/Ireland ROC may not be copied as the GGUS system only allows access to the most recent diary entries.
* Attachments are currently not copied; this is because they cannot be inserted into the Footprints system without file system access to its server.
* When a ticket is set to solved in Footprints the interface between the UKIROC and UK helpdesk must supply a solution. This will normally be chosen as the last field entered from Footprints. Therefore it is important that when you set a ticket's status to "solved" that you enter at least some text summarising the solution as this is all a user submitting a query to GGUS will be sent in the email notifying them of the solution.
More details for "expert users"
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The main difference between the two projects is with the two extra fields "Responsible Unit" and "syncWithGGUS", these set whether the issue is also on the GGUS helpdesk. Normally you should not edit these fields; they will be set automatically depending on whether the issue originally came from GGUS or from a user contacting the UKIROC helpdesk. The one situation where they should be edited is when an issue that a user has submitted to the local UKIROC helpdesk is actually for another responsible unit (ie ROC, etc). In this case select the appropriate responsible unit from the "Responsible Unit" drop down menu or input via email. When "Responsible Unit" is set to "ROC_UK/Ireland" then the issue remains local (and is not copied to GGUS) unless "syncWithGGUS" is set to "Yes", this will be case for issues that have come from GGUS. If you wish to mirror an issue on GGUS, but not assign it to another responsible unit then set "syncWithGGUS" to true.
Thank you for your help in this matter and sorry for any inconvenience caused. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any problems ([log in to unmask]).
David Spence (UKI ROC)
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