THWACKcamp 2017: If It's Not in the Ticket, It Didn't Happen

joshberman over 6 years ago 1 minute read time

As you know, we’re gearing up for THWACKcamp 2017, which promises to be our best yet. If you haven’t registered, you’ll want to get on that PRONTO! In our 100% free, virtual, multi-track IT learning event, thousands of attendees will have the opportunity to hear from industry experts and SolarWinds Head Geeks and technical staff. Registrants also get to interact with each other to discuss topics related to emerging IT challenges, including automation, hybrid IT, DevOps, and more.

We are continuing our expanded-session, two-day, two-track format for THWACKcamp 2017. SolarWinds product managers and technical experts will guide attendees through how-to sessions designed to shed light on new challenges, while Head Geeks and IT thought leaders will discuss, debate, and provide context for a range of industry topics. In my “If It’s Not in the Ticket, It Didn’t Happen” session, I'll be joined by SolarWinds Product Managers Kevin Sparenberg and Bryan Zimmerman to discuss best practices for streamlining the help desk request process.

Because I haven't worked in a help desk setting, and have likely been thought of as a “problem child” by a help desk or two, I’m sure I’ll appreciate the perspectives Kevin and Bryan will share in this session. I look forward to understanding the similarities and differences involved in supporting internal and external stakeholders, in addition to acting as an MSP in this same capacity. Tapping the wisdom they've accumulated from their individual experiences working on and leading help desk teams, Kevin and Bryan will offer help desk technicians advice on everything from the appropriate levels of information that are needed on the front end of the support process, to which tools can be used throughout the resolution workflow to help accelerate ticket resolution.

Check out our promo video and register now for THWACKcamp 2017! And don't forget to catch our session!

Top Comments

rschroeder over 6 years ago +2

Teams that ONLY work through tickets/requests are a challenge. I understand some of their push back, but there MUST be flexibility to handle emergent items through documented and accepted triage procedures…
ecklerwr1 over 6 years ago +1

Ugh writing workflows for the helpdesk is one of my least favorite things to do but it does help them resolve problems without having to call other higher level technicians for sure.
tinmann0715 over 6 years ago +1

What I have come to learn over the years is that IT does not eat its own dog food. While we push our user community to open tickets to track requests and so forth. The internal-to-IT requests and so forth…

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rschroeder over 6 years ago

Agreed. "If it's not in the ticket, it didn't happen" is NOT great DevOps behavior.
On the other hand, if it's not in the ticket, someone's wasting other people's time getting them to do the triage and diagnostics that should have been done when the ticket was first created.
In part, that's an issue when giving all users the ability to create their own Help Desk tickets and assign them as they see fit. Too much goes straight to the Network team. That MIGHT be OK in a very small shop, where the poor Network Admin has to handle switches, routers, firewalls, wireless, servers, apps, proxies, telephony, etc.
It's NOT OK in a big shop like mine. Great triage and documentation is the way to reduce frustration and duplication of effort. Rather than trying to get a ticket out of the Help Desk queue and assigned to a team asap, better to try and fix the problem for the customer right away at the first level of support. And if that can't be done, get all the data needed to pass the ticket onto second level support, so they don't have to ask the user if they've rebooted their computer yet. Or worse . . .a second or third level support expert having to ask the customer
"Is your computer powered on? No, not the monitor--is the COMPUTER powered on??
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