Help Desk

Only successful tracking of calls or issues posted by an

employee or customer can lead to satisfactory and timely solution. In a typical

situation, its likely that an issue is not handled at the first point; instead

it is escalated and the re-escalated. Want to track an escalating issue?

IssueTracker bundled with PCQLinux 2006, allows one to track with whom the issue

is with and what is the status of the issue-whether it is waiting, closed and

open.

Installation and setup



During the PCQLinux installation, on the package selection screen, make sure

that you select the Servers>Web Server and PCQLinux Specials>



Enterprise



>Details>issue-tracker. Additionally, click on  “Details” besides

Web Server and select the package named php-mysql. Besides these RPMs, you will

also need to install MySQL database server. Refer to the article “Organize,

Manage and Publish Web content with Joomla” on page xxx to install and setup

MySQL. Then create a database named issue-tracker as:

mysqladmin -u root -p create

issue-tracker

The administration console of Issue-Tracker provides a starting point to set up all aspects of tracking issues in your organization

When prompted, supply the password that you had set for the

root MySQL user. Change to the directory /var/www/html/issue-tracker/setup and

issue

mysql -u root -p

issue-tracker < schema.mysql



mysql -u root -p issue-tracker < indexes.sql


mysql -u root -p issue-tracker < data.sql

When prompted for password, supply the MySQL's root user

password. Next, open the file named config.php, lying in the directory /var/www/html/issue-tracker/conf,

in a text editor and modify the database configuration parameters as follows:

$db = array(



"type" => "mysql",


"host" => "localhost",


"port" => "",


"name" => "issue-tracker",







"user" => "root",







"pass" => "pwd"







);

IssueTracker is used by RedHat-the makers of RedHat Linux

distributions-to track issues and bugs

IssueTracker is used by RedHat-the makers of RedHat Enterprise Linux distribution - to track issues and bugs

Substitute pwd with the MySQL root user's password. You may

also like to modify the lines defining the _ADMINEMAIL_, _EMAIL_, _TITLE_ and

_COMPANY_ as per your preference. Browse the URL http://localhost/issue-tracker

and you should be greeted by the Issue racker's login page.

Build your Helpdesk



Before you begin to work with the IssueTracker, you need to create your

technical support team. The team members should belong to various groups. If you

have different product or service offerings, you might have different teams for

different products. You can create groups and subgroups of your users and assign

them to various combinations of products. Then, you can set up what each team

member can do and how they can escalate or assign issues to other members. You

can also choose to move an issue to a different support group. When all is done,

you mark the issue as 'closed'. When assigning a support call, you would set up

a duration (in days) for that issue to be resolved or escalated in turn. The

system tracks this period and shows group and user-wise performance as a running

display on the welcome page.

Login as the 'admin' user. The default password is 'demo'.

Click on the Administration link at the top right of the page and under the

'Product Management' group, click on 'New Product'. Enter the name of the

product, PCQLinux 2006, and click on the 'Create Product' button. Repeat for

each product or service your company offers. Now, click on the 'New Category'

link under 'Category Management'. This can either be the categories of the

products/services you offer (software) or of the type of support call being

answered (premium and partner). Click the 'Create Category' button and repeat

for each product and call type.

Next, you would need to create different types of statuses

for the issue. Some come pre-configured, however, you can add more if you want.

To do this, go to the 'Status Management' category.

The administration console of Issue-Tracker provides a

starting point to set up all aspects of tracking issues in your organization.

Next, you need to create both users and user groups. Either you can make a user

group first and then users, or you make the users and then the group and add the

users to those groups. Let's create the users first. Go to the 'User Management'

module and click on 'New User'. Enter the username, first name, last name and

e-mail address for each user. You can create up to 10 users in a single shot. If

they are normal tech-support employees, check on the Employee option. If they

are of supervisor or above cadre, select Admin. A user can be both an Employee

as well as Admin. We created three users: Techsupport1, Techsupport2 and

TechAdmin. TechAdmin was an 'admin' user, while the other two were of type

Employee. Next open each user from the 'User Management' screen and go to the

'Permissions' link there. Select to let the users 'update status', otherwise,

your support team members cannot close or escalate issues.

Now go to 'Group Management' and add new groups, one for

each of your support teams. We made two groups: PCQLinux and PCQMag. Except for

the name, you need not fill in anything else on the creation form. Back in the

'Group Management' screen, click on each group in turn and then the 'Add/Remove

Users' link on top. Select the members for this team from the left-side box and

clickon'Udate Users' (this will go to the right side). Note that a bug in this

will not allow you to de-select an item once you have clicked on it and if you

click on Update button now, it will move to the other box. When you're done,

click on the group's name on the gray bar on top and then on the Permissions

link. You will find a table of users and associated permissions here. This is

where you assign who does what on your support team. The 'Group Administrator'

gives them the right to access all issues and assign them to other members and

Technician lets them answer queries. Select the permissions as appropriate

(Techsupport1 and Techsupport2 get Technician and TechAdmin gets 'Group

Administrator').

The basic setup of Issue Tracker is complete. Feel free to

add other information as you might find necessary. All passwords are sent to the

respective user's e-mail IDs. Create another user now for use as a 'client' and

submit issues. You will notice that your Technician and 'Group Administrator'

users can see and respond to it.