Resolving IT issues even a few minutes faster can have a massive impact on overall business productivity, especially as more departments rely on tech for daily operations. But how can you ensure your company deals with IT problems efficiently?
Internal IT ticketing systems are an increasingly common solution, enabling organizations to streamline and accelerate their IT problem-solving function – all while reducing the burden on end-users.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of these systems, helping you learn:
- How internal ticketing differs from other forms of IT support
- Why internal ticketing is growing in popularity
- What to look for in the ideal ticketing system
Internal IT Ticketing 101
What is an Internal Ticketing System?
An IT ticketing system is a tool used to report, track and resolve IT service requests, incidents and issues. This ranges from temporary problems with the printer to company-wide outages. While many organizations rely on external providers to run their ticketing systems, many others build their own internal ticketing system to manage IT services in-house.
How Does an Internal Ticketing System Work?
While they vary widely in terms of special features, such as automation and communication channels, every ticketing system follows these basic steps:
- Issue a ticket: The end-user creates a ticket and specifies their issue or request. This is usually done through an end-user portal that provides a short form to input key information.
- Categorize the ticket: The ticket must then be categorized across at least two key areas:
- Urgency level: Should this request be prioritized or can it wait?
- Request type: Which techs are required to resolve the issue?
- Assign the ticket: The ticket is then assigned to a relevant tech’s workflow, who can use the urgency level to triage their requests and prioritize the most important issues.
- Seek approval: The request may then require further approvals, especially if it will involve a considerable change or investment – such as purchasing new software or hardware.
- Resolve the ticket: The tech addresses the issue and “resolves” the ticket, before letting the end-user know.
3 Benefits of an Internal Ticketing System
1. Faster Problem Resolution
Internal ticketing is often the fastest way to resolve IT issues. Let’s compare it to the two most common alternatives:- External ticketing: While external ticketing services often have more resources at their disposal, your employees are competing for their attention with other clients. External techs are also less deeply immersed in your specific organizational structure and IT systems, meaning they may spend more time determining the most effective resolution or locating the personnel required to approve a purchase.
- No ticketing system: A standard internal IT support team without ticketing will be slower to learn about and respond to issues. Employees must “go to IT” with their problems, rather than simply issuing a ticket and switching to a different task while their problem is resolved.
2. Easier Prioritization
A ticketing system also makes it far easier to sort through multiple requests and focus on those that are most urgent. Many systems allow you to automatically triage tickets based on various information, including the request type and the seniority of the individual issuing the ticket.
This is not just a question of making life easier for techs; it can also save an organization huge sums of money. If the wrong ticket is prioritized and a critical IT issue takes too long to resolve, the productivity losses can be significant.
Equally, internal ticketing systems are far more capable of leveraging self-service systems and automated walk-throughs to empower end-users. You can develop educational content relevant to your organization’s specific IT systems, making it easier for end-users to find and use these resources. As a result, many low-priority tickets are simply never issued – because the end-user solved the issue for themselves.
3. Improved Communication
While many external ticketing systems have notorious issues with slow, fragmented communication, an internal system enables techs to regularly communicate with end-users within their existing tech ecosystem. This helps to:
- Increase clarity: End-users know how long the issue will take to resolve and can track progress with confidence, reducing stress and allowing them to more effectively organize their workflow around IT complications.
- Accelerate resolutions: More direct communication channels also ensure techs have all the information they need to understand the problem and more effectively fix it.
How to Find the Right Internal Ticketing System
The market for ticketing software has ballooned in recent years, with vendors offering a wide range of special features. But as we’ve argued elsewhere, most organizations are better served starting their search not with market research but a problem identification process.
What Are the Most Common Challenges?
Implementing an internal ticketing system raises a number of challenges, including:
- Resource constraints: Over 40% of all organizations don’t allocate any budget to internal IT services, and those that do have very limited resources. As a result, repetitive processes and complicated interfaces will lead to resource wastage that most organizations cannot afford.
- End-user adoption: Many organizations spend a lot of time and money introducing a ticketing system – only to discover their employees don’t use it. This is often because the system they choose is designed for techs, not end-users, and employees understandably don’t want to spend hours learning how to use it.
- Stagnation: Ticketing systems should evolve over time to achieve new efficiencies. But many popular platforms lack adaptability and do not deliver data-driven insights to enable IT leaders to optimize their services. Equally, their pricing models often mean you pay more as you scale – essentially punishing your business for succeeding.
3 Essential Features to Look for in Your Software
Based on these common challenges, most IT leaders should prioritize finding a ticketing system that offers:
1. Custom AutomatioN
Automated ticketing workflows can accelerate ticketing resolutions and help techs avoid dull repetitive tasks. However, many platforms offer just a handful of pre-set automations, which means the efficiency gains are limited – and the system cannot evolve.
Custom automation solves this problem, enabling techs to build new automations that fit your specific organizational structure. DeskDirector allows you to create everything from custom approval roles to entire automated workflows with ease, using a low-code platform that accelerates the process and lowers the bar for building new automations.
2. Smart IntegrationS
End-users often don’t use ticketing systems simply because they don’t want to move to a new platform. Task switching can reduce productivity by up to 40%, and many employees simply won’t issue tickets if they think doing so will get in the way of their work.
The solution is to find a ticketing platform that integrates directly into the applications your employees use all day. DeskDirector offers exclusive, easy-to-use integrations that place ticketing within the Microsoft environment – allowing end-users to issue tickets without leaving Teams or SharePoint.
3. User-Friendly Interface
Many ticketing systems offer powerful tools for techs to progress tickets and communicate with end-users – but they are often difficult to navigate, creating friction within the process.
Leaders should therefore look not just at the capabilities of a ticketing solution, but also the usability of those features. DeskDirector’s tech portal, for example, is designed to streamline workflows and provide a single place where techs can quickly access everything from ticket documentation and chat histories to their ongoing tasks and performance insights.
Build the Ultimate Internal Ticketing System with DeskDirector
With automated ticketing workflows, exclusive Microsoft integrations and user-friendly portals for both end-users and techs, DeskDirector helps you overcome resource constraints to deliver an internal ticketing system that all parties benefit from.
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