Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] Usefull addons ?

[Joel Webb]

This sounds like a great idea. The TTS has needed a revamping. I would suggest 
that
emailing the customer on every change of the ticket be an option. Sometimes you 
have
to talk about the customer on the trouble ticket, and the customer might not 
like it
(ie: user error). How many user errors calls does Support get at a NOC?? 
Probably
quite a few.

Other than that your stuff sounds like it would work. Have you set yourself up 
an
account with sourceforge??

address@hidden wrote*:
>
>Dear All
>
>I came across phpgroupware a few months ago, and I'm impressed by its
>capabilities. After testing it for a few months, I came up with some
>usefull additions (mainly to TTS).
>
>1) Submitting TTS-tickets through email
>
>It seems logical to use a special mailbox for this, which is read by a
>(modified?) mail client. When opening such a mail, the relevant fields
>are copied to the input fields from the add form of TTS. The support
>engineer kan make modifications, if neccesary, and finally submit it
>into TTS. Ofcourse the original submitter will get an email
>notification of this action, knowing the request is being processed.
>This is also a reason to add an extra field into the TTS database, such
>as 'submitter' or 'customer' or so. In a real TTS environment, there
>are three relevant parties:
>a) The one with the problem
>b) The dispatcher of all problems (mostly a manager)
>c) The technician(s) resolving the problem
>
>In the current implementation only b) and c) are supported.
>
>I think this should be done by a member of a special group, say
>'Support Managers', so ACLs should be used here.
>
>
>This is how I think I can fit TTS into our organisation ( a small
>company with 4 people resolving Internet- and network-related problems).
>
>
>
>2) The ability for the customer to view the status of the submitted tickets
>(only those submitted by customer). I think this is a special view
>option. Perhaps this is already implemented, but I haven't figured out
>yet how to do this.
>
>
>
>3)  Tracking worktime with each support call
>
>The billing hours field within TTS is not very convenient. The worktime
>is only known after completion of a (sub-) tsak.
>
>As we sell support-hours in advance, which can be consumed in a
>specific period of time, I was thinking of the following:
>
>A special table with the the following structure:
>
>ttsplus_call table:
>call_id
        integer         just an unique identifier
>customer_id
integer
        a reference to the customer
>ticket_id
integer
        a reference to the tts ticket number
>worktime
integer
        Time worked for this call
>status
        char(1)         status character
>
>This table is filled with an entry for every support call. You can even
>fill it out while talking to the customer. It supplies the missing
>fields in the TTS app.
>
>ttsplus_support table:
>support_id
integer
        just an unique identifier
>customer_id
integer
        a reference to the customer
>free_month
integer
        # of free support-minutes each month
>max_free
integer
        max # of free support minutes
>bought
        integer         additional bought support minutes
>expires
        integer         expiry date of bought support minutes
>total
        integer         total available support minutes
>
>
>Some services includes free support. EG. Mail services includes 15
>minutes support each month, but you can only use this support in the
>current and the next month, so max_free will be 30 minutes. This
>prevents the free support minutes to increase too excessive, and then
>be used for a totally different problem.
>
>When you buy support (eg. when not using any product with included free
>support), there is an expiry time on those support minutes. We sell
>support on a regular basis (minutes per month, same mechanism as the
>included free support), but also on a when-needed basis: You buy a
>certain amount of minutes, which can be used in the coming next 12
>months. The expires-field is used for this.
>
>The support table is really an addon: There is no dependancy on another
>app (like a TTS-ticket). This table is only used to keep track of
>bought and used support minutes. Ofcourse the customer must be able to
>see how many minutes there are available, and on which problems the
>minutes are used (the TTS-tickets).
>
>
>Anyone willing to add this ? I would try myself, but I'm not familiar
>with the phpgroupware API or even OOP, so it will take quite some time
>if I do this myself... I tried to find additional information, but the
>relations between the different tables, and the mechanism of eg. ACLs
>are not well documented.  I will write down my experiences in setting
>these things up, so others can benfit from this. Are there any
>special tools in use for the documentation?
>
>Just my wishlist ( a bit late for christmas, but hey, my birthday is in
>March :*), but I think there will be others finding these addons
>usefull. I don't say the proposed tables/design is the perfect one, but
>it does give you the idea of how I want to use this.
>
>Any questions / feedback is appreciated, and a happy newyear for
>everyone.
>
>Regards,
>
>Marcel
>
>--
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>ing. Marcel van Dorp (CCDP, CCNP+security)   http://www.wiwo.nl
>WiWo Support                                 tel. 071-523 77 91
>Postbus 1098                                 fax  071-523 77 94
>2340 BB Oegstgeest                           gsm  0653-50 77 76
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>
--
Respectfully,

Joel Webb
WebbGroup Network Systems LLC
www.webbgroup.net
336.841.7241