Planning

Before you can set up your Vector HelpDesk system, you need to understand your business structure and have a clear idea of the process you want to implement. The following sections illustrate the sort of information required to set up a typical Vector HelpDesk installation.

Information Recording and Tracking

    What information do you want to record and track for each issue?

    How do you categorize issues?

    Do you want to provide different views of the issue data?

For example, do you want a summary view optimized for logging issues and categorizing problems, and a detailed view for recording things such as how the issue was resolved, and how long it took?

    Do you want to be able to link issues? Vector HelpDesk supports parent-child relationships between issues.

Workflow

    What is your help desk process?

Can you represent the path of an issue through the process as a sequence of steps, or decisions, such as New, Assigned, Verified, Resolved?

    Do you want to enforce this workflow process?

    Who needs permission to make decisions? Who is responsible for carrying out each step in the process?

    Do you need e-mail notifications to enforce ownership and accountability? When issues are submitted or resolved, who needs to be alerted?

Roles and Responsibilities

    What are the different roles and responsibilities of the people that use Vector HelpDesk? Can you identify different groups of users?

    Do different groups have different requirements of the issue tracking system? Do you need to restrict access to the system based on group membership?

For example, you probably want to restrict most users to the ability to submit and track issues. Support staff, on the other hand, require greater access to the system.

    Do you need to manage and coordinate work teams? Vector HelpDesk allows you to define work teams and the assign issues to them rather than a specific individual.

Related Topics

Implementation Roadmap

Creating a New Project

Customizing Fields

Creating Groups and Granting Permissions

Managing Work Teams

Creating User Accounts

Generating Web Views

Setting Up Notifications