Helpdesk: a streamlined issue tracking solution for modern business

Welcome to the final article in my three-part series on issue tracking in modern business. Part one laid out important foundational information about issue tracking, as well as introducing issue tracking software built on the Microsoft Sharepoint platform.  In part two I took a look at Infowise’s various issue tracking solutions built with their Ultimate Forms Sharepoint toolset, which adds a high degree of user-friendly customization to the powerful but often difficult-to-use Sharepoint. In this final part, I’m going to break down the Helpdesk tool from Infowise, our flagship issue tracking theme and in some ways the basis for our other issue tracking solutions.  First I’ll start by reviewing a few fundamental considerations of issue tracking, then we’ll move to a breakdown of the helpdesk tool along with its many uses in issue tracking.  Whether your business is a multinational giant or a budding startup, an efficient and effective issue-tracking process (both internally and externally) is an absolute must in the modern business space.  If you fall short either internally or externally, your organization’s productivity will steadily decline and your image will suffer in the eyes of both your collaborators and clients.

An introduction to the Ultimate Forms Helpdesk tool 

Helpdesk is a digital issue tracking tool built on Infowise’s Ultimate Forms platform, our third-party Sharepoint overhaul that makes the base program more capable and customizable.  The helpdesk form itself contains 8 entry fields on the first tab titled details, and six on its second tab titled resolution.  Let’s start with the fields on the Details tab before we move to resolution:

1; Customer

    A text field to identify the customer who is experiencing the problem.

2; Service Request

    A text field that you can think of as the subject field of an email.  A place for a concise identification of the problem.

3; Details

    A large text field in place so that the person entering the information can give a more detailed and complete description of the problem sufficient for the individual or team tasked with resolving it.

4; Priority 

    A dropdown menu where an internal priority level can be set for the ticket.  The higher the priority level, the more pressing the problem and the need for a solution.

5; Service representative

    The service rep who entered the ticket leaves their name here before submitting the ticket so that the process can be tracked from end to end.

 6; Assigned to

        This field is in place so that the chain from service rep to assigned employee is complete and accountability for the solution is enforceable.  

7; Keywords

     A field for relevant keywords for query searches and categorization.

8; Attachments field

    This field is a container that can hold relevant file attachments of the ticket such as screenshots or images of the problem.

    The second tab, titled resolution, is geared towards the tracking of the issue’s solution and contains 6 entry fields.  These fields are as follows:

1; Status

    This field is a dropdown with options to show what stage of resolution the ticket is in.

2; Comments

    This field allows for employees to write comments about the issue and solution to be viewed internally.

3; Tasks

    The task section is a dynamic field populated with tasks assigned to employees by managers regarding the particular ticket in question.  Think of this section as an assigned schedule for the employees tasked with solving the issue.

4; Resolution date

    To be filled when the matter has been closed.

5; Related articles

    Employees and managers have the ability to enter relevant resources and sources in this field.

6; Attachments

A space for relevant files such as screenshots or text documents.

As you’ve probably gathered based on the descriptions of the details and resolution tab, the Helpdesk solution is a fully fleshed out digital issue tracking tool that can take your customers and employees efficiently from identification to the solution.  The Infowise team has worked diligently to ensure that this tool is complex enough to handle your issues but simple enough to be easily customizable if the need arises.  If for whatever reason you do need to modify Helpdesk to suit your particular issue tracking needs as a business, we have a wide array of resources including seminars and one on one sessions to guide you.  The great thing about the  Ultimate Forms platform is that basically everything is customizable, so making a bespoke logistics platform on SharePoint with it is fast and easy.   That being said, our team has worked to exhaustively design as many templates for our users as possible, so you may not even feel the need to really change anything.  Either way, The Ultimate Forms for SharePoint, of which Helpdesk is a part, is a powerful tool that will elevate your business logistics practices efficiently and effectively.  If you have any questions or would like to talk to one of our team members about Helpdesk or any of our other Sharepoint solutions, please reach out to us or feel free to continue browsing our resources online!