Addressing Specialized Issue Tracking Needs
It is important to keep in mind that IT issue tracking software is a generic and versatile toolset intended to support a large number of activities within your IT organization. Different parts of your IT function may have specialized needs that extend beyond the features and functions of basic issue tracking software. If this is the case, then it is usually best to start by leveraging customizable views, workflows, rules, and reports to fulfill your unique requirements. If greater specialized features are required, then consider integrating your IT issue management software with other tools while retaining the centralized set of issue data and leveraging the issue management workflows you’ve defined.
The value of IT issue management software is having all your issue data and workflows in one place where they can be centrally managed, measured and optimized. If possible, then it is best not to move individual teams into their own issue tracking system, as doing so negates the benefits you receive from having a common IT issue tracking system – such as SLA measurement, a consistent user experience, and end-to-end management transparency.
If, after exhausting configuration and customization options, you still find it necessary to move some teams onto a separate IT issue management system, then there are some actions you can take to mitigate the impacts of this choice:
- Integrate the systems together: Identify workflow and data-exchange integrations to enable issues to flow freely between systems and enable users (agents and requesters) to see issues from both systems.
- Combine data for reporting: Consider integrated reporting solutions to enable management to retain end-to-end transparency of support operations.
- Negotiate cross-system SLAs: Measuring response-and-resolution time SLAs becomes difficult when issues are managed in multiple systems. If issues will be transferred across systems, then determine how SLA measurement will be accomplished in advance.
- Use common data structures and taxonomies: If you must have separate systems, then keep as much of the data structure and taxonomies the same. This will enable data from both systems to be combined and analyzed as if it were a single data set.
IT issue management software is an essential component of your company’s IT service management tool portfolio. It provides a versatile set of capabilities that enable your staff to manage a great variety of issues, both technical and informational. IT organizations, large and small, across all industries, can benefit from using this software to manage all their IT issues in one place – providing a consistent user experience, efficient support workflows, and management insights and data to support continuous service improvement.
Selecting the right IT issue tracking software for your company requires balancing both your current needs with the ability to grow and evolve as your company’s needs change. Selecting software that is easy to use, cost-effective, customizable and leverages industry standards will enable you to implement quickly the features you need while your support teams are small and scale the capabilities as the team expands.
IT support is expensive and, for many companies, the actual total cost of supporting their business operations is hidden within disparate teams, fragmented processes, and inconsistent record-keeping. Implementing IT issue tracking software can help your company take control of your IT support costs and enable informed management decisions about resource allocation and service-improvement initiatives. The reason your company invests in IT support is to provide high-quality services to your users – IT issue tracking software can help you achieve this goal more effectively.