KACE Product Support

@mklotz:
How To Import HelpDesk Categories from a Spreadsheet http://www.kace.com/support/kb/index.php?action=artikel&cat=8&id=778&artlang=en
WARNING: Always review "Precautions when creating ticket rules" before writing any rules

We do not let customers set the category because it adds zero net value to our process. No offense to customers, but even if they set it correctly 90% of the time it still mean we need to reset it 10% of the time. Consequently, we need to at least check the data 100% of the time. This has resulted in us making the category viewable to users (customers) but only settable by owners. For legacy reasons we allow customers to set the category on initial submission if the submission comes from their kbox, but it is basically ignored.

One side benefit of always having the same category on new tickets is you can use the simple version in this faq to notify your team of new tickets. For us that default is called "unassigned"

We stopped using categories altogether, because any more than 10 or so categories will result in users inevitably choosing the wrong one. Don't even get me started on sub-categories... At one point, we probably had over 100 categories if you include sub-categories.

We could use categories for owners only (i.e. hidden from users and modified by owners), but that's only useful for reporting - which we don't have a need for at this time.

We kept our main Categories to 9 and about 1-3 sub-categories for each. From a user standpoint if you keep the main categories to recognizable items (Programs, Telecom, Hardware) or other items depending on your environment and just add 1-3 Sub-Categories (less is better) you stand to keep the users attention. I have found if you get the user to select the proper Category they are more than likely to continue on and select the appropriate Sub-Cat.

Because of our environment we have:
File Backup and Recovery – Self explanatory
Hardware – Anything but printers
Miscellaneous – Anything not found in other categories. I found if you put this at the bottom of the choice list it gets used less often by Lazy People.
Network – Internet, VPN, Wireless, Share/drive Access, etc.
Printers – Laser, Thermal Label, Impact/Line, Plotters - Printers are VERY important for our business so that why they are seperated from Hardware.
RF System – Inventory management equipment. We have many hundreds of items.
Software – Self explanatory
Telecom – Phones, Smart Phones, Voicemail, Headsets, etc.
User Administration – Self explanatory

Hope this helps.

Andy, You give our users too much credit. As I was reading your post I received a ticket from one of our "smart" users and it was brutal. They wanted to know what happened to the First Page of the Internet???? After laughing I called the user (no use trying to email back and forth with this genius to get some answers) and found out it was their home page that got changed. By the user themselves none the less. On the Bright SIde - they did pick the right category of Software::Web Browsers.[:D][:D] Unbelivable

Thank You CBlake

Great info GillySpy - thanks for the tip, we will consider.

Is there a way to have the category populate from an email submission?  Like if they put key words in the email can you set K1000 to auto populate the category?

Example:

My printer is out of color ink.

Can you make K1000 put it into the Printer Category???

It all depends on your user base... Even with categories like that, Russ, our users would have no idea what to choose (we reduced down to 10 or so, and they still botched things up). They basically think "my 'puter is b0rken..." They may pick "Hardware" when it's really an MS Office issue, or they may pick "Network" because they can't get to the internet when their wifi adapter is disabled. Because of the political structure of my IT department, servers, PCs, printers, and network communication issues all go to separate departments. We now use a front-end help desk group to intercept all incoming tickets and direct them to the appropriate team (they also handle front-line PC issues).

I'm glad your users are smart enough to handle your categories - ours weren't.

We made our categories fit the most top level of services. Use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Silly) I attached a picture (I don't see it in the preview - but I'm crossing my fingers and posting it anyway) If you want a list I can provide one. [:)]

You can always change what the user selects - sometimes we have to change what we select as technicians because what appears to be a telephone issue might actually be a server hardware problem.

As for subcategories you could go crazy - but we've kept the list pretty limited (I think) there as well. We have around 100 subcategories - each category has an "Other" selection as things always seem to come up. Most of the subcategories are in the Software category.

Good Luck!
Netty

[:D] I really appreciate the input you all have given. At this point we are not sure if we want to minimize the catagories to these levels but knowing you are all doing it and are ok with it is comforting. We will be relying on reporting and hopefully trending from the records so I am still not sure but any additional info is appreciated.

Thanks

M. Klotz|HelpDesk Admin.

I ran into the same thing as Andy. They would just pick anything and move on. We disabled the categories field after a few weeks of this. =)

My tech Support team handles the categories---most tickets come in to us by email anyway, so the users don't know what the category is. Also, even sometimes, the tech has to go back and change the category because what it originally appeared to be, turns out to be something different.
Don't expect your users to be much help---they have a problem and they want to get their issue resolved...asap.....they don't want to have to think about what the correct category is. If you have a front line support person assigning tickets, they can enter the category.

I had come across instructions regarding uploading a full categories listing in .csv format, into Assets then the instructions indicated to move them to the Help Desk module from there. Does anyone have these instructions and/or do those same instructions apply to K1000 version 5.3?