It goes without saying that ticketing can be interpreted in many ways accurately, however we are using our own terms for ticketing operations and systems alike. In this sense, classic ticketing is the collection of operations and supportive systems which enable the management and communications of customer or internal error reports or requests. Operations and functions are usually limited to error records and descriptions, status assignments, and some communications towards the client or internal requester.
The above operations are only the tips of the ticketing iceberg. Just imagine how many other activities are required to completely resolve a reported error! First, the ticket shall be forwarded to the technical department, who can identify the error and create a resolution plan. Then, this plan shall be executed by the repair/maintenance teams or by contractors. All these operations shall be managed, documented and communicated. Furthermore, there shall be evidence of the repair for example in the form of a certificate of completion. Managing these business processes is far beyond from the capabilities of classic ticketing systems; on the other hand these are all manageable by a robust workflow system.
Workflow systems are – as mentioned – able to manage ticketing operations, but also these systems are capable of managing complex operations. All business processes can be modeled in one, unified system, enabling flawless completion process flows beyond ticketing. Such systems are able to delegate tasks, automate decisions and even to monitor other systems through integrations. Document management can be modeled not only until the certificate of completion, but even invoice and outstanding debt processes can be implemented in the same system. This results in the end to end management of ticketing related processes, not to mention the sophisticated reporting abilities of process management systems. All in all, managing ticketing through a workflow application increases organizational efficiency, enables end to end document and process management while saving workforce costs by automating process steps and decisions. But there’s more – workflow systems are able to integrate with other systems in the organization, therefore enabling operations through different, multiple systems. Let’s see what integrations can add to a workflow based ticketing system!
Advanced workflow systems are not only able to integrate with other business systems – and managing automated tasks through these systems – but also they can act as middleware solutions. Without going into deeply technical details, middleware solutions are able to act as the “glue” between different IT systems, therefore enabling communication, data exchange and therefore, extra functionality in these softwares. Point is, in case of a ticketing process, the workflow will be able to send and receive data from any system and also manage the operations of different IT solutions automatically – saving time and energy to the company. For example, if there’s an HR system for keeping track of holidays, the workflow can “ask” this system about the availability of colleagues. Knowing this information, the workflow will not delegate tasks to the colleague for the holiday period; it will distribute tasks to other employees with the same set of responsibilities. Imaging how much time could be wasted if all this had to be administered, checked, recorded and collated by human workforce! Workflow saved all the costs, time, and energy that otherwise would have been wasted and did the task at hand in milliseconds instead of hours or days.
As it can already be seen from the above, workflow based, integrated ticketing management leads to huge saving on time, costs and workload in the organization. Also, documentation is resolved, so all operations can be followed up later. The work of operators will become easier and also, the work of technical stab will become more transparent and fluent. Furthermore, since errors are resolved sooner, clients or requestors will be more satisfied. Add to all this the semi-automated communication features of workflow systems –clients always remain up to date with almost no human interaction involved – and you will see how much such systems could add to your organization.
Interested in such a solution? Have a look at xFLOWer’s ticketing by clicking here, and contact us to see all this for yourself!
