Tickets, please!

What is this ticket thing Brian is always yammering on about? I sent him an email already!

AC's technology department manages all the requests for support using a ticketing system. This helps ensure that requests are triaged and prioritized in the order they were received and based on impact to the classroom. Our ticketing system is called Spiceworks, and it's pretty awesome. It handles our inventory, support communications, reporting, purchasing and shipping - all for free! This system was put in place in the fall of 2011.

How does it work? Glad you asked! Teachers, students, parents and even equipment can submit a request for support with a simple email to our support address. It's not an employee email address, but a specific address just for support requests. Users can get help by visiting the IT Portal

Then the magic happens! The Spiceworks software checks the email inbox every minute and turns your email request into a technical support request ticket. It breaks out the category, requestor, related equipment, and all the other details. And that's when it gets noisy... A notification gets sent to my phone, my watch, my computer, and my iPad. The timer starts and records various metrics like "time to resolution", "time to acknowledgement" so I can strive for continuous improvement. Spiceworks will send you a reply that your ticket was created, and give you routine updates as I attend to your issue. Magic, right?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

How can you help? Using the support email address is the biggest help. As you can see, it's more than just simple email at work. But since you asked, here's a couple tips:

• Read the email responses from Spiceworks, newly labelled as "AC Help Desk". Reply to the emails to add additional information, cancel the request, or to answer a question I might have come back with.


• Always use a short but descriptive subject line. Avoid things like "Help", "My Computer", "Question". Use phrases like "Install GarageBand on iPad Cart" or "Bake a dozen cookies".


• If you need me to meet you someplace, let me know when and where. I'll do my best to accommodate specific requests, but remember that I'm only one person.


• Help a friend out if they're unable to email and create a support ticket.


• As always, your continued patience is always appreciated. I love being able to address every items as quickly as possible, but sometimes it's just not possible to be in two places at once.