About

Zammad is a free open source, fully featured web-based ticketing system for helpdesk or customer support. It includes a multitude of features for handling communication through various communication channels, primarily for Curtis it is email and directly with the Zammad application.

History

In 2019 it was realized that an improved ticketing system was required by Curtis to allow the timely reporting and resolution of issues related to application, software tools and product firmware and application code. Zammad was evaluated with a limited group of Curtis employees to ensure that it could meet the needs of the organization. The group meet on-line each week to triage the tickets.

Objective

Curtis is using Zammad as a client facing ticketing tool where the customers are encouraged to submit their questions, concerns, issues, clarifications etc. through this web portal. Upon being received, these tickets will go through the triage process internally to ensure these reach the right person(s) who will then be responsible for resolving it.

Access

Zammad can be accessed using https://support.curtisinstruments.com/

The customers will initially need to request access to Zammad. Once your account is setup you can use the link above to go to login page and use your email ID and password to login.

The very first time you login, you’ll get the following screen:

A) Overviews:

This tab shows the views available to the user to navigate through all the relevant tickets.

B) My Tickets:

This view is available by clicking “Overviews” from the left pane. This view shows the users all the active tickets created by them. Users can use this to check the status of the tickets, check for any additional comments made by Curtis team, add more details/comments, track the progress etc.

Sample screenshot of this view once you are done creating your first ticket! :

 

C) My Organization Tickets: 

This view shows all the tickets created for the organization associated with the user, irrespective of who submitted the ticket or the status (New/Open/Closed etc.) This view is useful because any team member of the customer organization is able to track these tickets, eliminating potential scenario of communication delays if the user who created the ticket is unavailable for any reason. This view can also be used to check if there’s an existing ticket for an issue that may have been resolved and hence has the answer for the user or help avoid duplication of tickets related to same issues.

Sample screenshot of this view: 

D) Knowledge Base: 

This view gives easy access to various articles published by Curtis team(s) that are deemed useful for customers. It provides a user-friendly view for relevant information that users may wish to access on a recurring basis or to publish any announcements relevant for the customers.  

Sample screenshot of this view: 

E) Search: 

F) “+” : 

 Clicking this button opens the window to create a new ticket.

Here’s a sample ticket populated with mock data:

Title:

Users should use this field to give an appropriate, summarized title related to the issue. This is a required field.

NOTE: users should target one issue per ticket as it makes tracking and resolving them more streamlined, communication is clearer and there are less chances of missing out on any detail.

Text:

This is the space where users can enter details pertaining to the issue. Users can also attach files upto 20 MB to help Curtis team understand the issue better and hence be well equipped to resolve it. This is a required field.

Group:

The user can select the high-level group the ticket is associated with. In case you’re unsure about the group, please select “CA Products” and the internal triage team will analyze and navigate the ticket to the appropriate team. This is a required field.

State:

Please keep the state as “New” for the newly created ticket.

Create:

Users will click the “Create” button after entering all the information needed and are ready to submit it.

The newly created ticket can be accessed from “Overviews” > “My Tickets” > click on the ticket. 

It will look like this:

What Happens Next

Now the ticket has been submitted to the Triage group it will be processed and if extra information is required, or a solution proposed it will be entered onto Zammad which will automatically send an e-mail notifying you of the update to the ticket. You may also return to the ticket to add additional information. The triage group will assign the ticket to the appropriate group/person to resolve the issue.

Sample view of a ticket in progress:

Email Notifications

Users will get email notifications as well in order to keep them well informed on any progress being made on the their ticket(s):

Sample emails' screenshot:

• Email confirmation once the ticket has been created.

You can also reply to this email if you have additional comments to add to the ticket. That comment will show up in Zammad ticket view as well for tracking purposes.

Sample email:

• Email notification confirming receipt of comments made in the email reply.

Sample email:

• Email notification for a new comment added to the ticket by Curtis team.

Whenever Curtis team adds a new comment to the ticket, the users will get an email informing them of the event and related details.

Sample email: