Suggestions -- Ticket Status auto-change and Outlook auto-sync more often

[acrosser]

We are testing CommitCRM at our small office (Server 2008 Enterprise and Exchange Server 2007) and so far so good... just a few minor issues here and there. I'd like to suggest some feature requests:


1. It would be nice to specify the Outlook auto-sync period in # of minutes. We only have 6 people on our LAN using Commit, and so everyone syncing every 3 minutes, for example, would not really degrade network performance or cause any issues (that I can think of).

(We have office admins creating tickets and dispatching techs... and the techs have smart phones that sync with Outlook... so it would be nice to know that we were scheduled for an appointment within a few minutes of that happening... rather than upwards of 30 minutes).


2. When the office admins dispatch a tech and associate it with the Ticket, it would be nice if the Ticket's status automatically changed to "Scheduled." (Or at least if this were an option that could be enabled). Also, it would be nice if there was an option to automatically set the Manager of the Ticket to the technician that was dispatched.

Currently the office admins have to do the following to dispatch a tech for a Ticket issue:

1. Create the new Appointment, setting the Appointment's Ticket field to the correct Ticket.
2. Change the Ticket's status to Scheduled.
3. Change the Ticket's Manager field to the technician to which the Ticket was assigned (so when changes are made to the Ticket by someone other than the tech, then the tech is email-alerted regarding those changes).

Having steps 2 and 3 be automated would greatly simplify the dispatching process!


Thanks for considering these requests (and/or please let me know if these options are already available!),

~Tony

[acrosser]

Re: Suggestions -- Ticket Status auto-change and Outlook auto-sync more often

I would like to add to this -- it would be VERY nice if there was an option to auto-hide / not display in the first place the "Outlook auto sync about to occur" (or whatever it says) box that pops up every auto-sync. I have it set to 30 minutes and this can get a bit annoying! And I can't think of any reason I wouldn't want the auto-sync to run. If there was a good reason then I would go into CommitCRM and turn off auto-sync explicitly anyway.

Thanks!

[Support Team]

Re: Suggestions -- Ticket Status auto-change and Outlook auto-sync more often

Tony - thanks for the detailed suggestions.

Regarding #1 - currently the auto-sync shortest interval can be set for 30 minutes. I think I get why you would like it to be possible to sync more often, especially if most of you are out on-site most of the day, and I have logged your feedback. I would suggest, as an alternative, to check out the email alerts option. For any new appointment or tasks (and for any updates) a tech is assigned with, they are email-alerted about it, so they can always be notified within minutes with any updates or new jobs. I believe this is a good way to keep you guys updated together with the Outlook sync option running once in a while.

As for suggestion #2 - Great news! Actually most of what you have described is already part of RangerMSP. Let me explain...

To dispatch a tech for a Ticket, follow these steps:

1. Create the Ticket. The ticket will now appear in the "Waiting to be dispatched" ticket list in the Dispatcher window.

2. In the Dispatcher window, dispatch the ticket by dragging and dropping it to the relevant tech's calendar. This will automatically create the new Appointment, will link it to the ticket, and will change the status to to Scheduled.

3. The appointment will be automatically assigned to the tech, so when updates are made for this appointment they tech is email-alerted regarding those changes.

So this pretty much covers the process. The only thing it doesn't do is assign the ticket to the tech which has the appointment dispatched for. This is an interesting idea.


acrosser - thanks for the additional feedback. I've heard this request in the past and we have a this item on our list. I added your comments and suggestions, thanks!

Ethan

[acrosser]

Re: Suggestions -- Ticket Status auto-change and Outlook auto-sync more often

I was going through the FAQs and saw the tip on dragging and dropping the Ticket onto the time slot to schedule it. I tried this out and noticed that it does indeed set the ticket to Scheduled. So that works great.

Thanks for getting back so quickly and considering all ideas!