Hi folks,

I'm fairly new to OTRS. I have installed version 2.4.7 on an Ubuntu 10.04 system, and have been testing it with the past 10 or 15 support calls as examples.

We have just a small support team, most days only 1 or 2 agents are "on" out of 4 of us total. I have set up these 4 users as "agent" users through the LDAP integration to our Active Directory server.

We have about 100 employees that we are supporting for various IT requests (computers, laptops, cell phones, BlackBerrys, some off the shelf applications, and 2 small in-house developed applications). These I have set up in OTRS as "customers" (even though they are all internal "customers") which are divided between two companies under the same parent company.

For trying out and learning the features of OTRS, I have set up about 6 queues:

- computers
- laptops
- network and VPN
- cell phones
- BlackBerrys
- in-house apps

However I would also like a way to track the requests by which of the two companies it was from. What do you guys recommend for this? Is it better to make 2 top-level queues, and 6 queues under each? such as:

- Company A
   - computers
   - laptops
   - network and VPN
   - cell phones
   - BlackBerrys
   - in-house apps
- Company B
   - computers
   - laptops
   - network and VPN
   - cell phones
   - BlackBerrys
   - in-house apps

Further, I would also like to eventually track with more granularity than the above 6, and much of this next-level-of-detail will be repeated under each of the above queues (though some sub-divisions will be specific). For example:

- computers
   - accessories
   - lost devices
   - damaged devices
   - new device roll out
   - old device removal
- laptops
   - accessories
   - lost devices
   - damaged devices
   - new device roll out
   - old device removal
- network and VPN
   - connectivity
   - performance
   - VPN
- cell phones
   - number and SIM card swaps
   - accessories
   - lost devices
   - damaged devices
   - new device roll out
   - old device removal
...

I'm wondering if making the queues so detailed is really the right way to do this? or if there are some other features, parameters, status, type, labels, etc on each ticket that would be better to use for this?

As far as assigning which of our 4 agents will work on the tickets, the 6 divisions is plenty (basically just 1 or 2 of us will do all the support on any given day, and if there is certain areas where one of us has more knowledge or can finish it faster, it will go to that user even if they aren't "on" on that day).

But for analyzing what topics we are getting more calls on, what we are spending more time on, etc, we would like more detail than those 6 divisions.

Also I'm wondering if most of you re-do the same labels you use on the queues, as you re-use those labels for FAQ "categories", and if you also re-use those same labels for the TimeAccounting "projects"?

Any feedback and sharing of your experiences will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Martin