On Sat, Sep 14, Phil Davis wrote:
Most of our agents prefer using their own email clients to answer support calls
That is quit funny for me because we had the same "problem" at SuSE. The STTS (which is a trouble ticket system used at SuSE) had this feature but it became a bit complicated with locked tickets and with tickets which became very old. Many agents locked a ticket (which ment that the system bounced it to their account) and than didn't answer it or answer it to late (we are all just humans). So I think the "one interface for all" idea has some advantages. The system (OTRS) knows whats going on and you can not trick it. Of course I do see the advantages of a normal e-mail client, but believe me one of the main features of the OTRS is the standard response feature. You have to think about a good queueing system and than create standard responses for each queue. And THAN it will be much quicker to answer them by one click in the OTRS but to bounce and answer them with a normal e-mail client. I know it is very hard to believe but think about it and give it a try! In case you need any help just send me a private mail and I will to what is possible. All for one, one for all!
Customer email --> wrapper script Wrapper script sends to OTRS so ticket created or followup added. If new ticket then wrapper script adds ticket number to Subject line and support email as a CC and bounces original customer message to mailing list. Agent reads mailing list and does reply-all so customer gets answer and OTRS gets followup. Agent optionally uses Web interface to OTRS to close ticket or support duty person does it at some later point.
I hope that's clear. It seemed to much work to try and add options to OTRS to do the bounce on newticket (and my Perl is rusty) so it seemed quicker to use procmail/formail.
Your idea is very clear for me and to be honest I really enjoy this sort of discussion. It is very hard to find people who have this sort of problems and who are open minded enough to a) invent new things and b) to discuss it with other people.
I know OTRS can do notifications on new tickets etc. but this means agent has read notification email and then click on link to get into OTRS web interface which is not always easy to do depending on where agent is reading their email (e.g. home).
I think it will be better to have everything handled in one system. I know it is not very fancy and using a webbased e-mail client will never be perfect but you can track everything and you have full power to escalate things. Anyway please keep us up to date how you solved it. PS. The only way of bringing both world together (and I know Martin will kill me about bringing that idea up) is to create an IMAP interface to the OTRS. So that you could connect from any e-mail client via IMAP to the OTRS. This would make it possible to still keep everything in one system and to use your favorate e-mail client. But it is quite fare fetched. take care Stefan -- Stefan Wintermeyer Are you sure it isn't time for a colorful metaphor? (Spock) "Star Trek IV (The Voyage Home)"