IT Ticketing Systems

As a business, you use a range of digital systems. To ensure the smooth functioning of these systems, you need a support team to resolve IT issues such as system bugs and software glitches.

You can help your support team be more effective at their job by investing in an IT ticketing system. IT ticketing software automatically assigns incoming IT requests to the right service desk agent, helping your support team tackle IT requests from employees as well as customers.

This guide will help you better understand the role of IT ticketing systems. It’ll explain how they fit into a general IT services management strategy, as well as what to consider when purchasing an IT help desk ticketing system.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is an IT ticketing system?
Common features of an IT ticketing system
What type of buyer are you?
Key considerations when purchasing an IT ticketing system

What is an IT ticketing system?

IT ticketing software allows your IT department to track and consolidate support requests from your team in one easy-to-manage location. This type of software is extremely common and goes by many different names. Incident management software, incident tracking software, trouble ticket software, IT helpdesk software, and helpdesk ticketing system are just a few examples.

Though there can be slight functional differences, all of these systems typically serve the following purposes:

• Assign individual case numbers, or “tickets,” to each problem or issue reported by an end user.
• Help process that ticket by assigning it to the support agent or department whose responsibility it is to address the particular problem it identifies.
• Track the progress of the ticket as internal teams work toward a resolution.
• Coordinate the work of different teams and the end user or customer, based on the ticket’s level of priority.
• Provide a centralized, real-time view of the problems customers are having.
• Offer insights into developing problems and help companies plan for future service needs.

Common features of an IT ticketing system

While IT ticketing systems come in a variety of industry-specific platforms (more on those below), there’s a group of core features common to most. These include:

What type of buyer are you?

To make the right software purchase decision, you need to understand which buyer group you belong to and the group’s key concerns. Most buyers belong to the following categories:

• Small and midsize businesses (fewer than 1,000 employees): These buyers are usually looking for an affordable solution that serves as a ticket management system for resolving employee or customer queries regarding IT issues. A cloud-based IT ticketing system with a low monthly or annual subscription fee is an ideal option for these buyers.
• Enterprise buyers (1,000+ employees): These buyers are usually looking for a full-suite helpdesk ticketing system that comes with advanced functionality, such as the ability to add custom fields to tickets. They also need a system that offers integration capabilities with tools such as human resources (HR) software for faster tracking and assigning of tickets.

Key considerations when purchasing an IT ticketing system

There are many different kinds of IT ticketing systems available on the market. To find the right one for your business, keep these considerations in mind:

• Niche ticketing management needs: IT ticketing systems are often bundled with other software applications and suites. However, a niche ticketing system can be beneficial for certain business use cases. For instance, if you’re a software development company then a bug tracking solution, which offers ticketing functionality, can be your choice for servicing customer tickets.
• Employee service vs. customer service: If you’re looking for a ticketing management system to manage service requests from only employees, then help desk software can be useful as it bundles an IT ticketing system. But if you want a ticket system to help your customer support team handle customer issues effectively, then using customer service software would be a better choice.
• Total cost of software ownership: The cost of IT support ticket software can rise when you want more features, such as live chat and a self service portal, besides ticket management. There can also be additional costs for services such as priority customer support, training, and user onboarding. Clarify all such costs during vendor discussions, so there aren’t any last-minute surprises.

Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or a recommendation. It was obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.