Colorado State University

UPDATE: This switch is now complete and osTicket is running live.  Let us know if you have any trouble using it!

CNSIT South will be switching the software used in its online ticketing system!  Sometime early this summer we will make the switch from the current Trellis implementation to an implementation of OSticket.  Feel free to read all about the new system at http://www.osticket.com

The existing Trellis software worked very well for a time.  As our experience with a ticketing system grew, so did our demands of what it should do.  Unfortunately, Trellis is not being actively maintained, and therefore we cannot hope to have our needs met there.  OSticket has just had major revamping with the promise of more throughout the future.  It boasts several very impressive improvements, which I will attempt to itemize.

Collision Prevention – On an not so rare occasion, you may have received responses from more than one CNSIT staff member within minutes of each other – this is the result of a lack of ticket locking to make sure one staff member knows another staff member is already responding.  Not only does this save time for us, it will drastically reduce the level of confusion for the client when receiving multiple email solutions simultaneously.

Ticket Lifecycle System – Trellis does not have any system in place to set Due Dates or default SLAs on a standard ticket.  With OSTicket, we can set this data, and be reminded of events automatically.  This will prevent tickets from falling through the virtual cracks (not that this happens – this will just make our job a heck of a lot easier!).

Email Addresses as Usernames – The current Trellis implementation uses a username and password to identify clients.  We had modified the installation to use CSU NetID that auto-detected a CSU @colostate.edu address.  This seemed to be the way to do it, until we realized that Trellis would not respond to emails from another address by that user, such as a Gmail account.  This caused us to potentially lose responses from the clients.  This also forced users to use the site in many cases, when it is often easier to communicate with use via e-mail.  We will use OSTicket another way by allowing users to submit tickets with their identifier being whatever email address they actually use – not just @colostate.edu.  This also allows us to have clients that do not have CSU NetID, such as prospective students.  So, in short, we will no longer use CSU NetID to authenticate, but will accept E-mail Address and Ticket ID.  If this doesn’t make total sense, it will once you use the system.

There are other features we CNSIT staff are excited about that you (as clients) won’t necessarily care about – so I won’t mention them here.  In any event, the new system is a big step up, and we are really excited about it.  Please let us know what you think, and whether you have any questions or concerns!  Thanks!