It's a fair question, and one we're asked often in this line of work. This article isn't directed at anyone in particular; It's an attempt to provide reasoning in a blunt, direct and honest manner. We understand it may not always seem apparent or make sense to place a ticket, even if it seems trivial. Our goal is to shed some light onto the reasoning behind why we ask everyone to put in a ticket for what may seem like "everything". We encourage you to have an open and casual discussion with us about any specific topics mentioned if you still have additional questions that may not be addressed in this article.

Reporting

One of the primary benefits to having a ticket for everything is the ability to look back and generate reports on all sorts of data. Below are just a few examples of why ticket data can be so important to your IT department.

Cost Center

IT departments, for the most part, are considered to be cost centers. Regardless whether you believe IT shouldn't be a cost center or that IT should be a cost center (or even if you don't care) the fact of the matter remains: if you're reading this, your friendly neighborhood IT department is treated as a cost center. That means we need to report on everything we do to ensure we are as effective with our time, and budget as possible. Ticketing provides us with valuable insight into how we are performing and how we can perform better in the future. Below are just a few examples of what that means or what that might look like:

Less Staffing

Maybe we don't need that new hire after all. We've had 2 tickets in the past month, perhaps we don't need all this staffing, since no one has anything to do.

More Staffing

Why is it taking 4 weeks to have my ticket addressed? There's one IT employee for all 200 of us. Maybe they need another employee to help lessen the load.

Time management

You've asked us to have two employees onboarded on Wednesday, you need that TV set up in the new conference room by next Tuesday, or was it this Friday? And someone else… (who was it again?) asked us to do that one thing on that one day. Point is, if we’re being honest, we’re probably going to forget what you asked of us and when you asked us to do it. We understand your time is valuable, so is ours, and so is the time of the other people we’re trying to accommodate. Help us help you by getting it in writing so we can plan (or juggle) accordingly.

Promotion/Recognition

While tickets should not be the only measure of a technicians worth, tickets help highlight the hard workers so they can be recognized and commended for going above and beyond.

Demote/Terminate

Identifying the slackers. It’s important to note that tickets should not be considered the sole measure of an IT professionals work ethic, however tickets can show a pattern of behavior that my indicate an employee is not working up to his or her abilities.

Issues

Tickets can be a goldmine of insight into live-reported issues. Your IT department are only two (or three) pairs of eyes. We cannot see everything you see. We cannot use every application you or your department uses. Your tickets can help be the “canary in the coalmine”. If multiple users put in tickets about some internal service not functioning near the same time, that can help alert us to an issue we may not be able to see or have monitoring for. (In Mitch’s defense, we have monitoring for damn near everything. This is for example only.) The point remains, your tickets can help us help you and your officemates that much quicker should issues arise.

Training

Another area where reporting can shed light on something we might otherwise be oblivious to is training. Having proper training is the key to your success as a professional, and providing you with adequate training is the key to ensuring your success too.

Targeted by department(s)

If everyone in a specific department is asking the same question, then perhaps we need to focus more on that department to ensure we are providing them with adequate access to the right training.

Targeted by process(es)

If everyone tries to connect to the file server, but no one knows they need to be on VPN first to do so, that will be made clear in the tickets that the confusion will generate. That will make it obvious we’ve failed to explain the process to our users properly. It’s our job to make you, the individuals we support, as self-sufficient as possible. This is one of the reasons this document (as well as the knowledge base in general) was created.

Targeted by product(s)

Similar to before, if there is confusion based on a specific product we utilize in the work environment, then perhaps we need to refocus our efforts on better training or documenting how this product is used.

Targeted by user(s)

Lastly, if an individual employee seems to be struggling, we may be able to focus more of our efforts on getting them up to speed, or provide more resources to foster and encourage the individual to be more self-sufficient.

Legal

There may be instances in which it can protect you and/or the company to place a ticket. Suppose a user enters their password into a malicious site, and later in the day become cognizant of their blunder, but fail to disclose it to their IT team. Through inaction, they could expose themselves and the company to: an online attack, data breach, legal liability, and more. Having a documented trail of actions taken and subsequent response can help mitigate the threat and subsequent liability.

Professionals

At the end of the day it boils down to being a professional. Accounting asks us to complete expense reports through a portal. Health, Wellness and Safety requires documentation so they can evaluate an accident. People and Culture requires an incident report. It's a fact of modern life.

We hope placing a ticket seems like less of a chore and more like raising your hand in a classroom. We're all in this together. Thank you.