Plain Ticket - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Plain Ticket : Remotely-hosted, web-based issue tracking system

Issue tracking system

An issue tracking system is a computer software package that manages and maintains lists of issues, as needed by an organization...

, also called a Help Desk

Help desk

A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website and e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind...

system. Plain Ticket allows any department in a company that is responsible for answering customers requests, to answer these, and to track those requests until they are resolved.

Characteristics

Plain Ticket is computer software

Computer software

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....

also called a web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...

, that works in a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

.
a Software as a service
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...

, where all data is stored and kept on many remote servers
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...

. It thus corresponds to the definition of a cloud-based service, or a cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

application
that allows a team, and its agents, to resolve internal and external issues, by storing and classifying all interventions leading to the resolution of a problem, or an issue, in a 'ticket
Ticket
Ticket may refer to:* Ticket , a card or slip of paper used to gain admission to a location or event* Ticket , a card or slip of paper that designates one's position in a queue or ownership of an item to be picked up...

.' A 'ticket
Ticket
Ticket may refer to:* Ticket , a card or slip of paper used to gain admission to a location or event* Ticket , a card or slip of paper that designates one's position in a queue or ownership of an item to be picked up...

' is composed of the description of the problem and of all the interventions leading to its resolution.
that allows its agents, within a resolution team, to regroup and classify requests and issues in categories they define themselves.
that allows agents, to assign or transfer a ticket to another member of the resolution team. Agents can, thus, partially solve a request before transferring it, or directly transfer it when another member of the team is in a better position to solve the issue.
that keeps track of all the history and all interventions leading to the resolution of an issue.
that is integrated with email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

, which allows the sending of notifications upon new interventions, and also the creation of new tickets, when an email is sent directly to an email address corresponding to a certain issue category.
where one can add attached files to tickets, to detail a request.
where one can prioritize requests, according to their relative importance.
where one can classify requests according to their planned resolution dates.
that is fully searchable, where all tickets and their messages are indexed by keywords.
that allows to create a knowledge base
Knowledge base
A knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management. A Knowledge Base provides a means for information to be collected, organised, shared, searched and utilised.-Types:...

, with all tickets and their keywords.
that allows to sort tickets by categories, by user name, by priority, or by status.
where user access is defined according to roles.
that is secured, where all data access can be done by https
Https
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS protocol to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server...

protocol, and thus, encrypted.

History

Initially developed in 2005 to answer Turbine interactive's internal needs, Plain Ticket has been created to simplify and to create order in issue management.

Plain Ticket has been deployed in many institutions and companies in the educational field in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

(Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

) among others, Dawson College

Dawson College

Dawson College was the first English CEGEP and is located in Westmount, just west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dawson College is located near the heart of downtown Montreal in a former nunnery on 4.85 hectares of green space...

- Commission scolaire de Montréal

Commission scolaire de Montréal

Commission scolaire de Montréal is a French-language school board located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The school board was created on July 1, 1998, as a result of a law passed by the Quebec government that changed the school board system from denominational to linguistic...

- Éditions du Renouveau pédagogique - Concordia University

Concordia University

Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...

.

The 2011 version of Plain ticket broadens its base to include small and medium companies, by the means of a monthly subscription to a hosted web service.

Development

Plain Ticket has been developed by Guillaume Carrier, from Turbine interactive (Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

- Canada

Canada

), a company founded in 2002.

Initially, Turbine interactive specialized in providing eLearning and distance learning solutions. Its main focus has since been
reoriented towards providing solutions to small and medium-sized companies.

Characteristics

History

Development

See also