The UniPress Blog

I was thinking about the Hosting service we offer that has helped so
many people. It lets customers run a full-function FootPrints system
on a computer which we maintain for them. The customer doesn't need
any servers or any IT infrastructure. We do it all. (Some customers
from larger companies which have IT capability choose Hosting anyway,
so that they can take care of their own needs without utilizing -- or
paying for -- their in-house IT services.)

One customer had no IT department so they could not have any helpdesk or
issue tracking system until they found the UniPress FootPrints Hosting
service.

Another customer had a large installation of FootPrints being used for a
CRM Service Desk running on a corporate server. Their IT Department
was charging them a lot of internal funds for using the equipment, and
furthermore they had a lot of outages. They turned to UniPress: The
Hosting fees were a lot less than their own company was charging them,
their uptime was substantially better once they switched, and they got
faster response time. This customer inputs more than 50,000 tickets
per month!

We have dozens of customers, and they are happy with the service. They
each get a full FootPrints installation, so they can have multiple
projects, they can be system administrators, etc., and we have
developed an installation 'cookbook' to get them running very
quickly. We do the setup for them (at no charge!), so they can be
installed and running without being FootPrints experts.

The more I think about the Hosting service, the more I believe that it
can be a great help to small organizations who don't have the in-house
IT capability but whose operation is complex enough to need a powerful
issue tracking system.

These customers typically are not using FootPrints for IT-helpdesk
purposes. They use it for many other 'issue tracking' needs, such as
customer service, HR, facilities management, etc.

One wonderful use of FootPrints is as the communication 'nervous
system' for a multi-location organization. The system can be run
through web screens, or FootPrints will send emails (including any
attachments), automatically record replies (including any
attachments), can act as a reminder/tickler system, and much more.

Until now, we have been 'offering' the Hosting service more than
'promoting' it. I am sure that the FootPrints Hosting Service can help
many more organizations than it does presently. We are going to start a
more active effort to promote it.

- Fred Pack, fhp@unipress.com

Posted by Unipress at 11:47 AM | Permalink

My partner Fred Pack came running into my office today. He had just
upgraded his Palm to a fast broadband connection and wanted to show it
off.

Since his Palm can now send and receive email and work with Web pages,
we discussed how FootPrints could take advantage of this device as well
as other PIMs (personal information managers), like my BlackBerry. We
talked for a while and I realized that this is both a general topic for
service desks and other applications. So I thought I would describe PIM
integration within the context which I know best, FootPrints.

There are three specific areas where FootPrints and similar
applications might want to integration with PIMs. They are:

1. Synchronization between the Service Desk's Calendar, Tickets
and Contacts and the PIMs Calendar, Tasks and Contacts. This can
be done without a wireless Internet connection.

2. Accessing tickets dynamically on the PIM, including viewing
issue lists, updating tickets, looking at the details of tickets
by sending and receiving email. This does require a wireless Internet
connection to the PIM.

3. Accessing tickets dynamically on the PIM, similar
functionality as #2 above, but via the PIM's mini Web browser.

I'd like to talk about each of these.

Synchronization
---------------

Wouldn't it be nice to synchronize your calendar appointments, tickets
and contacts in your service desk to those in your Palm, BlackBerry or
Outlook?

In FootPrints 7.5, now in Beta Test, you can do just that.

You can choose to synchronize an appointment with your PIM (or desktop)
by simply checking the "Synchronize" box when creating or editing your
appointment. And you can synchronize tickets to handheld or desktop
tasks (typically My Assignments but you can choose any other search
criteria), and send contact lists down to your handheld or desktop by
choosing which contacts to send.

While this synchronization is static -- the update is done while the
Palm or BlackBerry is attached to a desktop PC -- it is very convenient
to be able to synchronize events, tasks and contacts with the PIM.

Dynamic Ticket Access via Email
-------------------------------

FootPrints, as well as most other service desk products, have the
ability to send and receive emails to create and update tickets, get
details on them, and even show lists of tickets -- like My
Assignments, so that when you are in your PIMs email client you can
manage your support desk tasks.

In addition though, you might want to manage tickets through your
handheld's email client. This is not a simple step though, since the
footprint or screen of the handheld device is so much smaller than
that of a typical email client.

If the service desk sends out the same email for Outlook, for instance,
as it sends for your Palm, the Palm email would not be very readable.

But this problem is not too difficult to surmount:

In FootPrints, the Email setup page, which defines the formats,
fields, headers and footers that are sent to Agents, Customers
and CC's, also has a column for Wireless devices. This setup
assumes that the footprint of the Wireless device will be narrow,
and it creates emails which will fit on the typical handheld.

How does FootPrints know which email address is a Wireless
address? First, you can specify in an Agent's profile which email
corresponds to their Wireless/Handheld. Second, you can specify a
class of email domains which are Wireless/Handheld. Both of these
Wireless types of addresses will get the narrow, custom email
messages.

Dynamic Ticket Access via Web Browser
-------------------------------------

While the Email access for Handheld/PIM devices is excellent, a better
method would allow the mini browser of the handheld to display the
Web pages of the service desk application.

We are just starting design of this now.

What does this method require?

We will need to create server pages in FootPrints which are
custom made for a small Web browser and which a) are single
frame; b) are small enough to fit on the handheld's small Web
screen; c) encompass enough information to be generally useful.
This last point means that while a mini-homepage is useful (in
one frame), as is seeing details and editing, no admin screens
will be done in this mode (at least for version 1). It also means
that the main FootPrints pages will need to know which browser is
being used, and in the case of a handheld browser, adjust
accordingly.

Let me know your thoughts on this, especially thoughts on the Web
browser access to FootPrints for PIMs.

Mark
msk@unipress.com

Posted by Unipress at 10:07 AM | Permalink