OVERVIEW
The City of Salem uses, and offers to a handful of sister organizations, an online help ticketing system where an employee can login and with a couple of button presses submit a support request. The request will be routed through the system, by information the requester puts in to identify the request, and assigned to the appropriate Technical Team for assistance. The technician assigned to the request will communicate via email (coming from help@salem.com), phone or in person during work to resolve the request.
Anyone who has an account can also log into the portal and has the ability to review the tickets they have submitted, this is good for following up on submissions, but also good for the user in the situation where they have the same issue more than once, they can see what happened before to possibly resolve their issue on their own. The user also has the ability to update any open ticket request in the portal and provide more communication and attachment of files that are pertinent to the resolution of the request.
There is a Knowledge Base available to portal users. This is the digital library of documents that have been assembled to help users resolve their own issues and get more information on technical aspects of systems and programs.
The search function in the portal allows the ability to search the users submitted tickets as well as the Knowledge Base.
Every employee of the City of Salem, Salem Public Library, Police and Fire departments, has an account that uses their computer login credentials to access it. For users with a salem.com email address you will need to include salem\ before your user name. (i.e. John Doe would use salem\jdoe as their username and then their chosen computer password).
Some employees of 'sister organizations' such as the NorthShore Workforce Board, Destination Salem, North Shore Community Health may also have accounts; please contact the help desk (978-825-3608) if you have forgotten your password or are unsure if you have an account set up.
PROCEDURE
In a web browser navigate to https://help.salem.com. The user will enter their username and password. You will use your computer credentials to log in, not your full email address.
For users with a salem.com email address you will also need to include salem\ before your user name (i.e. John Doe would use salem\jdoe as their username and then their chosen computer password, if the user has a had a name change the original username should be entered).
*If the user has recently updated their computer password there is a chance that their browser might have saved the previous password. If there is any log in issue first attempt logging in while completely clearing out the password field and retyping the current password.
When the user has been logged in correctly the page will show the following options:
- Find a Solution
- Submit a Ticket
- Request a Service
- Ask a Question
- Announcements
- Browse Knowledge Base
Find a Solution
This is a search bar where the user can search the system for a phrase or keyword that appears in a Knowledge Base Article, Announcement or in a ticket that they have access to (Incident Ticket or a Service Request). This is helpful as it allows the user to see if what they are experiencing (a problem), or expecting (a request), is something that they have reported previously and how it was resolved, as well as if IT has promoted any information about the search term.
The Submit a Ticket page
This is where a user submits a new help request by filling in the fields in the pop up box that is invoked by hitting "Submit a Ticket". Identifying the request as detailed and accurately as possible is helpful to allow the system to efficiently route the request to a technician for support.
The fields:
- Issue Type: this field is for a high level of where the issue is. Network, Software, Equipment, Data Request, General
- Issue Detail: this field identifies a distinct area of support needed, there is an exhaustive list available, and the list may be limited by the "type" choice so if the intended Category is not seen choose a different Type in the previous field
- Summary: please provide a short summary of what the request is for
- Description: please be as wordy as you like in this box; the more information provided the better the technician can server your request from the start
- Are you submitting this ticket for someone other than yourself? If so, please check this box: This option allows a user to submit a ticket for another person (i.e. a user can submit a ticket for their supervisor)
- Building & Room #: please enter a location where the requester may be contacted or found, this is especially helpful if the user is a SPS employee
- Related to: this field allows the user to connect this new support request to a previous one they have submitted
- Attachments: please attach any relevant files, screen shots, images, etc...
Fill in the fields on the first page and hit "NEXT" at the bottom to fill in all the fields and submit the request.
Fill in the fields about how to contact the requester of the issue. Please provide as much information as possible with a location and phone number(s) to assist IT staff to make contact.
If this request is related to another it can be linked together as a "Related to:" incident. If there are any attachments (i.e. a screenshot to be reviewed, or a document/file that is necessary please attach to the request.
When the fields are fulfilled then hit "FINISH" and this will submit the ticket to the IT team.
My Tickets
This is where the user can review all of the ticket submissions that are in the system back to the implementation of this system (May, 2018). Every ticket can be entered by clicking the blue Ticket number field. This is also where a user can update a ticket with communication or attached files for the technician (see below for directions on this).
The options are the same for Service Requests (GIS based) as they are for Tickets.
This page can be sorted by choosing "All Tickets", "Closed Tickets", "Open Tickets", "All Tickets (Collaborator)","Closed Tickets (Collaborator)", "Open Tickets(Collaborator)". Being a Collaborator implies that the user is not the requester but has been provided access to the ticket for communication needs such as multiple staff members that have input on a topic.
Note: If a user is a manager of a department they will also have the ability to see and read their employees submitted tickets at this stage as well (related KBA: Manager viewing of employee submissions) .
Request a Service
The "Request a Service" is for a staff member to request a GIS product or GIS data update. Follow the prompts to submit a GIS Request as appropriate as a staff member, members of the public need to submit GIS requests through the View Point Cloud platform at: https://salemma.portal.opengov.com
Ask a Question
This is the help portal's digital library where a user can read articles on many subjects; some of these articles might be informative to help the user utilize software, some articles are on password recovery for different systems, there is a growing list of articles (referred to as KBAs - Knowledge Base Articles) available to review.
When an article is returned that seems relevant just click on the title to read it.
Latest Updates
This provides the user a quick way to see recent updates to the tickets that they have submitted, or have been submitted on their behalf. Clicking on them brings the user directly into the ticket itself.
Announcements
The IT team uses this function to provide information on known issues, outages, new functions or tools for staff to use. Clicking into them allows the user to read the entire message.
Updating a submitted ticket
A user can update a submitted ticket by replying to the help@salem.com message that they have received after the ticket was submitted and then the ticket will be updated on the help portal.
The user should navigate to the ticket under the "My Tickets and Requests" page and find the open ticket; clicking on the Ticket number will enter the ticket that was submission and communication between the user and technician staff can be reviewed here.
At the bottom of the page there is an "Update" button where the user can enter more communication and attachments directly to the ticket that the technician will receive.
There is also a "Collaborator(s)" button where the user can identify 3 more staff members that should also receive communication about the ticket.
Signing out of the Portal:
There is a button in the upper right to log out of the system when the user is done.
Reset your password for the portal:
City of Salem and Salem Police Department users need to use their computer login credentials and will need to contact the City Help Desk for assistance.
REFERENCE
Online viewable video of the portal and submitting a support ticket.