When another group or department seeks to take advantage of the benefits you're experiencing with Issuetrak, deciding whether to integrate them into your existing site or create a separate one is crucial. Where do you begin?
Where to start?
The key to successful expansion is careful planning. Here are some questions to ask before starting:
- Are the users in the new group different from the ones currently using the site?
- Are the issues highly sensitive or confidential in nature?
- Do you need distinct system-wide dropdowns for the new department?
- Is the scope of the new department significantly different from your current setup?
Separate Sites
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, setting up a separate site may be necessary. For example, if your current setup involves external customers while the new group exclusively handles internal issues, separate sites can ensure distinct user access and maintain issue confidentiality.
Administrators have visibility of all issues, and some sites may contain confidential information. In such cases, establishing a separate site becomes crucial to limit issue visibility. For instance, Human Resources departments often maintain dedicated sites to safeguard personnel-related information with enhanced confidentiality and security measures.
To set up a new site, you'll need to identify administrators, agents, and end-users specific to that site. Contact your account manager for a quote and consultation with Issuetrak’s Professional Services team. New administrators can benefit from Implementation sessions to effectively configure the system.
One Site
If you answered no to the above questions, sharing a single site is feasible. We recommend testing all configurations in a test site before going live. Cloud customers can request a test site through Support, while on-premises customers can create one with Support's assistance. For each production site, one complimentary test site is allowed. As additional segments of the business join the existing Issuetrak site, certain features become critical:
- Classes: Classes provide a broader categorization than Issue Types. The Dashboard allows filtering of issues by class, ensuring clear visibility across departments while maintaining segmented oversight. Classes also ensure accurate reporting for each department, particularly when certain Issue Types are used across multiple Classes.
- Groups: Assigning issues to specific Groups enhances business processes and ensure focus on relevant issues.
- Departments: Use the internal flag on Departments to restrict issues assigned to or submitted by the users of a specific department.
- Projects: Organize related issues under Projects to manage visibility according to project membership. In an exclusive project, only project members are allowed access, which makes exclusive projects useful in controlling issue visibility.
Other Considerations
- Additional departments may require different Issue Types and Subtypes. If you're only using subtype level one, you may need more granularity. Subtype levels two, three, and four can also be activated if needed.
- Issue Types and Issue Templates might need to be restricted so that only certain groups can choose them when submitting new issues.
- The new department may need more User Defined Fields if the existing ones don't meet their needs.
- New Issue Forms might be required to organize fields as per that department's needs.
- Items such as Organizations, Issue Types, Priorities, Substatuses, and Solutions might benefit from adding additional choices to them for clarity and relevance across departments. This may mean that you include prefixes to separate by the group. (E.g. IT – In Process, OPS – Under Review, FAC – Waiting for Budget).
Steps to Move Forward
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Gather Data: Assess needs for:
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New Issue Types / Subtypes
- User roles
- Visibility controls
- Changes to user permissions
- New User Defined Fields and / or modifications to existing fields
- New Tasks and / or processes
- Integration with other systems
- New Issue Templates
- Training and Support
- Reporting
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- Request a Test Site(If you don't have one already): Test configurations and changes in a controlled environment.
- Modify Site Structure: Adjust Organizations, Departments, Locations, and Projects as needed.
- Manage Users and Groups: Create new users and groups. Update permissions and group memberships.
- Configure Issue Types and Other Fields: Add new Issue Types, Subtypes, and User Defined Fields. Add new values to the lists for Priorities, Substatuses, Causes, and Solutions.
- Adjust Issue Forms: Modify or create new Issue Forms to align with departmental requirements.
- Implement New Task Groups and Issue Templates: Set up work processes with Task Groups and add them to Issue Templates if you'd like the tasks to be automatically added to issues on submission.
- User Testing: Verify functionality across departments in the test environment. It’s important to test your new visibility controls along with the rest of the system, which means logging in as users from different departments, organizations, or different exclusive projects to verify your various users have access to the issues they need without seeing the issues they shouldn’t.
- Document Changes and Training: Prepare training materials and documentation for new users.
- Deploy Changes: Roll out updates in your production environment.
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Encourage departments to provide feedback on their experience with Issuetrak. Explain how feedback loops can contribute to ongoing system improvements and enhancements tailored to the evolving needs of users and departments.
This is meant to be a general guideline about setting up additional departments within Issuetrak. Please contact your account manager or reach out to us if you have any questions. Additional consulting and training services are available through Issuetrak Professional Services.
