PHD Help Desk Ver. 2.

12

http://www.p-hd.com.ar

February 2012 revision

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Table of contents

1 Introduction................................................................................................... 3

2 Installation and initial setup. ......................................................................... 4

2.1 Screens language. .......................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Data base conection parameters. ................................................................................... 5
2.3 Create tables in the data base. ....................................................................................... 5
2.4 E-mail server parameters................................................................................................ 5
2.5 Input of operator with administrator level. ....................................................................... 6
2.6 Tickets attributes. ........................................................................................................... 6
2.7 General parameters. ....................................................................................................... 7
3 Functionalities. ............................................................................................. 9
3.1 Incidents registry. ............................................................................................................ 9
3.2 Web support request. .................................................................................................... 11
3.3 News consult. ................................................................................................................ 11
3.4 Knowledge data base access. ...................................................................................... 12
3.5 History and audit. .......................................................................................................... 13
3.6 Work group Work flow................................................................................................ 14
4 Options of operator with administrator level. .............................................. 15
4.1 Operators administration............................................................................................... 15
4.2 Sectors administration. ................................................................................................ 16
4.3 Attributes administration. .............................................................................................. 16
4.4 Users administration. .................................................................................................... 16
4.5 Load users and areas from a file. ................................................................................. 16
4.6 Areas administration. .................................................................................................... 17
4.7 Parameters administration. ........................................................................................... 17
4.8 E-mail error log. ............................................................................................................ 18
5 The PHD Help Desk project. ...................................................................... 19

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1 Introduction.

PHD Help Desk is the answer to the registry problem and management of incidents of the
areas of Help Desk or Service Desk, their present functionalities have been deployment thanks
to the contribution of hundreds of distributed users anywhere in the world.

It has been developed in LAMP environment (Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP) that allows to

install it in most of the servers of the present time, the client is executed in a Web navigator,
reason why it is possible to use it in workstations with operating system as much Windows, Unix
or Mac

Actualy is available in English and Spanish, but it is easy translated because the totality of texts
of the software is in a file, lang.inc, reason why the conversion to another language does not
imply to read and to modify all the sources.

The language file also allows to configure PHD Help Desk for applications that you specify of
follow of events that are not of Help Desk, for example follow up of bugs of applications in a
testings areas, follow tasks in projects, news of customers, students, etc.

This feature is the reason that today is installed in organizations with diverse activities, not in all
the cases is used like software of help desk, also like software for follow of diverse issues,
projects, students, customers, etc.

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2 Installation and initial setup.

The programs of PHD Help Desk are in the file phd_2_12.zip, is possible to be downloaded
from http://www.p-hd.com.ar/eng/download.php
Once decompressed in the Web server the different files from PHD Help Desk, are due to
accede to the program that guides step by step in the installation, this program was writing in
Spanish and English and is in /phd_2_12/setup/esp/ or /phd_2_12/setup/eng/ according to the
respective language.

ALERT: When you descompress PHD Help Desk a /include/ directory is created, in this
directory there are the *.inc files, this path is specified in the $Include variable, in the
config.inc.php file. If you wish to use a different path you must specified in the $Include variable,
or live it blanc and use the include_path variable of the php.ini file.

2.1 Screens language.

The language in which are the labels of the different screens are in the variables of the file
lang.inc. PHD Help Desk has two groups with their variables initialized in English and Spanish,
lang_eng.inc and lang_esp.inc respectively. Also it is possible to initialize these variables for
another language, or to give values them of way so that software can be used to make the
follow up of another type of events.

The setup program will copy the files lang_esp.inc or lang_eng.inc over the file lang.inc, which is
the one that PHD Help Desk will use to initialize the labels of the screens. Maybe can happen
that by problems in the permissions of the files this action cannot be made from the installer, for
this reason you will have to be made the copy manually, for example, if your wished language is
English you will copy the file lang_eng.inc over the file lang.inc.

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2.2 Data base conection parameters.

PHD Help Desk store the data base conection parameters in the file config.inc.php variables, in
this step ask you about these values to store there in this file. The values corresponds for the
connection with the data base, these are name of host, name of the data base, user and
password.

These variables are stored in the file config.inc.php and must already exist in the data base
MySQL because after entering them the program it will verify that it can be connected with those
parameters. For the correct installation of PHD Help Desk the user of the data base must have
permissions of: CREATE TABLE, SELECT, UPDATE and INSERT.

2.3 Create tables in the data base.

In this step are created the necessary tables to PHD Help Desk works in the data base, make
sure that tables with these names do not exist: area, atributo, e_mail_error, ticket, hist_pass,
operador, parametros, sector, sigo_ticket, solicitud, usuario, usuario_area_tmp because the
process will not continue in that case. If is happened that ALL tables exists in the data base, the
installer will assume that they are the corresponding ones to PHD Help Desk and will skip this
step.

2.4 E-mail server parameters.

Some operations can send an e-mail to the operators, and you must configure the e-mail server
connection parameters. PHD Help Desk uses the PHPMailer 5.1 library,
http://phpmailer.worxware.com/, to send the e-mails.
You can change this values in the config.inc.php file once the software is installed.

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2.5 Input of operator with administrator level.

In order to enter for the first time to PHD Help Desk is necessary that an operator with
permissions of Administrator exists. The code of the operator, the last name and names,
password and e-mail will be enter. The e-mail of the operators is obligatory because in case of
the PHP server can send mail, PHD Help Desk will send the passwords by this way.

Also it will ask for the code and the name from the sector to which the operator belongs,
because it be able to assign the incidents between the operators and to derive them to different
sectors it is necessary that the operator belongs to some one.

2.6 Tickets attributes.

The tickets have some attributes, these are: Contact, State, Process, Type and the Sub type
corresponding to each Type. The configuration program suggests some attributes to facilitate its

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input, considers that once they are in PHD Help Desk these cannot be eliminated, reason why
in case of doubt is preferable do not to mark them.
Once you have instaled, you can add or disable this attributs.

2.7 General parameters.

These paremeters determines some sofware behavior.

The variables are:
validez_psw: amount of days of validity of the operator password.
dias_psw: amount of days that must pass until the operator can repeat a password.
max_lines_screen: amount of lines that are by screen in the consultations.
max_lines_export: amount of records that can be exported.
max_dif_min: determines the amount of minutes of difference that can have between
the clock of the server and the clock of the client. PHD Help Desk use like hour of input
and last state of the incident the corresponding to the clock of the CPU of the client,
although in case of altering them they will be stored both times in the registries in the
data base, to prevent errors or possible alterations this method of control is used, that
can be deactivated by set this variable with a number very high.

WARNING: In case of the difference between both clocks is upper than max_diff_min,
the software alert to the operator this situation, if the operator has an administrator
permissions he can change this value in the Parameters menu option, but if he hasnt
this privilege, the operator cant enter to PHD Help Desk until this problem is solved.
max_attach: maximun size of an attached file in a ticket.
assign_ticket: If you check this field, the tickets should be assigned to an operator
obligatorily.
from_user_request: Is possible to configure an operator to receive an e-mail when a
user input an user request in the web form, this variables indicates the from field of it.
from_user_psw: The users need a password to input the users request, this password
will send in a e-mail, this is the sender of this e-mail.
state_alert: You can set this variable when you need warning to ahe operator when a
second ticket with the same state and user is loaded in PHD Help Desk, by example,
you need to know when a Pending ticket is loaded for the same user.
date_format: display date format, admits dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy and yyyy/mm/dd.

Also from here you can set the default values to the Contact, Process and State fields in a new
ticket.

User request states: PHD Help Desk has three states in the user request, at first it is wheb the
user input the request and nowbody takes any action, it is called PEN.

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If the request have created a ticket, te state is PAS, while the request is cancelled, the state is
CAN, from here this states are labeled.

Later yo can modify this values if you have administrator privileges, in the Parameters option.
IMPORTANT: Once you have made the changes, these has effect in the next session of PHD
Help Desk.
All these values are stored in the parametros table.

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3 Functionalities.

3.1 Incidents registry.

It's the core of the software, here is where the events are born of which we will make its follow
up and control with PHD Help Desk.

It has the follow attributes:

Contact: is the way to contact with the help desk or contact center, by example, phone,
personal, e-mail, etc.

User information:
The data of the user are indicative, being obligatory the User, Last name and name and the
area code, has an alphabetical option search of them. The table of users is a help for the
operator of the system, but it is possible to enter users and areas that do not exist in the data
base, to the effects of not losing registries of incidents when you do not to have with information
updated.

Ticket information:
It has two text fields, incident and comment. The incident field is used for the description of
itself, according to the vision of the user, whereas the field comment is used by the operator to
write down the observations that consider advisable, that is not information that the user has
provided directly but is important in case of having to derive the incident. For example, the user
calls and single he says us that the printer does not work, the analyst of help desk interrogates
to obtain details and possibly to solve it by telephone, all the questions can be written down in
this place so that when the on site help arriving at the place the interrogation to the user is not
reiterated.

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Attach file: It is possible attach a file to the ticket, the maximun size of this file is defined in the
variable $Max_attach, it is in the parameters file config.inc.php

Priority: It has five numbered levels from one (the lower) to five (the highest).

Assigned to: It is possible to assign the ticket to any operator of our sector or to operators of
other sectors that have not been declared private, that is to say, operators who only are
available so that tickets in their area are assigned to him. This is one of the attributes that the
assign the ticket between sectors allows, that is to say, that an incident that registers in our help
desk or service desk it can be derived and to become the follow of it through the sectors from
support of superior level.

Private: this attribute indicates that the ticket is private and only can be visualized by the
operators who belong to the area that origin it. As we mentioned before, PHD Help Desk allows
to handle and to follow the incidents between the different areas, but exists incidents that only
must move within the area where they were generated, this attribute indicates this indeed, the
marked incident as Private only will be visible for the operators of the area where it was
created and it will not be able to be assigned to operators who do not belong to the same one.
This attribute can at any time be changed by an operator of the area that originated it.

Process: Indicates the process of resolution of the incident for his later classification with the
other attributes. For example my processes could be: Service Desk, On Site, Support networks,
technical Support, etc. By this way I have an attribute that defines it of specific mode.

Type and sub type: they are used combined to classify the incidents by some criteria to
determine, for example the origin of the incident: Qualification, Software, Hardware, Data
network, etc. The subtype is used to be specific in some types that are very ample, for example
Hardware we can as well classify it in Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, etc.

State and Last state date: allows us to know the situation of each incident and the date of it,
very useful when in our sector we counted on a SLA (Service Level Agreement) where the time
is an important variable, because each ticket has the date and hour of entrance and the date
and hour of its last state, for example closed, we can altogether determine with the other
attributes the ranks of delays for each type of incident.
The date of last state of the incident is placed automatically when changing and is possible to
modify it to the effects to obtain exactitude with the measurements that we obtain from these
data, as we will see more ahead PHD Help Desk has a complete scheme of audit that allows to
detect alterations in the data.

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3.2 Web support request.

To offer to the user a contact with the help desk in addition of a traditional telephone and e-
mail, PHD Help Desk has a simplified form to registry of incidents denominated Support
Request.

The access to it is possible with the code of user and password, are suppressed most of the
attributes of the ticket with exception of related to the user, the field where the reason for the
request is described and the attach file. This form facilitates the later entrance of the incident by
means of the option Management of requests that shows those that is pending to enter them, or
not, to the data base of incidents.

The operators can be configured for receive and e-mail when a new support request is created.
When a ticket is opened based in a support request, the operator can add comments to it,
should check the Visible for the user checkbox.

3.3 News consult.

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Is very easy consult about the last events, its in the Consults / News option, here are the last
movements between two dates, new tickets and changes in the old tickets.

3.4 Knowledge data base access.

When entering incident and documenting its resolution in PHD Help Desk we generated our
own knowledge data base to which we can accede in a Consults / Advanced query option, of
way to be construct to a complete catalogue of common problems and its resolution. This
information can be to reduce to the time of qualification of the new analysts of help desk, as also
to create our page of frequent problems to implement the self help of the users and this way to
reduce the consultations by frequent problems or whose resolution is available in our Intranet
for example. It is possible to accede by almost the totality of the attributes of the ticket, and also
can be exported the information generated to a file that can be processed in a data sheet or a
data base, this query is fundamental for the control and the management of the Help Desk or
anyone of the areas that take part or register their incidents with the software, for example we
can consult: Pending tickets assigned to an area or a operator, tickets finished in a certain
period, tickets by type, priority etc. etc.

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When you export the information to a data sheet or data base is possible to group and to
compare these data with our SLA (Service Level Agreement) in case of having it, if we have not
made a SLA also we can measure the level of our service with this information.

From the result of the search you can acced to the complete information of each incident, is
possible to be ordered the resulting set by number of ticket, priority, date of registry, user, Last
name and name of the user, area, state and date of last state. The priority assigned has a color
code that allows to identify quickly the tickets for criticy.

3.5 History and audit.

PHD Help Desk provides all the information necessary to determine that operators were
working with each incident and which were the modifications that on the initial datas where
made.

The screen of the ticket is divides in two sections, in the superior part can be seen the present
data and attributes of the incident and can be modified or to add the commentaries that are
considered opportune. In the inferior part it is the follow up of the incident, is where shows all

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the events that were happening throughout the life of the incident. Any attribute that is modified
will be registered in this section of the screen.

Additionally each registry of the tables that compose PHD Help Desk has the information of
operator and date that inserted it and that made the last update.

3.6 Work group Work flow.

PHD Help Desk allows that their operators belong to different sectors, the tickets can be
initiated in anyone of these sectors and to assign to an operator of an own sector or another
different one, constituting a true tool for work in group. This characteristic does not prevent that
certain tasks can be handled within an only sector or that any task is assigned to any person, for
this PHD Help Desk counts with the attributes Private for the tickets and operators.

How the attribute Private works in a ticket?

Let us suppose that the operators of the sector Support of Networks enter incidents that do not
wish that they are visible and/or derivatives to operators of other sectors, when a ticket is private
only can be seen and be modified by the operators belonging to the sector, this attribute can be
deactivated/activated at any time by the operators belonging to the area that entered the
incident.

How the attribute Private works in a operator?

Now we suppose that the operators of the Service Desk derive tickets to the sector of Technical
Support, that has three operators, to which of they derive it? with this attribute the tickets will be
able to be assigned only to the operators who are not private. In the previous case the director
of Technical Support can be a public operator, that is to say, who is not private, and only they
will be able to derive tickets to him, who will derive as well the tickets to the technicians of his
sector.

PHD Help Desk shows in its main menu the operators assigned tickets with the state defined
in the parameter main_screen_state.

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4 Options of operator with administrator level.

Exists tables to which it is acceded to its administration by a special menu, the menu of
Administration, available for those operators who has on this level of access.

4.1 Operators administration.

The operators are those people who accede to PHD Help Desk with a code of operator and
password. They have three levels of access to the software:
Operator: can enter, modify and consult incidents, with exception of those incidents that have
been declared like Private in areas to which the operator does not belong.
Administrator: hasto the permissions of Operator and are added to him the options of
administration of Areas, Operators, Users and Attributes of the ticket.
No access: cannot accede to PHD Help Desk.

The password is sent to the operators e-mail, in case of not being able to send it the password
will be informed to the operator that generating the new password, this only can use to enter for
the first time to PHD Help Desk, then the operator will have to change it.

The Private attribute indicates if can assign a ticket from his own sector or external sectors, see
about it in 3.6 Work group Work flow. at page14.

The Assign Alert attribute will send an e-mail to the operator when a ticket is assigned to him, if
this function is available in your installation.

The Alert user request attribute will send an e-mail to the operator when a support request is
created for a user.

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4.2 Sectors administration.

The operators belons to a sector, from this option you can administrate it.

4.3 Attributes administration.

The attributes of the incident are administered here, these are: Contact, State, Process, Type
and the Sub type corresponding to each Type. Once register in PHD Help Desk the attributes
cannot be eliminated, in case of being obsolete can be set like non Active, by this way they will
not be options selectable when entering a ticket. Exists an exception to this behavior, is the
Pending State, PHD Help Desk shows at the time of entering the ticket the pending incidentes
of a the user is not possible to set like non Active this attribute, in fact at the time of the
installation this attribute is created obligatorily.

4.4 Users administration.

User is who origin an incident. Normally this information is created and administered from some
external software to PHD Help Desk, typically the system of Human resources, reason why is
insert into the application by means of some external method as INSERT command, LOAD
DATA INFILE of MySQL or using the Load users and areas from a file. option (pag. 16). Despite
this PHD Help Desk has an option of administration of users for whom want to do it from here.

It is not possible from PHD Help Desk to erase a user, in case of being necessary is possible to
be set like non active.

4.5 Load users and areas from a file.

Maybe it not easy load manualy one by one all the users in PHD Help Desk, this option is use
to load them from a CSV format file.
This is the content of each field:

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User code.
Last and first name.
E-mail.
Floor.
Phone.
Area code.
Area name.

The fields are delimited by comma, semicolon or tab. Each time you load the file, you should
have all the users in the CSV file, because if one user do not in the file, it will be deactivated in
the database.

4.6 Areas administration.

The users and the operators must belong to an area. As in the case of the users it is probable
that the areas are administered from an external software, reason why are worth the
observations made on the matter in the users case.

4.7 Parameters administration.

You can modify the parameters from this option.

See the details of these variables at 2.7 General parameters. on page 7.

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4.8 E-mail error log.

Here are the error messages generated by the PHPMailer library.

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5 The PHD Help Desk project.

PHD Help Desk is distributed under GNU General Public License, read the terms of it at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

You can download PHD Help Desk from:

- http://www.p-hd.com.ar /eng/
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/phd/

The download is free, if you wish to collaborate economically with the project can do it at
http://www.p-hd.com.ar/eng/

If software has been good for you, we will be thankful to take few minutes for registered at
http://www.p-hd.com.ar/eng/registro.php

Go to our forum at http://www.p-hd.com.ar/eng/foro.php, here you can:

Do consultations about installation or configuration.

Ask for support, do consultations about use and functionalities.
Suggest improvements or new features.
Contact with others PHD Help Desk users.
Report bugs.
Etc., etc., etc.

This is a free software but we appreciate so much your collaboration via Western Union
transfer, contact us.

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