OTRS Plugin

OTRS (Open Technology Real Services, formerly Open Ticket Request System) is a wide-spread open source request tracking system. IT departments use it to manage all sorts of requests (disturbances, change requests, information requests) in helpdesk units.

Background

In tenfold, there are sometimes scenarios where it could be useful, or even necessary, to delegate certain manual jobs that are part of a workflow to a ticket system. For example:

an application requires a specific task (e.g. create new user account or assign permission), but it is not possible to automate this task using a plugin. This may be the case if said application does not provide an API or if developing the necessary plugin would simply be too complex, time-consuming and/or costly.
a non-automatable request is generated in tenfold. This might be a request for a hardware component or any other type of asset.

Required License

System Requirements

OTRS 4.x or 5.x or 6.x (operating system and OTRS database are not relevant)
Import of SOAP web services to OTRS (see “Related links“ below)
Service users with OTRS permissions

Benefits

Although the OTRS plugin is unable to provide the requested resource (system, permissions or asset) automatically, it will create a ticket instructing the helpdesk to carry out the required task. With each new ticket, tenfold records the OTRS ticket number in the tenfold database.

This has the following advantages:

The process is consistently documented. This is extremely beneficial to audits because requests and workflows are linked to the documentation of the manual adaptations in the OTRS.

No more media disruptions and no duplicate entries. tenfold regularly checks their statuses, based on the ticket number, and automatically closes the request when the OTRS ticket has been closed by the operator.

tenfold configuration in OTRS