OTRS usage summary

What is OTRS?

MadCap Software uses Open-source Ticket Request System (OTRS) as its online ticket-reporting system. OTRS enables you report any issues or problems you encounter that you are unable to resolve with your internal support team identified in your company's agreement with MadCap Software. OTRS also provides you with an avenue to ask questions that are not addressed in MadCap Software documentation or require further explanation.

Not only does OTRS record the initial question, it also tracks MadCap Software responses to your request and your related replies. After initial submission, you receive emails for each communication. Respond directly to emails, and OTRS logs your responses on the appropriate ticket. In addition, you can view a list of all tickets, see the status of each ticket, and flag all resolved and outstanding issues.

To learn more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTRS.

Who should enter tickets into OTRS?

During implementation, your company selected a few key users or support staff in your organization who are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the CCMS. They are responsible for interactions with CCMS users that initially report issues and work to resolve the identified problem before they submit a ticket to MadCap Software. Often, issues that users experience are because of a general misunderstanding, incorrect use of DITA, or incorrect application of CCMS implementation, which is based on your organization’s guidelines.

To that end, MadCap Software restrains OTRS access and usage to the identified support staff for your organization. This approach helps keep the total volume of tickets to its barest minimum, reduces the number of tickets about questions or issues your team can resolve internally, and minimizes the likelihood that multiple people enter multiple tickets for similar or identical issues.

How do I use OTRS?

During implementation, as a key user, you received an URL for OTRS, an OTRS sign in, and initial OTRS password. To use OTRS, access the URL using a browser and sign in. Once you successfully sign in, you can create a new ticket, review existing tickets, attach files to the ticket, respond to MadCap Software comments on the ticket, and close the ticket when it's successfully resolved.

  1. (Recommended) To access the OTRS ticket system, use the following link: https://madcap.managed-otrs.com/external/ and review its related task: Create a new ticket directly in OTRS.
  2. To submit a ticket through email, use the following address: support-dita@madcapsoftware.com and review its related task: Create a new ticket through email.
  3. For each new issue, submit a new ticket.
  4. For an existing issue, update the ticket you already submitted. IXIA CCMS Customer Support merges the related tickets to keep all related responses together.

What information should I include in an OTRS ticket?

Before you report an error, determine if there was a job running in the background or if another user was in the middle of a large operation, such as changing the status of many topics at once. Also, provide any additional information that you think might be relevant, such as other operations or background processes possibly running when the issue occurred.

The more information you include, the sooner IXIA CCMS Customer Support can start work to resolve the issue. See Required information and Information related to your deployment.