The division of the establishment into departments is:

• Flexible enough to take into account any existing support structures;
• Discrete enough to respect the natural independence of departments;
• Communicative enough to allow tickets to pass from one department to another one.

To make esup-helpdesk adaptable to any organization, all methods for dividing establishments into departments are authorized. For example, some institutions chose to divide by entity and others by campus.

The complexity of the organization can be masked to users thanks to visibility rules, based on the users' profile and network localization.

Department properties

The interface below shows the department properties:
Users allowed to update the department properties are granted managers.

See: 02 Managers

Enabling departments

Until the corresponding checkbox is not checked, the department is not enabled, i.e. it is visible by the administrators and department managers only.

Virtualization

A department is real by default, i.e. it can hold tickets. It may also be virtual, i.e. redirected to another department, called its real department. In this case, all the tickets created in the virtual department are automatically put into the real department.

One can for instance decide that some parts of the establishment will be represented by virtual departments, each one redirected to a proximity cell (in charge of a whole campus for instance). Several virtual departments can be redirected to a single real one.

Ticket expiration

The expiration time is set for all the tickets of a department (whatever the category).

When this value is left empty, the default value set at application-level is used (see Configuring ticket expiration and archiving). 

Filter

This property can be used to limit the visibility of departments to users (see Customizing the visibility of the departments by the users). 

Default ticket visibility

This value sets the default visibility of the tickets, when the visibility set at category-level is 'by default'.

Default ticket priority

This value sets the priority for the tickets, when the value set at category-level is 'by default'. When this value is left empty, the default value set at application-level is used (see Configuring the default ticket priority). 

Default ticket subject

This value sets the subject of new ticket when the value set at category-level is left empty.

Default ticket message

This value sets the message of new ticket when the value set at category-level is left empty.

Automatic assignment

This value sets the default assignment algorithm, used when the algorithm set at category-level is 'by default'. When this value is left empty, the value set at application-level is used (see Configuring the automatic ticket assignment).

Inventory URL

This value is used to build links from ticket machines to an inventory application. When this value is left empty, the value set at application-level is used (see Links to an external inventory application).

Implementing a customized vision of the helpdesk

By default, all the enabled departments are visible by all the users. Deployers can limit the departments that users see when:

• when adding a ticket
• on the control panel
• when browsing the FAQ

See Customizing the visibility of the departments by the users.

Visibility rules are based on:

• the users' profile (LDAP and/or portal attributes)
• the user's (network) localization

This way, esup-helpdesk masks the complexity of the helpdesk by showing them only the departments they are interested in, for instance:

• the technical department of their campus and the scolarity department for school problems
• a department dedicated to external users
• a department for the students in a specific traning
• ...

Mixed with virtualization, limiting the visibility to interesting departments achieves an adaptative vision of the helpdesk. Deployers can for instance present to users the virtual departments that they have interest in, and redirect those virtual departments to real departments that corresponds to the teams in charge of their problems. This gives the users a strong feeling of proximity.