Too much text? Just read the headings for now.

Describe the problem in the subject line

This speeds things up as we can give the ticket to the right person or people without delving into the contents of the email. An email that is assigned and understood quickly will be dealt with more quickly.

Give details of the problem; places, equipment, people, and so on

The name of the machine is on a white label, usually on the front or top of the machine. Let us know the building and room number any equipment is in. This helps us with directing the ticket to the right person, and getting diagnostic information about the computer.

Tell us timescales and urgency, don’t be too humble about it

Please be clear about when you want a job done. In particular, if it’s going to be important later on, it’s confusing to say it’s not urgent.

Use a fresh ticket for a fresh problem

The dreaded phrase for IT staff: “Just one more thing...” Well, we’ve just had to get used to that :) However, with a ticket tracking system, it can be a problem. Help tickets have a lifecycle, which means they will appear to be being dealt with when they really need to be looked at by a different person. That delays the response, sometimes a great deal.

Ask people to make requests directly where possible

If you are asked for something that IT support would provide, please send the asker to us directly. This reduces the number of times people are waiting for each other, speeding resolution. If you want to be informed of progress or completion, please ask.

When forwarding emails, describe what is being requested

If you’ve been privy to an email chain, you’ll have a good understanding of what’s happening in it. Please share that with us, and let us know which aspect of the conversation you need us to act on.

CCing itsupport@physics.ox.ac.uk without a ticket number makes needless work

When you reply to an email cc’d to itsupport@physics.ox.ac.uk, you create another ticket every time. This creates confusion and extra tidying work, as all the fragmented tickets need to be put together again and multiple people can take the same ticket without realising. Please don’t do this.

The ticket number is in the subject of the ticket system’s first reply

If you reply to an email to itsupport@physics.ox.ac.uk, please ensure there is a ticket number in the subject. If not, please either reply to one with the number (e.g. the auto-reply from the ticket system) or add it to the subject manually. It needs to look like “[PHYSIT #1234567] The Subject of the Email”