A So Called Upgrade

[Jay 2K Winger]

So, at The Client, they're going to be pushing out a new update to the Trouble Ticket System we use. This update will serve to start in eliminating our Solutions Database, which is a bloated piece of crap, by including its own solutions database. In theory, this upgrade would enable us to relate a solution to the ticket, and thus if a future call comes up, the solution would pop up in TTS and we could do that right away. Given that few people at ITSD use SDB anymore-- because of how bloated it is and how difficult it can be to find a valid solution to an issue.

One of my fellows here at ITSD had the chance to take a look at this upgrade and has already provided his prognosis, which is that the upgrade is DOA.

I'll be updating this thread in the future, as we get to use it ourselves.

But one of the most damning things for this upgrade, related by my CW, is that the search function that TTS' solutions database will have... does NOT have keyword search functionality.

....HOW. HOW can you have a search function in this day and age WITHOUT having keyword searching?!

[Minflick]

How DO you have a search without keyword search? A pull down menu? Tap blindly at the not-a-touch-screen and get lucky?

[notalwaysright]

This sounds like the system that the managers at the fabric store had to use to order store supplies, such as peg hooks. They had to know exactly what it was called. Trying "peg hook" got them nothing. "Peg" got them nothing. They had to know the actual item number, something like S-21958 or type "gondola peg hook 8 inch" Now that's not really too bad. But when our fridge in the break room died, it took forever for them to find it in the system. I think they just looked through hundreds of pages. It was like "Maytag 21.2-cu ft Top-Freezer Refrigerator" And the only way they would have found that is if they magically knew the whole phrase and typed it exactly, even including the dashes.

This is clearly a good use of time. Super efficient.

[Jay 2K Winger]

How DO you have a search without keyword search? A pull down menu? Tap blindly at the not-a-touch-screen and get lucky?

Yeah, I think the intent is drilling down through a series of expandable menus, or knowing the EXACT title of the solution you want.

Neither of which sounds efficient at all. I don't even use the templates we're told to use in TTS for ITSD, because it takes too long for TTS to even load the template menu, and then I have to click another thing to load the ITSD templates, and then I have to often click to another page to get to the template I need, which takes too long. So I just manually type out my tickets without them. Since my tickets still conform to the standard that ITSD management wants, they don't bother me about not using tickets.

[Minflick]

I work in a vet hospital, corporate. I do the weekly order. The search algorithm for finding stuff for which I don't have the ACTUAL sku is bizarre, and really, really stupid. Also, their unit notation is Very Bad. I'm not the only one to have ordered 144 boxes of a new med thinking I'm getting a case of 12 boxes. A box of 6 may in fact BE a box of 6 (to be sold to clients as a box of 6, good for 6 months) OR it may be a case of 6, meant to be sold as individual items... You just gotta KNOW these things. Finding things means a) having that sku, or b) knowing the name and typing it in, or c) thinking you know the name and typing it in, and then trying many other iterations of it, or d) giving up because you can't think of anything else, and you'll call somebody else for the G.D. sku. Later. Maybe next year. If you wait long enough, it will come up in the weekly sweep, unless you use it so rarely you took it off the list to avoid having a Really Long List to check every flipping weekend.

I mess up fairly regularly, despite not being stupid and having done this for nearly 4 years. Management refuses to take the job back!

[dalesys]

... Management refuses to take the job back!

*We're* golden now. We've got her-cue-lees shoveling the stables, instead of me-clue-less.

[Aria]

Ah, stupid search functions, I know them so well.

I once asked in a meeting if *new search program* would be stupid or smart. They asked me like I meant and I tried to explain, would it be stupid like 'X' tool that makes you input the address EXACTLY as found in our systems or it doesn't help? Or would it be smart like the new tools which can extrapolate from a partial entry?

They couldn't seem to understand what I was saying. That was where I gave up.

[Trixie]

My place just "updated" the main software we use for our photo orders. They're rolling it out to probably about half the stores at this point and at any given time there's a list of problems they're working on.

There's trouble signing in, orders staying on the screen long after they're done and sold. The worst of it is, the only thing that really changed was the look of it and it's horrible. And they took away stuff that came in handy for some orders. It's just so incredibly frustrating.

[Slave to the Phone]

We had a much-extolled-by-management hardware upgrade installed onto our system last night. It was going to be great, it was going to solve all of our lag issues, it was going to stop us from getting kicked offline all the time, life was going to be wonderful.

I am posting from my home computer. They couldn't legally keep us there for longer than 2 hours with no power.

[raw1989]

I am posting from my home computer. They couldn't legally keep us there for longer than 2 hours with no power.

That's what they all say and then poof it all backfires. So the building I work in was remodeling and the power was on but the company doing the remodel hit the cable network line no computer or phone to the whole building so at 4:30 when I come in everything had just come back up they kept like 10 people here just incase and sent everyone else home and then they kept all of night crew here yep that was a hellish night.

[Teefies2]

My place just "updated" the main software we use for our photo orders. They're rolling it out to probably about half the stores at this point and at any given time there's a list of problems they're working on.

There's trouble signing in, orders staying on the screen long after they're done and sold. The worst of it is, the only thing that really changed was the look of it and it's horrible. And they took away stuff that came in handy for some orders. It's just so incredibly frustrating.

Trixie,

Of course we work for the same company. I've been on medical leave for 6 weeks, so boy was I surprised when I came back! There definately are issues with the new software, but the work-arounds I found are:

Orders stay on the screen until you manually go in and "complete" the order. Otherwise, it will stay there til doomsday Pain in the butt, but ...

The sign-in issue, you have to close all the screens, including click "close all tabs?", get completely out of Explorer, and try again. Sometimes, that doesn't even work, but keep trying and it will eventually work. And yes, you do have to sign in to Authenticator and THEN AGAIN to Photo Order Management. Hopefully that will be seen as redundant sometime in the next century.

Are you having trouble with "Search"? Click "Advanced Search" instead, it's alot easier to navigate.

And, after being out for 6 weeks, my first clue was the email saying "don't do the April photo inventory, we're having issues". Really? Don't do the monthly inventory that MUST MUST MUST be completed every month? Gee, why am I not surprised???

As to the look of it, I hated the look of the one that was just replaced - it was so much clunkier than the previous one. I mean, it looked like all they had done was take the same screen and stretch it to fit the new (at the time) monitors. This new one, I kinda like. For me, it's easier to read. And, it does, kinda, make sense logically, it's just really clunky right now. Hopefully that will get worked on.

[Trixie]

Teefies

We've been completing the orders that we can but there's a few that we've had stuck on our screen for a week or so now. We can't do anything with them. I'm not really fond of the look. I'm used to the old colors and even though the layout is basically the same it's still hard to find stuff.

I'm dreading going in today to see what new problems have come up.

[Teefies2]

Teefies

We've been completing the orders that we can but there's a few that we've had stuck on our screen for a week or so now. We can't do anything with them. I'm not really fond of the look. I'm used to the old colors and even though the layout is basically the same it's still hard to find stuff.

I'm dreading going in today to see what new problems have come up.

Well as you know by now, the whole system was FUBAR for most of the day. I spent soooo much time trying to complete orders. At times, we couldn't even print labels. We went ahead and sold those orders, so that guarantees next month's inventory will be way off.

Doncha just love "upgrades"????

[Trixie]

By the end of the night most of orders cleared up, there were just two that have been sitting there. Maybe they found the one guy or gal in the world who could fix it. I guess the nicest thing I could say is that I hope a few Friday nights were ruined because of the problems. But I mean that in the nicest way possible. (I don't.)