Ticket System/CRM Update

[Matt Lipscomb]

There has been a good bit of confusion lately (and actually over the
last year) concerning the implementation of a Ticket System or CRM for
the WGs.

Originally there was a decision to utilize JForce and CiviCRM. This
did not turn out to be a viable option. Where a lot of the confusion
came in is that we have been discussing numerous separate but all
important issues.

The idea was to create a system that could handle all applications and
listings and communication along with TM approvals. Though separate
systems would operate them, they were to originally be launched tying
in together.

This brings us to now. The focus for the Ticket System/CRM has been
revamped and the CLT had a discussion today to form a better vision
and set some goals.

The ticket system will handle:
•Correspondence between working groups and listing owners
•Email tickets
•Issues concerning approval process/timeframe

There may be other things the system will handle, but for now, those
are the goals. All team leaders will be invited to test and validate
this new system before we roll it out and prior to that we will
announce the details to the entire community and ask for comments and
feedback. The main focus of the system is to help facilitate
communication between working groups and community members. The
system will be simple but robust and cross-team searchable.

This is just the preliminary "Where we are" with it, but it's
important to keep everyone in the loop. I would personally like to
see a solution in place within the next two months and hopefully even
sooner, but we definitely want to make sure the pieces of this puzzle
are put together correctly since I'm sure nobody wants to revisit this
a year from now. :-)

After it is setup and other teams have the time to test, it may be a
viable option as a solution to multiple things, but the first goal is
WG support.