Sorry, it’s a long one.
We are a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and as such our clients are companies and all our communications in Freshservice are with clients who typically have their own ITSM system or with their and our suppliers who we need to work to resolve issues with the system under our management who also have different ITSM systems and all of them use their own ticket reference numbers. We have done an analysis and around 40% of all our Freshservice tickets are duplicates (many of them are maintenance notifications from clients or their suppliers which we do need) which come from the fact that Freshservice (as many other ITSM systems) could not thread emails using third party ticket reference numbers. A substantial portion of these emails is generated by automated systems, lacking the attributes currently employed by Freshservice for effective email-to-ticket threading.
An example – comms provider doing maintenance. That maintenance might not be touching just us, so even if they could, they would not be able to insert our ticket number in any further communication on it. Their ITSM system sends us at least 4 new emails – initial notification, notification a day before, start of works notification, completion of works notification. That is 4 tickets in Freshservice as the only common thing between all of them is comms provider ticket number, which Freshservice could not use for threading to the same ticket on our side.
To address this challenge, we explored a solution using Power Automate as an email processor, coupled with the Freshservice API to accurately associate emails with the respective tickets. While we succeeded in achieving the desired threading outcome, unfortunately, we encountered a roadblock preventing the release to production. The impediment arose from the inability to insert embedded email images into Freshservice tickets using the API. Despite consultations with Freshworks teams, no viable workaround was identified.
What we have done is not a rocket science and pretty straight forward – before an email is threaded to an existing ticket or new ticket is created the subject line is checked for Freshservice and Third Party reference numbers based on formats/patterns we have defined. Here's a brief overview of the features we had implemented, and we suggest getting it implemented in Freshservice:
- Hierarchy-based Ticket Matching - The system should check references in a predetermined hierarchy, prioritising certain systems over others. For instance, if there is a Freshservice reference, it should be checked first before exploring third-party references.
- Configurability - The system should be configurable to support multiple patterns for ticket references. This would allow us to adapt to different ticketing systems used by our clients and third parties.
- Linking Multiple IDs to a Single Ticket - It should be possible to link multiple references to a single ticket. This flexibility is crucial as emails may contain references from various systems (client, suppliers), and being able to associate them with a single ticket would streamline our processes.
- Updating Multiple Tickets from the Same Email - The system should support the updating of multiple tickets based on references found in the same email. This would be especially beneficial in situations where a single email corresponds to multiple tickets (for example same maintenance in multiple datacentres have different ticket numbers but update can be sent in one email).
- Visibility in Ticket Properties - Ticket references should be prominently displayed in the ticket properties, providing agents with quick and easy access to this information. This visibility is key to ensuring that agents have all the necessary details at their fingertips.
- Manual Addition of References - Agents should have the ability to manually add references to a ticket. This ensures flexibility and control over the matching process, especially in cases where references may not be automatically detected.
- Integration with Outbound Emails - References should be carried over to outbound emails if not maintained in the subject. This ensures consistency and avoids confusion when communicating with clients and third parties.
Again, apologies it’s a long one, but it’s a sour point for us so hope to get some backing. Thank you.
